Virtual memory low

Well this popped up in the bottom tray and has done so on 2 of my 7 year old
PC's/ I guess that explains why the pcs have been so slow lately.

The balloon that popped up says that the virtual memory is low so windows is
going to do something with the page filing system (like increase it)
Is there anything that i can change myself to increase performance on my
lagging pc.
*Note that you can outrule malware, and a small 256 ram that i have on the
pc which is nothing to systems that are made nowadays.

Windows xp home edition OEM

--
Thanks so very much for your help-! ! ! !

"Marcy" wrote in message
...

Well this popped up in the bottom tray and has done so on 2 of my 7 year
old
PC's/ I guess that explains why the pcs have been so slow lately.

The balloon that popped up says that the virtual memory is low so windows
is
going to do something with the page filing system (like increase it)
Is there anything that i can change myself to increase performance on my
lagging pc.
*Note that you can outrule malware, and a small 256 ram that i have on the
pc which is nothing to systems that are made nowadays.

Windows xp home edition OEM

1. This error message is anomalous. "Virtual memory" is your
swap file on the hard drive, handled by Windows so as to grow
and shrink depending on current needs. If in doubt you should
reset it to "Let Windows Manage It."

2. The quickest way to get better performance is to double
RAM to 512 Mb. which should cost $15 to $30 depending on
where you live.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

"Marcy" wrote in message
...

Well this popped up in the bottom tray and has done so on 2 of my 7 year
old
PC's/ I guess that explains why the pcs have been so slow lately.

The balloon that popped up says that the virtual memory is low so windows
is
going to do something with the page filing system (like increase it)
Is there anything that i can change myself to increase performance on my
lagging pc.
*Note that you can outrule malware, and a small 256 ram that i have on the
pc which is nothing to systems that are made nowadays.

Windows xp home edition OEM

1. This error message is anomalous. "Virtual memory" is your
swap file on the hard drive, handled by Windows so as to grow
and shrink depending on current needs. If in doubt you should
reset it to "Let Windows Manage It."

2. The quickest way to get better performance is to double
RAM to 512 Mb. which should cost $15 to $30 depending on
where you live.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

It could be that you are running low on free disk space. I would assume,
unless you've messed with the setup that the page file is set to win
managed, and with that little ram it would be about 384mb, which might be
insufficient for whatever apps you are running
IMO winxp requires 512mb of ram for any meaningfull performance

"Marcy" wrote in message
...
Well this popped up in the bottom tray and has done so on 2 of my 7 year
old
PC's/ I guess that explains why the pcs have been so slow lately.

The balloon that popped up says that the virtual memory is low so windows
is
going to do something with the page filing system (like increase it)
Is there anything that i can change myself to increase performance on my
lagging pc.
*Note that you can outrule malware, and a small 256 ram that i have on the
pc which is nothing to systems that are made nowadays.

Windows xp home edition OEM

--
Thanks so very much for your help-! ! ! !

It could be that you are running low on free disk space. I would assume,
unless you've messed with the setup that the page file is set to win
managed, and with that little ram it would be about 384mb, which might be
insufficient for whatever apps you are running
IMO winxp requires 512mb of ram for any meaningfull performance

"Marcy" wrote in message
...
Well this popped up in the bottom tray and has done so on 2 of my 7 year
old
PC's/ I guess that explains why the pcs have been so slow lately.

The balloon that popped up says that the virtual memory is low so windows
is
going to do something with the page filing system (like increase it)
Is there anything that i can change myself to increase performance on my
lagging pc.
*Note that you can outrule malware, and a small 256 ram that i have on the
pc which is nothing to systems that are made nowadays.

Windows xp home edition OEM

--
Thanks so very much for your help-! ! ! !

Marcy

The best solution is to add 256 mb RAM. Increasing the pagefile size to
a minimum = maximum of say 768 mb may eliiminate popups but will not
speed up system performance. Adding RAM does not help if the CPU
capacity is low and the system prformance bottleneck. Maintaining
frequently accessed files on a USB hard drive will also result in slow
system performance.

You may help system performance by changing programmes from starting
during the boot process to loading on demand. Minimising multi-tasking
will help. Putting shortcuts like Show Desktop, Internet Explorer,
Outlook Express and Windows Explorer in the Quick Launch Tray may help
to encourage you to close these applications after use as it is easy to
reopen them when required.

Minimising the use of Add-Ons with Internet Explorer will help.

Avoid seciuity software which generates excessive demands for memory.
McAfee and Norton products are notably among those to be avoided.

Avoid using facilities which run in the background when they can be run
when the computer is not being used. An example is Diskeeper which can
continuously defragment when it can be set to run on demand.

