Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Seattle, WA USA
Posts: 413

"Windows is low on Virtual Memory" Error -- ways to fix?

"Windows is low on Virtual Memory" Error -- ways to fix?

Hi all-

Title basically says it all. How do I fix this problem? I have 320mb of ram on my Laptop, Pentium III 500, running win2k, service pack 2.

I had about 3 IE browsers open, a telnet session, and Acrobat Reader open...when I tried to print my .pdf, I got the virtual memory error.

I went to my computer --> properties --> advanced --> performance options --> virtual memory --> change --> and I set my paging file size to 478mb. and the registry size at 30mb. Is this correct? should I change it to something else?

Is there any other way to fix this problem? I don't think I'm running out of RAM since I do have 320mb and I wasn't doing anything that intensive.

Thank you for your replies!

Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland
Posts: 19

When this happens, it is useful to open Taskmanager (right click on taskbar, select Taskmanager), and check the performance tab. Look at the bottom left corner. If the peak comels close to the limit, then you'll get problems. Some programs still have memory leaks, and perticularly if this happens in the resources area, this will affect your virtual memory.

If you start from a fresh restart, and check the impact of each program opening, you can see if there is a obvious culprit. You will proably find though that there won't be an error. If you check back later in the day, you'll find that when running the same programs as in the morning, you will have 'lost' memory. WHo's to blame???

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Seattle, WA USA
Posts: 413

hm..i usually restart at least once aday. and I checked my hard disk space and ihave 11.2 gb and 8gb free. I've looked around on the ms knoledge base...any other suggestiosn?

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: New York, New York
Posts: 560

shot in the dark.

Isn't virtual memory the cashe? Have you tried changing from the setting thaty 2k wants to use? Like increase the max available?

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Seattle, WA USA
Posts: 413

Tried that -- shoot...well rebooting will fix the problem -- temporarily

Registered: Mar 2001
Location:
Posts: 1

increase your page file size

The problem is that your page file is too small. The page file size should be at least the size of physical memory you have on the box. I usually double it - all depends on how much software you run at the same time and the memory each one uses.

Right click the workstation icon which should bring up a System Properties window. Choose the Advanced tab and then choose Performance. I'm doing this from memory (I'm not near a win2k workstation at the moment) so I might get a few things mixed up. Take a look at the size of the page file it has set up. It has a recommended size which may not be what is currently set. If it is then you need to increase it even more - I would go double the size of physical memory. So if you have 320MB of ram, set it to 640. With win2k you don't need to reboot after making a change to the page file.

BTW, you'll need disk space to increase your page file. If you start out with a page file of 400 and you increase it to 640, you will need an additional 240MB (640-400) of unused disk space on whatever drive the page file is on.