Hi!

I have been experiencing sluggish responsiveness on my multiple task bars with Display Fusion recently. I feel like it started with one of the updates a few weeks ago. I am currently on 4.0.1 beta 3. Hovering over icons on the taskbar is slow and delayed and often clicking on the preview of a window does nothing. Sometimes several clicks are required to open a minimized window.

When I close and reopen the multiple taskbars, everything works great! Then after a day or two it gets pretty slow and I have to restart the taskbars.

Any ideas? I set up a data collector through performance monitor that I ran for the past day that might shed some additional light. Let me know if I should upload.

Thanks a lot!

Paul

Hi Keith, thanks for the response.

I don't run a program called Bins. I saw that issue on another thread where someone else experienced high CPU usage.

I've attached the troubleshooting log. Let me know if you need any more info.

Thanks!

Paul

Hi Keith,

I've attached the two files. Let me know if you need anything else.

Thanks,
Paul

As requested..

Here you go. Also of note: Since the infodump from ProcessExplorer, the memory size of DF has gone from ~500MB -> ~300MB.

I wish I had a better idea of why this is happening. I feel like this issue cropped up recently in the past few weeks. I feel like before that I didn't have any perf issues.

My CPU usage is similar to what Steven Blinch reported but it seems to take a day or two before the taskbars slow down. Initially, or after I restart displayfusion or the multimon taskbar feature, everything is quick. When the taskbars are sluggish my CPU usage is often about 15% as well, slightly more than an entire core on my 8-core (quad core + hyperthreading) CPU. It seems around the time the taskbars become sluggish, DisplayFusion.exe is always using several % points of my CPU from 3% to about 15% even when I am not touching my keyboard or mouse. Right now, after restarting my computer, DisplayFusion.exe is using about 0% on average which seems like what I would expect it to use. It jumps to around 3-4% when I move my mouse quickly over the icons on one of the extended taskbars but it is still very responsive.

I've attached CPU usage from a couple of days ago when I ran a Data Collector through Windows performance monitor. There's maybe a linear trend going on with regards to CPU usage? It's pretty weak, but it does appear that CPU usage goes up over time. When I'm not at the PC for lunch/dinner/sleeping/etc CPU usage drops way down.

Hope that helps some.

Thanks,
Paul

Well, just a few short hours later, with hooks disabled, the memory usage has climbed up to ~1.6GB. I didn't need to re-start DF when I turned off hooks, and I haven't had the popup about the new version (and haven't forced it yet). Crazy! Of note, DF is not using hardly any CPU nor is it bogged down anywhere. Just seems to be memory allocation/usage.

I can do that. Is there anything in the 4.0.1b6 that would make any difference?

Late-night update: I updated to the 4.0.1b6 release, I've exited both WizMouse and Bins, and with nothing else having been started or exited since then, we're up to just under 1GB allocated/used. Time for sleep.

No, this is something that actually started back in the pre-4.x betas and actually maybe in the last 3.x non-beta release. It seemed pretty random as to when it would occur, so I didn't really think about it too much.

As an update this morning, we're up to 3.0GB memory allocated/used. Good times! CPU usage is virtually nil, so there is that!

Keith, you asked me to post updates to this thread instead of mine (in http://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/high-cpu-usage-freeze-after-period-of-idle-time/?ID=a52b43a8-9b4e-4827-9148-0d0f33ad0b91) but I'm starting to think this thread's issue may not have anything to do with mine.

I have no troubles with high memory usage at all. DisplayFusion.exe consistently remains between 8 - 12MB for me, even during periods of high CPU utilization.

Also, following one of your earlier recommendations, I turned off global application hooks 2 days ago and the problem has not recurred since then. This CPU utilization problem previously happened at least once a day, often more, so I suspect the problem is indeed related to the hooks.

Is there any point in me posting a troubleshooting log at this point, given that (with the hooks disabled) the problem is not presently occurring? Anything else I can do to assist in tracking this down? (And would you like me to go back to posting in my original thread? ) I'd really like to get DF working again as with the hooks disabled I can't use the start menus on any of my 4 secondary monitors.

