Virtual Memory

Gavin "shels"

What's this? How do I increase it?

Got a message on the bottom-right hand corner today while running some scans and it said I have low virtual memory.

Feelgood

Virtual Memory


How to manually change the size of the virtual memory paging file
You must be logged on as an administrator or as a member of the Administrators group to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure.
1. Click Start, click Run, and then type sysdm.cpl in the Open box.
2. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Performance.
3. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Change under Virtual memory.
4. Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file that you want to change.
5. Under Paging file size for selected drive, click Custom size, type a new paging file size in megabytes (MB) in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, and then click Set.
If you decrease the size of either the initial or maximum paging file settings, you must restart your computer to see the effects of those changes. When you increase the paging file size, you typically do not have to restart your computer.

Notes
• To have Windows select the best paging file size, click System managed size. The recommended minimum size is equivalent to 1.5 times the RAM on your computer, and 3 times that figure for the maximum size. For example, if you have 256 MB of RAM, the minimum size is 384 MB, and the maximum size is 1152 MB.
• For best performance, do not set the initial size to less than the minimum recommended size under Total paging file size for all drives. The recommended size is equivalent to 1.5 times the RAM on your computer. It is good practice to leave the paging file at its recommended size. However, you may increase its size if you frequently use programs that use much memory.
• To delete a paging file, set both the initial size and the maximum size to zero, or click No paging file. We strongly recommend that you do not disable or delete the paging file.

dr.bollocko

Messing with virtual memory is one of the most problematic troubleshoots of general XP issues I have come across. Guess I just never looked into it in enough depth. The option of a machine reload is too often the easier option than actually solving the problem.

Gavin "shels"

Cheers Feelgood.

TestTransmission

Restarting your pc often solves this problem,also you could
Scan your hard drive for viruses and spyware and delete unwanted programs.
Cut down on the number of programs you run concurrently.
Add more RAM to your PC

Feelgood

Gavin shels wrote: »

Cheers Feelgood.

No worries Gav, are you on XP or Vista???

Gavin "shels"

jackncoke wrote: »

Scan your hard drive for viruses and spyware and delete unwanted programs.
Cut down on the number of programs you run concurrently.
Add more RAM to your PC

1. That's what I was in the process of doing ironically.
2. There was only 3 programs open.
3. I have 2.50 GB of RAM installed.

TestTransmission

have you restarted your pc?
Has the warning reappeared?
Vista or xp?

Gavin "shels"

Feelgood wrote: »

No worries Gav, are you on XP or Vista???

XP.

I have restarted, and the message seems to be not reappearing.:D