Virtual Memory is low

[John]

I'm running XP SP3. My hard drive is about 60% full. What does it mean when
Windows reports that Virtual Memory is low, and what can I do about it?

 

[Leonard Grey]

It means that you do not have enough memory for the applications you are
running. If you are seeing this message often, the typical cause is
malware infection. Here are other possible solutions:

1- Reduce the number of memory-intensive programs running in the background.
2- If you have been fiddling with the configuration settings for virtual
memory, reset them to "system managed size."
3- Install more RAM.

 

[Ian D]

I'm running XP SP3. My hard drive is about 60% full. What does it mean
when
Windows reports that Virtual Memory is low, and what can I do about it?

It usually means your pagefile is getting full, or has
become corrupted. The best approach is to delete
the pagefile, then create a system managed one.

Go to Control panel > System > Advanced > Performance

Advanced > Virtual memory > Change. For your boot

drive, select "No paging file" then set, and reboot. Then,
repeat the process and select "System managed size" and
reboot. The system recommended size will be 2.5 times
your RAM size.

If you have 4GB of memory, you can safely manually set
the min and max paging file sizes at 2048MB and 4096MB.
If you only have 1 or 2GB, let the system manage it.

If there's insufficient space on your hard drive for the above,
you best bet is to either reduce the amount of programs and
data, or get a larger drive.

 

[SC Tom]

It usually means your pagefile is getting full, or has
become corrupted. The best approach is to delete
the pagefile, then create a system managed one.

Go to Control panel > System > Advanced > Performance
drive, select "No paging file" then set, and reboot. Then,
repeat the process and select "System managed size" and
reboot. The system recommended size will be 2.5 times
your RAM size.

If you have 4GB of memory, you can safely manually set
the min and max paging file sizes at 2048MB and 4096MB.
If you only have 1 or 2GB, let the system manage it.

If there's insufficient space on your hard drive for the above,
you best bet is to either reduce the amount of programs and
data, or get a larger drive.

I've never seen a "system recommended size" at 2.5X RAM size. Sounds a bit
high to me. For example, I have 4GB installed with 3.25GB recognized. My
system recommended size is 4989MB, and my currently allocated size 3326MB,
which coincidentally(?) is almost the same as my recognized installed RAM
(3.25x1024=3328).

Back in the Win95 through ME days, the popular manual setting was 2 times
installed RAM plus 10. Have no idea what the 10 was for- guess it just
looked good. Since the advent of Win2k and subsequent OS's, I have seen no
advantage at using anything other than System Managed. We experimented at
work for a while on some high-end HP workstations running I-deas CAD/CAM and
found no difference whatsoever in speed, stability, save time, access time,
etc. by using manual or system managed settings. And believe me, these were
engineers that would call up to complain that it took 11 seconds to open a
web page instead of the usual 9.5, and when was I going to fix it? So I'm
sure I would have heard of anything that affected their work habits. This
was first on Windows 2000 and then on WinXP Pro. We never did graduate to
Vista.

I think with the faster CPU's, RAM, and HDD's, system managed is the way to
go. Just "set it and forget it." If you add or subtract RAM, great. The
system still knows what to do and adjusts accordingly.

 

[Daave]

It usually means your pagefile is getting full, or has
become corrupted. The best approach is to delete
the pagefile, then create a system managed one.

Go to Control panel > System > Advanced > Performance
drive, select "No paging file" then set, and reboot. Then,
repeat the process and select "System managed size" and
reboot. The system recommended size will be 2.5 times
your RAM size.

I believe you mean 1.5 times the recognized physical memory.

 

[Ian D]

I believe you mean 1.5 times the recognized physical memory.

Yes. The "1" and "2" keys are too close together. Heh, heh.
Also, when you proofread, the brain quite often sees what
you meant to type, rather than what's on the screen.