'Virtual Memory'

Paul Tergat

I keep having problems on my laptop where an error message comes up saying i have low virtual memory and then it proceeds to shut all programmes down on my laptop and turning it off....

anyone encountered this before/know any solutions

cheers

Sad Professor

I assume it's because your hd space is low. How much RAM do you have?

Paul Tergat

RAM is 256, and i have like 7 gigs of 30 unused on my HD.

but what is virtual memory? and how is it used up?

cheers

Sad Professor

Basically when the computer runs out of RAM it uses hd space instead, which is much slower. You need more RAM. What OS are you running?

Paul Tergat

It's XP Pro 02 version

would you say i need to buy more RAM then? or is there some way of using the RAM i have better?

cheers for the help so far!

Boston

p_larkin99 wrote:

RAM is 256, and i have like 7 gigs of 30 unused on my HD.

but what is virtual memory? and how is it used up?

cheers

Virtual memory is basically part of your Hard drive space being used as a temp storage location for data in your physical memory. The date is then swapped in and out of physical memory as needed by programs. You might have some sort of restriction on the amounth of hard drive space you're allowed to assign to virtual memory, thus you're running out of it. Or you're messing about with larga files, like AVI's, DVD ripping, ect ect, that require allotof memory, therefore using up all your available hard drive space.

For instance I know Nero by default(last I checked anyway) creates a temp copy of anything your'e burning to cd/dvd in a buffer on you're hard drive, thats allot of space if you're burning 4 - 9 gigs.

I disagree with you needing more ram. If what ever you're doing is taken up 7 gigs of hd space, doubling your ram would be like pissing into the wind. Mroe Ram won't hurt, but it won't fix the problem.

Paul Tergat

That was my understanding, like temp memory but i have no idea how to free it up or even if thats possible!?

Sad Professor

You definately need more RAM. If you can afford it, I'd seriously consider adding about 512MB, but depends what you use your laptop for.

For the time being, don't leave so many programs open. Anything you've installed and is running in the background might be using a lot of RAM also.

Boston

If you have 7 Gigs unused on your HD, and provided you haven't limited the virtual memory size, you've 7 gigs available for virtual memory. ie all your free space. You want more virtual memory, remove stuff from your hard drive.

Sad Professor there is telling you to buy 256mb of Ram, now because of what ever you're doing you require over 7 gigs of space, decide for yourself how much benifit 256mb of ram will be to you, wrt this problem.

Sad Professor

7 gigs seems like a ridiculous amount of virtual memory to be needing. I agree with LiouVille that more RAM won't solve the problem but 256 just isn't enough anyway IMO. I have a Dell in the other room that was running on that for while and it was practically crippled. I recently doubled it and it made a big difference. You must be doing something very RAM intensive to need so much VM.

You might also have a virus.

Paul Tergat

Yeah thats what i couldnt understand, i even cleared some of the stuff off my HD (was only like 500mb or so) and i still got the message coming up....

is there anyway if seeing what my virtual memory is being used on?

cheers again lads

Ruu_Old

Don't think so, but you can view how much is being used. Ctrl+Alt+Del and then click the Performance tab (i think). 256MB is the bare minimum these days, consider upgrading.

Boston

Press Control alt del, then task manager, then the performance tab. Your Page file is your virtual memory. Theres a graphic there showing how much you use.

Paul Tergat

I wondered what that was, as over the last few days its moved from like a consistent 630 something up to 970 (it says out of like 1104MB)

will the processes tab show me what i have running in the background that may be using up some of this memory?

Boston

p_larkin99 wrote:

I wondered what that was, as over the last few days its moved from like a consistent 630 something up to 970 (it says out of like 1104MB)

will the processes tab show me what i have running in the background that may be using up some of this memory?

Yes

Jim_No.6

p_larkin99 wrote:

I keep having problems on my laptop where an error message comes up saying i have low virtual memory and then it proceeds to shut all programmes down on my laptop and turning it off....

anyone encountered this before/know any solutions

cheers

Your machine is most likely being bogged down by a pile of programs that are continuously running - the easiest and fastest way to solve that is to reinstall windows, and all other programs.

A slightly more complex solution would be to figure out which programs are being loaded on boot, and disable those that are unnecessary (eg. Mozilla, MS Office and Acrobat all have preloaders that are a terrible idea to have running on an older machine such as your own.)

More RAM isn't a terrible idea, and probably won't cost you the world - find out what motherboard your laptop is using, then get the technical manual from the manufacturer, and replace both RAM chips with the maximum possible would be my advice (if the mobo is any good, this will be two 1GB sticks). This will be expensive enough, but the boost will be very noticeable. Upgrading by another 256MB or 512MB at this stage is really only a stop-gap that won't last you very long. (If you're upgrading, go for at least 1GB total to make the machine last).

