Virtual Memory Low-nothing working

  • Thread starter Thread starter Luke
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L

Luke

I have Windows XP and lately nothing has been working due
to the computer having low virtual memory. I have around
8gb free space, so I dont think that affects it.

I can't even print pictures as it says theres not enough
virtual memory. When I play mp3's on Windows media
player, they seem to not exist.

No programs work, or they stall.

Could someone please help me fix this problem and list a
guideline/steps on how to do it?

Thankyou
 
I have Windows XP and lately nothing has been working due
to the computer having low virtual memory. I have around
8gb free space, so I dont think that affects it.

I can't even print pictures as it says theres not enough
virtual memory. When I play mp3's on Windows media
player, they seem to not exist.

No programs work, or they stall.

Could someone please help me fix this problem and list a
guideline/steps on how to do it?

Thankyou
Click to expand...
Use the task manager to diagnose.
(press ctrl-alt-delete to open it)
Click on the performance tab.
On the left there's a small green display "PF usage".
What is your amount?

Below that, "commit charge", total, limit and peak,
What are your 3 values?

Dave
 
Hi

The 'PF Usage' says 144 mb

Under the Commit Charge (K) it says

Total= 147736
Limit= 634932
Peak= 164980
 
Hi

The 'PF Usage' says 144 mb

Under the Commit Charge (K) it says

Total= 147736
Limit= 634932
Peak= 164980
Click to expand...
Forgot to ask you how much RAM you have, but regardless of
that, the numbers you gave show normal operation.
Can you reproduce the problem and look at the info at that time
to see if they show where the problem is?

To find the RAM info, go back to the performance tab and across from
"commit charge" are the numbers for "physical memory"
Total, available and system cache.

Dave
 
I don't understand what you mean by this:

"Can you reproduce the problem and look at the info at
that time to see if they show where the problem is?"

Physical Memory is:

Total=261616
Available=121080
System Cache=148980

I had a look a system under control panel and had a look
at advanced tab where it had settings for virtual memory,
would that help?
 
I don't understand what you mean by this:

"Can you reproduce the problem and look at the info at
that time to see if they show where the problem is?"

Physical Memory is:

Total=261616
Available=121080
System Cache=148980

I had a look a system under control panel and had a look
at advanced tab where it had settings for virtual memory,
would that help?
Click to expand...
Luke,
the numbers under "commit charge" are constantly changing,
and reflect the load on the system in realtime.
Virtual memory settings in the control panel really only give
the max and min. - Therefore the figures in the task manager are more
useful for this kind of problem.

This is why, if you look at the time the system appears to be in
trouble, the figures in commit charge should reflect it.

You have 256MB RAM, (so do I)
and your task manager figures reflect a system running
without any stress.

Dave
 
So why does it say that I cant print due to low virtual
memory and when I open programs they stall?

It even comes up with a yellow triangle in the bottom
right corner, saying that windows is trying to increase
the virtual memory/paging file size.

When I go to start, it says that some items cannot be
shown due to low memory.

In windows most of the mp3's dont work due to low virtual
memory and i cant even print documents.

So what is causing this and how can it be fixed?
 
So why does it say that I cant print due to low virtual
memory and when I open programs they stall?

It even comes up with a yellow triangle in the bottom
right corner, saying that windows is trying to increase
the virtual memory/paging file size.

When I go to start, it says that some items cannot be
shown due to low memory.

In windows most of the mp3's dont work due to low virtual
memory and i cant even print documents.

So what is causing this and how can it be fixed?
Click to expand...

I would run a full check for virus, trojans, and spyware.
Also look in the event viewer (eventvwr.msc from the RUN box)
to see what errors are reported.

It doesn't seem as if your PC is actually out of memory,
otherwise task manager would have shown it. Something else
is going on. IS your harddrive out of space?
Do you have the 'Intel application accelerator' ? If so, see if
there is a later version.

I have the same amount of RAM as you. As an experiment, I recently
had 50 applications open at once just to see how it would handle it.
It handled it very well, the application in the foreground performing
almost as quickly as it normally does.
Even though in task manager, available physical memory was down to
about 20MB, and Page file was about 450, and commit charge total was
at 500 or so.

Dave
 
I ran (eventvwr.msc from the RUN box)and it came up with

Application-Application Error Records 512.0 kb
Security-Security Audit Records 512.0kb
System-System Error Records 512.0kb

I did a virus check and came up with nothing. I used
Adware-6 to get rid of spyware/adware and there was a bit
there.

What else could it be?
 
I ran (eventvwr.msc from the RUN box)and it came up with

Application-Application Error Records 512.0 kb
Security-Security Audit Records 512.0kb
System-System Error Records 512.0kb

I did a virus check and came up with nothing. I used
Adware-6 to get rid of spyware/adware and there was a bit
there.

What else could it be?
Click to expand...
Luke,
you have to actually look at the messages in the eventlog.
eventvwr.msc from the RUN box.
Click on application, system and security (one at a time)
and the messages appear in the right hand pane,most recent
at the top.

Dave
 
Looking at the messages, what am I looking for and do I
delete them or fix them?. Is there a guideline/process in
this area?
 
Looking at the messages, what am I looking for and do I
delete them or fix them?. Is there a guideline/process in
this area?
Click to expand...
Luke the messages are a history. They report
errors and/or other info.
Recreate the problem, take a note of the time/date
and open the event viewer and look at the corresponding time
stamps to see if anything comes up at that time that will
give clues as to the error you are having.

Did you check to see if you have the Intel application
accelerator? This is known to cause problems like this
(look in add/remove programs in the control panel)

Dave
 
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