virtul memory low

[blade1357]

virtul memory low the bloon keep poping up an i have done just about ever thing i know anny sugestions you can offer please do

[Tarun]

Change your Virtual Memory to System managed size, then reboot.

[Drugwash]

Any explanation of why that happens and an alternate solution that would allow keeping a fixed size of the virtual memory? Some guides say it helps preventing drive fragmentation.

Freshly installed, XP has a range of ~320MB to 768MB. Setting it to a fixed 1024MB - which should be more than enough, theoretically - still pops up the warning balloon.

[blade1357]

thank you for all of your sugestions i well try them

[cluberti]

I would then suggest running perfmon in the background while your system is running, with the following "Process" counters selected for All Instances:

Virtual Bytes

Private Bytes

Working Set

If you've got any process using an inordinate amount of virtual memory, you should see it here.

[Andromeda43]

One of the selling features of Windows over DOS was the "Virtual memory" feature, where windows would make more RAM on the fly by taking over some hard drive space and declaring it "RAM".

Back in the old'n days when ram was a dollar a meg (or more), this was a huge plus for Microsoft.

The engineers at M$ designed Windows to increase or decrease the size of this "Virtual RAM" as required by program needs. For years it's worked flawlessly.

Now we have nerds, geeks and tech wannabees that think they know more than the engineers at M$ and wanna futz around with their "Virtual Memory".

Bad News!

Windows will usually set the VM at 1.5x the size of your physical ram from Boot Up.

If you're getting an Out of Virtual Memory error message, then you've done something just VERY wrong. IMHO

You've either tried to second guess the MS Engineers and futzed around with the VM size or you've allowed your HD to get so full of crapola, that VM has no room to grow as it needs to.

In case one, put VM back to automatic, like it was designed to run.

In case two, (God, I just love saying this) "Clean up your MESS!".

That is to say, 'clean every file out of your HD that don't need to be there.'

There are many good programs that will do this for you if you don't know how.

Even the "Disk Cleanup" program that comes with Windows, does a pretty good job.

I wrote my own, "XPCleanup.bat", but I still use "Safe Clean Utilities" a program written years ago, which goes into every folder on your HD and pulls out the temp files, etc. that get stuck there when programs run.

Then make sure you don't still have any of those Trials or Demo's that come with factory made PC's.

If you do, then UN-Install them in "Add-Remove Programs" in your Control Panel.

And anything else installed there, that you don't need or use.

When tuning up a customers PC for the first time, I can usually remove several gigabytes of just plain old junk from their HD. Then I install my XPCleanup.bat program in their Startup folder for a Daily Cleanup.

And, I give them a Weekly Maintenance Routine, which includes XPCleanup, Disk Cleanup and Safe Clean Utilities, and of course "Defrag", to keep the HD clean and running at peak performance.

With everything clean and set up RIGHT, there's no reason in the world to ever get an "out of VM" error message. IMHO

Good Luck and Happy Computing,

Andromeda43

Edited September 10, 2006 by Andromeda43

[RJARRRPCGP]

Sounds like possibly junkware or that an application has a memory leak.

Edited September 9, 2006 by RJARRRPCGP

[Drugwash]

I don't know blade's situation, but in my case it was a fresh XP-SP2 installation. Unfortunately, I can't remember which application I ran when I got that popup, but AFAIR it wasn't a "heavy" one.

However, the machine had 256MB physical RAM, and the original dynamic setting for virtual memory was min. 384MB and max. 768MB as default. I changed it to a fixed value of 1024MB as both minimum and maximum, to prevent HD fragmentation.

Considering that the fixed value set was much larger than 1.5 x physical RAM amount - as Andromeda43 said above - what would be the reason for Windows to pop up that warning message? Needs mentioned that there was plenty of free space on the hard drive.

[cluberti]

Remember that running applications on the system have no concept of virtual and physical memory - everything is controlled by the NT memory manager, and each application will see it's own 2GB (or 3GB) "memory" space, which is actually virtual address space mapped to RAM or the paging file by the NT memory manager as required and appropriate. Therefore, if you've got an application (or a set of applications) that request and/or use a large amount of virtual address space, these errors can occur (the memory manager will always try to keep at least 4MB of RAM free at all times, and will allow the use of most or all of the rest of physical RAM if necessary and safe to do so). Remember that the memory manager will ultimately do what an application requests with regards to "memory" allocations and usage, and this can cause problems even if an application only actually uses a fraction of any virtual address space it has requested for running code. There are rules the memory manager follows when determining the memory layout of the system kernel and running apps, and a good resource on this is the book "Windows Internals, 4th Edition" if you really want to know the ins and outs of how this works.

Virtual memory errors generally mean a system that is overloaded (and needs more RAM), or an application or set of applications requesting large amounts or using large amounts of virtual address space, which is mapped to virtual memory (the paging file). Ultimately, this will be something you have to address either by adding more physical RAM to lessen the load on virtual memory, or use perfmon to single out the application (or set of applications) using inordinate amounts of virtual address space, and get those updated from the vendor (or replaced, if upgrade or fix is not possible from the vendor). Again, the most important thing to remember is that even though Windows generates the error, it is not a Windows issue - you either need more RAM or need to resolve the issue(s) in the application(s) running on the system (or both!).

Edited September 10, 2006 by cluberti

[585Soft]

Set your page file size to your RAM size x 2 it will be enough. If possible use defragmentation software to move your page file to the top of drive, your system runs much, much faster. I make this under Windows 98 (setupped on same system in dual boot) with Norton Speed Disk.

[Andromeda43]

Remember that running applications on the system have no concept of virtual and physical memory - everything is controlled by the NT memory manager, and each application will see it's own 2GB (or 3GB) "memory" space, which is actually virtual address space mapped to RAM or the paging file by the NT memory manager as required and appropriate. Therefore, if you've got an application (or a set of applications) that request and/or use a large amount of virtual address space, these errors can occur (the memory manager will always try to keep at least 4MB of RAM free at all times, and will allow the use of most or all of the rest of physical RAM if necessary and safe to do so). Remember that the memory manager will ultimately do what an application requests with regards to "memory" allocations and usage, and this can cause problems even if an application only actually uses a fraction of any virtual address space it has requested for running code. There are rules the memory manager follows when determining the memory layout of the system kernel and running apps, and a good resource on this is the book "Windows Internals, 4th Edition" if you really want to know the ins and outs of how this works.

Virtual memory errors generally mean a system that is overloaded (and needs more RAM), or an application or set of applications requesting large amounts or using large amounts of virtual address space, which is mapped to virtual memory (the paging file). Ultimately, this will be something you have to address either by adding more physical RAM to lessen the load on virtual memory, or use perfmon to single out the application (or set of applications) using inordinate amounts of virtual address space, and get those updated from the vendor (or replaced, if upgrade or fix is not possible from the vendor). Again, the most important thing to remember is that even though Windows generates the error, it is not a Windows issue - you either need more RAM or need to resolve the issue(s) in the application(s) running on the system (or both!).

Very well put. I really enjoy reading such a conclusive and INclusive response to a question.

Bartender!.....More RAM!

Andromeda43 B)