Losing memory during the day

[Guest]

When I turn my computer on I have about 700MB of free memory but during the
day this disappears to virtually nothing. If I reboot everything is fine
again. I am getting an error message coming up saying 'Your system is low on
virtual memory, Windows is increasing the size of your virtual memory paging
file' Please help. Thank you.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

When I turn my computer on I have about 700MB of free memory but
during the day this disappears to virtually nothing.

That's perfectly normal. Wanting to minimize the amount of memory Windows
uses is a counterproductive desire. Windows is designed to use all, or
nearly all, of your memory, all the time, and that's good not bad. Free
memory is wasted memory. You paid for it all and shouldn't want to see any
of it wasted.

Windows works hard to find a use for all the memory you have all the time.
For example if your apps don't need some of it, it will use that part for
caching, then give it back when your apps later need it. In this way Windows
keeps all your memory working for you all the time.

If I reboot
everything is fine again. I am getting an error message coming up
saying 'Your system is low on virtual memory, Windows is increasing
the size of your virtual memory paging file' Please help. Thank you.

This issue is unrelated to your comment/question above. However what are
your virtual memory settings?

 

[Guest]

I'm sorry I don't understand you answer. Your memory shouldn't be virtually
zero. The computer can't work with no memory. Thank you for the reply.

 

[Ron Martell]

When I turn my computer on I have about 700MB of free memory but during the
day this disappears to virtually nothing. If I reboot everything is fine
again. I am getting an error message coming up saying 'Your system is low on
virtual memory, Windows is increasing the size of your virtual memory paging
file' Please help. Thank you.

By design, Windows wil always attempt to find some use, anything at
all that might conceivably be of some benefit, for every bit of the
installed RAM rather than just leaving it sitting there idly going to
rot and doing no good for anybody. RAM exists to be used. So
Windows will use RAM to create a large cache of recently read disk
files, just in case those files need to be read again, and it will
retain the code from recently closed applications in RAM, anticipating
that those applications might be launched again.

And should some better use come along for any of that RAM, such as a
newly launched application, then Windows will instantaneously drop the
more trivial usages so as to free up whatever RAM is now required.

Free memory should perhaps be referred to as "useless memory" because
that is what it actually is - memory for which Windows has so far been
totally unable to find any use for.

Hope this explains the situation.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Allan

The usage of RAM memory is not so important as how dependent is the
system dependent on virtual memory. Using the page file is much slower
than using RAM memory so if this occurs then the system performance
will be sluggish.

How much RAM memory do you have? Right click on your My computer icon
on your Desktop and select Properties to get the information.

How large is your C drive and how much free space? In Windows Explorer
rigt click on your C drive and select Properties to get this
information.

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under the Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the
Peak? Given the phrasing of your message I suspect you have already
been looking at this page, which is difficult to interpret.

One problem with Task Manager is that it gives figures for memory
usage for processes ( images) as though it is usage. In reality it
includes allocations of the pagefile, even when that pagefile is not
actually being used. The link which follows gives detailed explanation
of virtual memory (aka the pagefile).
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

You may find it helpful to know exactly how much of your pagefile is
being used. Use page file monitor to observe what is the peak usage.
Start it to run immediately after start-up and look at the log at the
end of the session.The log is Pagefilelog.txt. If you right click on
the file in Windows Explorer and select Send to, Desktop (Create
Shortcut). The same applies to XP_PageFileMon.exe.

A small utility to monitor pagefile usage:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

The reason for a steady increase in pagefile usage can be that if
programmes are not closed then it is not released for reuse. Some
older programmes ( 16 bit programmes) do not release it until the
system is restarted. You can also encounter programmes which leak
memory but fortunately today these are relatively uncommon. Restarting
the system should resolve the problem. Do you leave your computer
always on?

--

Hope this helps.

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

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I'm sorry I don't understand you answer. Your memory shouldn't be
virtually zero. The computer can't work with no memory. Thank you for
the reply.

Of course the memory can't be zero. But *free* memory can (and normally
should) be close to zero all the time.

Free memory is memory that is not being used for anything.