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MC-1408

Javaw.exe keeps running after closing minecraft.

There has been a possible (prob 100%) fix
Many others who had this problem.
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1405977-minecrafts-java-process-will-not-die-on-closure-or-at-all-for-that-matter/??

Basically what happens is the following.
1. Start minecraft
2. Close minecraft
3. check Task Manager
4. and the javaw.exe continues to run. If you try to terminate it (both End Process and End Process Tree) it will either not do anything at all, or it will say "cannot terminate process" Also, using other 3rd party programs to terminate this process do not work either.

I originally thought this was a Java issue. So I reinstalled Java, tried previous versions of java (1.6) as well as trying other programs that have java.
Other programs that use Java have not shown this memory leak.

I thought it may be a driver issue with perhaps ATI cards, since I saw many people with ATI cards that seem to have this problem. It turns out that some Nvidia cards also seem to have this problem.
Other things I have tried are the following

1. Clean update still causes the problem.
2. Using a different launcher still causes the problem.
3. Using batch files still causes the problem.
4. Whether it Crashes, You click the x button, you press terminate the process, or you click the Quit Game button, it still causes the problem.
5. Deleting 1.2.5 minecraft that for some reason gets downloaded in force update still causes the problem.
6. Clicking End Process Tree or End Process still causes the problem.
7. Using mods or not still cuases the problem.
8. Having Java 7 Update 5 or Java 6 or Java 7 Update 3. It doesn't matter. It still causes it.

It was discussed on the 1.3.1 talk on the wiki, and I believe it was also a bug report on the 1.3.1 Bug list, but was removed by someone.

POSSIBLE FIX:
I initially did not think about this, but after my problem was gone, I realized I uninstalled K9.
Dean did a good job in testing and confirming this, and now many others have started to confirm.

Since it seems that a good handful are having this problem, and finally getting it fixed here, I think this article should be archived for future reference.

K9 Causes your computer to basically not shut down javaw.exe after you close minecraft. Simply remove the software to get rid of the problem. Perhaps someone request to K9 to fix it?

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Comments 85

Firstly, unable to reproduce. My javaw.exe terminates with Minecraft.
Secondly, javaw is only used when you run minecraft from the .exe file. Using a .jar, or running it from a script avoids this problem completely.

1st. This isn't applicable to everyone. Just a variety of people.

2nd, the same thing happens when you run via .bat or .jar

3rd. It is able to reproduced for those who have this problem, if you never got this problem in 1.3.1 this doesn't apply to you. It may be problems with OpenGL or whatnot, but I've tried updating drivers and that doesn't seem to do anything else either.

I'm also getting this and because of this I am unable of playing the game like I used to. This bug started in 1.3 and became very annoying, since then I haven't been playing the game anymore. The launcher doesn't matter, .bat file, MagicLauncher, default launcher, all the same.

Java version: 1.7 Update 9
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

I tried everything this guy did multiple times and no difference. Please give this some attention!

Also give this a higher priority!

This bug affects my Mincraft installation on two different Windows 7 64 bit computers. It doesn't matter if we use a clean update or not. The version of Java being used doesn't matter. Other Java programs do not have this problem. It first appeared for us when we upgraded to 1.3.1 (we don't install the snapshots) and has persisted through 1.4.2 at the time of this writing. The memory used by the inactive, unclosable javaw.exe instances is not freed up until the user either logs out or restarts. This memory use kills my system that has only 4MB of ram.

My hypothesis is that there's something in the code that is faulty, allowing this to happen to certain systems. I've heard from some people that if the code isn't organized properly, it's possible to happen.
So far there's been a trend in 64-bit systems. Maybe it may be a factor?

Also, another note is that these inactive, unclosable java instances sometimes free up, when space is running out. I'm not 100% sure on this though ( could test by running a whole bunch of memory hogging applications to see if these javaw.exe will close by force).

75 more comments

Aw man. Yet another sign up page? It's hanging on an RMI TCP Connection to 10.100.1.6 which is the local network, so it ain't gunna find anything.

Christopher Chase

I have the problem with java instances not exiting after quitting minecraft. And I have K9 installed. I updated k9 and the problem is now fixed (the java processes associated with minecraft exit).

To update k9 I had to select in the K9 admin page: "Other settings" -> "Update to Beta". Then k9 was able to update to version 4.4.268 (seen under "k9 Update").

Without the Update to Beta option selected, k9 would not update to the 4.4.268 version.

From what I can tell, it seems to be the launcher that won't die, not minecraft.

If you've got both running, you should notice you have two of javaw.exe running in the process tab. After closing the launcher, the associated process doesn't see to die with it.

You can kill the process and minecraft will continue running just fine, and seems to terminate correctly afterward. You might need to be on an administrator account to kill it though.

Lucas Wolschick

Confirmed for 1.7.2; not sure on newer versions.

I have noticed something very similar, but in order to avoid posting yet another duplicate thread, I have decided to comment here.

When I close Minecraft (with either the X button or the "Quit Game" button) it continues to stay open. However there are a few key differences in this situation.

1. I can close javaw.exe in the task manager.
2. The process hogs ALL of the available CPU.

#2 is a big problem because it easily overheats my system within a matter of minutes, as well as slow it down greatly.

Daniel Ahn

(Unassigned)

Community Consensus

client, java

Minecraft 1.4.2, Minecraft 1.4.4, Minecraft 1.4.5, Minecraft 1.4.7

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