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Marcy wrote:
Well this popped up in the bottom tray and has done so on 2 of my 7
year old PC's/ I guess that explains why the pcs have been so slow
lately.
The balloon that popped up says that the virtual memory is low so
windows is going to do something with the page filing system (like
increase it) Is there anything that i can change myself to increase
performance on
my lagging pc.
*Note that you can outrule malware, and a small 256 ram that i have
on the pc which is nothing to systems that are made nowadays.

Windows xp home edition OEM

Marcy

The best solution is to add 256 mb RAM. Increasing the pagefile size to
a minimum = maximum of say 768 mb may eliiminate popups but will not
speed up system performance. Adding RAM does not help if the CPU
capacity is low and the system prformance bottleneck. Maintaining
frequently accessed files on a USB hard drive will also result in slow
system performance.

You may help system performance by changing programmes from starting
during the boot process to loading on demand. Minimising multi-tasking
will help. Putting shortcuts like Show Desktop, Internet Explorer,
Outlook Express and Windows Explorer in the Quick Launch Tray may help
to encourage you to close these applications after use as it is easy to
reopen them when required.

Minimising the use of Add-Ons with Internet Explorer will help.

Avoid seciuity software which generates excessive demands for memory.
McAfee and Norton products are notably among those to be avoided.

Avoid using facilities which run in the background when they can be run
when the computer is not being used. An example is Diskeeper which can
continuously defragment when it can be set to run on demand.

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Marcy wrote:
Well this popped up in the bottom tray and has done so on 2 of my 7
year old PC's/ I guess that explains why the pcs have been so slow
lately.
The balloon that popped up says that the virtual memory is low so
windows is going to do something with the page filing system (like
increase it) Is there anything that i can change myself to increase
performance on
my lagging pc.
*Note that you can outrule malware, and a small 256 ram that i have
on the pc which is nothing to systems that are made nowadays.

Windows xp home edition OEM

"Marcy" wrote in message
...
Well this popped up in the bottom tray and has done so on 2 of my 7 year
old
PC's/ I guess that explains why the pcs have been so slow lately.

The balloon that popped up says that the virtual memory is low so windows
is
going to do something with the page filing system (like increase it)
Is there anything that i can change myself to increase performance on my
lagging pc.
*Note that you can outrule malware, and a small 256 ram that i have on the
pc which is nothing to systems that are made nowadays.

Windows xp home edition OEM

--
Thanks so very much for your help-! ! ! !

It is going to increase the size of pagefile.sys. You should insure that
the pagefile can be increased (i. e. needs some free space on the disk).
You can help the computer a lot by increasing the amount of RAM to 512 KB.

Jim

"Marcy" wrote in message
...
Well this popped up in the bottom tray and has done so on 2 of my 7 year
old
PC's/ I guess that explains why the pcs have been so slow lately.

The balloon that popped up says that the virtual memory is low so windows
is
going to do something with the page filing system (like increase it)
Is there anything that i can change myself to increase performance on my
lagging pc.
*Note that you can outrule malware, and a small 256 ram that i have on the
pc which is nothing to systems that are made nowadays.

Windows xp home edition OEM

--
Thanks so very much for your help-! ! ! !

It is going to increase the size of pagefile.sys. You should insure that
the pagefile can be increased (i. e. needs some free space on the disk).
You can help the computer a lot by increasing the amount of RAM to 512 KB.

Jim

Marcy wrote:
Well this popped up in the bottom tray and has done so on 2 of my 7
year old PC's/ I guess that explains why the pcs have been so slow
lately.
The balloon that popped up says that the virtual memory is low so
windows is going to do something with the page filing system (like
increase it) Is there anything that i can change myself to increase
performance on
my lagging pc.
*Note that you can outrule malware, and a small 256 ram that i have
on the pc which is nothing to systems that are made nowadays.

Windows xp home edition OEM

It sounds like you have a set size for virtual memory. Try setting that
to System Managed size and I think the message will go away.

Control Panel, System; Advanced tab. In the Performance box, click the
Settings button.
In the new window, click Advanced, in the Virtual Memory box, click the
Change Button.
Be sure the boot drive is selected, click System Managed Size, click
SET.
OK your way out, Restart, and see if the message is gone. I feel pretty
sure it will be.
HTH,

Twayne`

Marcy wrote:
Well this popped up in the bottom tray and has done so on 2 of my 7
year old PC's/ I guess that explains why the pcs have been so slow
lately.
The balloon that popped up says that the virtual memory is low so
windows is going to do something with the page filing system (like
increase it) Is there anything that i can change myself to increase
performance on
my lagging pc.
*Note that you can outrule malware, and a small 256 ram that i have
on the pc which is nothing to systems that are made nowadays.

Windows xp home edition OEM

It sounds like you have a set size for virtual memory. Try setting that
to System Managed size and I think the message will go away.

