Dell SupportAssist Remediation memory usage problem

I'll just add my name, and my XPS 8900, to the list of those suffering from this issue with the Dell SupportAssist Remediation service. The problem sometimes occurred just after rebooting the PC (as Windows was loading), and sometimes after an hour or more of being up and running. I wasn't able to detect any pattern or guess as to what triggered the service to run amok and suck up the available RAM. The symptoms were simple enough: The PC would, over the course of a few minutes, become extremely sluggish. Eventually, Windows would stop responding to mouse clicks (although the mouse cursor seemed to still move around as expected). It would reach the point where the system was so unresponsive that I couldn't restart the PC by clicking Start... Power... Restart, and couldn't open Task Manager to select Restart from there. The only way I was able to regain control was to press, and keep pressing, the power button on the PC to force it to shut down. That's by far not the safest way to shut down a PC.

I discovered the source of the problem when I opened Task Manager just after noticing the PC becoming sluggish but before I completely lost the ability to do anything. Dell SupportAssist Remediation was at the top of the list of apps and services using the most RAM. In the case of my PC, Dell SupportAssist Remediation was using 344.5MB of RAM and this was increasing gradually as I watched it. Dell SupportAssist Remediation was using more than twice as much RAM as Google Chrome, the next item in the list of RAM-hungry apps and services. I'm no expert, but that sure looked like a major memory leak to me.

I eventually "resolved" the problem (at least regained control of the PC) by going to Task Manager, then, from the Services tab, selecting "Open Services" at the bottom of the window. I found Dell SupportAssist Remediation in the list of services and changed its Startup Type from Automatic (Delayed Start) to Disabled.

That was several days ago. Since changing that setting, the PC has remained stable with no slowdowns or sluggishness.

I'm not crazy about this solution, since there's an off chance that Dell SupportAssist Remediation actually does something useful on occasion, but it's the only way I've found to regain control of my PC so it doesn't bog down and die in the middle of my doing something important.

By the way, does anybody have even a clue as to what Dell SupportAssist Remediation does when it isn't misbehaving?

I'm looking forward to Dell eventually taking notice of this issue, fixing the memory leak, and issuing a non-buggy version of the service.

Larry

Same problem here. XPS 9350 i5. 

Usage got up to 6 Gig on my Dell.  Needless to say, nothing else would run.  I learned how to disable it from a different post in this thread and did so.  When is Dell going to address this problem?

Dell?     Does anybody else hear crickets?

Same here. Went to services and changed setting to Disabled.

If it was a major software component for DELL, I'm sure they would have answered this forum by now. 

Exact same here as well.

Hi,

Was any more posted about the Dell SupportAssist Remediation memory usage problem?

Hello,

I have the exact same problem on my Dell Inspiron 5559, Win10.

Once I end the process in task manager, my laptop's performance greatly improves.

Already PMed @dell-robert p.

Hope to get a permanent fix for this.

I have the same problem with my Dell Inspiron 11 3169.  It would be nice to have a fix for this from Dell.

I had the same problem and called tech support.  Their solution is to uninstall, in this order, Dell Support Assist, Dell Support Assist Agent, then Dell Support Assist Remediation.  Reboot.  Then reinstall Dell Support Assist from the website, but do not reinstall remediation.

So far, so good.

Thanks for your message. What a difference it makes! Haven't yet reloaded Dell SupportAssist. Am still enjoying the recovered performance!

Indeed, it is amazing the unresponsiveness of Dell to this issue, specially being this a "Dell User Support Assistance". Assistance is exactly what we have not having so far. Dell has not dignified us with either:

1) What is the role of the Dell SupportAssist Remediation service.

2) What is the importance of the Dell SupportAssist Remediation service, so that we know how dangerous might it be to disable it, which everyone noticed from this post as the only solution so far to this otherwise grave problem;

3) Who, if anyone, inside Dell is working toward the solution of the problem.

How can we rely on a machine if their manufacturers, after such a long time a problem with their product has been presented and discussed, do not take any action? The only post we have seen from someone from Dell here is outrageous! 

I have, along the last months, been obliged to reboot (using cold start) my XPS13 9350 several times, due in all occasions to this memory eating problem. My only resource now is to act like every other mistreated costumer in this thread and disable the service altogether. 

Thanks Dell! This is obviously a sarcastic comment, but sarcasm has been the only action Dell left for us to act upon.

why Dell support not on top of this problem, disgusting.