Pagefile's size resets on reboot

[Yannis]

Hi...

Whenever i try to set the pagefile's size to 200-200MB
that resets back to 768MB after i reboot my machine. This
is really weird! I tried everything so far but nothing
helped. This problem started when i installed the Norton
SystemWorks 2004 application (I think), as it did not
happen before. I performed all the necessary updates to
Norton still nothing. I searched over the newgroups and
knowledge base again nothing. Quite a few people seem to
have this problem, however none of the replies to those
posts give a solution to the problem. I know that the
pagefile's size should be 1.5 times the amount of system
RAM, and of course i know that i need to press the "Set"
button to activate the changes. I tried to delete the
pagefile so Windows will create a new one, guess what?
Nothing! Why Windows keeps changine my original
configuration for the pagefile? Simply it refuses to
retain my 200-200MB pagefile option. Can anyone help? At
the moment i am working with no pagefile.

Thanks in advance for your time!

Yannis

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Virtual Memory in Windows XP
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

Windows XP Memory Tweak guide
http://www.techspot.com/tweaks/memory-winxp/

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Hi...
|
| Whenever i try to set the pagefile's size to 200-200MB
| that resets back to 768MB after i reboot my machine. This
| is really weird! I tried everything so far but nothing
| helped. This problem started when i installed the Norton
| SystemWorks 2004 application (I think), as it did not
| happen before. I performed all the necessary updates to
| Norton still nothing. I searched over the newgroups and
| knowledge base again nothing. Quite a few people seem to
| have this problem, however none of the replies to those
| posts give a solution to the problem. I know that the
| pagefile's size should be 1.5 times the amount of system
| RAM, and of course i know that i need to press the "Set"
| button to activate the changes. I tried to delete the
| pagefile so Windows will create a new one, guess what?
| Nothing! Why Windows keeps changine my original
| configuration for the pagefile? Simply it refuses to
| retain my 200-200MB pagefile option. Can anyone help? At
| the moment i am working with no pagefile.
|
| Thanks in advance for your time!
|
| Yannis

 

[dcdon]

Hi Yannis,

If you don't use internet protection, you could have a visitor. For this you need up to date AVP, firewall,anti-adware, & anti-spyware.
You can find all of these free at www.spychecker.com . If you have a hacker, better backup all you data, and relevant files, now.

First of all, you have some of your facts wrong. the swapfile size has to be <yourRAM>+32 meg at the minimum, and no larger than 4092 meg ( but can fudged by setting up multiple pagefiles in the registry). Microsoft has a Beta Hotpatch, but you have to call them to get it. Looks to me that you have 128 meg, right? That's really low, especially if you do anything that is a memory hog. You also can have memory leaks, but Microsoft can give you the Beta, but they want to make sure that these are well documented for their own sake.

In the past I have helped many with their pagefiles, but for the most part, the pagefile would reset itself low enough that they would get low memory alerts, or no pagefile at all. You can try the simplest solution first. Go by this KB to first. Here it is. This setting your pagefile to zero, before a boot.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=257758

If that doesn't seem to fix your problem, you can set nuke and recreate your pagefile. but all of this will not deter(sp?) any halfway knowledgeable hacker. To check you see it you may have someone, you can look for larger "system" hidden files (they usually make it very difficult to see/find them). To take a look you need to make all of files visible. Do that in the Control Panel. Open Folder Options -> View tab -> check the bullet to "Show hidden files and folders", and uncheck the next two. The system files will squawk, but say "yes" to it.

To look for any mysterious files or directories, do a search for files over 5 meg. If you haven't done this before go to search for files and folders and click on "search options" and check size. Then you can ask for all files at least 5000 KB, and look for any directories or files you are not sure of. I've seen folders with a simple number like "3000" and the folder size was 3 gig. Makes sense, I guess. If you find nothing, I would go back and change the files you can view. This is to keep anyone from messing with files that will really mess you up.

Back to the question at hand. I you want to recreate your pagefile.sys (I would not for the problem you seem to have), you can use KB255205. Here it is.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;255205

If you still have any problems, you can recreate the pagefile through the Registry, but I don't recommend going through this up less you are pretty moxie about the Registry, and know how to give NTAUTHORITY/SYSTEM "full control" of at least %SystemRoot%, %RootDirectory, and the place you choose to place your pagefile.sys at creation in the Registry.

I have probably gone far past what you may want to do. And if I had the problem you have, I would get more RAM. You would do well to have 256 or better, especially if is less than PC2100. The minimum I run is 1,024 meg, I run very heavy memory loads and can't afford to boot sometime. Would cost me megabucks. And if this confusing, print it, put it up on your dart board. But, whatever you do, stay safe on the internet.

I have used AVG (by grisoft) AVP, Zone Alarm firewall, AdAware, & SpyBot S&D for safety sake, and I always use Mail Washer for Pop mail. I also use a router as a hardware firewall.
--
regards,
don
" Do a kind deed for someone less fortunate everyday."
It will warm God's heart"
====================




Hi...

