Can somebody explain 'virtual memory' to me?

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?


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?

500+ 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.

Geeky tech info on virtual memory:

http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

If that's too technical, the short story is:

"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. 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.


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." '

Hopefully, you can solve it by resizing the VM. Back up to the section "How big should the page file be?" to get a strategy.

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.

I can try.

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).....