"Windows low on virtual memory

[katieb73]

Help please.... keep getting a recurring message saying that windows is low on virtual memory and to go to help section. when i do this there is nowhere that seems to know bout 'virtual memory'. My comp is crap at the mo, so slow, I degfrag it every so often and have had some more memory put on to no avail. any ideas would be most welcome.TIA

[ChuckFickens]

click start, and then right click on my computer and select properties and then post back with how much "real" memory (RAM) your computer has please.

[weeal]

Sorry for butting in ...
Mine does that too Chuck (790 RAM)

[weeal]

oops ^760

[katieb73]

Thanks Chuck,

496MB of RAM.

[ChuckFickens]

Well I'm a firm believer in windows really needed 1Gb of ram to run well, wspecially when you get a few background tasks running (like your virus software)

Katie, I would suggest increasing the amount of real RAM in your machine, an extra 512mb should cost next to nothing and will probably make a quite significant difference to your computer and very likely solve the virtual memory problem. (if your hard drive is almost permanently accessing so you can hear it or the drive light is always going you definitely need more ram!)

Al yours is borderline... it may be ok to just increase the amount of virtual memory. right click on my computer, select properties, then click on the advanced tab, then click on performance options, and once again on the advanced tab. you should then see your virtual memory settings, increase the maximum size to about 1.5times the amount of real RAM installed in your computer.(though I would still consider increasing the real ram though)

[katieb73]

Thanks very much for that. I will investigate further.

[weeal]

Thanks Chuck just got back to this thread now.

[smith134]

To manually change the size of virtual memory, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl in the Open box, and then press ENTER.
2. Click the Advanced tab, and then under Performance click Settings.
3. Click the Advanced tab, and then under Virtual memory click Change.
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.
6. Click OK to close the dialog box and apply changes.

Note After you change the size of the paging file, you may be prompted to restart Windows. If you are prompted to restart, the changes will not take effect until Windows is restarted.

Notes

* To have Windows select the best paging file size, click System managed size. The recommended minimum size is the same as 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 the same as 1.5 times the RAM on your computer. It is good practice to leave the paging file at its recommended size as performance can decrease if a paging file is too large. However, you may increase its size if you frequently use programs that use lots of memory, such as graphics programs or games.
* We strongly recommend that you do not disable or delete the paging file because this can lessen the computer's performance. However, if you decide to delete a paging file, set both the initial size and the maximum size to zero, or click No paging file.