Windows XP: Windows Virtual Memory is too low--what's that all about?
- 8/7/09 1:17 PM
Windows Virtual Memory is too low--what's that all about?
by Lee Koo (ADMIN) - 8/7/09 1:17 PM
Question:
Windows Virtual Memory is too low--what's that all about?
Can anyone explain why I keep getting this message when first turning my computer on: "Windows Virtual Memory is too low--your system is low on virtual memory. Windows is increasing the size of your paging file. During this process requests for some applications may be denied. For more information see help." What causes this and is there something I can do to resolve this or is it an issue at all? Any help will be appreciated.
Submitted by: Marilyn H.
Here are some featured member answers to get you started, but
please read all the advice and suggestions that our
members have contributed to this question.
Simple steps go a long way --Submitted High Desert Charlie
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6142_102-0.html?messageID=3089010#3089010
Virtual memory --Submitted by jzou
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6142_102-0.html?messageID=3088307#3088307
Virtual memory issues --Submitted by Sporati
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6142_102-0.html?messageID=3088523#3088523
Too many start-up programs --Submitted by clap_clap
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6142_102-0.html?messageID=3088564#3088564
Multitasking and virtual memory --Submitted by paul_saute
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6142_102-0.html?messageID=3088293#3088293
Windows (really applies to most OSes) Virtual Memory --Submitted by zepper
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6142_102-0.html?messageID=3088428#3088428
If you have any adddition advice for Marilyn, please click on the reply link and submit your post. Please be as detailed as possible when submitting your solution or advice, the more details the better. Thanks!
Low virtual memory
by Sailsounds - 7/24/09 5:30 PM In reply to: Windows Virtual Memory is too low--what's that all about? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
May be due to an overloaded (more than 50% used) hard drive. Try disk cleanup and defragmenting the drive. Perhaps moving some files off of the drive to cdrs or external drives.
virtual memory
by jzou - 7/24/09 6:13 PM In reply to: Windows Virtual Memory is too low--what's that all about? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
In the most simplistic terms, virtual memory is using disk space to extend physical memory size.
Basically what the computer does is it takes a small chunk of your hard drive, and treat it as extra memory, in addition to the RAM chips already in your system.
Paging files is an index table for things that are stored in virtual memory, the bigger the file, the more you can store in virtual memory.
The possible causes are either a particular application of yours is a memory intensive program, or you have too much stuff on your hard drive, or you need to defrag your hard drive to clean it up.
As for the message you were getting "virtual mem too low...", you can either increase it, (there is a settings page where you can do it--more below), or clean up your hard drive, as the previous poster suggested, or find out the application that is using so much memory and remove it.
As for whether it is an issue of concern, that really depends on what worries you. Windows XP will automatically adjust your virtual memory size to accommodate the program's needs. But I usually increase it again anyways so I won't get any more such messages.
It won't crash your computer, wipe away all the data or suddenly teach your computer how to do a jig, but things might run a bit slower.
And could you provide some more detailed information about your system? OS, what programs you are running, RAM size, hard drive size, which service pack you are running, make and model of your machine?
How to increase your virtual memory size?
Follow my instructions at your own risk.
1. right click on my computers, click on properties
2. go to the advanced tab
3. under the performance section, there is a settings button, click it
4. go to the advanced tab
5. you will see three sections: processor scheduling, memory usage, and virtual memory
6. under virtual memory, there is another settings button, click it
7. under the section called "paging file size for selected drive"
8. you will see two fill in boxes that says initial size and maximum size.
As the name implies, initial size is how much of the hard drive is used to serve as memory at the very least, while the maximum is the limit of how much the hard drive is used to serve as memory at most.
Your get your error messages when that maximum limit is breached.
You can also select the system manage size option. I have never tried it.
9. leave the initial box box unchanged, for the maximum box, it has been recommended that you put double of whatever your RAM size is.
I don't know what yours are, so you will have to figure it out yourself.
But keep in mind there is no point to making it too big, law of diminishing returns and all that stuff. But just to give you an idea, my laptop has 40GB hard drive, and I put the maximum size to 1.5GB
Any questions?
some additional stuff
by jzou - 7/24/09 6:18 PM In reply to: virtual memory by jzouJust to reiterate, follow my instructions at your own risk. I will not be held responsible if anything do go wrong. And as usual when changing system settings, back up your critical settings first.
and, my ram size is 1GB while my virtual mem size is 1.5GB. So I didn't exactly follow the "double your RAM size" recommendation. But then, I don't use my laptop for anything more intensive than typing my report.
