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Tue 22 Jun, 2004 03:28 pm
I have a fast computer with 500+ megs Ram and Windows XP Home. Protection is McAfee firewall and McAfee virus protection; AOL spyware scan and blocker. I run virtually all standard programs: Word, Word Perfect, Excel, Quicken etc.
I have repeatedly been getting "Virtual memory too low" messages and "Windows is temporarily increasing your minimum virtual memory but some applications may not open" Shortly after if I'm running several different programs, something usually crashes.
Now I am about as computer ignorant as they come. I've read the windows help file and it tells me how to increase the VM but doesn't say how much to increase it. What is the number I should put in there? If I put in too much will it hurt my computer or screw up anything?
Any advice will be much appreciated.
I've no idea - but try running
PC PitStop - they'll give some advice and nice automatic programs to fix (minor) problems.
(Certainly, some computer-gurus can give you much better advice!)
Well that's more than I knew Walter. Thanks.
"Virtual memory" is a mapping of some sort of permenant storage (usually hard disk space) by the system to make the CPU chip THINK there is more RAM available in the system than there actually is.
Something in your system is using memory (RAM) and not releasing it back to the system when the application is done. After a while the system gets to where it is using almost all of the available virtual memory and you get the message you listed above. PC Pitstop is a good starting point.
Start with that and see what happens.
Thanks Fishin'. As soon as I get through an interminable download here, I'll do that.
Re: Can somebody explain 'virtual memory' to me?
Foxfyre wrote:I've read the windows help file and it tells me how to increase the VM but doesn't say how much to increase it. What is the number I should put in there? If I put in too much will it hurt my computer or screw up anything?
Fishin' answered what it is, but to answer this question it is uallay best to let windows manage it ("System managed size").
Do you have a small amount of RAM?
That's more than enough for most users.
If you would like, you can try posting a hijackthis log so we can tell you if there are some resource hogs on your puter:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22552
That thread will tell you more on how to do that.
Okay thanks Craven. I have an appointment coming up shortly but when I get back I'll do that.
Meanwhile am running a full virus scan just in case.
Wow Denze. Impressive. And I don't understand much of what you said. If we don't find the problem with the other fixes, can you translate that into English? Thanks for the info tho.
Okay I paid a visit to PC Pitstop and it walked me through the process of reducing space allotted to my internet cache. (That uses memory?) Otherwise said my computer was fine except I need to defrag. I'm not convinced that was the problem but I have been on the computer all day and haven't had any low virtual memory messages. So we'll see how it goes. And will defrag overnight tonight.
Thanks to all of you so much for your input and if my problem hasn't been corrected, I'll be back.
Hello, thanks for the thread, good stuff here, etc. (I am bookmoarking the page).....
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