How do I free up more memory on XP Home?

[MarkJohnson]

I keep running out of memory on my computer. I was wondering if there was an article on how to free up as much ram as possible. I start up Task Manager and it shows 21 processes running. Is there a way to disable these. It is a fresh install of XP Home. btw... my crashes come from my games.

I thought it was my built-in video, but I bought a x1300pro and it runs much better, but still runs out of memory.

I also manually set my page file to 2048mb, and I have 768mb ram(512mb+256mb) on a sempron 2500+.

I even turned off system restore.

my startup file is empty.

[cluberti]

What are the specific errors you are getting? Do these errors happen when doing specific tasks in Windows? How much physical RAM is in the machine? How long has this been going on (i.e. has your system ever worked properly without these errors)?

[CptMurphy]

Well, you have 768MB of ram, what games are you running? Download a memory manager like freeramXP.

[MarkJohnson]

What are the specific errors you are getting? Do these errors happen when doing specific tasks in Windows? How much physical RAM is in the machine? How long has this been going on (i.e. has your system ever worked properly without these errors)?

I don't know the exact error, my game just tells me "Application Error", and when I looked into it it said I ran out of RAM. The error occurs anywhere from an hour to a few hours of game play. I play Everquest II with all the gaming option turned off or at minimal settings. I also turned off my sound in the BIOS. I even didnt install anti-virus software. but I run online virus/spyware scans and get no errors.

I also have a macro program for the game I sometimes use, and it makes me run out of memory quicker.

I was just wondering if I could free up more memory from Windows Home to prolong the error until I can afford the 2GB of RAM the game wants. 512mb is minimum and I found an old 256mb chip I added to my existing 512mb.

I ran memtest from BIOS and it ran for about 7 hours with no errors.

everything else I run seems fine. but I usually only surf the web and play EQ2.

[cluberti]

Well, considering that an application knows nothing about RAM (unless it's actually doing a BIOS check for the amount available, as in a WMI script or burn-in utility), that seems rather odd. You might want to consider running perfmon, adding all of the process counters, to see if any one particular counter is using large amounts of private bytes or virtual bytes.

[USAuser]

Wait a second, this was an integrated card with shared memory, and you put a normal video card in.. Well, technically, IIRC the integrated card is *still* functional, even though no monitor is connected and with a new one, I think you must disable the integrated one in device manager... Gope this helps..

[Jeremy]

Download a memory manager like freeramXP.

Windows XP manages memory just fine. Those "memory defragments" are absolute trash. Anyone recommending them needs to learn a thing or two. No offense intended.

[PsiMoon314]

Hi,

I thought it was my built-in video, but I bought a x1300pro and it runs much better, but still runs out of memory.

If you havent checked the BIOS settings for your PC then check to see that the internal/onboard graphics has been disabled.

It may still be active and allocating system RAM for the onboard graphics. Try disabling the onboard graphics or setting the RAM allocation it uses to the minimum value it will accept.

You mau still not have enough system RAM even then, how much RAM is installed in the PC?

Kind Regards

Simon

[cluberti]

If you have 768MB of RAM and are running out, you should run a perfmon and monitor all process objects on the machinne to see which process (or processes) use the most amount of virtual and private bytes, amongst other things. Otherwise, we're just guessing.

[CptMurphy]

Download a memory manager like freeramXP.

Windows XP manages memory just fine. Those "memory defragments" are absolute trash. Anyone recommending them needs to learn a thing or two. No offense intended.

None taken. I would like to know your reason for thinking this way though, I guess I'm just used to using these programs since win2k, when ram that was used then wasn't showed up as used.

[tap52384]

What about the page file? Are you getting messages about virtual memory needing to be increased? Are you using Firefox, the great browser with the achilles' heel, memory usage?

Perhaps you should consider disabling services you don't need or eradicating them altogether and other components with a fresh install and nLite (http://www.nliteos.com).

You should also probably provide a list of installed applications. I have the same amount of ram, and I wish I had more, but I'm not using the majority of it unless i'm running 7-zip, Vmware Player, or Firefox.

[Jeremy]

Disable unneeded start-up entries. There are a few services that will take up a few MBs of memory combined, but other than that, if you're PC can't handle the software you use, get more RAM. Simple as that.