Question on Virtual Memory and best settings

[Arawak]

I have installed 2GB's of Corsair's DDR2 memory in my computer but
constantly get the error message that Virtual Memory is low and
Windows (XP Pro) will need to increase it. My computer crawls
intermittently.
1st, how much memory would be ideal for me to set as Virtual Memory?
2nd, Is there a 3rd party memory manager which will automatically
release memory being hogged by badly written programs?
Thanks
Arawak

 

[JAD]

'Norton anything installed?

 

[JAD]

Problems with Virtual Memory
It may sometimes happen that the system give 'out of memory' messages on
trying to load a program, or give a message about Virtual memory space being
low. Possible causes of this are:

The setting for Maximum Size of the page file is too low, or there is not
enough disk space free to expand it to that size.


The page file has become corrupt, possibly at a bad shutdown. In the Virtual
Memory settings, set to "No page file," then exit System Properties, shut
down the machine, and reboot. Delete PAGEFILE.SYS (on each drive, if more
than just C, set the page file up again and reboot to bring it into use.


The page file has been put on a different drive without leaving a minimal
amount on C:.


There is trouble with third party software. In particular, if the message
happens at shutdown, suspect a problem with Symantec's Norton Live update,
for which there is a fix posted here. It is also reported that spurious
messages can arise if NAV 2004 is installed. If the problem happens at boot
and the machine has an Intel chipset, the message may be caused by an early
version (before version 2.1) of Intel's "Application Accelerator." Uninstall
this and then get an up-to-date version from Intel's site.


Possibly there is trouble with the drivers for IDE hard disks; in Device
Manager, remove the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers (main controller) and reboot
for Plug and Play to start over.


With an NTFS file system, the permissions for the page file's drive's root
directory must give "Full Control" to SYSTEM. If not, there is likely to be
a message at boot that the system is "unable to create a page file."

 

[Howard Kaikow]

I have installed 2GB's of Corsair's DDR2 memory in my computer but
constantly get the error message that Virtual Memory is low and
Windows (XP Pro) will need to increase it. My computer crawls
intermittently.
1st, how much memory would be ideal for me to set as Virtual Memory?
2nd, Is there a 3rd party memory manager which will automatically
release memory being hogged by badly written programs?
Thanks
Arawak

See http://www.standards.com/index.html?PageFileUsageMonitor

The tool at the above URL will allow you to monitor how much space you
really need.

My system has the OS on the J drive.
On the C drive, I have a fixed-size 64MB pagefile.
On the G drive, I have a variable-size 128-1152MB page file.

I last rebooted yesterday morning.
Since then, the max used for the pagefile has been:

On C, 15MB
On G, 20MB.

 

[John Weiss]

With 2 GB RAM, I'd start with a fixed 512 MB pagefile.

If the programs aren't releasing the VM, you need to write to the vendors and
ask them to fix the programs.

See http://www.standards.com/index.html?PageFileUsageMonitor

The tool at the above URL will allow you to monitor how much space you
really need.

Task Manager (Ctrl-Shift-Esc) will also show you dynamically what
programs/processes are using the VM. Just add the VM column to the Processes
tab. The Performance tab will show you the peak use.

My system has the OS on the J drive.
On the C drive, I have a fixed-size 64MB pagefile.
On the G drive, I have a variable-size 128-1152MB page file.

May be needlessly complex, but if it works for you, that's fine.

In general, a fixed pagefile size will give better performance because there is
less overhead than with the dynamic resizing.

 

[Howard Kaikow]

Task Manager (Ctrl-Shift-Esc) will also show you dynamically what
programs/processes are using the VM. Just add the VM column to the Processes
tab. The Performance tab will show you the peak use.

Task manager does not show the needed info, at least not in Win 2000.

 

[Kevin]

Virtual Memory in Windows XP

http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

 

[dawg]

Windows 2000Pro.
To change pagefile, go into Control Panel/System/Performance Options. Change
to whatever you need. I have 1GB ram my pagefile is set to 768-1536. You can
make a permanent Pagefile by making both numbers the same.Don't set it too
small though.768 is reccommended.

 

[John Weiss]

Task manager does not show the needed info, at least not in Win 2000.

TM in W2K shows the described information when configured to do so. It may not
do it by default, but can be configured in the Processes tab, View, Select
Columns. I just looked at it on my W2K machine...

 

[Howard Kaikow]

Windows 2000Pro.
To change pagefile, go into Control Panel/System/Performance Options. Change
to whatever you need. I have 1GB ram my pagefile is set to 768-1536. You can
make a permanent Pagefile by making both numbers the same.Don't set it too
small though.768 is reccommended.

I did not ask how to set VM.

 

[Howard Kaikow]

TM in W2K shows the described information when configured to do so. It may not
do it by default, but can be configured in the Processes tab, View, Select
Columns. I just looked at it on my W2K machine...

The link I posted provides a program that reports the used page file size,
not the vm for individual programs.
Most folkes set the page file way too large.

See MSFT KB article 889654, tho mistitled, the article is very useful.