LightingService causing memory leak via WMI process

[BShenV12]

In recent weeks I've observed my ROG Strix G17 (G713QR, 2021, AMD Ryzen 9) having issues with AURA lighting - it started off smooth then slowly lagging and eventually fails, turning off the RGB entirely and remains undetectable unless I reboot. 

After some digging around I found out one Windows process called Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) has been constantly leaking memory with ~2-3% CPU, and looking at Event Viewer logs it turns out the LightingService process has been constantly throwing errors at this particular process for some reason. 

To verify if LightingService is indeed the case, I stopped the process or service, both ways has managed to stop WMI from leaking memory and occupying CPU time. 

This has likely occurred in a recent Armoury Crate update, but I'm not exactly sure from when. For reference, here are the versions of all compoenents:

Note that I've recently did a clean Windows install in late May due to a critical system failure - but I'm not inclined to believe this may be a contributing factor for now. 

[Silent_Scone]

Hi @BShenV12,

Please submit a report here and provide the requested information.

[FuriousPotato]

Have you found a fix yet? I'm experiencing the exact same issue. In my case, LightingService (32 bit) and WMI's memory usage keeps rising by 0,5-1 MB/sec up to around 1-3 GB from the moment my laptop is turned on before I had to restart the services.

[xbtart]

Same problem! Waiting for fix.

[BShenV12 · Accepted solution]

UPDATE

I've tracked down the problem and in my case - since I use a custom AURA preset - it has to do with one of my per-key RGB assigned to monitor CPU temps (via Smart preset). This thing alone is consuming over 10% CPU in my Ryzen 9 5900HX, which is quite insane honestly.

Disabling this pretty much stops the memory leak, so I assume it has to do with the sensor reporting not playing ball with WMI. 

In short - avoid using Smart preset, for now

[FuriousPotato]

Omg thank you so much. The memory leak has been bugging me for months and this does it for me. I also used the Smart preset to monitor CPU temp, and taking that off in AURA Creator stops the increasing WMI memory use for me as well.

[fareso]

Same here

[jafarhansla]

It sounds like the issue is indeed linked to the recent Armoury Crate update. The memory leak in Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) caused by the LightingService process is a known issue that can lead to the problems you're experiencing with AURA lighting.

Here are a few steps you could try:

1. Reinstall Armoury Crate: Sometimes, uninstalling Armoury Crate completely and then reinstalling it can resolve issues related to corrupt or conflicting files.

2. Update or Rollback Armoury Crate: If you suspect a recent update caused the problem, try rolling back to a previous version if possible, or check for any newer updates that might address the issue.

3. Check for Firmware Updates: Ensure that your BIOS and all relevant firmware are up to date, as sometimes incompatibility at this level can cause such issues.

4. Disable AURA Sync Temporarily: If you don't rely heavily on AURA lighting, you might want to disable it temporarily to prevent the WMI memory leak, while waiting for an official fix.

5. Report the Issue: Consider reporting the issue to ASUS support if you haven't already, as this might help expedite a fix in future updates.

Hopefully, one of these steps helps stabilize your system. Let us know how it goes!

[BShenV12]

I pretty much did all of them before I even posted here. 

1 - tried, no effect.
2 - technically wasn't even possible because the very reason I got stuck here is because AC forced the update.
3 - latest BIOS, which is likely the final version for this particular laptop that I've updated a long time ago (which didn't cause the issue until I did the Windows reinstall after an unrecoverable crash)
4 - this is exactly how I found out it was the sensor being the problem, and simply disabling the Smart preset that checks CPU stats stops the leak.
5 - Did so.