Windows Server 2019 – Kernel nonpaged pool leak from third-party driver – Fix and Prevention

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents

1. Symptom & Impact
2. Environment & Reproduction
3. Root Cause Analysis
4. Quick Triage
5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
6. Solution — Primary Fix
7. Solution — Alternative Approaches
8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
9. Rollback Plan
10. Prevention & Hardening
11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

Available memory declines steadily, leading to service crashes or bugchecks.

Environment & Reproduction

Observed after installing a new endpoint or networking kernel driver.

Get-Counter 'MemoryPool Nonpaged Bytes' -SampleInterval 10 -MaxSamples 12
driverquery /v

Root Cause Analysis

A driver allocation path leaks nonpaged pool buffers under sustained workload.

Quick Triage

Establish leak growth rate and list recently introduced kernel modules.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Use pool tag analysis and event correlation to isolate responsible component.

Solution — Primary Fix

Install vendor hotfix driver and reduce triggering workload pattern until updated.

pnputil /enum-drivers | findstr /I vendor
pnputil /add-driver C:DriversHotfix*.inf /install

Solution — Alternative Approaches

Restart affected service tiers on schedule as temporary mitigation if patch window is delayed.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Nonpaged pool growth flattens and no memory-pressure alerts recur.

Rollback Plan

Revert to previous signed driver package and remove hotfix build.

Prevention & Hardening

Continuously monitor pool counters and enforce kernel-driver soak tests.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Can lead to bugcheck 0xC2, 0x1A, and service termination events.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for Windows Server 2019.

View all Windows Server 2019 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

Microsoft memory leak diagnostics and kernel pool troubleshooting references.