Massive Memory Leak On WLAN Card Driver (BCMWLTRY.EXE)

Boot into safe more and uninstall drivers, download latest drivers and install.

Uninstall the utility and let windows manage the connection.  Seems simple enough.

Hello,

I just got a brand new Dell Latitude E6510 with Windows 7 installed and I'm having the exact same problem!

I have 4GB of RAM and a Intel Core i5 processor.

I did as Evan suggested and watched the memory page faults increase over couple hours in my new laptop and soon my laptop was running super slow and issuing low memory warnings.

I see this posting was from November of last year.

Has anything been solved about this issue? I even found same problem in postings dating back to 2007.

And the best answer seems to be "unistall the driver". Well that doesn't sound like a fix to me, just a sorry excuse for a workaround...

Thanks!

Popsypopsy,

As stated above, you only need to uninstall the broadcom wireless system tray application (though upgrading the driver is still a good idea).  In fact, there is hardly any reason to use the broadcom app at all -- windows has very good wifi management built right in (and in the rare chance that you need more, there are better free apps out there). 

Even if you wanted to install the latest driver, it's not the easiest thing to do.  Broadcom does not make these drivers publically available (like it does for its wired, ethernet products).  And Dell rarely offers the 'latest and greatest' in its download section.  Instead, people must look to every system-maker who releases broadcom products -- and see who has the latest drivers out.  This forum does a good job keeping track:  http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/14644-latest-broadcom-943xx-driver/

I suggest you download the most recent driver as listed on the above linked site.  It is currently 5.100.249.2 and can be downloaded directly from Acer:  http://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/Driver/Wireless%20LAN/Wireless%20LAN_Broadcom_5.100.249.2_W7x86W7x64_A.zip?acerid=634141726387750997&Step1=Notebook&Step2=TravelMate&Step3=TravelMate

Use a program like 7zip, WinZip, or WinRar to extract the driver folders from the above file.  Uninstall the broadcom application (and driver if possible) via add-remove programs.   Reboot if needed.  Use device manager to manually update the driver for your network card -- use the 'have disk' method and point it to the driver folder you extracted.

For what it's worth, there may be a newer broadcom application bundled in the above file.  I've never actually run the installer.  It may or may not be specific to Acers.  I advise simply extracting and manually installing the driver -- but if you do go the automated route, please let me know if it works and what's included.

I have been struggling through severe memory leaks on both a Vostro 32 bit OS machine fitted with 4 G on RAMM and subsequently a 64 bit OS Studio 17 fitted with 8 G of RAMM.  Both have wireless cards within them.  I know the Studio-17 has a broadcom card  within it.  The Studio was bought to try and deal with a 24 hour crash fequency rate for the Vostro.   I have been working through both Dell's small business and then the home groups to diagnose and fix this problem.  Today I pinned the leak source to the BCMWLtry program.

It is severely disgusting and particulary annoying to find the issue has been know on this Dell site for 3 years time., and should have been fixed by Dell a long time ago.  I bought these two machines in Sept. and October of 2010.   

"You owe me two months of my life to refind this issue myself!   Now fix it and get me replacement code!"

I am unsure if you are being literal or sarcastic here, but Dell does not warrant software.

The solution, as stated above more than once, is to delete the BCMWLTRY utility and use Windows to manage you internet connections. In practical terms, you'll lose nothing, other than a headache... The BCM tray *may* have some advanced settings that is doe snot sound like most would ever use, so just delete it.

For the record, I always use Windows t manage my connections if possible. It is much easier to have the same utility, especially if switching from computer to computer or adapter to adapter...  And why waste space and resources for something that is alreadsy handled fine within Windows?

I appreciate your reply very much, but not your tone.

If I can keep others from living through what I have live i will get a minor pay back for what I have lived through.  If you work for or support Dell make sure the right people see this issue and fix it ASAP, otherwise stop selling wireless gear to soon to be very frustrated and mad customers.

I have spent literally man dayS on the phone with DELL Technical support on this crashing hardware (First the small Business for the Vostro then the Home group for the Studio) and still more days doing one off testing of the code I was running only to find the problem is the base code DELL recommend, preinstalled and sold me (twice).  Even had to buy a second laptop with twice the RAMM max'd out, an 64 bit OS to get past one lousy 24 hour period without the Vostro crashing! 

NEITHER Dell tech support group knew of this issue, yet here it was on their very own support website. 

By the way there is a recommendation to remove it, but it does no explain why Dell felt they should not have set up the default system to REQUIRE BCMWLtry code!