Control Panel, System; Advanced tab. In the Performance box, click the
Settings button.
In the new window, click Advanced, in the Virtual Memory box, click the
Change Button.
Be sure the boot drive is selected, click System Managed Size, click
SET.
OK your way out, Restart, and see if the message is gone. I feel pretty
sure it will be.
HTH,

Twayne`

Azy wrote:
My 40 GB HD is about 50% used ( i have 20.5 gb free space)
I understand everyone saying that I could use more ram than the
256 I currently have. But knowing that i only have the 256, what
chould i set my virtual paging file size to be for all drives?
RIGHT now its set to 484 MB. ALso, I checked the box to "Compress
drive to save disk space"...what will this do and is it a goo thing
to do? It was unchecked before.

Thread hijack.

Leave it at "System Managed Size" -- purchase more memory and install it.
Try to bring your machine to 1GB.

http://www.crucial.com/
Use the "Crucial Memory Advisor™ tool" and/or "Crucial System Scanner tool"
to figure out what you need/can get.

Ignore/disable the compression thing - you don't need to do it (you still
have 50% of your drive free) and it might be noticable (decrease in
performance) on a system such as yours.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Shenan

Adding RAM does not help if the CPU capacity is low and the system
performance bottleneck. We don't know in this case what the CPU is.


--


Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Shenan Stanley wrote:
Azy wrote:
My 40 GB HD is about 50% used ( i have 20.5 gb free space)
I understand everyone saying that I could use more ram than the
256 I currently have. But knowing that i only have the 256, what
chould i set my virtual paging file size to be for all drives?
RIGHT now its set to 484 MB. ALso, I checked the box to "Compress
drive to save disk space"...what will this do and is it a goo thing
to do? It was unchecked before.

Thread hijack.

Leave it at "System Managed Size" -- purchase more memory and
install it. Try to bring your machine to 1GB.

http://www.crucial.com/
Use the "Crucial Memory AdvisorT tool" and/or "Crucial System Scanner
tool" to figure out what you need/can get.

Ignore/disable the compression thing - you don't need to do it (you
still have 50% of your drive free) and it might be noticable
(decrease in performance) on a system such as yours.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP

Azy wrote:
My 40 GB HD is about 50% used ( i have 20.5 gb free space)
I understand everyone saying that I could use more ram than the
256 I currently have. But knowing that i only have the 256, what
chould i set my virtual paging file size to be for all drives?
RIGHT now its set to 484 MB. ALso, I checked the box to "Compress
drive to save disk space"...what will this do and is it a goo thing
to do? It was unchecked before.

Shenan Stanley wrote:
Thread hijack.

Leave it at "System Managed Size" -- purchase more memory and
install it. Try to bring your machine to 1GB.

http://www.crucial.com/
Use the "Crucial Memory AdvisorT tool" and/or "Crucial System
Scanner tool" to figure out what you need/can get.

Ignore/disable the compression thing - you don't need to do it (you
still have 50% of your drive free) and it might be noticable
(decrease in performance) on a system such as yours.

Gerry wrote:
Adding RAM does not help if the CPU capacity is low and the system
performance bottleneck. We don't know in this case what the CPU is.

If the system is able to run Windows XP now and there is only 256MB now -
there is a 99% chance they *would* see an increase in performance if they
increase their total amount of memory, reguardless of the CPU power.

Yes - they could also increase their overall performance if they increased
CPU - but the least expensive, easiest hardware upgrade they could perform
that would have the highest likelihood of improving performance is an
increase in physical memory - they will get nothing out of what they are
trying to do.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

"Gerry" wrote in message
...
Shenan

Adding RAM does not help if the CPU capacity is low and the system
performance bottleneck. We don't know in this case what the CPU is.


--


Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Shenan Stanley wrote:
Azy wrote:
My 40 GB HD is about 50% used ( i have 20.5 gb free space)
I understand everyone saying that I could use more ram than the
256 I currently have. But knowing that i only have the 256, what
chould i set my virtual paging file size to be for all drives?
RIGHT now its set to 484 MB. ALso, I checked the box to "Compress
drive to save disk space"...what will this do and is it a goo thing
to do? It was unchecked before.

Thread hijack.

Leave it at "System Managed Size" -- purchase more memory and
install it. Try to bring your machine to 1GB.

http://www.crucial.com/
Use the "Crucial Memory AdvisorT tool" and/or "Crucial System Scanner
tool" to figure out what you need/can get.

Ignore/disable the compression thing - you don't need to do it (you
still have 50% of your drive free) and it might be noticable
(decrease in performance) on a system such as yours.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP



Gerry

There is a very good chance that the machine has an integrated video card,
in which case only 192mb will be available for whatever is going down..

It is almost impossible to find older processors which one could trust, but
easy to find and fit extra memory. Pagefile usage will be cut by half, and
the whole machine will feel more sprightly..


--

Mike Hall - MVP Windows Experience
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/