[German]Is there a problem with resource consumption by the Virtual Machine Memory Manager (Vmmemcm) in Windows 11 24H2, which then leads to the system freezing? I have had reports of this since December 2024 – and there seems to be a connection with the sandbox.
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A reader report
German blog reader Karel posted this German comment on the German article Patchday: Windows 10/11 Updates (11. Februar 2025) and wrote that his laptop suddenly "had problems". Since the February 11, 2025 update, his laptop (Framework Core i5 12th Gen) always crashes approx. 60-90 seconds after starting, regardless of whether users are logged in or not.
The reader writes that a process with the name VmmemcmSysPrep requires extreme resources. The process is then replaced by the process VmmemcmFirstBoot, which also has a high resource consumption. The fans then spin up to a maximum and the system freezes.
The reader states that he does not have a Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), but has activated the sandbox as a feature. However, he does not have to start the sandbox for this to happen.
This MS Answers forum post from 2020 also deals with the high memory consumption caused by the Subsystem for Linux (WSL).
Description of vmmem
Raymond Chen published the article What is this vmmem program that is using up all my CPU and memory? back in 2018 with some explanations about vmmem and the high resource consumption. vmmem is a virtual process that the system creates to display the memory and CPU resources consumed by your virtual machines.
So if the vmmem process consumes a lot of memory and CPU resources, this means that virtual machines consume a lot of memory and CPU resources. This is at least a hint as to what could be wrong with Windows 11 24H2.
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Posting on reddit.com
If you search for the above terms, you will come across the German reddit.com post MSI Laptop stürzt mit VmmemcmFirstBoot und VmmemcmSysPrep ab (Bolko also referred to the reddit.com post here). An affected user wrote on reddit.com a month ago that his notebook kept crashing completely "in the last 3 days". He has to hold down the power button until it shuts down.
In the first 2 minutes before the system crashes, he can see in the Task Manager that 'VmmemcmSysPrep' consumes a lot of resources and then switches to 'VmmemcmFirstBoot'. The system then quickly crashes. In the reddit.com thread, other users confirm these crashes on notebooks from various manufacturers when Windows 11 24H2 is installed. It is probably related to virtualization.
Further confirmation from a reader and workaround
German blog reader confirmes, that the same symptoms occur on a few Thinkpads (X1 Gen 12) in his environment. Deactivating the sandbox as a feature has helped for the time being.
On GitHub there is the entry VmmemCmFirstBoot freezes Framework Laptop, which describes the problem for a Framework laptop. However, as mentioned above, it also occurs with other notebook models from other manufacturers.
Bolko had added some more information in this German comment. The problem occurs under Windows 11 24H2 and is related to the virtualization functions (sandbox, WSL etc.).
- Deactivating virtualization in the BIOS / UEFI solves the problem.
- Disabling the sandbox function as a Windows feature fixes the problem.
DHowever, the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) will then no longer work. Bolko notes that according to the DMP log file, the "Intel Smart Sound Technology driver" should be the cause of the resource consumption.
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