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carlton23 | 10:12 Mon 16th Jan 2012 | Technology
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Now I am getting a window informing me that my Virtual memory is too low, so, what`s the next complicated action do I take to pump up the PC`s brainbox. Peeerrleeeese?
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It would be nice to know the specs of your PC. Laptop or desk top? What O/S you using?
You can give other assisting details via Control Panel/Performance Information and Tools, then click on the View and print detailed performance and system information. Give us the figures quoted in the next window that pops up under the component details.

Running short of Virtual memory is an indicator of either a shortage of ram memory, too many processes running, lack of Hard Disc space.
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`Blimey` Alice, I`ll have to get back later to answer as my O/H has got trouble with the car not starting, BRRRrrrrrrrrrrrr pop pop shudder.
It would be nice to know why your PC believes you need more virtual memory. i.e to know what you are running. You may find that if you upgrade your real memory it would not need to be using the virtual stuff and the problem goes away.

If you must play with the virtual memory size then it can be found in Settings/Control Panel/System/Advanced/Performance Settings//Advanced/Virtual Memory Change. But there is opportunity to cause yourself problems if you aren't careful. I suspect many just let the system manage their settings. In which case a larger hard drive might encourage the system to allocate a larger portion of drive as virtual memory.
Unless the settings have been changed from default then the system shoud increase the virtual memory automatically and the message would just be a warning saying it's doing so.

But OG has hit the nail on the head, virtual memory warnings are almost always due to a lack of real memory so increasing the memory in your computer by buying more RAM is almost certainly the answer (it's not an expensive or tricky thing to do either)
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OG & Chuck: These are the things I think you want to assist me with my Desktop PC. Make: Packhard Bell. Home Edition. Version 2002. Service Pack 3. 1.81GHz. 960MB. of Ram.
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Total Virtual Mem 2.00GB. Available Virtual Mem 1.96GB.
960MB is boardliner, I'd generally say anything below 1GB (1024MB) then upgrade your RAM (you'll actually have 1GB installed but your video card will be using the the computer isn't reporting)

If your system is kept very clean and streamlined with the absolute minimum of crap installed and running in the back ground then it would be possible for it to run fine with 1GB installed, but start adding a few programs running in the background and you'll soon use all that and start needing virtual memory.

I'd suggest downloading the scanner from here and running it
http://www.crucial.co...emscanner/?click=true
Then consider either adding more RAM, or you may have to remove what you have already and replace the whole lot (this depending on how many slots for ram you have and how many are already occupied)
PS

You don't have to buy the RAM from crucial but the scanner is a handy tool to tell you what you need before buying elsewhere if you want.
Makre sure you hard disk is not full (or nearly full) as this can also cause Virtual Memory problems.
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Much appreciated for your patience gentlemen, but I think I require the help of a more knowledgeable person to help me understand your instructions. At my age I find it very difficult to remember anything I read a few minutes after. He does computers problems via a telephone but I have to pay £25 per hour.
Your options are somewhere like PC World who can sell and fit more memory for you, or to have a bash at buying and installing the memory yourself - you would have to open the box.

The crucial site allows you to download a check application that will try to identify your PC and will tell you what memory is installed, and what options you have to upgrade it.

Depending on what is recommended you can make a choice of how much you wish to add, order the correct memory as indicated by the application from someone, and when it comes install it.

The memory boards may well come with instructions anyway but it's a case of opening the box, identifying the slots that are free to add memory to (or which needs memory replaced) and then easing the memory onto the slot, doing the box back up, and rebooting.
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O G: I have done a crucial system scanner which shows that my PC has two memory slots, availible slots. 0.
So your PC has two slots to hold memory, but none of them are free.

This probably means you have two 500Mb memory cards, one in each slot.

You could buy two 1Gb memory cards, take out the existing cards, and put the new ones in.

This is not a difficult operation, probably making sure you buy the right memory is the difficult part.
Crucial scanner ought to have given details on the maximum memory you can install though. As VHG says, you could replace rather than simply add. Maybe you can sell your existing ones second hand on an auction site afterwards ?

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