Low Virtual Memory

For the past few days, a little window has been popping up in the lower right corner telling me that my virtual memory is low. I forget what the rest of it says.

Anyway, I've read some threads around here about it, but it's kind of confusing. I'm afraid that if I increase the numbers (initial size and maximum size) that I would choose the wrong numbers (I don't know what to set things to) or mess things up.

I have run CCleaner, but am still getting that little pop-up window.


Computer information:

Windows XP Home Edition, Version 2002, Service Pack 2
Intel(R) Pentium (R) 4 CPU 2.80 GHz
2.80 GHz, 504 MB of RAM


Space Available: 130558 MB

Initial size (MB): 756
Maximum size (MB): 1512


Total paging file size for all drives:

Minimum allowed: 2 MB
Recommended: 754 MB
Currently allocated: 1079 MB


I have 4 applications running - 2 Firefox windows, Kodak Software Updater Agent, and Picture Package.


There are 50 processes running. (Most of which I have no idea what they are.) How do I get a copy of this to attach here?


CPU Usage: 4% - Though I did see it drop to 3% and jump to 7% while typing this.


I'm not sure what most of the information I've given means. If someone could help me in very simple, Computers-for-Dummies terms, I'd appreciate it.


Thanks.

 

How to manually change the size of the virtual memory paging file

You must be logged on as an administrator or as a member of the Administrators group to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure. 1.Click Start, click Run, and then type sysdm.cpl in the Open box.2.Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Performance. 3.Click the Advanced tab, and then click Change under Virtual memory. 4.Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file that you want to change. 5.Under Paging file size for selected drive, click Custom size, type a new paging file size in megabytes (MB) in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, and then click Set.If you decrease the size of either the initial or maximum paging file settings, you must restart your computer to see the effects of those changes. When you increase the paging file size, you typically do not have to restart your computer.

Notes •To have Windows select the best paging file size, click System managed size. The recommended minimum size is equivalent to 1.5 times the RAM on your computer, and 3 times that figure for the maximum size. For example, if you have 256 MB of RAM, the minimum size is 384 MB, and the maximum size is 1152 MB.•For best performance, do not set the initial size to less than the minimum recommended size under Total paging file size for all drives. The recommended size is equivalent to 1.5 times the RAM on your computer. It is good practice to leave the paging file at its recommended size. However, you may increase its size if you frequently use programs that use much memory.•To delete a paging file, set both the initial size and the maximum size to zero, or click No paging file. We strongly recommend that you do not disable or delete the paging file.
Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308417

 

Okay, so I stink at math.

I have 504 MB of RAM. Do I increase the Initial size to 1260 and the Maximum to 3780? That seems like an awful lot to me. If those numbers are correct, can my computer handle that or do I have to buy more memory or whatever?

Yes, I'm still a little confused and more than a little nervous. lol

 

Go to start / run and type msinfo32.exe and click ok.
Under system summary it will list total physical memory, available physical memory, total virtual memory and available virtual memory.
Please report back with these numbers.

 

tjet,

Total Physical Memory: 512 MB
Available Physical Memory: 94.5 MB
Total Virtual Memory: 2 GB
Available Virtual Memory: 1.96 GB


MarkTrent,
I've worked on getting screenshots of my CCleaner Startup and attaching them here, but I can't get them smaller than 208 KB each. :confused

 

Ok let's try some different things.
When was the last time you defragmented the drive and ran disk cleanup?

Go to my computer in the start menu.
Right click the drive and select properties.
How much free space does it show?

Next time you get the warning popup:
Hold down Ctrl and Alt, and hit Del to bring up the Task Manager.
Select the Processes tab; click View on the Menu bar, click on Columns, and select Virtual memory.
You will now see how much RAM and how much virtual memory each process is using. Look for anything using an inordinate amount of virtual memory – perhaps hundreds of MB.
This is the culprit, but you may need to google the process name to learn what program is involved.
It could be a memory intensive program such as movie editing, or it could be a poorly written, poorly debugged program that gives rise to “memory leakage.”
This is when a program does not release memory when it is finished with it.
It then will take new memory the next pass, and not release that.
This can continue until all available memory is used.

 

When I got my computer, I was told that it wasn't necessary to defragment. I don't think I've ever done a disk clean-up.

