Low Virtual Memory?

[Roo]

Hi
Just recently I have been getting a message saying ''Low virtual memory'' on my Lap Top any ideas what this is please?
I haven't down loaded any new programs, if anything I have been deleting stuff from my Laptop..
When this message does come up it closes down what ever program I am using, is this normal please? ..
Any help or suggestions would be great and does anyone else get this message Please?

Thank you! ...

[headbanging]

Hi Roo,

I get this all the time. I have a game i play in the browser, that uses bit of memory, and with having work programmes running in the abck ground it slows stuff right down.

I ran a clean up on the PC to clear all those nasty programmes that run in the background, and that sped things up 100%. I can't remember what it was called, but i'm sure someone will be along soon who can help more.

[Roo]

Hi Drew
Thanks for that
But the only games I use is in the Arcade on FOG and Facebook
Thanks for your post thou

Cheers..

[Road Hog]

How full is your hard drive & what programmes are you running when the message occurs as it sounds like a page file overfill to me

[Roo]

How full is your hard drive & what programmes are you running when the message occurs as it sounds like a page file overfill to me

Hi A friend
Thank you for that
The last few times its happened on FOG & facebook... I am running windows XP I did have vista on it when I first got it, but took that off,and XP was put on for me..

Sorry what do you mean by it sounds like a ''page file overfill'' please?

Thanks A friend

[Sir-Doris]

Go to:

Start button
Settings
Control Panel
Click the System Icon
Click the Advanced Tab on the System Properties window that opens
Click the Settings button
Click the Advanced tab
At the the bottom of the window it will tell you how much virtual memory/paging/swap file file space there is.
Click Change and set the Minimum and Maximum to 1024
Click set

Restart the PC.

You may have run out of space on your C drive if the pagefile isnt a fixed size as by default windows dynamically allocates the swap file and if your c drive only has limited space then the swap file cannot grow as needed.

Delete all temporary files, system restore points have a habit of accumulating as well and can take up many Gigs worth of space on a hard disk as do log files and performance monitoring logs.

[Alchamist]

DANGER WILL ROBINSON - DANGER!

Before ya go changing all your settings all over the place and impacting on your system speed ... first things first ...

As Phil said, Windoze ... sorry ... Windows ... dynamically allocates space to a system "swap" file. This is used as memory for low access count items (i.e. program instructions that are not regularly accessed, that sort of thing). As your hard drive becomes full, there is less spare space for it to use for this memory and things will come grinding to a halt, as it will have to assign these less used items to system memory (which is precious stuff), or deny access to it for some programs ... which is when it all falls down.

You say all you do is browse and play the arcade ... what you possibly don't realise is that when browsing, there is lots of information stored in the background (i.e. a copy of every picture you view, so that if/when you view that page again, it doesn't have to download the image again, therefore theoretically speeding up the loading of the page) - this is also coupled with the phenomenal amount of personal data that windoze stores about you and your usage (hence why no matter what, windoze systems slow down after a couple of months of usage ...)

So - First thing to do, as A friend said, check your free disk space. As a rule of thumb, you should always have at least double your system memory free on the drive plus as much spare as you can afford. E.g. If you have 1Gb of RAM, you should have at least 2Gb of free disk space to allow for the swapfile.

Next, benign stuff like cookies and browser cache very quickly fragments on the drive, due to the constant read/write cycle. Empty your cache ("temporary internet files" as Microshaft calls them ... though for them to be temporary the system would need to delete them once in a while!), clear your cookies, check your disk for downloads you no longer need and generally have a spring clean.

After doing that, set the disk to defragment .. even if it says it doesn't need it. Walk away, go have a picnic, go shopping, have multiple cuppas etc (best bet is to leave it going overnight).

Once you have done all that, the "Virtual memory errors" should just vanish ... or at least for a good while. When they come back, wash, rinse, repeat as required.



Of course, the way to avoid all of the above problems? Simple .... Go Linux!

[Roo]

Ok Thanks for that Doris
Will give it a go..
Cheers

[james'll fix it]

Get a large usb hard drive, about £50 now for 500g

Download Macrium reflect, free, http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp. It just makes copies of hard drives runs on xp, copies other partitions, and is so much easier than norton ghost ect. And its FREE!!

Make a complete copy/image of your hard drive.

That way if something goes wrong you have a copy to revert to.

Then get rid of all unwanted stuff and make another (don't overright first copy) and away you go.

And back up regularly.