virtual memory and random files

Hello,

I was referred to this site by a friend and I have noticed the extreme helpfulness of everyone here. So I am hoping that someone here can help me with me problems.

The first is a pretty simple one, and that is my system keeps telling me the virtual memory is too low despite my repeated efforts of upping its capacity. This tends to happen after I play games such as World of Warcraft.

The second one is that there is a folder holding hundreds of insignificant files that my virus scan checks constantly, yet I cannot find this folder anywhere even when I run the search from the Start menu. I realize these are not important files, but they are taking up a significant portion of my hard drive.

Any and all help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Gdot

 

Please follow these instructions to lower your resource consumption. This should lower your physical memory usage, and therefore alleviate your problems with virtual memory. Of course, adding more physical memory (RAM) helps as well. Virtual memory should be approximately 1.5 times the amount of RAM you have installed, unless you have alot of RAM, in which case, it may be preferable to conserve hard drive space.

As for the folder that's taking up space, it may be hidden or even a protected operating system folder. To show these types of folders, please do the following:

1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Click the 'Tools' menu
3. Select 'Folder Options'
4. Select the 'View' tab
5. Select the radio button next to 'Show Hidden Files And Folders'
6. Uncheck the box next to 'Hide Protected Operating System Files'
7. Apply your settings.

Now, you should be able to see the folder. You may want to consider leaving Hide Protected Operating System Files (Step 6) checked, as you really DO NOT want to delete one of these such folders.

 

Alright, I'll give those a shot and see what happens. Thanks

 

I'll bet the farm that this folder that the virus scan is constantly checking is the "Temporary Internet Files" folder.
It's used to store internet pictures... animations... page CSS files... etc...
To help (mainly dialup) load frequently visited sites faster.
If your using broadband...
I'd set Internet Explorer to dump these files when it's closed.

"Control Panel\Internet Options\Advanced" tab
Scroll down to Security...
Make sure there is a check mark in the box in front of:
"Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed"
Click "Apply" then "Ok"

It will speed up your scans and is more secure.

 

See, I thought so aswell, but it's actually a in a folder labelled 'Complete' in my windows folder. So, I do not really know how to get them as even showing hidden files does not let them appear. Thanks again though.

 

I lost the farm!

.CAB files can also grind a scan to a near halt.
And with some scan engines it will show the scanning of several individual files and folders when it's actually scanning one CAB file.
See if you got any of them in the Windows folder.

 

Btw, how much ram do you have in this computer?

Also, some AV scanners have the option to ignore certain folders on a FULL scan. What AV solution are ye using?

 

Well, as noobish as this sounds, I do not really know what a .CAB file is.......

The system currently has 512mb of RAM and I use the AVG free edition for my AV solution.

 

.cab files are cabinet files, similar to .zip files, except that MS usually uses .cab files.

 

Oh, ok, thanks for the clarification.

 

You have enough RAM in your computer to make it happy under most instances.
You may also have an over loaded HD.
If you could tell us the name of this hidden folder that AVG is spending it's time with...
And if before that folder... AVG's search parameters are defining a .CAB, .ZIP or a .RAR file it would help allot.
EX:
C:\WINDOWS\nasty.cab\folder

 

Ok, out of the 160 GB HD, 142 GB are available, and from those 54.7 GB are used and 87.3 GB are free. If that has any bearing on my overloaded HD, then so be it.

The folder is C:\DocumentsandSettings\HP_Owner\Complete and all the files after their names have \Video.exe as their command lines. So I apologize for earlier mislabelling it as a Windows folder. There is no parameters governing AVG that I have placed, so it is set at the default level of probably everything.

Thanks again.

 

Your HD seem good so it's not being overloaded.
Your Virtual memory should be set to at least 2.5 times the physical memory on board.
Or at least 1.5MB for you.
I'm sure you have it set to at least that.
Might want to set it to letting the system manage size.
Make sure your pagefile.sys (XP/2000) or Win386.swp (9X/ME) is on the root directory.

Some of the causes of Virtual memory error:

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 "WIN386.SWP on 9x/XP" on each drive "if on more than just C:"...
Set the page file up again "turn virtual memory back on" 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.

 

Currently, other than work, the situation is that I cannot find this pagefile.sys file. Yeah, that does sound rather nooblike, but at this point, if there isn't another way to find this file, should I just be taking it into a tech shop and have them look at it?

Thanks

 

The page file is located on root of the main os installation.

I.E. c:\pagefile.sys

Also, this file has the Hidden and System attributes.

To see this file, one must enable "uncheck" show all hidden and system files within, explorer, by going to Tools, options, view. (I think, been awhile since using xp. Perhaps I need to install virtual pc, on my vista box, to load up xp).