Recently we had a problem at a customer's site where 12 of 16 desktop PC's
were failing.
These are Dell Desktop PC's.
The failure occured every 5 days, like clockwork.
When the failure occured the event viewer was filled with:
"Event ID: 2019
Description: The server was unable to allocate from the system nonpaged pool
because the pool was empty"
Note that 4 of the customer's PC's did not develop this problem.
Task Manager, Performance tab, showed that the "non-paged" Kernel memory was
slowly but steadily being used up.
This resulted in a non-functioning PC after 5 days.
Researching the event on the internet led to:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;177415
"How to Use Memory Pool Monitor (Poolmon.exe) to Troubleshoot Kernel Mode
Memory Leaks"
The use of poolmon indicated a problem with a "tagged" driver, where the tag
was "Smax".
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;298102
"How to Find Pool Tags That Are Used By Third-Party Drivers"
Poolmon requires the user to watch the display for hours.
Several high usage "tags" were noticed.
Several of these tags can not be found using the above method. Presumably
these are Microsoft drivers, and therefore need not be found because they
could never be a problem. Hah.
The driver found was:
c:\winnt\system32\drivers\smwdm.sys
driver name: smwdm.sys
file version: 5.12.1.3508
modified: may 28 2003
This driver is used by the "SoundMax Integrated Digital Audio" device.
The driver is authored by Analog Devices.
The remaining 4 not-failing PC's had a different driver:
driver name: smwdm.sys
file version: 5.12.1.3538
modified: dec 20 2002
Note that the revision number differs in only one digit.
We used device manager to disable the SoundMax Integrated Audio.
Task Manager, Processes tab, showed that the Kernel Memory Nonpaged usage
growth stopped immediately.
Trying to do the right thing, we went searching for the updated driver.
Since these were Dell PC's, we went to the Dell driver download site.
At the Dell site, the SoundMax is also named "Analog Devices AD1885
Integrated Audio" .
Unfortunately Dell only provided the failing driver version, and not the
newer version.
Yes, the 4 non-failing PC's were Dell also.
Dell does not keep the drivers download section up to date.
We went to the Analog Devices site.
Unfortunately, Analog Devices does not provide drivers for download, and
instead refers users to the PC Manufacturer or Mainboard manufacturer.
Since Dell was not helpful, we looked at intel, who manufactures the Dell
mainboards.
Intel provides many drivers for many motherboards, and many drivers for
"Analog Devices AD1885 Integrated Audio".
But these drivers appear to be Mainboard specific.
We did not have the option of traveling to the customer's site, and
dis-assembling each PC to determine the Intel Mainboard identification.
An updated driver for these PC's has not yet been found.
But we have at least solved the main problem. The loss of sound capability
can be handled.
This problem has cost us a considerable amount of time and trouble.
The result of the problem is a mysteriously dead PC.
Since Dell, Microsoft, Analog Devices, and Intel were all involved, it
should have been much easier to locate and repair.
I post this here in the hopes that others may be spared the time and
trouble.