Low On Virtual Memory Warning--What The Heck?!?!?

[Tony Trout]

I get a "Windows XP Is Low On Virtual Memory" warning sometimes...what the heck is is and how do I correct the problem?

[HotWireD]

Go to Start...'Control Panel' ... System... Settings ...Advanced tab ....

Virtual memory shoud be an option at the bottom of the box...
Click the box labelled 'Change'.... (see pic below for the Xp version I have)

The virtual memory should be set to either 'custom' or 'system managed'

click to set it yourself (custom) and double the size it is set to - I use at least 667 MB minimun and maximum.

(the picture below is from my work's computer).

Explanation of Virtual memory for XP...
This page attempts to be a stand-alone description for general users of the way Virtual Memory operates in Windows XP
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

Microsoft's information page on how to change Virtual Memory...
To change the size of the virtual memory paging file
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/sysdm_advancd_perform_cha nge_vmpagefile.mspx?mfr=t rue

[HotWireD]

I like to think of the virtual memory as being a notepad the computer uses to store information that it is using every now and again to reduce recovery times from discs and the hard drive. The CPU memory being like my brain, the virtual memory is like a note pad where I place information whilst I am thinking so it is readily at hand, as opposed to hard drive memory used to store files, which would be equivalent to reference books on a book shelf.

It is actually a space allocated on a hard drive where the computer can store data that is currently being used by applications. This frees up CPU space.

This is probably a bad explanation of virtual memory - I am sure there are proficient Third Day Computing Technical Wizards who can explain it better than I :confused:

[HotWireD]

The elder geek... sort of makes it clearer (sort of).


http://www.theeldergeek.com/paging_file.htm
The Windows XP Page File
Performance is always an issue when dealing with computers. We tend to think of major items such as processor speed, amount of installed RAM and the graphics card when talking about how fast a computer performs. It's true those components do play a large role in performance, but one item that can substantially impact overall performance that doesn't get nearly the amount of attention as the more well known components is the paging file. The paging file is very closely related to the physical RAM installed in the computer. Its purpose is to extend the amount of physical RAM and make it available to the system. Both services and installed applications can benefit from this 'extra' RAM, even though it is substantially different from the sticks that plug into the motherboard.

Not all that long ago 32 to 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM was considered a huge amount for a personal computer. Today, amounts of 128MB to 256MB are common with many machines sporting 512MB or even 1GB of RAM. It might seem that with such a huge jump in installed RAM that the paging file would be unnecessary. There must be some sort of law or correlation that I don't know about, but operating systems and applications keep finding ways to suck up all that memory so the page file remains with us. There have been a number of schemes for extending the installed amounts of RAM but basically they are all paging files. When the load imposed by applications and services running on the computer nears the amount of installed RAM it calls out for more. Since there isn't any additional RAM to be found, it looks for a substitute; in this case virtual memory which is also known as the page file.

We now have two types of memory; random access memory (RAM) and virtual memory, or the page file. The page file is created during the Windows XP installation and resides on the hard drive. Page files are measured in megabytes. The size of the page file is based on how much RAM is installed in the computer. By default, XP creates a page file which is 1.5 times the amount of installed RAM and places it on the hard drive where XP is installed. Other than plugging the RAM into the motherboard, there is little than can be done to alter its performance characteristics. The page file is a different story. Because it's located on a hard drive, it's subject to a number of factors that can hinder its performance.

[John DeVito]

Basically, each program, process, or service running on a computer occupies a piece of memory. If the physical memory were to fill up the computer would crash because there would be no room for the software running to run. So what the OS does is it takes "pages" from memory where there are inactive or dormant items (processes that the system hasn't been using for a little while but haven't been formally "closed") and it writes them to the page file (virtual memory). This way, new sections of RAM are freed up for the processes that are active. This is good because RAM is much faster than virtual memory. If and when the system finally needs the info in the page file the system reads it off of the hard drive back into memory (RAM). If this happens too much it will make your system slower. It is a condition known as thrashing. You can cure thrashing by increasing the amount of RAM in your system. You can recognize by the fact that uour hard drive light is always on and you can hear it rattling away, even when you aren't doing much. When the page file fills up you get the "Low on virtual memory" error.

Add some memory to meet or exceed the requirements of the program you are using that needs the most RAM. My daughter has a game that had a minimum requirement of 256MB RAM, but it ran like a snail. After doing some monitoring I confirmed I needed RAM and increased it to 512MB and everything runs fine now.

It can never hurt to add RAM. It should help with that issue.