Page File Use and XP

[Josh]

I had 256M of memory and found that my page file was always in use and
the computer was running slow, so I decided to buy another 256M chip
to speed things up. To my surprise, the computer does not seem much
faster. When I look at my memory utilization I see that of the 512M
available, 272M of RAM is being used and my page file is using 24.5M
(currently the page file size is being automatically set by Windows).
I am wondering if perhaps my memory is not being utilized. My
understanding is that all the memory would be used before the OS
(which in my case is XP home) would go to virtual memory. Am I wrong?

Thanks,
Josh

 

[Frank Jelenko]

You're correct, XP will use all the RAM in the system.

When you say the page file was always in use, how are you determining that?
XP will always have some amount of pagefile reserved which will show as the
pagefile having a non zero size.

The key measure is if the disc is being constantly accessed as you switch
applications - is that happening?

Also, how are you determining the pc is slow? Is it slower than sometime
earlier? Which applications? What are you trying to do when it appears
slow?

 

[Josh]

When you say the page file was always in use, how are you determining that?

XP will always have some amount of pagefile reserved which will show as the
pagefile having a non zero size.

Yes, there is a certain amount allocated, but there is also some of
the page file in use, even when there is plenty of physical memory
available.

The key measure is if the disc is being constantly accessed as you switch
applications - is that happening?

Yes. When I open and switch applications I hear the hard drive going.

Also, how are you determining the pc is slow? Is it slower than sometime
earlier? Which applications? What are you trying to do when it appears
slow?

Fair question. Basically, any usage on the PC goes slowly. The
processor is a Pentium 1500mhz and it now has 512M memory. I am only
doing word processing/browsing so I don't know why things would be so
slow.

Thanks,
Josh