Virtual Memory problem

[eSDee]

My uncle's computer was screwing up on him recently and it gave him an error about his Virtual Memory being too low. He tried to increase the Page file or whatever it's called(bad idea) and after that, it wouldn't boot. He was running Windows 2k. He gave me his computer and asked me to fix it, so I had some extra memory which I slapped in there and removed the previous memory. I also upgraded him to Windows XP. Now he is all patched up Windows wise and Office wise, and right now I was typing up a manual for him and I got the Virtual Memory problem again. WTF? Can anyone tell me how exactly Virtual Memory works, and what I need to do to get rid of that sh1t?

Thanks peeps.

[Joshua]

Virtual memory is quite simply your PC using free Hard drive space as memory to reduce the amount of physical RAM you need. In the old days, when you hit your RAM limit the pc would lock up.

Then they came out with virtual memory, memory managment etc..

It is actually something I would NOT recommend diabling. The page file is just the system file that your PC is writing the contents of the Virtual Memory to.

Did you upgrade his machine to XP or do a clean install?

If you upgraded, you probably brought whatever problem he was having before with you to XP.

Check the event viewer system tab and look for any explanitory errors. Therer might be a workaround, regedit, or patch to fix it.

If not, I recommend a reformat and clean install.

[ray]

He really shouldn't be receiving virtual memory errors in Windows 2000. Sounds like something is eating his memory away. Run a full virus scan and download and run AdAware and Spybot. For any computer performance issues I always run Adaware and Spybot before I do anything else. Then i typically do a virus scan.

[eSDee]

Actually this was a clean install of Windows XP, because I did not want to bring the problem with me. I didn't install any unnecessary programs; just Office and Norton. I am not sure what else it could be.

I'll run those programs and hopefully they'll find something but I doubt it. I'll also check the event viewer as well.

Thanks fellas.

[ray]

that is very very strange then. you've stumped me twice today eSDeeLoco. LOL

[GilbertsGrape]

just disable it. (i wonder if it is a HD problem where Vmem is on the Harddrive?

[ray]

i was reading some articles relating to virtual memory sinking very low when new hardware, specifically, hard drives were installed. but esdee said he did a clean format. hmmmm..

[Joshua]

BAD BAD BAD BAD IDEA. Disabling virtual memory will become VERY noticeable as soon as you try doing any heavy multitasking or running memory intensive programs. You're machine will all but stop under heavy load...

...Just my experience and $.02


Originally posted by GilbertsGrape
just disable it. (i wonder if it is a HD problem where Vmem is on the Harddrive?

[eSDee]

Thanks for all your input folks. I think I'll just tell my uncle not to mess with the file at all, and to restart everytime he gets that error.

Muchas gracias :bandit:

[yippiekiyeh]

if you can try to put the page file on a completely different drive... not a different partition but different drive. It might be a space issue.