Deskscapes 3 eating all my memory up

from Stardock Forums

I am running Windows 7 x64 on a Phenom X3, 6GB Ram, ATI 4770 with Dual Screen Setup. So when i start a game it appears on the first screen what is normal. On the second screen i see the desktop where descscapes stops working and stands still. The explorer process is growing bigger and bigger. It eats up all my RAM. It doesn't matter what dream i use. When i disable descscapes the problem disappears. Any ideas how to solve this?

deskscapes
6,226 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Would you by any chance have the beta 9.11 drivers installed?

We are aware there is a huge bug in those drivers which causes them to leak memory in explorer when DS is running after a game has started. 

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

I do not understand what you want to say. Is the bug in 9.11 or other versions? Currently i am running 9.10. Should i update now?

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I have the same problem like you, MACCD and i don´t think that this is a bug in the drivers.

I believe, it´s a bug in DS3.

I´ve uninstalled DS3 and going back to the old free version of DS.

The problem is gone, all games runs good and the explorer process is normal.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Tomorrow i will get a Nvidia GTX 260. So i will see if it is a driver bug.

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting ablev1, reply 3
I have the same problem like you, MACCD and i don´t think that this is a bug in the drivers.

I believe, it´s a bug in DS3.

I´ve uninstalled DS3 and going back to the old free version of DS.

The problem is gone, all games runs good and the explorer process is normal.
End of ablev1's quote

Which OS are you using?

Also which games are you playing?

We have only been able to reproduce it with a 5770 running the latest ATI drivers after running C&C Red Alert 3.  Other games such as Sins do not show the issue.

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I have Win7 64bit.

Core2 Quad 6700

4 Gb Ram and HIS HD3850.

DS3 makes me crazy and very frustrated.

I cant understand why the 2 years old version of DS runs better than the newest.

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting ablev1, reply 6
I have Win7 64bit.

Core2 Quad 6700

4 Gb Ram and HIS HD3850.

DS3 makes me crazy and very frustrated.

I cant understand why the 2 years old version of DS runs better than the newest.
End of ablev1's quote

There is no legally licensed older version of DS for Windows 7.

The issue with the leak is the newer version of DS uses an api to detect fullscreen games and the leak happens in response to this call.  We have a possible workaround which alters how often the call is made and so limits the leak to being much smaller, but ultimately our tests have only shown this on 64 bit Windows 7 with an ATI board which means right now the thinking is this is a video driver glitch.

Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top

For example.

Star Wars the force with DS3

The same game with DS1

Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top

For me it looks like, that DS3 working not properly with ati drivers, but in the next days comes a new ati driver and i´ll try again DS3.

Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I had forgotten, if i run a game with DS3 and i change the background from a dream to a wallpaper, the explorer process goes back to the normal size.

Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top

We have modified DS to use a different api which does not seem to trigger the same memory issue when a fullscreen game is running.

Hopefully we can put this up as an update this week.

So far we have been unable to reproduce it on nvidia boards.

Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top

Very nice. Excellent support. Thanks.