Community Newsletter: Q&A: What do you mean, Windows Virtual Memory is too low?!
- 6/28/07 3:54 PM
Is your Laptop a Dell?
by mwill87123 - 6/15/07 11:01 PM In reply to: What do you mean, Windows Virtual Memory is too low?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Would need more system info about your machine to have a better idea. Low virtural memory is a sign that your hard drive is full or your settings need to be adjusted.
Mike
DCSE Dell Certified Tech.
Windows Virtual Memory is too low
by AdobeGuy - 6/15/07 11:05 PM In reply to: What do you mean, Windows Virtual Memory is too low?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi Denise,
The error which your getting on your right side of the task bar saying 'low on virtual memory' is coz u r running out of memory(RAM),u must be running heavy softwares simultaneously .what happen is when ur system run out of memory it start swapping/paging in other word start using Virtual memory.try to quit some program before opening a new one.hope it helps.
Windows Virtual Memory is too low
by joliett - 6/15/07 11:23 PM In reply to: What do you mean, Windows Virtual Memory is too low?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The setting for maximum size of the page file is too low, or there is not enough disk space free to expand it to the size specififed...or the page file has just become corrupt.
To adjust your Virtual Memory settings - go to Start, Control Panel, System, Advanced, Performance, Settings, Advanced - the current total physical size of the Windows recommended page file is shown. Click Change to adjust settings for virtual memory. Now you can select any drive partition and set Custom, System Managed, or no page file.
In the Virtual Memory settings, set to No page file, then exit system Properties and reboot. Then go back and this time turn on Virtual Memory and accept the Windows recommeneded sizes.
If you keep getting the error after all this, you can delete some files from the hard drive that hosts the Virtual Memory file, or turn off Virtual Memory, or make your Virtual Memory settings customized and smaller.
Virtual Memory and how to adjust
by MattSmith - 6/15/07 11:24 PM In reply to: What do you mean, Windows Virtual Memory is too low?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Virtual Memory is the space used on the Disk to "Swap" information from Ram (Your Sticks of Memory) to the Hard Drive or Disk Drive. You can have Windows set it for you, or you can set a size yourself.
If you let Windows adjust the size, you run the risk of having it become Fragmented. Windows will set a smaller initial size and a Larger Maximum Size, which lets it "Grow". Fragmenting is like having a letter you wrote put into pieces, and placed all over your desk. To read the letter you would have to find all the parts and then put them together. If you had to do this it would take a long time to find and read your letter - Not a Good Way to write letters. The disk Drive does the same thing to All the items at the end of this post, were I talk about Defragmenting.
The best way I have found, and was discussed way back when 98 and NT came out, is to set it yourself. A basic rule of thumb is to make the Virtual Memory 1.5 or 2 times the size of your memory. Memory are the Chips used in the PC / Laptop - Not the Disk Drive. To Adjust - Go to the "My Computer" Icon and right click on it to show a list and at the bottom is "Properties" Click on Properties then on the General Tab towards the bottom is How much RAM (Memory) you have. Note the size (like 512mb or 1gb) and multiply it by 1.5 i.e. 512mb is 768, 1gb would be 1500 etc... Now Click on the "Advanced" tab, the Click on "Settings" in the Performance Box, then click on the "Advanced", then at the Bottom is "Virtual Memory" click on "Change"
This is your Virtual Memory, at the Bottom of the page it will show you the "Recommended Size. next Click "Custom Size" and put in the numbers from your (RAM) Memory X 1.5 = " " Calculation and put these numbers in Initial Size and Maximum Size. If they are smaller than the recommended size, put in the Recommended Size in both Initial and Maximum.
I have 2gb on my Laptop and mine is set to Initial = 3070, Maximum = 3070.
When your Done - Click OK and reboot your PC/Laptop. This should do it.
NOTE: You may also consider purchasing Diskeeper, This will give you the ability to defragment the Files, Directories, MFT Space, and the Virtual Memory referred to as the Page File. The defragmentor that come with XP is Horrible (My opinion) Remember the Letter you put in pieces - this happens to everything I mentioned above such as files etc... The more fragmented, the longer it takes to start the PC/laptop and to open programs and do most anything. Diskeeper also has a tool to correct your Page File (Virtual Memory) and the MFT Space (Master File Table) these are very important for speed and corruption of data. The MFT is a BIG Index that says where all those parts of your letter are.
Good Luck! and Happy Hacking.
Matthew S
Virtual Memory.. Practically solved..
by Maverick.cs - 6/15/07 11:34 PM In reply to: What do you mean, Windows Virtual Memory is too low?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The 'Virtual memory.. low' phenomenon has struck again i see..
Well for starters, virtual memory is part of the Hard disk memory that windows uses for file paging. 'File paging' is done to transfer redundant or idle processes from the RAM onto the hard disk.
