Cannot start any program after about 1.2 GB of commited virtual memory

  • Thread starter Thread starter Juerg Reimann
  • Start date Start date
J

Juerg Reimann

I've got a strange thing happening on my XP Pro machine with 2 GB of RAM.
After about 1.2 GB of commited virtual memory I cannot start any new
program, open new files in already open programs etc.

Usually no error messages appears, newly opened programs just close again
withouth any comment. In IE7 for example, a new opened tab just remains
white.

After I close a few things, the system goes back to normal.

Any hints / ideas?

Juerg
 
Juerg said:
I've got a strange thing happening on my XP Pro machine with 2 GB of RAM.
After about 1.2 GB of commited virtual memory I cannot start any new
program, open new files in already open programs etc.

Usually no error messages appears, newly opened programs just close again
withouth any comment. In IE7 for example, a new opened tab just remains
white.

After I close a few things, the system goes back to normal.

Any hints / ideas?

Juerg
Click to expand...

Well you could run a memory test, i dont think windows has one, if you
want, download a copy of knoppix (its linux that runs off a cd, doesnt
need to be installed) boot up with cd in drive, say yes to boot from
cd, then when you get a prompt like this: boot: and it says hit enter
to boot knoppix instead type in memtest and hit enter.. that runs a
check of the ram, the bar at the very top shows total progress.. might
take 30-40mins and you will see if there are errors or not within the
memory. also have you got windows to optimise virtual memory set and
make sure you dont have disable virtual memory selected?

Flamer.
 
flamer said:
Well you could run a memory test, i dont think windows has one, if you
want, download a copy of knoppix (its linux that runs off a cd, doesnt
need to be installed) boot up with cd in drive, say yes to boot from
cd, then when you get a prompt like this: boot: and it says hit enter
to boot knoppix instead type in memtest and hit enter.
Click to expand...

(snip)

That's a very convoluted way to get Memtest86+. Much simpler to just go to
www.memtest.org and download the .iso for the precompiled Windows binary.

To the OP: You don't mention what processor you're using or if you tweaked
the page file. If you tweaked, then put it back to allowing Windows to
handle it. You also don't mention how many programs you have open. If you
are trying to run 20 programs at once, then obviously the answer is "don't
do that".

The First Question Of Troubleshooting: what changed between the time things
worked and the time they didn't?

Malke
 
Juerg said:
I've got a strange thing happening on my XP Pro machine with 2 GB of
RAM. After about 1.2 GB of commited virtual memory I cannot start any
new program, open new files in already open programs etc.

Usually no error messages appears, newly opened programs just close
again withouth any comment. In IE7 for example, a new opened tab just
remains white.

After I close a few things, the system goes back to normal.

Any hints / ideas?

Juerg
Click to expand...

It sounds like you have manually set the size of your page file? It reaches
1.2 Gig and cannot get any larger. Try either setting it larger or letting
windows control it as a test.

That's a huge page file; is there a valid reason for it to be so large?

Pop
 
Well you could run a memory test, i dont think windows has one, if you
want, download a copy of knoppix (its linux that runs off a cd, doesnt
need to be installed) boot up with cd in drive, say yes to boot from
cd, then when you get a prompt like this: boot: and it says hit enter
to boot knoppix instead type in memtest and hit enter.. that runs a
check of the ram, the bar at the very top shows total progress.. might
take 30-40mins and you will see if there are errors or not within the
memory. also have you got windows to optimise virtual memory set and
make sure you dont have disable virtual memory selected?

Flamer.
Click to expand...

Flamer,

Thank you for your comment; I forgot to mention that I've checked the RAM
and it is in fact error free. (By the way there is a Windows tool, or rather
a boot disk to check RAM from MS, see
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp)

And the problem occurs either with or withouth a paging file (you probably
meant the paging file as virtual memory cannot be disabled in Windows XP...)

Juerg
 
That's a very convoluted way to get Memtest86+. Much simpler to just go to
www.memtest.org and download the .iso for the precompiled Windows binary.

To the OP: You don't mention what processor you're using or if you tweaked
the page file. If you tweaked, then put it back to allowing Windows to
handle it. You also don't mention how many programs you have open. If you
are trying to run 20 programs at once, then obviously the answer is "don't
do that".

The First Question Of Troubleshooting: what changed between the time
things
worked and the time they didn't?
Click to expand...

Malke,

Thanks for your hints. As for the processor, it's a Pentium M at 1.73 GHz
(Centrino Chipset) at a Acer TravelMate C312 Tablet PC with, as already
mentioned, 2 GB of physical available RAM.

Actually it never really "worked" beyond the ~1,2 GB limit. It does also not
matter whether I have a paging file, managed or not by Windows or whether I
don't have one, even then I still have ~800 MB free physical memory and
cannot open anything new.

I don't understand your comment on 'trying to run 20 programs at once', why
should I not do that an do you mean 20 processes or 20 applications? During
a normal working session my system is running about 70 processes
simultaneously. As long as I still have free physical memory the number of
running programs shouldn't be a limit, should it?

Juerg
 
It sounds like you have manually set the size of your page file? It
reaches 1.2 Gig and cannot get any larger. Try either setting it larger
or letting windows control it as a test.

That's a huge page file; is there a valid reason for it to be so large?
Click to expand...

Actually the problem exists with or without paging file. As far as I
understand virtual memory, the size of the paging file should not have any
influence as long as I still have free physical memory. As far as I
understand memory management under Windows XP, all memory is virtual memory
and the paging file is in addition to the physical memory available, so
like:

|-----------physical memory-----------|------------paging file-----------|
|------------------------------virtual memory----------------------------|

Juerg
 
Juerg said:
Actually the problem exists with or without paging file. As far as I
understand virtual memory, the size of the paging file should not have any
influence as long as I still have free physical memory. As far as I
understand memory management under Windows XP, all memory is virtual
memory and the paging file is in addition to the physical memory
available, so like:

|-----------physical memory-----------|------------paging file-----------|
|------------------------------virtual memory----------------------------|

Juerg
Click to expand...

Here's an article about how XP's virtual memory works:
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

You still haven't told us about your processor or about how many programs
you have running and a sampling of what they are. If you are running
Photoshop and 15 other memory-hungry programs, your symptoms are
unsurprising.

Malke
 
Here's an article about how XP's virtual memory works:
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

You still haven't told us about your processor or about how many programs
you have running and a sampling of what they are. If you are running
Photoshop and 15 other memory-hungry programs, your symptoms are
unsurprising.
Click to expand...

Yes, I did, in reply to your other comment:
Thanks for your hints. As for the processor, it's a Pentium M at 1.73 GHz
(Centrino Chipset) at a Acer TravelMate C312 Tablet PC with, as already
mentioned, 2 GB of physical available RAM.

Actually it never really "worked" beyond the ~1,2 GB limit. It does also
not
matter whether I have a paging file, managed or not by Windows or whether
I
don't have one, even then I still have ~800 MB free physical memory and
cannot open anything new.

I don't understand your comment on 'trying to run 20 programs at once',
why
should I not do that an do you mean 20 processes or 20 applications?
During
a normal working session my system is running about 70 processes
simultaneously. As long as I still have free physical memory the number of
running programs shouldn't be a limit, should it?
Click to expand...

Juerg
 
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