Giving it a shot. I had 4.0.1b6 running for a bit and I don't think I ever had a chance to see whether it hit any highwater marks with everything up & running, so I've turned on Bins & WizMouse again and we're gonna see what happens here this time around. Last time around, it seems we hit it without those running, so maybe something else has been poking DF. I've got some suspicions as to what, but I can't really poke around and confirm them, either.

So, I'll just press on as per usual and see where we're at tomorrow morning.

When I woke up this morning, DF was at about 2.1GB of RAM. That was after having turned back on both WizMouse and Bins.

For the lulz, here is a screenshot of DF 4.0.1b7 in Process Explorer just after I've gotten home from work. DF has been running a little over 16 hours at this point. FYI, just after capturing this screenshot and pasting it into IrfanView to save, DF's memory usage dropped significantly from ~4.2GB -> ~450MB -> currently ~360MB. Not certain what is causing that at all, but maybe there is an idea there just in reporting that.

Regarding the other programs that may be causing conflicts that raise the amount of memory used, you already know that Bins is a problem child and I think it remains so, because I didn't see memory usage like this without Bins running those few days. WizMouse may be a contender, Firefox 3.6.28 (old version for work reasons), Skype (I don't always have this running, but I think it almost always has been when I've seen the memory usage so high), and possibly also "Kone[+]Monitor" which is a silly thing for the Roccat -branded 'gaming mouse' I've got on this machine.

If you've got any more ideas, shoot em my way!

EDIT: Upgrading to 4.0.1 now since it just popped up as available.

Err.. I never had issues with those. My initial issues were that DF was 1) really eating into the CPU 2) slow to respond (due to issue 1) and 3) eating tons of RAM. Both 1) & 2) seem to have gone away, but 3) is definitely still in there. The only things I have ever restarted have been DF (either due to huge memory usage or new version) and/or some of the suggested problem child programs (Bins, WizMouse possibly).

I'll take another run overnight with everything on and see where things are in the morning, and if we're back to the memory situation, I'll kill Bins first, restart DF, and let that run all day while I'm working and see what's going on when I get home. If we're at another highwater for memory, I'll exit another program,etc. I'm sure all of this will eventually point ya in the right direction of what is interfering with DF.

This morning DF 4.0.1 was pretty normal, but when I got home this evening, it had climbed up to about 3.2GB allocated. I've killed Bins & restarted DF. Lather, rinse, repeat as desired.

Howdy! It has been a few days and I've had some things going on so I haven't really been available until now. I've got just a quick report that while I now have DF 4.0.1 running *without* Bins and *without* WizMouse, the DF process is currently chewing on ~3.7GB ram (up from about 240MB this morning).

As I've said previously, there are other potential programs that run here that could be causing DF to leak itself crazy. I do wonder if perhaps the screensaver module may be causing this? It (so far as I know) runs all day.. Or probably does until the screen goes blank.. I don't really know. I have the screensaver spanned across all 3 displays (5760x1080). The one I use is Plasma from the "ReallySlick" collection of screensavers (http://www.reallyslick.com/screensavers/). I think its kind of a stretch that it could be caused by the screensaver module, but perhaps that makes some sense?

Just home from work today and DF 4.0.1 was up to ~3.7GB again. I had previously killed the control/macro software for the mouse, so that isn't it. I've just killed Skype and we'll see where things go tomorrow.

This morning, DF 4.0.1 was up to ~1.7GB, so I killed the next thing on my list: silly Logitech keyboard software. Lather, rinse, repeat.

This evening, 2.7GB. I've now killed 3 more things: PicPick (screen capture utility), uTorrent, and Desktop Gadgets. Sigh.

And morning rolls around.. Time to cull a few more programs. DF 4.0.1 was at 1.8GB this morning. Exiting: AnyDVD, Dropbox, Foobar2000, LastPass App, Pidgin (IM). Restarting DF 4.0.1.

