Virtual Memory Settings Locked

[Gary De Feyter]

I have a machine with 1GB RAM. The default system memory is 1.5 GB even
though Task Manager shows that Page File usage rarely goes above 225 MB.
I've run XP for weeks with virtual memory turned off completely with no ill
effects. I would like to avoid both extremes, but find that when I set
minimum & maximum limits to pagefile.sys, my custom settings remain in
effect only until I reboot. Then Pagefile.sys returns to 1.5 GB. (Yes, I
remembered to press the "Set" button after placing limits on the initial and
maximum sizes.) My custom settings remain in the virtual memory setup window
but they are ignored. Only thing I can think of is that one of my
applications has changed the registry to force a default size of 1 1/2 RAM,
but I can't figure out how to track it down. I could just check "System
Managed Size" and pretend there's nothing wrong, but it bugs me when things
don't work the way they're supposed to. I have two 120 GB hard drives in a
RAID1 array, but noticed the same behavior before I set up the array. Is
this by any chance a known problem with the Intel ICH5R controller or Intel
Application Accelerator? I've run out of ideas!

Gary


--
Giga-Byte GA-8KNXP v.2.0 Motherboard w/ Award BIOS v. FH
Pentium 4 2.8 w/800 MHz FSB Intel 875P Chipset
1GB Kingston HyperX PC3500 (@ 2.6v)
2 Western Digital 120 GB SATA Hard Drives
RAID 1 on Intel ICH5R (v3.5.0.2568)
MSI FX5600 - AGP 8X 128MB DDR Video Card (Nvidia v.52.16)
Leadtek WinFast 2000 TV/FM PCI Multi-Media card
U.S. Robotics 56K V90 PCI Modem
Plextor PX-708A 8X DVD-RW (IDE 2 Master)
Plextor PX-116A DVD-ROM (IDE 2 Slave)
Teac 1.44 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive
Creative Labs Audigy II Platinum Sound card
Enermatic "Noistaker" 470 watt ATX Power Supply
Win XP Pro SP-1 O.E.M.

 

[kawipoo]

Have you tried turning off virtual memeory and deleting pagefile.sys,
rebooting and then restarting virtual memory to see if you can then reset
it?

 

[Guest]

In the advanced settings for virtual memory,when clicking the "set" button
you must click it 2X,otherwise it wont take effect.Furthermore,after you set th
settings,you should be required to restart the computer,no prompt-no setting adjustment
With that much memory you should disable the PagingExecutive.Go to run,type:regedi
Expand:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager open,MemoryManager.Youll see,DisablePagingExecutive,L.click,edit,modify,set to 1 from
Then close out,this will increase the NT Executive to Ram instead of the paging file
You should see an increase of performance.

 

[Kilgore Trout Jr]

Have you tried turning off virtual memeory and deleting pagefile.sys,
rebooting and then restarting virtual memory to see if you can then reset
it?

Yes! After deleting pagefile.sys and rebooting I can set initial size of say
200 MB and max size of say 500 MB & press Set. I can confirm that
pagefile.sys will stay at 200 MB for days as long as I don't reboot. As soon
as I reboot I'm back at 1.5 GB. Booting to safe mode doesn't help either!

 

[Kilgore Trout Jr]

I thought you might have something there Andrew. I noticed that when I
pressed the Set button repeatedly, the highlight on the OK button at the
bottom of the Virtual Memory window would alternately turn on & off.
Unfortunately, after rebooting, pagefile.sys is again set at 1.5 GB. Just to
make sure, I ran through the whole routine once more. Turned virtual memory
off, rebooted, confirmed that pagefile.sys was gone, changed to custom size
of 200 - 500MB, pressed SET twice as you suggested, confirmed that pagefile
was now 200 MB, rebooted, pagefile.sys is again 1.5 GB.

I will take a look at your second suggestion. I don't really have any
complaints about performance. Just want to get the ghost out of the machine!
Thanks for your help.

In the advanced settings for virtual memory,when clicking the "set" button,
you must click it 2X,otherwise it wont take effect.Furthermore,after you set the
settings,you should be required to restart the computer,no prompt-no setting adjustment.
With that much memory you should disable the PagingExecutive.Go to run,type:regedit
Expand:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager

open,MemoryManager.Youll see,DisablePagingExecutive,L.click,edit,modify,set
to 1 from 0

 

[Plato]

I have a machine with 1GB RAM. The default system memory is 1.5 GB even
though Task Manager shows that Page File usage rarely goes above 225 MB.
I've run XP for weeks with virtual memory turned off completely with no ill
effects. I would like to avoid both extremes, but find that when I set
minimum & maximum limits to pagefile.sys, my custom settings remain in
effect only until I reboot. Then Pagefile.sys returns to 1.5 GB. (Yes, I

You worry too much about nothing. XP will use your physical ram as much
as possible.

 

[Kilgore Trout Jr]

I know, I know!