Identifying the source of a Pool Paged Bytes Leak

15 Apr 2006 5:26 AM

fergaloc

Hi there. Our .net framework 1.1 application is a complex media player that
plays back video, flash, web, TV and pictures full screen. It runs on
Windows XP SP2. It has 12 DLLs and runs to about 30,000 lines of code.

We're 100% .net except for two activeX controls. These are

1) Internet Explorer (ActiveX)
2) Flash Control (ActiveX)

We have identified a leak in the app which will cause the system to
eventually fail. This is not a Private Bytes leak but a Pool Paged Bytes
leak.

Our Private Bytes profile is flat. See here:
http://59.167.253.24/images/pb.gif

but our Pool Paged Bytes has the classic leak profile:
http://59.167.253.24/images/ppb.gif

Does anyone have any tips on what to look for when dealing with a Pool Paged
Bytes leak as opposed to a private bytes leak? Are there characteristics
that typify a Pool Paged Bytes leak?

To me this looks like unmanaged code problem. Do you agree? Is it possible
for something .net native to cause a leak in the Pool Paged Bytes?

Any help here to narrow down our search will be a big help. Thanks for your
time :)

17 Apr 2006 12:50 AM

Naveen

Why dont you SOS/Windbg to identfy the memory problem? There a lot of
resources in the web as to how to use them. They can easily pinpoint
cause of the problem.

18 Apr 2006 1:50 PM

Jeroen-bart Engelen

Raymond Chen has a nice way for you to check what's leaking, or at
least get you in the right direction:
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2005/08/15/451752.aspx