AXE said:
I receive the message that my virtual memory is too low, etc although
I have raised it to 900 mb from about 700 mb. I have 512 Mb of Ram.
This causes my computor to run so slow that I have to reboot.
What is the solution?
AXE, what is the exact message you got, and what was the circumstance?
And how much free disk space do you have?
Also, you stated that you raised "it." But that's not clear enough.
Basically, if you're not going to let your system manage virtual memory,
then (assuming 512 MB RAM) you should probably set the _Initial_ page
file size at 100 MB and the _Maximum_ size at 700 or 800 MB (900 MB is
still in the ballpark).
FYI, here's a good reference:
"Virtual Memory in Windows XP"
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm
From this Web page: "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 [
http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/files/lu/lu.html ]. 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.
-- Another problem involving Norton Antivirus was recently discovered by
MS-MVP Ron Martell. However, it only applies to computers where the
pagefile has been manually resized to larger than the default setting of
1.5 times RAM - a practice we discourage. On such machines, NAV 2004 and
Norton Antivirus Corporate 9.0 can cause your computer to revert to the
default settings on the next reboot, rather than retain your manually
configured settings. (Though this is probably an improvement on memory
management, it can be maddening if you don't know why it is happening.)
Symantec has published separate repair instructions for computers with
NAV 2004 [
http://tinyurl.com/rvshs ] and NAV Corporate 9.0 [
http://tinyurl.com/ndtzw ] installed. [Added by JAE 2/21/06.]
-- 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."
********************************************************
FWIW, the following are the most responsible culprits in causing a
computer to run slow:
-- malware (viruses, spyware, adware)
-- too many temp files
-- too many programs/processes running
See "Slow Computer" for more information:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/slowcom.htm