It is clear to me DELL is selling comparably fitted wireless equipped laptops that will have its customer far less tolerant of faulty gear, than this dogged buyer is and will return their purchases in hoards.  I should be selling short options in DELL stock for Christmas.

With the DELL "Technical" support esources expended I can guarantee you neither of us has profited from my purchases.  The Vostro will be returned this week.

Bummer that you didn't like my tone.

Regardless, this thread pretty clearly gives a solution, so your compalints will probably not help people in your situation. Posting about how to resolve it, or confirming that the resolution above works, would help them.

It is a strange issue, as three are some driver updates (which include the utility) going back to 2007 that say they fix the issue. Since it is not that widespread, it seems there must be something more than JUST the utility leading to the problem, perhaps something that is not compatible with it that is also running. Whatever it is, the utility is certainly not needed and removing it is a simple solution.

I am unfamilir with the Business side return policy, but Dell Home charges a restocking fee (or at least retains the right to) if there is no hardware defect, as the case is here.

By the way, no, I do not work for Dell. Dell employees are clearly marked with DELL right next to their name. This is primarily a user to user fourm, so almost all of what you get is users just like you trying to help other users. Since you have found these forums, and have learned that they are more helpful than Dell Tech Support, Hang around and ask questions as they come up. There are some helpful people here, and you will benefit from them if you choose to do so...

Dell's HQ is in my home state and I want them to succeed.  I have owned 4 personal Dells and used three corporate units and I run a Dell Streak tablet phone.  I have been using personal computers since the 86 code came out, These two machines were my first introduction to Windows 7 OS. 

Before I arrived here I had been discussing and running down other advice concepts to find and fix the memory leakage causes suggested at other site.  At several other sites but none associated it with BCMWLTRY.  Only after regoogling the program name with "memory leak" did I discover the postings here.  Came as a rude surprise finding it at Dell itself.  So I contributed their memory leakage diagnostic knowledge pool, I basically posted the above feed back post at those same sites.  In my spread the word posts I have linked them back to here so they can read through the BCMWLTRY alternatives and removal method.  I have linked Dell's Home tech support here also.

What caused me to get real careful was, despite being in admin mode. the inability of Process Explorer and Task Manager to kill the BCMWLTRY program   I have never come across a program I could not kill and then see it restart, that raised my "be real careful" antennas up real high. 

I would like to hear why Dell felt they need BCMWLTRY to run, so much so they would not let the user kill it.  Seems to some purpose in their intent or needs.  I have 3PM phone appointment with Tech support tomorrow. 

By the  way down loading MS Proces Explorer was vital to pinning this issues down.  64 Bit Process Explorer found BCMWLTRY on the 64 bit W7 Studio, the 32 Bit PE on the 32 bit Vostro does not even give a page fault column readout.   What 32 bit Process Explorer produces is Runtime Check column hits accumulating on the WLTRY.exe code, with a few coming on DbrmTryIcon.exe.  BCMWLTRY isn't even shown as running on the 32 Bit OS W7 Vostro.   

Pregnant questions are:

1 why does Dell go to extra effort to add vendor communication management code, when they should have known MS communication manager should already be able to handle?  Why didn't some vendor bench tests and/or by Dell not spot the huge 64 Bit Page Fault counts adding up.  Is there another dimension or association needed to get these Page Faults.

2. why do 32 and 64 bit Windows 7 Dell laptops both communicating with the same Wireless Lan, each produce fatal memory leak rates that just keep adding to the commit charges until your RAMM and Virtual memory allocation is consumed.   FYI that router is an ATT 2WireGateway.  

Topper is it looks like the DW WLAN card in Intel made, why try to control it with Broadcom driver?

There is a "DW WLAN Tray Service" that monitors that bcmwltry.exe process and restarts it if it dies. If you disabled that service, you can kill the bcmwltry process. You'll also want to disable it as a startup process so it never starts to begin with. Both these tasks can be done in msconfig.

Thanks, with Dell Support concurrance I moved the BCMWLTRY.exe program up into the parent directory.  It did not reboot up on the next restart.  All has worked well since doing that. Memory leakage has essentually ceased.  It would appear the BCMWLTRY.exe has no purpose or use. 

Are you suggesting DW WLAN Tray Service be disbled or the startup of BCMWLTRY?   If you are suggesting disabling DW WLAN Tray Service what sevices do I lose? 

Thanks,

I disabled the service on one of my user's laptop (E5410) and she no longer has the memory leak and has not noticed any problems with wireless, so it seems to be safe to disable it.