WinXP Continual Paging?

[KenL]

Can anybody tell me what is going on in WinXP that causes the Total -
Handles and Threads, Physical Memory - Available and System Cache and
Kernel - Total and Paged to keep changing every second even though the
system is idle and the CPU utilization is 0%. All of the above is from Task
Manager. Also, the disk light keeps flashing ever second or so.

I have tried changing the LargeSystemCache and DisablePagingExecutive
entries to 1 but that did not seem to have any effect.
The system has 2 Megs of memory so it should be happy. WinXP has all the
latest fixes and updates. The system is on a 3 computer home network
connected to the internet via cable using a Motorola modem and an SBC
router. The other systems behave about the same. Is there some setting
that may have gotten changed by one of the utility programs like System
Mechanic 6 that I have used over the last several months? Help would be
appreciated!

 

[Adam_JBOD]

Can anybody tell me what is going on in WinXP that causes the Total -
Handles and Threads, Physical Memory - Available and System Cache and
Kernel - Total and Paged to keep changing every second even though the
system is idle and the CPU utilization is 0%. All of the above is from Task
Manager. Also, the disk light keeps flashing ever second or so.

I have tried changing the LargeSystemCache and DisablePagingExecutive
entries to 1 but that did not seem to have any effect.
The system has 2 Megs of memory so it should be happy. WinXP has all the
latest fixes and updates. The system is on a 3 computer home network
connected to the internet via cable using a Motorola modem and an SBC
router. The other systems behave about the same. Is there some setting
that may have gotten changed by one of the utility programs like System
Mechanic 6 that I have used over the last several months? Help would be
appreciated!

Hi, my first suggestion is not to use System Mechanic as those types of
programs 75% of the time actually erase modify or destroy your systems
inegrity. One mistake can mess the whole PC, so unless you are a master
technician, programs like that should not be used.

First, do not worry about your task manager stats too much, as it is
100% normal to use the page file (swap file) continuosly, same thing
with Kernel paging/memory usage, and when the CPU is at idle, it just
means that it is not involved doing any COMPLEX calculations etc. The
reason is that when your Hard Disk Drive is active, it is continuosly
spinning, writing data to wherever it is free, unlike a CD or Record,
so expect continous activity, especially when using your computer over
a network witrh other computers, they need to talk to each other and
the router to maintain the connection.

One trick that I do to keep stability up and keeping the memory from
fragmenting itself is go to your system properties, (you can access it
by holding the Windows Key and pressing Pause/Break at the same time)
and going to the ADVANCED setting and the PERFORMANCE then ADVANCED
then hit the CHANGE button for VIRTUAL MEMORY. for intial and maximum
set the numbers to DOUBLE YOUR AVAILABLE SYSTEM RAM. Example. if you
have 512 MB, set the initial and maximum to 1024, if you have 256, set
the intial and maximum to 512 etc. To know exactly how much RAM you
have, look at the general tab of SYSTEM PROPERTIES. NOTE THAT IF YOU
HAVE SHARED ONBOARD VIDEO MEMORY, IT WILL SUBTRACT THE MEMORY FROM
PHYSICAL RAM, SO 512 MB COULD BECOME 448 AFTER SHARING 64 MB WITH THE
ONBOARD VIDEO CONTROLLER. so if it becomes 448, set the intial and
maximum memory to 896.

Dig it?
Adam_JBOD

 

[KenL]

I misspoke on the memory. The System in question has 2 GB of DDR memory
and the swapfile is set up at 2047 MB. I don't think I need to go to 4094
MB! I still don't understand why changing the LargeSystemCache and
DisablePagingExecutive registry entries to 1 did not have any effect on the
continual swapfile activity.

 

[R. McCarty]

Use Performance Monitor and check the actual traffic on the Pagefile.
Would also benefit you to download & run both File Explorer and
Process Explorer from SysInternals to analyze the system in depth.

I use 2.0 Gigabytes of RAM and even under "Heavy" loading, the
Pagefile use rarely if ever climbs above 62 Megabytes. Something
(Indexing?) or other background tasks may be causing the drive to
be accessed that you are unaware of.