Whenever i try to set the pagefile's size to 200-200MB
that resets back to 768MB after i reboot my machine. This
is really weird! I tried everything so far but nothing
helped. This problem started when i installed the Norton
SystemWorks 2004 application (I think), as it did not
happen before. I performed all the necessary updates to
Norton still nothing. I searched over the newgroups and
knowledge base again nothing. Quite a few people seem to
have this problem, however none of the replies to those
posts give a solution to the problem. I know that the
pagefile's size should be 1.5 times the amount of system
RAM, and of course i know that i need to press the "Set"
button to activate the changes. I tried to delete the
pagefile so Windows will create a new one, guess what?
Nothing! Why Windows keeps changine my original
configuration for the pagefile? Simply it refuses to
retain my 200-200MB pagefile option. Can anyone help? At
the moment i am working with no pagefile.

Thanks in advance for your time!

Yannis

 

[Yannis]

Thanks for the replies. First of all i cannot understand
how do you figure out that i have 128mb of RAM? That is
wrong. I have 512MB of RAM. Also i cannot understand why
my problem has to be related with hacking protection etc.
that you mention. I am always behind a firewall program
anyway, and check my system with the latest anti-virus
programs. Anyway this is not the case. I also read the
two articles in the provided links from the first post
but there is absolutely nothing there about my problem.
Anyone else that can help me?

Yannis

-----Original Message-----
Hi Yannis,

If you don't use internet protection, you could have a

visitor. For this you need up to date AVP, firewall,anti-
adware, & anti-spyware.

You can find all of these free at www.spychecker.com .

If you have a hacker, better backup all you data, and
relevant files, now.

First of all, you have some of your facts wrong. the

swapfile size has to be <yourRAM>+32 meg at the minimum,
and no larger than 4092 meg ( but can fudged by setting
up multiple pagefiles in the registry). Microsoft has a
Beta Hotpatch, but you have to call them to get it. Looks
to me that you have 128 meg, right? That's really low,
especially if you do anything that is a memory hog. You
also can have memory leaks, but Microsoft can give you
the Beta, but they want to make sure that these are well
documented for their own sake.

In the past I have helped many with their pagefiles, but

for the most part, the pagefile would reset itself low
enough that they would get low memory alerts, or no
pagefile at all. You can try the simplest solution first.
Go by this KB to first. Here it is. This setting your
pagefile to zero, before a boot.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=257758

If that doesn't seem to fix your problem, you can set

nuke and recreate your pagefile. but all of this will not
deter(sp?) any halfway knowledgeable hacker. To check you
see it you may have someone, you can look for
larger "system" hidden files (they usually make it very
difficult to see/find them). To take a look you need to
make all of files visible. Do that in the Control Panel.
Open Folder Options -> View tab -> check the bullet
to "Show hidden files and folders", and uncheck the next
two. The system files will squawk, but say "yes" to it.

To look for any mysterious files or directories, do a

search for files over 5 meg. If you haven't done this
before go to search for files and folders and click
on "search options" and check size. Then you can ask for
all files at least 5000 KB, and look for any directories
or files you are not sure of. I've seen folders with a
simple number like "3000" and the folder size was 3 gig.
Makes sense, I guess. If you find nothing, I would go
back and change the files you can view. This is to keep
anyone from messing with files that will really mess you
up.

Back to the question at hand. I you want to recreate

your pagefile.sys (I would not for the problem you seem
to have), you can use KB255205. Here it is.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en- us;255205

If you still have any problems, you can recreate the

pagefile through the Registry, but I don't recommend
going through this up less you are pretty moxie about the
Registry, and know how to give NTAUTHORITY/SYSTEM "full
control" of at least %SystemRoot%, %RootDirectory, and
the place you choose to place your pagefile.sys at
creation in the Registry.

I have probably gone far past what you may want to do.

And if I had the problem you have, I would get more RAM.
You would do well to have 256 or better, especially if is
less than PC2100. The minimum I run is 1,024 meg, I run
very heavy memory loads and can't afford to boot
sometime. Would cost me megabucks. And if this confusing,
print it, put it up on your dart board. But, whatever you
do, stay safe on the internet.

I have used AVG (by grisoft) AVP, Zone Alarm firewall,

AdAware, & SpyBot S&D for safety sake, and I always use
Mail Washer for Pop mail. I also use a router as a
hardware firewall.

--
regards,
don
" Do a kind deed for someone less fortunate everyday."
It will warm God's heart"
====================




"Yannis" <[email protected]> wrote in

message news:[email protected]...

 

[Alex Nichol]

Whenever i try to set the pagefile's size to 200-200MB
that resets back to 768MB after i reboot my machine. This
is really weird! I tried everything so far but nothing
helped. This problem started when i installed the Norton
SystemWorks 2004 application (I think), as it did not
happen before. I performed all the necessary updates to
Norton still nothing.

Norton System Works has a record of playing **** with the page fie. See
if the problem goes away if you uninstall it (and please let me know
either way)


But do *not* set a low maximum equal to the initial size - and read up
at www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm to see why

 

[Yannis]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my questions. Do
you think it is a good idea to let Windows manage the
size of the pagefile instead? or it is better to set an
initial and maximum pagefile size? What if i don't use a
pagafile at all? Please note that i have 512MB of RAM on
a notebook with 20GB HDD.

Thanks once again,
Yannis

 

[Alex Nichol]

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my questions. Do
you think it is a good idea to let Windows manage the
size of the pagefile instead? or it is better to set an
initial and maximum pagefile size? What if i don't use a
pagafile at all? Please note that i have 512MB of RAM on
a notebook with 20GB HDD.

Read the page mentioned - my views are set out there
(www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm)