virtual memory low

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Dave Davison
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virtual memory low

Post by Dave Davison »

I need to keep my ancient laptop -which still has XP installed - in running order because some bible software that I use requires a 32 bit system but today a message appeared on screen saying the virtual memory was low and Windows was increasing it but nothing seems to have changed as the message still persists.
Is there something I can do manually to correct this matter please? The computer is oainfully slow. Regards dave.
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Rudi
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Re: virtual memory low

Post by Rudi »

Hi Dave,

You can manually increase the page file as instructed below in the Step by step instructions, but before you do that consider other less aggressive methods
-- How many apps are running at the same time. If you have many, try closing some down to free up RAM
-- Have you rebooted the PC lately. A reboot can do wonders to clear out memory and free up system resources
-- Check which application is producing the virtual memory error...

Some details about the paging file...so you know what you are doing:
When your computer is running low on RAM and more is needed immediately, Windows uses hard drive space to simulate system RAM. This is known as virtual memory, and is often called the paging file This is similar to the UNIX swapfile. The default size of the virtual memory pagefile (named pagefile.sys) created during installation is 1.5 times the amount of RAM on your computer.

You can optimize virtual memory use by dividing the space between multiple drives and removing it from slower or heavily accessed drives. To best optimize your virtual memory space, divide it among as many physical hard drives as possible.

Quoted from here...
Step by step instructions to change Page File
Some additional and recommended easy reading on the page file...
Regards,
Rudi

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StuartR
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Re: virtual memory low

Post by StuartR »

Running out of virtual memory is typically caused by having too many programs running.
It might be best to try deinstalling everything that isn't needed on this laptop, so you just have the one application that won't run on something more recent.

You can see how much virtual memory each program is using in Task Manager, but I don't have a copy of Windows XP any more to check the details of how you do this. I think you just display the processes tab, and then click on the column heading once or twice to get the processes sorted by virtual memory usage with the biggest user at the top.
StuartR


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Rudi
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Re: virtual memory low

Post by Rudi »

The third bullet point in my reply above provides steps for that process that Stuart recommends.
Regards,
Rudi

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Dave Davison
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Joined: 27 Jan 2010, 19:15
Location: Darlington, Co. Durham. UK

Re: virtual memory low

Post by Dave Davison »

As ever many thanks for the instructions, I already looked at what progs are running at start up but there did not seem to be any other than the basics needed to run the sysytem but the thought had crossed my mind of deinstalling everything that is not essential as the 32bit software is all that the old m/c will be used for. regards Dave.