From what I've read, the paging file usage number displayed in Task Manager
isn't indicative of the amount of data swapped between memory and the hard
drive due to a lack of available RAM. Therefore, I'm wondering whether the
available system memory it displays is misleading as well. If this is true,
is there a utility on a trustworthy site that can provide accurate numbers
for these two measurements? I looked on sysinternals but didn't see one
though it's possible I missed it.
Oh yeah - if you want some analysis on where your VM is going, send us
a screen shot of Task Manager with the Virual Memory column enabled.
Right click the Taskbar, choose Task Manager and select the Processes
tab.
Click View, Select Columns, check the box that says: Virtual Memory
Size. Expand the width of the Task Manager box so you can see all the
columns and processes.
Double click a column heading in TM to sort by the column. For
example, sort Task Manager by the CPU or Virtual Memory size column.
Take a screenshot of what you see in Task Manager (see below for
instructions and example below):
When you are done, we will be able to see what you are seeing.
To create and email/post/print a screenshot:
Press the Print Scrn button to copy your entire screen to the Windows
clipboard.
Press Alt Print Scrn to copy just the active window to the Windows
clipboard.
Open MS Paint:
Start, Program Accessories, Paint
When Paint opens, press CTRL-V to paste the clipboard, save the new
Paint file to your desktop or someplace you can remember. JPG files
take up less hard disk space than BMP files and just as readable.
Make as many screenshots as you need. Practice makes perfect. Be
careful your screenshot does not contain any personal information.
Practice viewing your images before you upload them to be sure they
are okay.
Some sites will let you attach a file directly to your post. If the
site has some kind of attachment/upload function it is usually easiest
just to use it.
If there is no such function in your message board to upload files,
then use a free third party image hosting WWW site.
Create a free account on some free picture hosting web site. You can
always remove your account later if you want. Here are some free
image hosting sites:
http://www.imageshack.us/
http://photobucket.com/
Using your free account, upload your screenshot(s) (the JPG or BMP
files) to the site and it will return to you a URL web address (a
Direct Link) for your new image(s) which you can paste the Direct Link
in a message post, email, etc.
When you are done, what you post for others to use should look
something like this:
Notice in the TM example below, the Virtual Memory column display has
been enabled in TM. This is very good information for troublehooting
and understanding.
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/6530/taskmanagerv.jpg