Request From Perfmon Counter Can Cause Excessive Page Faults

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0
• Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0

SYMPTOMS

When you run Perfmon.exe either locally or remotely against the computer, a constant high rate of page faults may result (perhaps 75-120 page faults per second). Increasing the number of Perfmon sessions increases the number of page faults.

CAUSE

The manner in which Perfmon was requesting memory can cause a continuous loop if the performance counter requested a memory buffer that is over a certain size to communicate with Perfmon. Because this loop is continuously requesting new memory but is also releasing the earlier requested memory, the pagefile usage is not impacted. This behavior has not been reproduced using the performance counters that are included with Windows NT 4.0. This effect only concerns performance counters that request a larger memory buffer.

RESOLUTION

Remove the very large counters either from the registry or by "uninstalling" the DLL that contains the performance counters.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 4.0. This problem was corrected in the latest Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 U.S. Service Pack. For information on obtaining the service pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

   S E R V P A C K

Keywords          : kbbug4.00 kbfix4.00 kbfix4.00.sp2 NTSrvWkst kbbuglist kbfixlist
Version           : 4.0
Platform          : winnt
Hardware          : ALPHA PPC x86
Issue type        : kbbug
Solution Type     : kbservicepack