Virtual Memory Problem New Installs XP Pro Update

[Peter]

Hi Folks

Background

The system has run flawlessly for well over a year with XP Home
Update, Problems have only arisen since I bought and started using a
XP Pro Updated edition a week ago

Problem

After apparently random periods of time from 10 minutes to an hour, a
yellow triangle with a black exclamation mark appears in the system
tray. If clicked with either right or left mouse button it
vanishes.This is folowed by a range of error messages such as critical
error run out of virtual memory, not enough memory to run this
application. Applications fail to laod system crashes, and only
albeit temp. solution is to reboot. I use RAMBooster to montitor free
ram and XP Pagefile monitor to monitor pagefile usage and size.

I'm using exactly same hardware and software as when it ran flawlessly
with XP Home edition

What I've tried

Reformatting - 4 times in a week
the obvious reg cleans, deleting temp files, running av/spware apps
etc.


System
AMD Athlon 3000+ 64 bit
ASUS 64 bit mobo
512 mb RAM
Radeon 9600 series 256 mb video card
200gb Maxtor HD partitioned as:

C: 80 GB 70 Gb free
D: 120 GB 30 GB Free

OS Windows XP Pro Upgrade (Legit I add!)

All updates included

Free RAM

Runs bewteen 170 to 240 MB free

Pagefile Location

C:\pagefile.sys

Pagefile size 1533 mb, usually uses 69 mb

Security

Norton AV 2004 all updates scans weekly
Spybot S + D updated and ran weekly
Ad-aware SE updated and ran weekly
Spywareblaster updated weekly
Xoft Spy updated and ran weekly
Trojan Remover updated weekly and runs at startup then in background
Zone Alarm Firewall

Maintainance

CC Cleaner
Internet Sweeper Pro
DiskCleaner
RegClean
Registry Tuneup
Diskeeper Defrags in background

Any help appreciated TIA

Peter

 

[Maurice N ~ MVP]

On virtual memory, see that your settings to not put an unnecessarily low limit on the "maximum" pagefile size.
The message you see is informational & shows up when the Pagefile.sys needs to be enlarged.

See how much free disk space there is on your drives. Find out the current size of your page file. Find out the current settings for virtual memory.

Set your Win Explorer view options to see all files, system, & hidden files.
Pagefile.sys is a hidden file, in your sys root file (C:\ ).

Enlarging the initial size of your page file will help to reduce chance of the "low virtual memory" occurring.

The best article on this topic is "Virtual Memory in Windows XP" by Alex Nichol.
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

Suggest you focus on following sections:
Where is the page file
Where do I set the placing and size of the page file

On your program crashes: Run a ram memory tester like MEMTEST86.
See http://www.memtest86.com/

Insure your memory checks out ok.

More on program crashes:
See what Event Viewer has in it's log. Select Start button/ select Run , then type in

eventvwr.msc<enter>

-- or Go to Control Panel / Performance and Maintenance/Administrative Tools >Event Viewer.

Review the sections and look for Errors or Warnings that match the time the event occurred.
Double click---the information "may" give a clue.


Right Click the My Computer icon on desktop. Select Properties.
Next, select Advanced. Look for a block that says Startup and recovery. Press the settings button.
In System failure section, turn off (un-check) Automatically restart. Apply change.

Suggestion: Turn off background disk defrag. Turn off disk defrag all together. See if problems subside.

Do not have more than 1 antivirus & 1 ant-spyware utility active & running all the time (or at every startup).

There's probably more to add.
Perhaps the main one: Are you sure you followed the proper sequence to run an Upgrade to XP PRO?