Pagefile won't stay

P

Phil Rabichow

I have WinXP Pro SR-2, a 75Gig drive, with the vast majority free, & 512MB
RAM. I can't get my pagefile.sys to stay. I had it set for months at
1532MB. 3 months ago I rebooted & got a message that Windows created a
temporary pagefile because mine was missing or too small.

I went to Control Panel/System/Advanced tab/Performance
Settings/Advanced/Virtual memory. Sure enough it was gone. I set my
pagefile & rebooted a dozen times, regularly, safe mode. In between, I
tried to set changes. I used 0, system managed, & custom. Didn't matter.
In Safe Mode, the pagefile was there, but upon regular reboot, it
disappeared. Then the problem went away (the pagefile.sys stuck). Now the
issue has come back again.

Additionally, I tried an offline defrag when it came back at 766MB
temporarilly. After the defrag with Perfect Disk, it said my pagefile had
over 10,000 excess fragments. So I deleted it & tried setting it again. I
cannot get it to stick.

Sometimes, after setting it, I'd get the message that it would take effect
after rebooting. Othertimes, I got no message. I cannot figure out what's
causing it or how to set it. Any ideas?

BTW, I readhttp://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm regarding virtual memory, but
trying to set the pagefile size at 100MB, just produced the message that
Windows created a temporary pagefile (which I could never find using search)
etc.
 
J

Jaymon

Hi,
May help you to monitor your page file, your call..?
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm
How much free space is there on the HDD..?
Have you run chkdsk /f lately..?
I just let windows manage mine..
May need to get a larger HDD and bump up the RAM another 512MB, I guess it
depends on what your motives are..?
Cheers
j;-j
 
P

Phil Rabichow

I'll try Doug's monitor, although setting the pagefile in the first place is the
problem. I have plenty of free space, almost 60Gig. I tried your suggestion &
ran chkdsk /f. This time I have a pagefile.sys. I still don't know why it
wouldn't set before or why it wouldn't stick. I never run out of RAM & after
reading http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm
I don't think I need a large pagefile & the one that windows sets is probably
too large. So I still don't know exactly what the problem is.
 
R

Ron Martell

Phil Rabichow said:
I have WinXP Pro SR-2, a 75Gig drive, with the vast majority free, & 512MB
RAM. I can't get my pagefile.sys to stay. I had it set for months at
1532MB. 3 months ago I rebooted & got a message that Windows created a
temporary pagefile because mine was missing or too small.

I went to Control Panel/System/Advanced tab/Performance
Settings/Advanced/Virtual memory. Sure enough it was gone. I set my
pagefile & rebooted a dozen times, regularly, safe mode. In between, I
tried to set changes. I used 0, system managed, & custom. Didn't matter.
In Safe Mode, the pagefile was there, but upon regular reboot, it
disappeared. Then the problem went away (the pagefile.sys stuck). Now the
issue has come back again.

Additionally, I tried an offline defrag when it came back at 766MB
temporarilly. After the defrag with Perfect Disk, it said my pagefile had
over 10,000 excess fragments. So I deleted it & tried setting it again. I
cannot get it to stick.

Sometimes, after setting it, I'd get the message that it would take effect
after rebooting. Othertimes, I got no message. I cannot figure out what's
causing it or how to set it. Any ideas?

BTW, I readhttp://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm regarding virtual memory, but
trying to set the pagefile size at 100MB, just produced the message that
Windows created a temporary pagefile (which I could never find using search)
etc.

Is your computer infested with any Norton/Symantec products? Some
versions of their crudware have been known to cause problems with the
pagefile settings.

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."
 
D

Detlev Dreyer

Phil Rabichow said:
I have WinXP Pro SR-2, a 75Gig drive, with the vast majority free, &
512MB RAM. I can't get my pagefile.sys to stay. I had it set for
months at 1532MB. 3 months ago I rebooted & got a message that Windows
created a temporary pagefile because mine was missing or too small.

See if any of these articles apply:

"Error Message: Your System Has No Paging File, or the Paging File Is
Too Small" http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=315270

"Your System Has No Paging File, or the Paging File Is Too Small" Error
Message After Windows XP Upgrade
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=316528

"Virtual Memory Error Message When You Shut Down the Computer"
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811153 (excerpt)

| This behavior may occur if you have Symantec Norton Personal Firewall
| program, which is included with Norton Internet Security, installed.
 
P

Phil Rabichow

Ron said:
Is your computer infested with any Norton/Symantec products? Some
versions of their crudware have been known to cause problems with the
pagefile settings.

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."

No, I don't have any Symantec products.
 
P

Phil Rabichow

Detlev said:
See if any of these articles apply:

"Error Message: Your System Has No Paging File, or the Paging File Is
Too Small" http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=315270

"Your System Has No Paging File, or the Paging File Is Too Small" Error
Message After Windows XP Upgrade
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=316528

"Virtual Memory Error Message When You Shut Down the Computer"
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811153 (excerpt)

| This behavior may occur if you have Symantec Norton Personal Firewall
| program, which is included with Norton Internet Security, installed.

Thanks, Detlev. I've seen those articles & unfortunately, none of them
pertain or help.
 
G

Guest

Hay Rob,

I have the same problem but it did not fix it, I still get the error and the
new file names are changing in the registry though, any thoughts.

Joe
 
F

Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM

Joebettarun said:
Hay Rob,

I have the same problem but it did not fix it, I still get the error and
the
new file names are changing in the registry though, any thoughts.

It might be a security program blocking the Registry change it needs to
make. A few, but not all, of the programs now doing this are:
Ad-aware's Ad-Watch
IBM Access Connections
McAfee VirusScan and/or Antispyware
Norton AV
Spyware Blaster
Spybot> Tools> IE Tweaks
Spybot- Teatimer
Spysweeper
Spyware Doctor
Windows Defender
Zone Alarm (free) 6.5 Reported to be fixed in later versions.

In the case of Zone Alarm 6.5 or Norton 2007 it actually has to be
uninstalled. Make sure the Windows Firewall is turned on until you
reinstall Zone Alarm.

Boot into Safe Mode with Networking and try the change.
 
P

Poprivet

I don't think I've yet seen anyone mention that you have to click "set" to
make pagefile changes take effect. If you don't click 'Set', they don't
"take". And then of course do a Restart.

Pop`
 
G

Guest

Frank Saunders said:
It might be a security program blocking the Registry change it needs to
make. A few, but not all, of the programs now doing this are:
Ad-aware's Ad-Watch
IBM Access Connections
McAfee VirusScan and/or Antispyware
Norton AV
Spyware Blaster
Spybot> Tools> IE Tweaks
Spybot- Teatimer
Spysweeper
Spyware Doctor
Windows Defender
Zone Alarm (free) 6.5 Reported to be fixed in later versions.

In the case of Zone Alarm 6.5 or Norton 2007 it actually has to be
uninstalled. Make sure the Windows Firewall is turned on until you
reinstall Zone Alarm.

Boot into Safe Mode with Networking and try the change.
Hi Frank,

Thanks for the help, I tried uninstalling those item but had a question,
would the Windows Right Management Client program cause the pagefile issue, I
noticed I had two items in the add&remove program list.

JOE>
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top