How do you test and prove that a memory leak exists?

I believe I have a memory Leak - but only when dual monitors configuration is enabled. When regular LCD monitor is connected - all is well. But when I go to Catalyst Control Center and extend the desktop to my 42" Plasma TV - a memory leak develops.

I can tell by importing consecutive DVDs into a DVD editing program. It suddenly struggles and does not display the video correctly when I import third or fourth DVD for editing.

The problem disappears immediately as soon I disable my Plasma and revert to single monitor configuration. How can I test and prove that a memory leak exists?



EDIT: This is not ATI driver related. Identical situation on an nVidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti PNY XLR8 I just switched to. No probs in Win7, only in WinXP.
This also happens when using a DVI cable only. It is not VGA related.


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A movie of task manager running and the task constantly gaining memory should suffice.

Here are the screen shots just prior to reaching critical point of importing a fourth DVD for editing:



Here is the screen shot when I close the fourth dvd, disable dual screen and return back to normal:

When taking those screen shots I stumbled on something different this time and that made me think of this post from when I asked about this earlier:

zrafferty said:

are you using any convertors on the end of the cables.
sometime that can cause some problems down the line.

Click to expand...

I didn't think that could be the problem but yes the video card in my sig from post#1 does have two DVi outputs and my Plasma TV is connected using a VGA to DVI adapter. I have an industrial Plasma with no HDMI or DVI connectors.


I managed to capture this screen shot from when the "memory leak" was going on:







Could that be the cause? Of course this all goes away as soon as I close the open programs/disable dual monitors and yes this happens on *all* driver versions from 2008 to 2011.

Could be faulty driver. Get CC Cleaner, wipe all trace of ATi driver off your system and use standard VGA driver from Windows. Reboot, download fresh copy off ATi site, install that.

Which CCleaner option "wipes all traces of ATI drivers"?

I tried all Catalyst drivers from 2008 to latest 2011.

"ATI"

Virgin Windows XP fresh install - absolutely nothing else installed and was able to replicate the problem. Uninstalling all Catalyst drivers and running ATI Catalyst Uninstaller cleanup still replicated the problem.


The video card has two DVI ports. Does DVI to VGA cable require some kind of an updated Windows VGA driver?