Out Of Memory?

[Guest]

Hi i have XP professional and it has worked perfectly up until now. When i
click on a user name it takes about 10 minutes for it to open and then my
background appers without my desktop icons or the 'Windows start bar' and a
message appears saying 'out of memory'. Can you please help me as the only
way i can go to the internet is via the 'task manager' and i can not get on
to any of my work documents. Thanks.

 

[Guest]

Hi i have XP professional and it has worked perfectly up until now. When i
click on a user name it takes about 10 minutes for it to open and then my
background appers without my desktop icons or the 'Windows start bar' and a
message appears saying 'out of memory'. Can you please help me as the only
way i can go to the internet is via the 'task manager' and i can not get on
to any of my work documents. Thanks.

 

[Guest]

A few more details would be helpful. Have you installed or downloaded
anything before this started? Do you have a great many objects open on your
desktop? Are you clicking on this "user name" on a network share or a web
site?

Have you tried restarting your machine to clear the memory cache and then
going back to what you were doing?

 

[Guest]

Yes my daughter has downloaded a few things, for example MSN 7.0, Morpheus
Music downloads and CustoMess for MSN Messenger. I have about 10 vital items
on my desktop. The username I click on is from the Start Up menu on a home
computer.

Yes i have tried to restart my computer, but the same thing happens again.

Thanks. Tom

 

[Guest]

Yes my daughter has downloaded a few things, for example MSN 7.0, Morpheus
Music downloads and CustoMess for MSN Messenger. I have about 10 vital items
on my desktop. The username I click on is from the Start Up menu on a home
computer.

Yes i have tried to restart my computer, but the same thing happens again.

Thanks. Tom

 

[Leythos]

Yes my daughter has downloaded a few things, for example MSN 7.0, Morpheus
Music downloads and CustoMess for MSN Messenger. I have about 10 vital items
on my desktop. The username I click on is from the Start Up menu on a home
computer.

Reboot in safe mode and uninstall all of the JUNK she installed.

 

[Guest]

Also, while in safe mode, run anti-virus and spyware programs. I am working
now on MY daughter's machine. Whatever is on it keeps filling up the memory
and bringing the machine to it's proverbial knees

 

[Guest]

LOL, could you please tell me what 'Safe Mode' is. Thanks

 

[Leythos]

LOL, could you please tell me what 'Safe Mode' is. Thanks

Sure, when you reboot the computer keep pressing the F8 key until it asks
you what mode you want to boot into - pick SAFE MODE (without any of the
other glitz) and then you can fix the computer - this only loads the bare
minimum needed to get the computer booted, so you should be able to
uninstall the junk that was installed.

 

[Guest]

Sorry to keep bothering you but this really is urgent.

I have restarted my computer in 'Safe Mode', uninstalled all the unwanted
items but the same thing is still happening.

When my user name finally loads a message comes displaying 'Your computer is
low on virtual memory'. etc.

Please help me

Thanks, Tom

 

[Leythos]

Sorry to keep bothering you but this really is urgent.

I have restarted my computer in 'Safe Mode', uninstalled all the unwanted
items but the same thing is still happening.

When my user name finally loads a message comes displaying 'Your computer is
low on virtual memory'. etc.

Open the TASK MANAGER, you can get it by right clicking on the task bar
(in an unused space) and selecting TASK MANAGER, then select processes and
see what ones are using the most memory.

VM is what's used when the computer needs more memory than the has RAM
installed, it will swap blocks of memory out to the hard drive in order to
make room.

How much RAM does the computer have?

I'm about done for the evening, but all I can suggest is that you've got
something running in the background that's consuming it - it should show
in the task manager.

There could be one other option - there is a Virtual Memory setting for
Windows, it has a range of X to Y and let windows manage.... It could be
that it was improperly set by something on the computer or some other
means. Set the Virtual Memory setting to a fixed amount of 500MB and 500MB
and see if that makes any difference - but tell us what it was before you
changed it.

 

[Dave Denmark]

When my user name finally loads a message comes displaying 'Your
computer is low on virtual memory'. etc.

You may be running out of hard drive space or your page file size is set too
low. Go back in to Safe mode, and try adjusting the size of your page file.
Check your amount of free space on all hard drives as well.

To adjust your page file size, right-click on My computer, go to Properties.
Click on the Advanced tab, click Settings (under performance; the top
button), then click on the Advanced tab. Under Virtual Memory, click the
Change button. Choose Custom size and for Intial size type in two times the
amount of physical memory that you have in your machine, and for the max
size, double the initial size. For example, if you have 256MB RAM in your
machine, type 512MB for the initial size, and 1024MB for the Max size. For
512MB RAM, type in 1024MB initial size and 2048MB Max size. That should give
you plenty of virtual memory.

To check the amount of free space you have on your hard drives, open My
computer and right click and choose properties on each local disk you have
installed.

 

[Kerry Brown]

Sorry to keep bothering you but this really is urgent.

I have restarted my computer in 'Safe Mode', uninstalled all the unwanted
items but the same thing is still happening.

When my user name finally loads a message comes displaying 'Your computer
is
low on virtual memory'. etc.

Perhaps your daughter has filled your hard drive with downloaded music or
movie files. How much free space is left on your hard drive? Open My
Computer, right click on drive C:, and pick properties.

Kerry Brown
KDB Systems

 

[Guest]

Hi, thanks for all your help, but still none of my desktop icons show, nor my
start bar is displayed. I have tried all your ideas but my problem still
remains.

My virtual memory was set to min - 724.

If you have any more ideas for me to try please tell me, they are greatly
received.

Thanks. Tom

 

[Leythos]

Hi, thanks for all your help, but still none of my desktop icons show, nor my
start bar is displayed. I have tried all your ideas but my problem still
remains.

Even without the start bar and Icons you can do a CRTL-ALT-DEL and get the
task manager, you still need to tell us what programs are using the most
memory.

 

[Guest]

Yes i am using CTRL-ALT-DELETE to manage things, but this is slow and
inconvienant.

From the 'Tast Manager' i can tell that 'waol.exe', 'svchost.exe',
'spoolsv.exe' and 'IEXPLORE.EXE' are using up most of my memory, i dont know
what these are so i do not want to end the process as these may be vital.

Do you know anything about these applications?

Thanks, Tom

 

[Leythos]

Yes i am using CTRL-ALT-DELETE to manage things, but this is slow and
inconvienant.

From the 'Tast Manager' i can tell that 'waol.exe', 'svchost.exe',
'spoolsv.exe' and 'IEXPLORE.EXE' are using up most of my memory, i dont know
what these are so i do not want to end the process as these may be vital.

Do you know anything about these applications?

WAOL is an AOL program, if you don't use AOL, then you should uninstall
any AOL programs.

SVCHOST is a normal process, but there could be something using it that
you can't see.

SPOOLSV.ECE is your spooler service - mine uses next to no memory

IEXPLORER is internet explorer.

Right click and kill WAOL and IEXPLORER, then in the task manager see if
IE comes back, then if it doesn't RUN "EXPLORER" and see if you get your
desktop.

To me, it would seem that your machine really needs wiped and rebuilt from
scratch. I would guess that the P2P application contained something nasty
and it compromised your system.