The percentage of the hard disk dedicated to this task is to be decided by the user. In your case, it seems most likely that it hasn't been specified.
Now to actually solve the problem..
RMEMBER.. You must be logged in as the 'Adminstrator' for this to work.
Once that's ensured, right click on the 'My Computer' icon on your desktop. The drop down menu will have an option titled 'Properties'. On clicking that, a dialog box with several tabs will appear.
Click on the tab titled 'Advanced'. Doing so will confront you with three more options. The first option is titled 'Performance'. Click on the 'settings' button adjoining it.
Another dialog box with three tabs will appear. Point your cursor on the 'Advanced' tab and click away.
The last option seen now will be titled 'Virtual memory'. Hit the 'Change' button next to it.
You guessed it.. ANOTHER dialog box..
This is where the 'Virtual memory' settings are decided in Windows XP. Click on each of your partitions now and select the 'System managed size' option, then proceed to hit the 'Set' button to assign the virtual memory.
After the process has been repeated for all the partitions,(C, D, E etc) click away on the 'OK's, and sit back and pride yourself on fixing your beloved laptop...
Cheers..!!
2 max
by 07253 - 6/15/07 11:47 PM In reply to: What do you mean, Windows Virtual Memory is too low?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Use a card(map) of memory Flash
Virtual memory
by NawelR - 6/16/07 12:25 AM In reply to: What do you mean, Windows Virtual Memory is too low?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hello,
First of all, I would apologize if my english is a bit weird, I'm a french user 
virtual memory is space on your hard disk the OS uses as a swap file, it works like you probably use to do when your desktop is overloaded with a lot of things you have got out, used and kept out. When you need some room to get a few extra things you need you'll drop some of the unused thing in a tray.
Your OS behaves the same way with programs you have launched and not closed, when it needs memory for a new one, it drops the least used in the "swap area".
Under normal conditions your OS takes care of the virtual memory, it will issue the warning message and extend the swap area automatically.
It offers you an option to manually manage the swap size on your hard disk, but letting thing work the automatic way is most often the best practice.
It's available disk space.
by Mendieta - 6/16/07 12:26 AM In reply to: What do you mean, Windows Virtual Memory is too low?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi denise.
Windows as most modern operating systems, uses all RAM memory available, when Ram is all used by your operating system, your applications and data, the only way to store more programs and data is using your hard disk as memory, that's called virtual memory, so when you receive the message: "Low Windows Virtual Memory", it means you have not enough disk space to store more programs and data.
The solution is very simple, just delete all that files you don't use anymore, word documents, Excel spreadsheets, etc. This will make more available disk space so Windows can use it again as memory (Virtual memory). You can backup data files previously before deleting them if you think they may be usefull later.
Windows has an option to delete unused files that applications leave forgotten in your disk and are no applications, no system files and no data, Files that some programs use once or create to help themself, but are no crucial as temporal files, go to start, all programs, accesories, system tools and liberate disk space, make it run and it will delete unused files from your hard disk.
Jose ignacio.
Not enough Virtual Memory
by Solocuriosa - 6/16/07 12:27 AM In reply to: What do you mean, Windows Virtual Memory is too low?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Denise when my Windows systems says Not Enough Virtual Memory, it means I either have too many windows open at one time or too many things stored in my Temporary Folder. Closing unused windows, and cleaning the temporary folders always helps.
Also running Ad-a-ware regularly helps to get rid of miners and spies as all these things slow down and cluter your computers memory.
Virtual Mem low
by ajharry1 - 6/16/07 12:49 AM In reply to: What do you mean, Windows Virtual Memory is too low?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Simply put, you are running out of disk space. Windows stores some of the things that it wants to get to in a hurry on your hard disk. The simplest way to solve this problem is to clean up your hard disk. Delete any programs that you don't use. Clean up your data files, copy your archived stuff to CD or DVD and free up some space on your hard disk. If it is possible you could increase system mem, this would reduce the need for virtual memory. Or you could replace your current HD with one of greater capacity. If you can afford it, I would do all of those things.
fix ifx xfi
by hussienon - 6/16/07 1:19 AM In reply to: What do you mean, Windows Virtual Memory is too low?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
i think if you start cean up all cookis and old internet files it will be faster "all history files"
Virtual Memory
by linbeck - 6/16/07 1:23 AM In reply to: What do you mean, Windows Virtual Memory is too low?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi Denise,
Right click your my computer icon, select properties then select the advance tab,then click settings under performance, then click the next advance tab, spot programmes, then click change,spot custom size, then alter it to 100MB less than the total reccommended size, click ok & apply were needed. Then go back to your desktop and repeat the above to make sure it as changed it. Then shutdown and restart. Also you might want to set a restore point when all is completed.I hope the above is helpful to you.
