Virtual Memory

  • Thread starter Thread starter justjohnnygo
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justjohnnygo

Dear Sir/Madam

I have;
Total Virtual Memory2.00 GB

Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB

Page File Space 618.22 MB

Today while writng a letter, my pc ran slow and falteringly and a
warning came up about my Virtual Memory.

I thought I had adequate VM.

Could someone please explain to a computer illiterate

Thankyou

justjohnnygo
 
I think your a bit confused, virtual memory and the page file are the same
thing, you can't have 2GB virtual memory and a 618MB page file.
 
This message appears in two instances more often than not..

One is where more RAM is installed, and the system managed pagefile size
associated with the amount of RAM installed is too large for the amount of
usable free space on the hard drive..

... But generally it is because the hard drive just has too much saved to it.

You have options.. clean out unnecessary files and programs.. use Disk
Cleanup to dump temp files et al.. remove all hidden uninstall files for XP
updates.. get a larger drive and clone your present installation to it..

You should be looking to have 25% clear space on your drive for decent
performance to be maintained..
 
I'm not sure how accurate all this is but:

I have my settings for Virtual Memory from 128MB to 197MB, once Windows goes
over this amount, it will put up a message that it is auto-resizing the
PageFile.sys.

You may more that enough room on you hard disk, but it depends on the
Control Panel | System | Advanced ...
Performance settings.

However, I would be more concerned that you have 2GB RAM (correct) and you
system needs to expand the pagefile.sys

That should no happend unless you have exhausted the 2GB.
 
Dave said:
I think your a bit confused, virtual memory and the page file are the
same thing, you can't have 2GB virtual memory and a 618MB page file.
Click to expand...

I imagine the OP means 618Meg of the 2 Gig pf are in use. Many misinterpret
that.

Pop`
 
The numbers you gave below make sense, albeit that's a large amount of VM.
It's confusing to explain, but the total of the last two lines equals the
amount you gave in the first line. The numbers don't seem to match exactly
because, in reality, 1,000 bytes is actually 1,024 in computerese, so the
numbers can sometimes get confusing.
Those lines are simply how much you have, how much is free, and how much
is used, of your virtual memory.
Do you get those numbers before, or after you get the message that you're
low on virtual memory?
If after, those numbers are pretty much meaningless.
If before, then the numbers seem pretty large for what I'm assuming a
relative newbie would have to have.

Try letting windows determine the size of virtual memory; that will be your
best choice unless you have a good reason to have it otherwise such as
special software programs that need a LOT of room.

Click Start; Settings; Control Panel
Click System and highlight the Advanced tab.
Under the Performance box, click Settings
Click the Advanced tab
Toward the bottom you'll see Virtual Memory; click on Change
Choose drive C,
Be sure there's a check in Let Windows Manage...
Click Set
OK your way back out and close all windows.

See if you still get that error message.

How much free space do you have on your hard drive? If it's less than
15%, the problem is that you're running out of disk space.

Let us know how you're making out. Lots of knowledgeable people here, many
more experienced than I am.

HTH
Pop`
 
Dear Dave

Thankyou for your reply.

I rechecked my system information and it still states:

Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB

Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB

Page File Space 618.22 MB

Therefore your reply has confused me even more. i have only written
what my system information states.

Even more confused
justjohnnygo
 
Dear Pop

I carried out the operation

Click Start; Settings; Control Panel
Click System and highlight the Advanced tab.
Under the Performance box, click Settings
Click the Advanced tab
Toward the bottom you'll see Virtual Memory; click on Change
Choose drive C,
Be sure there's a check in Let Windows Manage...
Click Set
OK your way back out and close all windows.

There was no "Let Windows Manage"
However, there was "System managed size" into which I put a dot/check.
Ihave 256RAM
Sum of hard disks C Total Capacity 37.28GB
Used 8.01GB
Free 29.26GB
Local Disk C Usage 22% (low)

Total paging file size for all drives 383MB
Minimum Allowed 2MB
Recommended 382MB
Currently Allocated 383MB

Does this help explain why I had problems.
 
One thing I forgot to mention was to do a Restart after making those
changes; I don't remember if windows reminds the user of that or not, but
it's an important step.

You said "> Does this help explain why I had problems." Empahisis on "HAD",
psat tense.
Does that imply that you no longer have those problems now? You're no
longer getting the error message? If so, good. If not, let us know.
And if so, the answer to your question is "yes" <g>.

Your assumption on which box to check was correct.

Now that Windows is managing the size of virtual memory, the numbers you
posted make sense. The pagefile can now grow or shrink, as needed, which
also gives the advantage of a little more available disk space for other
uses.

I suspect that somewhere along the line, you or someone tried to make
things run a little better by increasing the size of the pagefile to a max
of 2 Gig, which in fact CAN cause problems with your setup. It's much
better in your situation to allow Windows to manage the size of the
pagefile, which is what you accomplised by following the instructions I gave
you. Assuming that fixed it, of course :-).

You are light on RAM. XP would really be a lot happier in 512 Meg of RAM if
you can afford it. You'll find it would speed some things up quite a bit
too. I know MS says XP will run on less RAM but the practical minimum for
XP's RAM is really 512 Meg, a Gig if you're running highly intensive
applications, which it does not sound like you are doing. In fact, from
your numbers, I suspect you don't yet have many applications ins talled
period, other than XP and its Service Pack (SP2). Be sure you keep it
updated by using Windows Update.

Your hard drive size is just "OK", and should suffice for the time being.
In general you need at least 15%, ideally 20%, of your hard drive free to
assure storage of your Restore Points, room for defrag operations, etc..
Thus, if/when you get down to about 8 Gig of free space left, expect to be
seeing problems starting to happen and resourse error messages. Below 6
Gig, Defrag won't work right any longer, and other things may start to go
wrong.
Since you only have 8 Gig of your drive used right now it's fairly
obvious you aren't running many applications yet, so you're OK. However, as
you start to add more applications, disk space will start to get more
important. When you get to that point, 80 Gig is the realistic min for a
single hard drive system, with 160 Gig even better.

You'll find XP really wants a processor speed of at least about 1 GHz, so
whether you're going to want more RAM and a hard drive or a new computer in
the future is a decision to realize you may have to make eventually but like
I said, for the moment your system looks OK.

Lastly, you should have a firewall, antivirus and at least 3 anti-spyware
programs installed to protect the system while you are on the internet. If
you have XP SP2 you have a basic firewall already and the antivirus and
spyware stuff can all be found as free downloads.

HTH
Pop`
 
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