A number of Windows 10 Users Report After Recent windows 10 version 21H1, System Became Unresponsive at startup, Hangs and Freezes for a long time. And Check on System resource usage on Task manager its showing a process ntoskrnl.exe High Memory Usage. Its around 99% or 100% Memory Usage by ntoskrnl.exe process. If you are also facing Memory Leak, ntoskrnl.exe High Memory Usage problem on windows 10 Here are some applicable Solutions To fix this.
What is ntoskrnl.exe?
Now you have the question on your mind What is ntoskrnl.exe? Why its usage 100% Memory or CPU on Windows computers? Ntoskrnl.exe, short for Windows NT operating system kernel, is a fundamental part of the system. Usually, when you see the uncommon usage of high CPU or memory, you should shut down the possible programs that are causing the problem. If this happens a lot, you should see if there is something wrong with certain application settings or file in your system.
Fix Memory Leaks, ntoskrnl.exe High Memory Usage
Memory Leak, ntoskrnl.exe High Memory usage mostly cause by Update Bugs, Virus malware Infection, Outdated Incompatible Device drivers or Applications, corrupted system files Any Windows Service Stuck on Background etc. If you Are also Having high memory usage issues, System Not responding, Freezes at startup After Upgrade To Windows 10 apply bellow solutions to get rid of this.
Check For Virus / Malware Infection
Start with Basic Solution First perform A full system Scan to make Sure Virus / Malware infection not causing the issue. As discussed before Most of the time If windows Infected with Viruses or malware the this will cause High System resource usage, Malware applications run on the background and cause huge Memory, CPU usage. So we recommend to install a good antivirus / Anti-malware application with the latest updates and perform a full system scan.
Again Run Third-party System optimization tool like CCleaner to Clear system junk, cache, memory Dump, Temp files etc which help to improve system performance. Also with help of registry cleaner, you can fix broken, missing registry errors. Now Restart windows And check The system Running normally there is no more ntoskrnl.exe High Memory Usage.
Disable startup programs
Again Disabling the unnecessary Startup programs is very helpful solution to fix High System Resource usage ( ntoskrnl.exe High Memory Usage )problem on Windows 10. To disable Startup programs Open Task Manager by pressing “Ctrl + Shift + ESC.” Then move to the “Startup” tab and you will see a list of programs that run at startup. Right-click on the applications that you don’t want to run at startup and select “Disable”.
Optimize performance
Adjusting Windows for performance will manage everything including processor scheduling and memory usage to stop memory leaks and ntoskrnl.exe High Memory Usage.
- Right-click on ‘This PC’ and select ‘Advanced’ settings on the left pane.
- Under the ‘Advanced’ tab, go to ‘Performance’, followed by ‘Settings’.
- Check ‘Adjust for best performance’ and click OK.
- Restart and check if the issue is solved.
Run Memory Diagnostic Tool
Windows have a build-in Memory Diagnostic Tool That scans And checks For memory Related errors. To access and run the inbuilt Memory Diagnostic Tool Windows 10 :
First Save all your important work. Then press Win + R to open Run Window, Here type command mdsched.exe and hit the enter key. This will open the memory Diagnostic tool, Select the first option Restart now and check for problems.
This will Restart windows and start checking for memory related problems. ( You can perform a basic scan or go for the ‘Advanced’ options like ‘Test mix’ or ‘Pass count’ and press F10 to start the test. ) Wait until 100% complete the scanning process After that windows will Restart automatically. You can Check Memory Diagnostic test results from Here.
Clear Page File at shutdown
This is the Best Solution I found worked for most users to fix the memory Leak and ntoskrnl.exe High Memory Usage problem on Windows 10 systems. To do this ( clear page file at shutdown ) we are going to tweak the windows registry So we recommend to first backup Windows registry. And follow below steps to Clear Pagefile at shutdown and Fix memory leak ntoskrnl.exe High Memory Usage.
Press Win + R, type regedit and hit enter key. On Windows Registry Navigate to the following key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
Now on the middle pane double click on ‘ClearPageFileAtShutDown‘ And change its value to 1 As shown below image.
That’s all now close Windows Registry and restart windows to take effect the changes. On the next start check, There is no more memory Leak or ntoskrnl.exe High Memory Usage.
Disable Superfetch
Also, Sometimes Disable Windows Services ( Such As Superfetch, windows update or BITS ) reduce system resource usage and fix the Memory leak, High CPU / RAM usage problem on windows 10.
To do this open windows services by press Win + R, type servcies.msc and hit the enter key. The scroll down and look for service Superfetch double click on it change the Startup type disable and Stop the Service if it’s running. Do the Same with Windows update and BITs ( Background Intelligent Transfer Service ). Restart the PC and check if the performance has improved.
Disable Show me tips about Windows
Also, Some users from the Microsoft forum / Reddit Suggest Disable Show me tips about the windows option help them to fix ntoskrnl.exe High Memory Usage problem on windows 10. To disable the Runtime Broker, open the Settings app and go to System. Inside the System window, locate Notifications & Actions and turn off toggle “Get Tips Tricks and Suggestions .” Now restart the PC to bring it back to normal and fix high RAM and CPU usage.
Run System File Checker
Also sometimes corrupted system files cause different problems on Windows computers. Especially After a recent window upgrade if windows system files get corrupted you may face Startup errors High System resource usage etc. We recommend to Run the System file checker Tool Which scans and Restore the missing Corrupted systems. To do this open the command prompt as administrator then type sfc /scannow and hit the enter key. This will scan for missing system files, if found any the sfc utility will restore them from a special folder located on %WinDir%\System32\dllcache. Wait until 100% complete the process after that restart windows.
If SFC scan results found corrupted system files but are unable to repair them then run the DISM Command Which Repairs the system image and allows sfc to Do its job.
Update Driver
If your memory leak problem began after you upgraded to Windows 10, the culprit could be outdated, missing, or broken drivers. Several users reported outdated drivers as the root cause of this problem. The most basic drivers to check out are graphics, sound, and network drivers which are the main reason behind memory leak issues. Therefore, the first thing you should do is update your faulty drivers.
These Are some most applicable Solutions To fix High System Resource usage ntoskrnl.exe High Memory Usage problem on windows 10. I hope Apply these solutions fix the Memory Leak, ntoskrnl.exe High Memory Usage, 100% memory usage problem on Windows computers. Still have any query, suggestion or face difficulty while apply these solutions Feel free to discuss on comments below. Also, Read Fix APC_INDEX_MISMATCH BSOD in Windows 10/8.1 and 7.