Free Space: 126 GB


"You can also reduce RAM usage by using the 'SAFE' Services Configuration from Black Viper as recommended by MajorGeeks here:"

I did this, and the previous settings:

"Space Available: 130558 MB, Total paging file size for all drives: Minimum allowed: 2 MB, Recommended: 754 MB, Currently allocated: 1079 MB"

have changed to this:

Space Available: 130483 MB


Total paging file size for all drives:

Minimum allowed: 2 MB

Recommended: 754 MB

Currently allocated: 756 MB


Hmm. Should those numbers (available and allocated) have gone down?

 

I do both at least once a month.
Or once a week if I do a lot of downloading.
Start / Control Panel / Performence and Maintenence / Free up space on your hard disk and Rearrange items on your hard disk to make programs run faster.

Is the drive formatted with a single partition?
You do have a single hard drive?

 

lol I don't know what a single partition is.

I think I have a single hard drive. :confused

Please pardon my ignorance.


I don't see "Performance and Maintenance" in my Control Panel. Do I have to click on something else to get there?

 

I did a disk clean-up and it said it freed up or cleaned 6,112.

 

Ok in the control panel is it set to catagory or classic view?
You need catagory for my instructions.
No matter.

Under My Computer there is a catagory called Hard Drives if there is one shown you have one.
Rt click it and see if it shows one disk when you select properties.
And on the properties window there is a button for disk cleanup.
And while you have the properties window open select the tools tab and click the defragment button there and select defragment on the control panel that opens.

 

Okay, there are two hard drives. HP_Pavilion (C: ) and HP_Recovery (D: ).


***edited in***
Defragmenting C: now.

 

Not sure what defragmentation has to do with low virtual memory?

If you are going to defrag you should empty the internet cache first.
Also delete all files you don't want, although I see you have done a disk cleanup.
this is because you don't want loads of temporary files dragging around the disk when you defrag.

You also need to be aware that the more Windows (or tabs on your browser) you have open at any one time the more virtual memory your system claims.

So warning will appear if you have intensive use of Internet Explorer or have many programs open at once.

Closing some windows will always improve matters.

Hope this helps you Geeks help Sassy.

 

For years, I've always had two windows open at once. Just now it's started causing problems. Unexpected and annoying. lol It seems to be worse if I'm playing music or a video (YouTube or whatever) in one window while browsing with the other. :-/

 

Yeah Sassafras, you should have done the disk clean up and used CCleaner before the defrag.
The D:/ drive is a back up copy that resets your computer files to the day it was shipped.
So don't worry about it.

Why would a badly fragmented drive slow down VM?
I can give you link to how a hard drive works if you wish, but let me try the short answer.
A hard drive is divided into sectors.
When something is loaded into the drive the controller puts the info into the first available sector it finds.
The available sectors could be scattered all over the drive so the sectors assigned to the VM would not be in a contiguous series so the drive is working like crazy to perform the requested task.
And lots of drive searching causes lag.
However when the drive is not fragmented things run smother and faster.
It is akin to a file clerk putting things in alphabetical order for easier data retrieval.
Does the phrase "rearrange items on your hard drive to make programs run faster" sound familiar?

I recently posted a hello in the welcome section if you are wondering about my skills.

 

Excuse me the error message is not enough VM,rather than slow VM.

Yes fragmentation slows everything down, but does not alter the amount of VM used.

There's your difficulty right there. It's not a system fault.

Two IE windows are fine, in fact earlier versions of IE limited you to 2 and you had to edit the registry to get more to avoid what you are now seeing.

But years ago you weren't watching Youtube and surfing at the same time. Buffering (=saving to virtual memory) takes a deal of resources and if you also have many linked web pages listed on your back button this also devours VM.

I've noticed this with Flickr. Flick through a whole slew of images and up comes the VM warning.
Close IE and reopen and everything is fine and away you go again.

If any Geek can remember the MG Housekeeping stick thread it would be appropriate to post it here for Sassy's information.

 

What don't you understand about this, MarkTrent and studiot:

Perhaps the nice lady would have noticed that if you didn't...
Ah, nevermind.

 

You have fixed less than 20 with 381 posts? roflmao
That is a lousy average.
And until you have something more to go on than your own limited experience GTFO.

 

Someone asked about Processes. The most recent Ctrl+Alt+Del showed 49. Used to be 50.

I'll now attempt to attach a Notepad list of Processes.

I only have the program names, and not the files or keys. I hope that's okay.

