Windows 10 - High Runtime Broker Memory Utilisation

[sts1982]

I have searched and read the "official" page on the topic. Runtime Broker is using too much memory (microsoft.com)

However, killing the process and restarting is only a temporary solution and does not actually assist in understanding what the issue that is causing the memory use/hold/leak or whatever is happening. It takes varying lengths of time but almost always within 24 hours the RAM usage climbs above 1GB and right now it is 1.8 GB.

I have a Surface Pro 6 i7, 8GB RAM PC and this, coupled with the heavy RAM usage of Teams and Edge has been progressively causing me issues since Oct/Nov but I just sort of put up with it/rebooted when Teams calls started to fail etc. However, it is such a rapid re-event now that I have to get to the bottom of it.

Edition Windows 10 Pro

Version 20H2

Installed on ‎21/‎08/‎2020

OS build 19042.746

Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.551.0

Windows is fully up to date and I frequently check for updates, all of my Windows Store apps are up to date also.

How do I go about trying to identify the rogue program/app that is causing this issue. I really don't want to be forced to upgrade to a 16 GB RAM machine if I don't have to, at least before the SP8 is available.

Any help or advice appreciated ... that is not "uninstall every program and see if the issue goes away" ... I am sure there must be some event log or dump that can be sifted for this Runtime Broker that will help uncover the culprit.

 

[spicypadthai]

Have you shut down apps one-by-one, starting with Teams and Edge and then the others running in the system tray, to try to see which one is the cause? Also, if it's enabled, try disabling "Get tips, tricks, and suggestions as you use Windows" (All Settings > System > Notifications & actions > uncheck the option under Notifications)

 

[sts1982]

Thanks ... i have tried closing every app and leaving the PC running for an hour and the runtimebroker doesnt seem to release memory until it is killed/reboot.

I have just unticked that box and will see if that helps at all ... I would still love to find out what logs/tracing is possible on this runtimebroker process as there must be something that gives an indication of what it is doing 1 GB + RAM.

 

[sts1982]

As a quick update, after unticking that option and restarting my PC, even though I haven't been using it since then as I was out at meetings / using a different PC the runtime broker is back up to 1.8 GB RAM usage so I don't think that has resolved the issue.

I actually have 14 active processes of Runtime Broker running with only one of those instances working contributing more than 1 MB ... but I can't see how to find which "app" triggered that one ... any pointers?

 

[spicypadthai]

I don't know if there's a way to identify which app is associated with specific instances of it. I did a quick search online and didn't find anything about it, but I did see someone mention disabling the Windows update option for "Allow downloads from other PCs" has helped others (All Settings > Update & Security > Advanced Options > Delivery Optimization)

Worst case, try disabling the Runtime Broker and see if you have any problems without it running. I don't fully understand what it does but it's related to managing permissions for Store apps. To disable, change the key value below to "4"

 

[sts1982]

Thanks spicypadthai ... I tried disabling all of the "allow downloads from other PCs" on my network ... memory usage still seems to be creeping up despite that change

I could try disabling the process and leaving it off and see if that makes a difference / I find a problem with having the process disabled.

 

[anon(5327127)]

Maybe try Process Explorer:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

 

[RTGent]

Maybe try Process Explorer:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Indeed. I don't even know what Runtime broker is, so I can't help this new poster, but pressing control-shift-Escape to get the Task Manager has always been my first check on CPU and memory usage/users. But sts1982 sounds like s/he'd know this and I don't know how or whether this "broker" nullifies such tools or their information.

(Plus, I'm still on a Surface Pro 2 running 1909 that reports "up to date" and runs as efficiently as ever, thankfully. And I also could not relate to "the heavy RAM usage of Teams and Edge", which I have not experienced; nor the "within 24 hours of RAM usage". I guess I'd need a broker too, but even though statistical analysis and photography programs use plenty of resources, even in tandem they've never run for even half that long.)

 

[sts1982]

I have actually modified my approach a little and rather than following MS advice of rebooting after killing the offending process, which seems to see it return straight away, I have just killed the process and kept running and so far it hasn't come back.

Thanks for the tip on the process explorer, I will try that and see if it helps me track down the cause of this. However, the problem is that the process itself is a some background process that is triggered by svchost.exe according to process explorer, and I can't discern a difference between any of the multiple versions of this process that I have running at the moment.

Interesting to hear you don't have heavy RAM usage from Teams and Edge. I don't do anything with Teams I don't think, although my Edge is somewhat self inflicted due to the number of tabs that I leave open and could more regularly clean that up manually (I just feel frustrated that it doesn't seem to avoid hogging memory because I can still only look at / use one tab at a time ).



Fingers crossed that keeps me ticking over for a bit longer.

I'll start to think about/dig into Teams memory usage but it seems to be a common issue