Abnormal memory usage running clean Launchbox 12.16

[Emiel Bloemendaal]

I did a clean install of Windows 11 22H2 Home Edition, ran Windows Update and installed the latest Nvidia drivers for my GTX 950m.

Because I use this laptop (7th gen I7, 16 GB, Intel 4600 + Nvidia 950m) only for emulation I installed Launchbox next.

Launchbox prompts me it needs .Net Core 3.1.6 and MS Visual C++ 2015, and installs those dependencies and continues to install Launchbox 12.16 in D:\LaunchBox

As soon as I run Launchbox the launchbox.exe process is eating up all my available RAM. It takes about 20 seconds for the 16 GB to be used and Windows starts swapping. After about a minute the system crashes. This happens every time I launch the program.

Because I used to run Launchbox on this laptop on Windows 10, I decided to revert to Windows 10. Clean install Windows 10 22H2→ same issue!

Back to Windows 11 → again, same issue. I am unable to use Launchbox.

Everything other than Launchbox works well. Emulators, Office, Windows games like The Sims 4 run great.

I really need a fix for this issue because I want to use Launchbox! I love the program and bought a lifetime license.

I looked in the log directory but no logs are written in Launchbox.

[Christian]

Would you please grab 13.0 beta 1 and let us know if you see any change to your memory usage?

[Emiel Bloemendaal]

Hi Christian,

thanks for your reply. I tried 13 beta 1 and encountered the same exact problem. But then I tried Windows 10 safe mode, just to see if it’s maybe driver related. And Launchbox worked! Never used more than 1,5 GB of memory. Back in normal mode the process started to consume all my memory again, so I killed it and wondered what could be the culprit. Safe mode didn’t use networking, so I disabled wifi. Started Launchbox and boom…working perfectly.

So I decided to change my IP settings to manual and gave Windows just a ip address, gateway and default gateway. → Launchbox works without problems. Back to DHCP and Launchbox consumes all memory again. Long story short: the issue starts when I configure a search domain in network settings for DNS. My local domain is ATHOME.lan. If I put the domain in the Append this DNS suffixes list Launchbox starts to use up all available memory.

So I just stop using a search domain in this laptop and am now running Launchbox 12.16. But I am curious, what happens if you do the same? Launch Launchbox and then try to set IP manually including a search domain for DNS?

‌

• Go to Control Panel → Network and Internet → Network and Sharing Center.
• Click on Change Adapter Settings on the left side.
• Right-click on your network adapter (normally "Local Area Connection" or "Wireless Network Connection") and select Properties.
• Select Internet Protocol version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click on the Properties button.
• On the General tab, click on the Advanced… button.
• In the Append this DNS suffixes list, add the domains you want, like athome.lan

I have spend many hours to try to get Launchbox working and reinstalled the laptop about 4 times. I am very happy I have got it to work, but am curious why this setting makes Launchbox go crazy. Everytime I add the search domain the process claims all available memory.