linbeck
Answers (?) for Denise D.
by cdadave - 6/16/07 1:25 AM In reply to: What do you mean, Windows Virtual Memory is too low?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I run Windows XP Media center on a laptop, and noticed that lately, my computer wasn't running as fast as when I first got it. I went poking around inside my computer; I brought up the "Disk Cleanup" utility, and found several thousand GB's of all kinds of things that, according to the utility, could be safely deleted. Evidently this was something over and above defragging, firewalls or spyware; usually when memory is running low, that means your disk is clogged up, so if nothing else, you might try the "disk cleanup"; it can't hurt. (Start/accessories/system tools/disk cleanup is how to get there)
Windows Virtual Memory
by sam4225262 - 6/16/07 1:57 AM In reply to: What do you mean, Windows Virtual Memory is too low?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi Denise.In Windows xp when you are low on your ram then windows tries to share ram with virtual memory.Virtual memory is a type of ram which is used by your application.This problem is not big its very silly and it is generally caused when you run a high requirment application which needs more ram then you have.For example if your physical ram is 256MB then you have to set virtual memory minimum to 600 and maximum to 900.Do this and i am 100% sure you will get out of your problem.
To change virtual memory simply right click on my computer icon then properties then a big window will appear then click on advanced then on performance tag click setting then another window will appear then click on advanced then in virtual memory tab click change and click on custom size and select partition(C,D,E etc)i use C theen fill the minimum nd maximum blocks click apply ok and restart you laptop.JOBS DONE ^^^^^^^ THANKS ANYWAY...
The Mystery of Virtual Memory...
by Wolfie2k5 - 6/16/07 2:01 AM In reply to: What do you mean, Windows Virtual Memory is too low?! by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Denise,
Virtual Memory is a feature that Windows (and for that matter, other operating systems) use in place of the real thing. Many people think that Operating Systems tend to bloat themselves in proportion to what the hardware of the day has to offer. Wrong. Operating systems have LONG outpaced hardware developments.
Virtual memory is living proof of this. So what is it? Simply put, it's a dedicated chunk of hard drive space that the operating system uses when you don't have enough of the real thing installed.
How it works:
When you install Windows for the first time, it makes note of how much physical RAM you've got installed. It may be 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB or even more. Windows XP, 32 bit edition can access up to 4 GB of physical memory. Few computers in the past 6 years have come with that much memory. It's been just too darn expensive to put that much physical RAM into a computer until recently. So, Microsoft (and others) implemented Virtual Memory. Consider it a sort of scratch pad for the computer. When you load many applications, or load huge files (documents, spreadsheets, large multimegapixel photos, etc), you can quickly run out of physical memory. Windows, while it's good at multitasking (the ability to run more than one application at the same time) and to a lesser degree, multithreading (the ability to execute multiple processes at the same time), can only focus on only one application at a time. So what Windows does is writes the data from the apps in the background to virtual memory until those apps are brought to the forefront again. It's not the prettiest solution because it causes your computer to run slower - you have to wait while it writes something you've got in memory out to the hard drive, then finds the bits it needs and reads them into active memory.
By default, Windows will create a file called "Pagefile.sys" in the root directory of the C: drive and it will make the file about the same size as the physical memory installed on the computer. So if you've got 1 GB worth of RAM, odds are you'll find a 1 GB PageFile.Sys in the root directory.
So, when you get a message that you're running out of Virtual Memory, odds are excellent you've got too many things open at the same time. Either that, or you've got a really HUGE file open for editing. Or, you've got an application that has a "memory leak". A memory leak can be best defined as an application that uses very sloppy memory management. Let's say you open a file that's 50 KB. The hosting application has a memory leak - when you close the app in question, parts of the memory space occupied by the file are not released by the application. This takes away from the available memory pool until you've at least logged off and logged back in or restarted the computer.
You can try closing something you don't need open at the time. But if that's still not enough, you could see about upgrading the computer's physical memory. Adding Physical Memory is ALWAYS the better way to go. Reading and writing to physical memory is always faster than trying to read and write to the hard drive.
The last option which is the cheap, down and dirty way to go about resolving the problem, would be to right-click on My Computer and select properties. Click on the Advanced tab and then click on the Advanced tab on the new window that pops up. At the bottom, you will see the option to change the amount of Virtual Memory the system will allocate to the swap file. Click the Change button and type in a number that's larger than the existing number for the MAXIMUM size. Increase the Maximum number as well. Click OK and close up the Properties box and any other child windows. Windows may ask for a reboot. If you've done everything right, and were generous enough with your hard drive space, Windows should have a larger swap file and you shouldn't see the error you've seen pop up.
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