 

I don't know if it matters or not, but I use Firefox (have for years now) and not IE. I only mention this because someone else said something about IE.

 

Now that the little spat is over
and the Lady hasn't walked away we can all get on with helping her.

Sassy, looking at your list it's pretty ordinary the sort of thing I see every day and nothing to worry about.

There is , however room for improvement as you have some unnecessarry items and some that need only be called when you actually need them.

First though can you right click on the C drive in my computer and tell us about your C drive.
How big is it, how much is used and how much free, in round numbers.

 

studiot,

Capacity: 144 GB
Used: 17.4 GB
Free: 126 GB


MarkTrent,
Where do I go to delete the unnecessary programs? And do I still need to increase the Initial size and Maximum size numbers?

 

Righto! you are not in danger of running out of hard drive space any time soon.

You have plenty of RAM for most normal users, like yourself.

There is no point defragmenting this system.

Now that we know the important features of your hardware I would recommend that you revert to system management of VM.

Hold the windows key down and hit pause/break
click advanced
on the performance options (top one) click settings
On the visual effect tab set 'let windows choose what's best'
on the advance tab
set processor scheduling to programs
set memory usage to programs
click the change button on Virtual memory
choose the C drive
set system managed size
click set
click OK about a zillion times.

Your pc is now best set for most purposes.

Mark will take you through clearing unnecessary startups.

Whad'yaknow he'se already done that.

 

Done and done. Thanks for the help.

 

Good luck and remember next time you are watching spiderman 3 whilst booking your next dinner date the system may announce
'you are low on virtual memory - Windows is increasing the size'

Just sit back, relax and let is happen.

:major

 

lol Okay, thanks.

 

OK, you two have got teh light on da dashboard to go out.
You think I asked some off the wall question about defrag and it is not relevant and a fragmented drive has no effect on memory allocation and usage.
But in your haste to get the solve on the question you have used what I consider to be slash and burn tactics
Now that I have cooled off from having you disturb my diagnosis and fix let me point out why I got angry.
You have forgotten or never learned basic computer theory.
So I now have to spend my time explaining myself instead of looking at other threads.

Here is the long version I alluded to:

How does the XP file system work?
XP stores information in data sectors on the drive.
When the machine is told to do a task it needs to fetch the files and folders associated with a task and open them and load them in operating mode in the active memory.
With the ever increasing plushness of the display and the ever increasing cleverness of the malware creeps the demands on memory are always on the rise.
It may not produce results instantly but it will work just fine.
But I digress, let's get back to how the file system works.


With 50 running processes it takes 3/4 of the available ram to just idle so things might get a little tight but nothing critical.
For instance, I have a Celeron D, with 512MB of ram and 43 running processes.
I do a few forums so I look at them in 3-4 tabs at a time and often have a media player or youtube video clips running in the background.
And I never ever have seen a low memory warning.

What is the difference between my machine and Sasafrass's?
She has never defraged her drive since someone told her it wasn't important.
But with the ever increasing demands of more and more sophisticated programs it is important to keep your drive organized
I will now tell you why.

Remember the "Rearrange items on your hard drive to make programs run faster"
In the XP OS there is a task running that locates and makes files available for use in programs.
The OS it's self uses memory.
And the machine does not lift items off the drive when it uses them, it has a file finder the locates them and loads a location address into the active memory pending a use command.
So to keep as much Ram available as possible the machines allocates space on the drive to virtual memory to stores files not currently being used in program execution.
With files and the virtual memory it's self scattered all over the drive increasing amounts of Ram have to be allocated to execute
fetch commands.
As it takes longer to retrieve the files from scattered locations more memory is used for a longer period of time.
Therefore the machine runs out of resources trying to keep current on a basic critically important task.

So having her defrag keeps enough RAM available that it would take something like an RPG shooter or something with high graphics demands to pop that warning again unless memory leakage was occurring.
And running disc clean up before defrag would have cut down on the run time of the defrag.
Then I gave her instruction on what to do if the warning continued to come up.

The files you told her shut down did release more ram to available and they are not necessary for windows to run but will doing so cause problems the next time she wants to print a picture?
So you may have caused her another problem by jumping in with advice on a problem that may have been solved by me asking have you run defrag lately.

There, is that better than GTFO?
Which it looks like you should have done when asked to.
But no, I had to create this wall o' text to prove my method.