Windows XP does not utilize half of my RAM

[Telenochek]

Hi everyone,

I have Win XP SP2, and 2GB of RAM.

For some reason, the OS always leaves ~1GB of RAM free, and starts
using the hard drive pagefile rather aggressively (sometimes up to
1-2GB is paged out, while 1GB of RAM is still free).

I would like XP to start using the other 1GB, before paging file.

Any settings that I should modify?

Thanks!
Tele

 

[Daave]

I have Win XP SP2, and 2GB of RAM.

For some reason, the OS always leaves ~1GB of RAM free, and starts
using the hard drive pagefile rather aggressively (sometimes up to
1-2GB is paged out, while 1GB of RAM is still free).

How do you know the pagefile is being used?

 

[AJR]

Regardless of the amount of RAM installed - XP will always use the page
file - default page file size is 1.5 times RAM.

Check your virtual memory size and it will state 3 gigs - XP does "see" your
RAM.

 

[Gerry]

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

You should be able to gather more information from Task Manager. With
the Processes tab open select View, Select, Columns and check the boxes
before Peak Memory Usage and Virtual Memory size. What are the figures
for the 6 processes using the largest amounts?


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[db ´¯`·.. >]

many applications need
a page file, even if there
is enough physical memory
in the system to handle all
of the calls for memory usage.

however, if you begin
using high end software like
3d animation, cad, etc, the
extra ram will come in real
handy.

for now, you might simply
want to relocate your virtual
memory off the system drive
and into another partition or
drive - it'll speed things up a bit.

--

<)))º>·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·.. ><)))º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><)))º>

..

 

[db ´¯`·.. >]

some additional read:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555223

 

[Gerry]

The final paragraph is contrary to generally accepted wisdom as it is
put:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

http://aumha.org/a/parts.htm

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi everyone,

I have Win XP SP2, and 2GB of RAM.

For some reason, the OS always leaves ~1GB of RAM free, and starts
using the hard drive pagefile rather aggressively (sometimes up to
1-2GB is paged out, while 1GB of RAM is still free).

How do you know it's using the page file? Where are you seeing this?
Windows preallocates virtual memory in anticipation of a possible need
for it, even though that allocated virtual memory may never be used.
Do not mix up page file allocation with page file use.

Read this article by the late MVP Alex Nichol, "Virtual Memory in
Windows XP" at http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

Monitor your page file *usage* (not allocation) with Bill James Page
File Monitor for Windows XP. See
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm