Pagefile changes to its own setting

[B Watson]

I have a Dell Insprion 9300 with 1gb of memory. The drive has been
partitioned with partition magic, creating 2 partitions,namely C&D.

I have changed the pagefile on the C partition to min=200,max=1000. When I
reboot the size = 1535.

The average pagefile usage = 10mb - 45mb.

If a relocate the pagefile to the D drive, the file is what has been
specified ie (200mb).

I have unchecked all startup programs and the same problem happens, size =
1535. I run no Norton applications.

I can set the file to zero (no pagefile), then if I specify the size to
200mb on the next boot the file is 200mb, the next time I start this
computer the pagefile becomes 1535mb and remains at this size.

I contacted Dell and they were no help, they told me I should not have
partitioned the drive, and should go back to only 1 partiton.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Brandy

 

[R. McCarty]

I've seen this happen on more than a handful of XP/sp2 PC's. I
can't say if it's directly an XP issue or some type of interaction
with a 3rd-Party program/driver. Sometimes, you can manually
set the Pagefile key in the Registry (Location/Size) and that will
work. Other times, I've had to do a Repair install to clear it.

The Registry key path is:
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\
\Memory Manager
Key Name = Pagingfiles
Value in the form of C:\Pagefile.Sys 512 512

It's one of those tiresome issues that never seems to have a
consistent solution. I've even booted to Safe Mode and changed
the ACL on the Pagefile thinking it was some privilege issue.

 

[Guest]

I have great I have figured out the issue and have solved the problem.

I may have reported to you that, in an attempt to resolve the issue, I had
updated my LIVEUPDATE application for Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition.
I was running Version 2.0.39.0 and upgraded to the most recent version,
Version 3.0.0.150. Unfortunately, that did not solve the issue. Then, I
decided to reread the information regarding the Symantec Antivirus
Decomposition Buffer Overflow Patch. I had not upgraded my Symantec client
because I was running Version 9.0.2.1000 and it was not vulnerable to the
buffer overflow. So, I thought I was safe, for now, to continue running this
version. But, I decided to do additional research about the pagefile.sys
issue, within Symantec's website, and up popped up Document ID:
2004042913251448, entitled, "Paging File Size Changes After Installing
Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 9.0 On Windows XP." And, within that
article was our answer to our perplexing question. Here is what the article
said:

=====================================================

Situation:

You installed Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 9.0 on a Windows® XP
computer that has a fixed-size paging file. The size that the paging file is
set to is larger than the minimum size Windows recommends. After installing
Symantec AntiVirus, you find that the size is set to the minimum size that
Windows recommends.

Solution:

This problem is fixed in Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 9.0.4. For
information on obtaining the latest build of Symantec AntiVirus Corporate
Edition, read How to obtain an update or an upgrade for your Symantec
corporate product.


If you cannot upgrade to Symantec AntiVirus 9.0.4, you can work around the
problem by excluding the Pagefile.sys file from the Auto-Protect scan or
changing the Auto-Protect Startup option to Symantec AntiVirus start.

To exclude the Pagefile.sys file from Auto-Protect scanning

Right-click the client or server, and then click All Tasks > Symantec
AntiVirus > Client Realtime Protection Options.
Check Exclude selected files and folders
Click Exclusions.
Click Folders, and type

C:\pagefile.sys

Click OK in each of the dialog boxes until you see the Symantec System
Center.
Restart the computer.

To change the Auto-Protect Startup option to Symantec AntiVirus start
Start Symantec AntiVirus.
Click Configure > File System Auto-Protect.
Click Advanced.
In the Startup options section, click Symantec AntiVirus start.
Restart the computer. This will set the paging file size back to the fixed
value that was previously set.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: This scenario provides slightly less protection because Auto-Protect
loads later during the startup process. Use your best judgement to determine
if this setting is appropriate for your environment.

=====================================================

I looked into excluding the pagefile.sys file; however, the file was not
visible within the exclusion directory tree and I did not want to have
Symantec load later in the boot up process, though I did configure the client
to do this, to test this workaround and I can confirm that it worked for me,
allowing my custom pagefile.sys file to expand to my custom settings. So,
after I had confirmation, I uninstalled the older Symantec client and
installed the latest Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition and the latest
maintenance release and patch, Version 10.0.2.2020, as of 2/15/2006. After
installation, I am happy to report that my customized pagefile.sys file is
still registering at the expected size, that of my customization.

I hope this information helps you and may help others who may be
experiencing or may experience this perplexing and frustrating issue. While,
I cannot explain why when I had disabled the real-time protection, under the
older client, why this did not always solve the issue, I am simply ecstatic
that the issue does, now, appear to be remedied.

Good luck with your specific issues and here's hoping that this information
helps you, too.

--Dylan