"Virtual Memory too low"

toodelies

Hi there,

hoping someone can help me with this. my laptop was disasterously slow so i took it to a laptop shop and they cleaned it down. its working fine since. before i took it in, when i went on the net, every so often a message would pop up saying the virtual memory was too low" - this is still happening.

anyone any idea what this means? should the fixer company have sorted this out? how do i fix it?

am a total IT twit so really need help with this.

thanks in advance!

marco_polo

Could be simply disk space, or perhaps they reduced the virtual menu settings. What OS are you using?

If it is a VM problem try the suggested solution here:

http://www.troublefixers.com/fix-virtual-memory-too-low-warning-trouble-in-win-xp/

toodelies

I don't know what OS stands for? it has Windows XP on it. is that it?

when the guy cleaned it down he freed up loads of memory, apparently i had loaded the spyware on to it 20 times (dont ask me how) so the computer is working away fine and its pretty fast speed now. the message pops up when i use the net sometimes.

thebourke

you need to install extra memory in your laptop.

cpu-dude

thebourke wrote: »

you need to install extra memory in your laptop.

No you don't, you need to increase the size of your page file.

In Windows XP go to My Computer, right click it and then choose Properties, go to the Advanced tab, click Performance Options, then click Settings.



Again click the Advanced tab and then in the Virtual Memory section click Change.



Now you can view and set the parameters you need.



Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file you want to change (the C drive in this case).

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 need to restart your computer.

How large it should be depends on your Hard Drive size and RAM. How big and how much do you have in your computer?

Example: 60GB HD with 512MB of RAM should have a page file of 750-1500MB.

unnameduser

thebourke wrote: »

you need to install extra memory in your laptop.

cpu-dude wrote: »

No you don't, you need to increase the size of your page file.
.

We really need to know how much RAM you have at the moment OP.

cpu-dude

unnameduser wrote: »

We really need to know how much RAM you have at the moment OP.

cpu-dude wrote:

How large it should be depends on your Hard Drive size and RAM. How big and how much do you have in your computer?

Example: 60GB HD with 512MB of RAM should have a page file of 750-1500MB.

Exactly.

Effluo

So should we all just set it to the recommended value?

cpu-dude

Effluo wrote: »

So should we all just set it to the recommended value?

That's recommended for most computers.

But if you have a lot of RAM and you want a nice speed boost, turn if off altogether and only the RAM will be utilised, not your slow HD.

Effluo

Well i've got 4g's of ram with windows 7, game in hd and do some photo editing.

How am i to know if i could switch it off.

How is it all calculated?


Also it's funny that this came up as cnet had this as their weekly question. There was a lot of answers in regards to the startup programs and to disable everything that wasn't windows or anti-virus. Only one person said what ye said.

Although i take everything i get from cnet with a pinch of salt...

cpu-dude

Effluo wrote: »

Well i've got 4g's of ram with windows 7, game in hd and do some photo editing.

How am i to know if i could switch it off.

How is it all calculated?

Also it's funny that this came up as cnet had this as their weekly question. There was a lot of answers in regards to the startup programs and to disable everything that wasn't windows or anti-virus. Only one person said what ye said.

Although i take everything i get from cnet with a pinch of salt...

Well with 4GB of RAM and Windows 7, turning off the page file will give you a great speed improvement. Here's how:



By the way, if there's an off button - it can be safely turned off. Unlike below :-)