Running out of memory - but I'm sure I have enough

[Guest]

I have 1.12G of RAM plus 1G (min) of page file (pagefile.sys). However, my
computer seems to run out of memory after about 1G. It starts
malfunctioning, and PF Usage/Commit Charge never goes above 1.1G. It doesn't
seem to be using the page file.

The malfunctioning includes: programs not starting up, various memory errors
when programs are running, and various weird malfunctions (e.g. right-click
stops working). When I close other programs (and free up memory), the
problems go away, but then restart once I hit the 1.1G limit again. Other
than that, there are no other errors or error message, as far as I know, but
I'm not sure where I'd look to find them.

Commit Charge:

Total - 1G
Limit - 2G
Peak - 1G

Physical memory:

Total 1.12G
Avail 320M
System Cache 440M

I tried recreating my pagefile.sys (by turning it off, rebooting, then
turning it back on), and I tried defrag. Nothing seems to work, other than
buying more RAM. Any ideas?

I'm running Dell Dimension 4600. XP Home SP2.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

In which drive / partition is your Windows operating system? Is your
pagefile in the same or a different partition?

How large is your hard drive and how much free space?

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Guest]

I only have one partition, as far as I know. It is the C: drive. Total
space 38G, and 7G free.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to bring Task
Manager and select the Performance Tab. What is the Total, the Commit Charge
and the Peak?

To investigate how you are using hard disk space you need to make sure
that you can see all files. Go to Start, Control Panel, Folder
Options, View, Advanced Settings and verify that the box before "Show
hidden files and folders" is checked and "Hide protected operating
system files " is unchecked. You may need to scroll down to see the
second item. You should also make certain that the box before "Hide
extensions for known file types" is not checked. Next in Windows
Explorer make sure View, Details is selected and then select View,
Choose Details and check before Name, Type, Total Size, and Free Space.

You still will not see the System Volume Information folder and Norton
Protected Storage ( if you have it? ).
How to Gain Access to the System Volume Information Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;309531

Download Dirsize.dll plug-in and place the file in Windows\System32
folder. Select Start, Run and type "regsvr32 dirsize.dll" without the
quotes and hit ENTER. Next in Windows Explorer open a folder and set it
to Detail view. From the View menu, click Choose Details. Put a
checkmark near Folder Size, and click OK. Use CTRL and + key ( Numeric
Keypad ) combination to resize the column width, so that the Folder Size
column is displayed correctly. To apply this setting for all the
folders, click Tools, Folder Options. In the View tab and click Apply to
all folders. You can download Dirsize from:
http://markd.mvps.org/

Now check how large is your hard drive? Is it partitioned? How much free
space on
each drive / partition. How is the drive formatted -FAT32 or NTFS. To
get this information whilst in Windows Explorer place the cursor on each
drive in turn, right click and select Properties.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Guest]

Total is 2G and commit and peak are around 1G, as explained in my first post.
I downloaded dirsize.dll. It is very interesting because it allows you to
see the total size of each directory in Explorer. However, it runs slow.
But I think I'll keep it. Thanks for the tip.

I loaded System Volume Information folder, but I'm not sure what to make of
it. It is about 6G.

I don't think my hard drive is partitioned. All I see is one entry under
"Hard Disk Drives" (C. It is 38G total, and 7.7G free. It is NTFS.

Anyway, now for the good news. I got my PF usage up to 1.5G, which is much
higher than it's gone before. I'm not sure why it's working now, but other
than the things above, one thing I did was uninstall Norton UnErase
(Protected Recycle Bin), and restart. Hopefully that was the problem,
because there was some weirdness with the program. I kept trying to purge
protected files, but the files would keep reappearing. So I finally just
uninstalled it (via Add/Remove Programs). I don't need it anyway.

Well, I will let y'all know if the problem returns. Thanks for your
suggestions.