low virtual memory
by jford_1952 - 7/26/09 9:01 AM In reply to: virtual memory by jzouas jzou so expertly advised, the page file, which on older OS's up through Win2k caalled a swap file, where the ram commonly "swapped" data too the hard drive in order to deal with the newest ram request, I do know that if your hard drive free space is less that 15% virtual memory errors are common, without knowing your operating system and ram specifics it would all be specualtion, I have discovered some things in working on client computers that as jzou suggested, you can change the page file size, if your not technically oriented, I have had very good luck with simply setting it the "system managed size" and let windows use what it needs, or follow jzou's instructions for setting the size. If you only have 128 megs of ram and a say 40 gig hard drive, the easiest way to check how often the page file is being utilized is to watch your hard drive led, systems with insufficient RAM utilize the swap file continuously, just watching your hard drive activity when your not really doing anything that would seem memory intensive, and the hard drive is working continulously, its a great sigh you have insufficient ram, and a second problem I often run into is the start up programs, most non technical folks dont understand that when you have 30 applications (many not even visible)that start with windows, your ram is totally occupied and its at start up that this would likely occur, if your not technically proficient you can check the start up programs by getting up the "run" command assuming you have xp or newer, and type "msconfig" w/o quotations, enter, and a box with several tabs will appear, you should NOT look at any other tabs than the start up tab, there you will see all the various applications starting up, many are simply hidden apps that are auto updaters for programs like realplayer, adobe acrobat reader and and many more that simply dont need to be there and I have personally worked on client computers where that was exactly the problem for xp home and newer with insufficient ram, now as I said and jzou said, if your not technically proficient, dont alter any of these settings without direct
Paging and swapping are the same thing
by Olifrench - 8/8/09 8:53 AM In reply to: low virtual memory by jford_1952and that's also called virtual memory (I would also refrain from using VM in this context as VM is mostly used for Virtual Machine these days and it could be confusing).
The 15% of the hard disk space rule is wrong. You certainly don't need 15% of a 500Gig disk for virtual memory!
Also there is no law of diminishing returns for the size of the paging file.
1) put the paging/virtual memory file on your fastest and less used disk
2) make sure the file doesn't get fragmented by giving it a fixed size (remove it, defragment the disk, re-create it with minimum = maximum)
3) Make sure the size is big enough for your needs. 2 times your physical memory? It depends on your needs and how much memory you have. Say that you usually need up to 6GB when using your computer. If you have 1GB installed you need another 5GB of disk to be able to work. That's 5 times the memory. However if you have 3.5 GB you only need an extra 2.5, less than 2 times the memory you have (71% extra).
Yes, if you have an older system with little memory, 1/8 Gig (128MB) and a small 40GB disk, 15% of the disk is 6GB and you may need more than that in virtual memory if you overload your system.
virtual memory
by duststar - 8/4/09 2:02 PM In reply to: virtual memory by jzouI followed your directions but under my performance options there is no setting button. It says "change" should I click that?
change?
by jzou - 8/4/09 9:05 PM In reply to: virtual memory by duststarJust to confirm, you should see three sections: Performance, User Profile, and Startup and Recovery.
There should also be two buttons below the three sections: Enviromental variables and Error Reporting.
If you can confirm that, then you are probably at the right screen, click on it and let me know what you see.
Rest assured that simply clicking on a change button won't actually make any weird system changes.
Most likely you have a slightly different version XP or something to that effect, so they might have named things a bit differently.
Excellent answer!
by PsychGen - 8/7/09 8:28 PM In reply to: virtual memory by jzouKudos!
Windows Virtual Memory is too low--what's that all about?
by vattan2005 - 8/7/09 9:53 PM In reply to: virtual memory by jzouOoopsie! Okay, I just discovered I had manually changed these a long time ago and was surprised that I had set it to THREE times the memory. Would this cause a problem???
To much?
by Alain Martel1 - 8/8/09 9:09 AM In reply to: Windows Virtual Memory is too low--what's that all about? by vattan2005No, setting the virtual memory to large can't cause a low memory isue.
The only thing it can cause, is a waste of disk space.
Assuming that you have a 32 bits OS.
There is no point having the actual RAM amouns PLUS the maximum virtual memory to a value larger than 4096Mb (4Gb), as it's the absolute upper limit of the memory that your system can access.
If you have 4Gb of RAM, you don't need to use virtual memory.
Too much?
by Olifrench - 8/8/09 11:25 AM In reply to: To much? by Alain Martel1"If you have 4Gb of RAM, you don't need to use virtual memory."
I don't think this is the case. I have 4GB of RAM in my 32-bit Vista and I believe my 4975MB paging file gets used. 4975 shows as the recommended size, minimum recommended 16MB.
Get CC cleaner from CNET
by RD1956 - 7/24/09 6:15 PM In reply to: Windows Virtual Memory is too low--what's that all about? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Usually it a program that has attached to your registry that gives that error in hopes you will buy their registry cleaner. Download CC cleaner from CNET it's freeware. It will clean your system for nothing' Plus get rid of the registry bug.
registry bug?
by jzou - 8/7/09 12:48 PM In reply to: Get CC cleaner from CNET by RD1956how do you know it is a registry error and not something else when you have no access to the original poster's computer information?
Registry Bug
by gysgtusmc74 - 7/25/09 8:09 AM In reply to: registry bug? by jzougood question.........never seen that problem before.........i have troubleshooted many a computer and have never seen a low memory problem caused by a rogue registry cleaner trying to get you to buy........all the suggestions to increase the physical ram or increase the page file are 99% spot on.
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