WDFME.exe RAM hog

Bruce101 wrote:

No fix.  Disabling VSS and restarting WD File Management Engine sent processor useage right back to 100 %.  I tried a computer restart, found that much quicker than has been normal, then processor went right back to 100 %.

What about memory usage?  Processor usage will fluctuate from time to time.  Slow downs are due to paging/memory usage and Drive I/O.

I’m getting in on this conversation late, but I checked my task list the other day and I only had wddm running.  Is wdfme something separate from the default smartware installed files?

@BBBBBrandon are you a software engineer for wd? can’t you test these things yourself? are you trying to say that at wd testing smartware/wdfme displays none of the issues noted in any of the numerous negative threads noted by frustrated users? as i noted before, i now use genie timeline and i know for a fact that it relies on vss. this is a consumer oriented discussion group of non technical people that until now (if you are a software engineer for western digital that specifically works on smartware) has not been technically supported by wd.

edit 1: and as evidenced by bruce101 you are apparently barking at the wrong tree.

edit 2: one more thing.  maybe you can answer why when i switched from using the firefox browser to chrome all my issues with wdfme and smartware went away?

My problem is not with memory usage, which is ok at 2.12 gb out of 8.  But Windows task manager reports WDFME.32* is now taking a constant 97 to 99 % of my CPUs for the first 10 -  15 minites after start up and then 48 -50% for what seems like hours, which does signifantly slow down this Dell computer running windows 7 64 bit dual processors at 2.8gh.  This seems like it has only started within the last few weeks.  I actually need to use this work computer when I start it and this is unacceptable.  This drain did not occur during the first year or so of service.  I have now had it for a year and a half.

george_lol wrote:

@BBBBBrandon are you a software engineer for wd? can’t you test these things yourself? are you trying to say that at wd testing smartware/wdfme displays none of the issues noted in any of the numerous negative threads noted by frustrated users? as i noted before, i now use genie timeline and i know for a fact that it relies on vss. this is a consumer oriented discussion group of non technical people that until now (if you are a software engineer for western digital that specifically works on smartware) has not been technically supported by wd.

 

edit 1: and as evidenced by bruce101 you are apparently barking at the wrong tree.

 

edit 2: one more thing.  maybe you can answer why when i switched from using the firefox browser to chrome all my issues with wdfme and smartware went away?

I am asking as this type of problem has the potential to have more then one root cause and thus our regression testing may surface a similiar issue, and may get fixed, but not address the issue seen here.  While the other backup software you use probably does implement VSS, it is likely implemented in a different form which could be the problem.  As far as firefox to chrome, I have no idea as it shouldn’t make any difference with what we do.

Bruce101 wrote:

My problem is not with memory usage, which is ok at 2.12 gb out of 8.  But Windows task manager reports WDFME.32* is now taking a constant 97 to 99 % of my CPUs for the first 10 -  15 minites after start up and then 48 -50% for what seems like hours, which does signifantly slow down this Dell computer running windows 7 64 bit dual processors at 2.8gh.  This seems like it has only started within the last few weeks.  I actually need to use this work computer when I start it and this is unacceptable.  This drain did not occur during the first year or so of service.  I have now had it for a year and a half.

Hey Bruce, no disrepect intended here but your problem is in fact memory usage as well as an additional issue. 

Our process should not use anywhere near 1GB, let alone 2GB.  While the high CPU usage is reported, what is not being reported here is the drive i/o which is going to slow down the system.  We are, by the way, making changes to resolve this issue but is important to note that you actually have 2 problems:

  1. High memory usage

  2. High drive i/o at start up due to the statistics we generate from the UI.

The CPU usage is a by-product.  Can you try and disable VSS as described in my previous post?  It won’t fix everything, but it will improve memory usage.  You can re-enable if you get a partial backup notice as a result.  We are targetting both of these to be fixed, as referenced in my earlier post, in version 1.5.5.x.  Sorry for all the problems seen here, but we are in fact working on this issue (which I know is hard to track on our forum).

-Brandon

BBBBBrandon wrote:


.  As far as firefox to chrome, I have no idea as it shouldn’t make any difference with what we do.

 

well, apparently it does.  this was consistantly repeatable on my system.  firefox constantly updates some of it’s profile files.  it was also the reason i stopped using smartware as i prefer firefox over chrome.

you didn’t answer my question about your job at wd.  are you a software engineer involved with the development and support of smartware?

how does smartware know a file is changed or added or deleted and what action does it take when a file is added or changed or deleted?

george_lol wrote:


BBBBBrandon wrote:


.  As far as firefox to chrome, I have no idea as it shouldn’t make any difference with what we do.

 


well, apparently it does.  this was consistantly repeatable on my system.  firefox constantly updates some of it’s profile files.  it was also the reason i stopped using smartware as i prefer firefox over chrome.

 

you didn’t answer my question about your job at wd.  are you a software engineer involved with the development and support of smartware?

 

how does smartware know a file is changed or added or deleted and what action does it take when a file is added or changed or deleted?

