Low virtual memory

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

After about an hour of using my laptop i get a pop up warning stating my virtual memory minimum is too low after this happens it makes a constant sound like it is uploading and then the screen starts to freeze and everything takes ages to upload/type/renew etc.
I have not recently downloaded or installed anything and i have a load of free space left, as far as i know it is a problem with the RAM but as i am a a tech moron can anyone help?
 
Sounds like you could use some more RAM. If you have little RAM and a small swap space that could cause these symptoms. You could increase your swap file by rightclicking on "My Computer" select properties and go to the advanced tab. There you will see how much virtual memory you have (paging space for all drives) It is usually set to 1,5 times the amount of RAM you have afaik. I have 512 MB RAM on my laptop and my swap file is set to 768 MB automatically by windows.

The sound you mention sounds like windows is swapping a lot of data. Swapping means that it uses your harddrive as a temporary memory. Your harddrive is a lot slower then RAM of course and causes your pc to work a lot harder if it is forced to keep active data in the swap drive.

Max
 
-----Original Message-----
Sounds like you could use some more RAM. If you have
Click to expand...
little RAM and a small swap space that could cause these
symptoms. You could increase your swap file by
rightclicking on "My Computer" select properties and go to
the advanced tab. There you will see how much virtual
memory you have (paging space for all drives) It is
usually set to 1,5 times the amount of RAM you have afaik.
I have 512 MB RAM on my laptop and my swap file is set to
768 MB automatically by windows.
The sound you mention sounds like windows is swapping a
Click to expand...
lot of data. Swapping means that it uses your harddrive as
a temporary memory. Your harddrive is a lot slower then
RAM of course and causes your pc to work a lot harder if
it is forced to keep active data in the swap drive.
Max
.
Click to expand...
Setting up the page file:

http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/expertzone/columns/mcfed
ries/03june16.asp

http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

Bill
 
I frequentlyget the "low virtual memory" message and the message that virtual memory is being expanded, but the messages continue.
 
Back
Top