As Liouville pointed out - your problem isn't a lack of Virtual Memory (your 7GB free Hard-disk should be more than enough for any properly-functioning and non-malicious programs. (Note the emphasis) Exceptions to this would be things like heavy image or video editing/encoding. If you are running some monster of a virus checker (eg. Norton Internet Security) I'd recommend you switch to one that is less demanding on your system (my father's 2GHz machine runs it at home, and it has slowed to a crawl) such as AVG 7.5 (which is free, and available from January)

Boston

Thats a much nicer and better put together post then I would have made.

Paul Tergat

Cheers for all the help on this

looks like buying more memory is the option!

Boston

No, figure out where the problem is, and what the hell is using all your memory. From what you've said, if you buy a gig of ram right now, bang it in, you'll still have the same problem. You'll have a faster PC, but still one thats feiced.

Paul Tergat

LiouVille wrote:

No, figure out where the problem is, and what the hell is using all your memory.

How?

I looked at the processes running and they are 'critical system processes' and im not allowed to close most of them down....should i really just re-install everything (which may be hard as it all came from college)?

Sad Professor

Have you tried scanning for viruses?

Paul Tergat

Sad Professor wrote:

Have you tried scanning for viruses?

im getting my sophos updated (its done through the college so need their verification to upgrade i think)

possbile may be some virus though aye!

guess i need to sort this out first and then check.

Mencius

Have you tried increasing the amount of HD space your comp can use for Virtual Memory?

8T8

Could be a combo of spyware/viruses run a scan with Windows Defender to route out any potential spyware.

But as others have said 256MB is too little and RAM is so cheap these days at minimum get another 256MB to bring it up to 512MB though 1GB of RAM is now a common pick & makes things run so much more smoothly.

Paul Tergat

Mencius wrote:

Have you tried increasing the amount of HD space your comp can use for Virtual Memory?

How is this possible?

Paul Tergat

Again lads, cheers for all the info and help!

Boston

p_larkin99 wrote:

How is this possible?

LiouVille wrote:

If you have 7 Gigs unused on your HD, and provided you haven't limited the virtual memory size, you've 7 gigs available for virtual memory. ie all your free space. You want more virtual memory, remove stuff from your hard drive.

How about this, un-install what ever is using all your space? The process tab wil ltell you what is using most memory.

Paul Tergat

LiouVille wrote:

How about this, un-install what ever is using all your space? The process tab wil ltell you what is using most memory.

i dont understand this though, as firefox is the highest use with like 30k and then the likes of explorer.exe at 12k and wonlogon.exe at 12k

i really have no idea what it is that's taking up all the memory!

Paul Tergat

Also, used windows defender to find nothing malicious on my laptop!

8T8

Well you could try freeing up some space on the hard drive

Go into the system properties control panel and dial back the amount of space system restore is allowed take from the HD.

Same goes for the recycle bin properties

Also for IE6 that cache it uses was always too large for it's own good not that it may be using all that space but still set it to 100MB in the internet properties.

Run the disk cleanup wizard after that in the start menu\all programs\accessories\system tools.

Also just because you don't have a single process running that is eating up all the RAM doesn't mean that a lot of smaller processes running could be doing the same thing sorta like death by a thousand paper cuts.

The task manager will say how may processes are running at the bottom.

Mencius

To increase the amount of HD space that can be used for VM Right Click on My Computer in the start menu - Click Properties - Go to the Advanced Tab - Click Settings on Performance - Click on the Advanced Tab - You'll see Virtual Memory
Down the bottom , Click Change and Increase to the Recommended amount.

I had a Virtual memory problem a while back and when I did this the warnings dissapered.

Fanny Cradock

I reckon you need a good old spring clean. Get CCleaner and run the "cleaner". After that you may want to run the "issues" option to clear your registry. The odds are that there is a great deal of crap still on your computer, e.g. old programme installers, file duplicates or files that remain after deletion of another programme etc.

I'd bet that there is something malicious on you computer.

Personally I don't think having to go into college to download the latest virus database is the most practical solution. AV programmes like Avast, AVG 7.5 or http://www.free-av.com/ are fantastic and free. Added to this you will need to run Spyware programmes like Defender (someone provided a link), Spybot AVG Anti-Spyware (see the AVG 7.5 link) and Adaware.

H3LLg0d

Right click My Computer

Click properties

Advanced tab

Under Performance, click settings

Advanced tab

Under Virutal memory, click change

Click C: in the list

Check Custom size, and set both initial and maximum to 1024

You should notice a slight performance inprovement as well as never having a "low virtual memory" warning ever again

WizZard

To see what processes are using Virtual Memory, open Task Manager, choose Processes tab. The go to the View menu and choose Select Columns. In the list choose Virtual Memory, then Ok.

This will list the amount of VM used by each process which will help you figure out what program/service is chewing up your VM.