It may be due to the fact that we had to shadow copy the file for Firefox which is related to the issues I described in my previous posts.  I am a WD employee, but I am not going to discuss my job title in public.  I am directly working on making sure we get this particular problem resolved.

Ever since the Windows update (14 updates) and/or iTunes update on Wednesday, WDFMW.EXE  has essentially stopped my computer by using so much RAM.  There’s a conflict in there somewhere.  WD needs to issue a fix ASAP.

Just joined this post as I just downloaded the WD update yesterday and today my CPU was bogged down to between 50-98% constantly with WDFME.exe being the culprit. Stopped the backup but the problem continued and then I went on Firefox to see if others are having the problem…and here I am. WD this is a huge issue. I’m not a techie, I just want my back-up drive to work and WD was always a good name in hard drives.

The reason I updated my software was on Tuesday this week I ran out of space on my Passport. My system had 24G of memory usage and I had set the number of copies to 3. Therefore the maximum space needed would be about 75 G. When I looked at the Passport usage I had over 9ooG in the “Additional Files” category and I was forced to erase the Passport. My assistant has exactly the same unit, bought at exactly the same time and has had not issues, but she does NOT use Firefox as her browser.

Frico wrote:

Just joined this post as I just downloaded the WD update yesterday and today my CPU was bogged down to between 50-98% constantly with WDFME.exe being the culprit. Stopped the backup but the problem continued and then I went on Firefox to see if others are having the problem…and here I am. WD this is a huge issue. I’m not a techie, I just want my back-up drive to work and WD was always a good name in hard drives.

The reason I updated my software was on Tuesday this week I ran out of space on my Passport. My system had 24G of memory usage and I had set the number of copies to 3. Therefore the maximum space needed would be about 75 G. When I looked at the Passport usage I had over 9ooG in the “Additional Files” category and I was forced to erase the Passport. My assistant has exactly the same unit, bought at exactly the same time and has had not issues, but she does NOT use Firefox as her browser.

so if you switch to chrome or ie do you still have a problem?

I’ll try that today. From others who switched browsers, did you need to restart the computer?, did you need to make Chrome or IE your default browser?  I noticed the problem yesterday after updating from 1.4.1.1 to 1.5.1.6, after the computer had restarted (Windows update) and before I had opened up Firefox, but Firefox is set as my default browser. My assistant has not done the update, uses IE as her default and has not had problems. Both systems are running the XP - Service Pack 3 OS.

I’m running IE, no restart no change to the default browser WDFME is using 80-90% of CPU!

Frico wrote:

I’m running IE, no restart no change to the default browser WDFME is using 80-90% of CPU!

definately restart your computer in order to clear any smarttware and/or IE buffers, indicators, etc.

you do not have to make chrome your default browser. (but it is better, faster and more secure than IE).  for testing, do not run firefox or IE after the reboot until after you see whether or not wdfme is being the hog or not.

WDFME has settled down and is now using 0-2% CPU

And now it’s back to 80-90% and slowing my system down! Outlook open, IE open, WD Smartware open (real-time back-up running), Task Manager open. 

Soory george, I missed your post. Computer has been restarted and as per my last post, IE open, Outlook open, Task Manager open, WD Smartware open and real time back-up running. WDFME usimg 70-90% CPU.

Brandon,

I have exactly the same issues with WDFME.exe since I updated my software last week.  The computer is totally unusable.

When left idle after startup the CPU is being used at about 50% - this tails off eventually but at some point WDFME.exe starts to hog physical memory, increasing at the rate of an additional 3-5MB per second until it is using 3GB.

Killing the WDFME.exe process in Resource Monitor immediately restores normal performance.

I have a Lenovo with 4GB RAM, Intel i5 2.53GHz CPU running Windows 7 Home Premium.

Everything was running fine until I updated WD Smartware.  Unfortunately now I can’t really use the computer and there don’t appear to be any solutions online that I can find.  It looks as if I’ll have remove WD Smartrware, format the drive, and make my own arrangements for backup. 

It doesn’t seem to matter what browser that I use.  I usually use IE on XP.  The RAM is completely utilized by WDFME.exe until I kil the process tree.  I gues I’ll just have to uninstall Smartware and chose aonther backup program.  Bummer WD…

hmmm - my first attempt at posting this seems to have disappeared (after I clicked the preview button…)

If I leave my PC idling for 20mins+, then memory usage goes up to 98-99% (eg PC performance is naff) - stopping the wdfme.exe process then returns the memory usage to 8-15% (PC performance goes back to normal)

I never had these problems when using my LiveBook with Windows XP/Vista or Win Prof 32-bit

My Book Live 2TB

MyBookLive 02.10.09-124 : Core F/W

SmartWare 1.5.1.6

Win 7 Prof 64-Bit SP1

Dell XPS 8300 Core i7-2600 CPU @ 3.4GHz

8Gb RAM

Gigabit Ethernet

default browser Firefox 8.0

Is there still not a fix for this - where can I find more support information?