And today after work, DF 4.0.1 is at 2.4GB allocated. I'm killing a bunch of services associated with various 3rd party (non-MS provided) tools and whats left of the user processes I usually run. We'll see how things work out in the morning.

Not certain if you are still looking at this stuff or not, but here is a fresh dump of the DLL's and a few screenshots. I've essentially stopped running ANYTHING on the machine except when necessary and we still get the same issue. Probably the only items still running are Directory Opus (Explorer-like program), some iTunes/iDevice related services, a service for Macrium Reflect (backup software), and the ATI display drivers (though not their 'Control Center'). Everything else running is a Microsoft-provided program.

One thing you will notice is that in one of the screenshots, the memory usage goes from ~1.2GB down to ~140MB. That was at or just after I logged back in to the machine after getting home.

Another thing is (in the 2nd screenshot) that the Peak Handles as listed by Process Explorer is way the heck up there, but has returned to 'normal' after I had logged back in. This climbed up to ~5300 in the time since I took that screenshot and have written this all up.

Hope this is helpful, because I'd love to see this memory leak go away. It is definitely there.

more attachments (screenshots)

Quick Update:

Display Fusion is using 100% of one of my cores again. All of the CPU usage is in DisplayFusion.exe. The process DisplayFusionAppHook.exe is using no CPU. Memory usage is normal ~80 MB. Just to be clear, I have never seen high memory usage with display fusion, now or in the past. My issue is only high CPU usage.

Seems to reoccur mostly when I have many windows open. In this case I have probably 35-40 different windows open. In case it is relevant my computer has been on for 6.5 days. I am noticing on my left DF taskbar, all of the system tray icons seems to disappear and then reappear sporadically. The right DF taskbar does not exhibit this behavior. The left taskbar also has a flashing outlook reminder icon so perhaps that is why only the left taskbar system tray icons are flashing in and out. Now the left taskbar's program icons are flashing in and out.

Just disabled the multimonitor taskbar feature and CPU usage for displayfusion.exe has dropped back to zero. Now just reenabled the taskbars and CPU usage is back up to 100% of one core.

Just shut down displayfusion completely and started the program back up. Taskbars are back up and CPU usage is still zero. So it seems once the high CPU usage has occurred I must shut down displayfusion before I can have the taskbars on and keep CPU usage low.

Hope this helps.

Paul

I'm running with 4.0.1 stable/release.

I can do most of that except the whole "wait for the memory usage to increase" because it seems to be a leak that happens over time. I can go to sleep with DF running and wake up 6 hours later and sure it'll be higher, but it won't be at crazy levels. If I want that, I just have to go to work and look at it when I get home, at which point it will certainly have had the time to creep up to crazytown.

Argh, I knew I forgot something.. I missed copying the info from the troubleshooting tab. At any rate, this is what I came home to: 1.8GB memory allocated (up from ~300M before I left this morning).

I'll let it run again overnight and this time I'll remember to get the troubleshooting tab, too.

Looking at the logfile, I logged back in to the machine at ~17:25. Memory usage at this point was high. During that time and until the end of the logfile (~17:27), the memory usage dropped significantly.

It does climb, but not typically to really crazy levels (well, ~400MB is crazy I guess). Primarily, yes, it is during the screensaver/lock time that it climbs (and yes, it is locked to the Windows login screen).

It seems as if the memory does not release itself from those highwater points until I actively "do something" on a display other than my main display. For example, I may have my PuTTY client window minimized on my second screen, and I'll notice the release of memory after I've cursored down over the DF-provided (auto-hiding) taskbar and click on the PuTTY icon to bring that window back up.

Sounds good. Here's the Troubleshooting tab & debug log from being away at work. Highwater point: ~2GB. Just as I tried to open the Settings window to copy the Troubleshooting tab, memory usage went from ~1.6GB down to around 300M, and just before I quit DF to restart it, it was down to 100M. Crazy stuff!

Keith, did 4.1.0b5 include the changes you had mentioned here? Just curious.