|
|
How can I fix "too little virtual memory" in Windows?Dave, help! My PC keeps on hanging in every interval. It shows an error that "your system is running with too little virtual memory". What troubleshooting can I do and what fix can I apply to make my PC run without any obstacles? I'm going to assume you're running Windows XP, and seeing a message stating "Your system is low on virtual memory. Windows is increasing the size of your virtual memory paging file." Unless you have very little physical memory (RAM) in your system, this message is indicative of a buggy application with a memory leak. A memory leak is a common problem caused by poorly written or poorly debugged applications where they continually use more and more memory until you shut down the program, end the process manually or restart Microsoft Windows. Virtual memory, also known as a page file or swap file, is a file on your hard drive (C:\pagefile.sys by default) that Windows and applications use in addition to physical memory (RAM) as needed. The default and recommended size of this file is 1.5 times the amount of physical memory. Virtual memory is the sum of physical memory and the page file. So if your computer has 512 MB RAM, it will have a 768 MB page file by default, for a total of 1.25 GB of physical + virtual memory. Finding the source of the problem First you need to determine which application is causing the problem. Hit Control-Alt-Delete to bring up Task Manager (on certain XP Professional configurations you'll need to click the Task Manager button after hitting Control-Alt-Delete). You can also access Task Manager by holding down Control and Shift and pressing Escape. Go to the Processes tab in Task Manager. Here you will see a list of all the processes (applications or parts thereof) that are running on your system. You will see the memory usage here, but in my experience this very rarely has anything to do with problems running low on virtual memory. Click View, Select Columns. ![]() Check the Virtual Memory Size box, as circled in the screen shot below and click OK. ![]() Now you have a VM Size column in your Processes tab. Click the top of the VM Size column (as circled below) twice to arrange the processes by their VM Size from largest to smallest. ![]() You'll see in this Task Manager shot that Mozilla Firefox is taking up the most virtual memory at about 237 MB, with Internet Explorer the next biggest at about 81 MB. (the number of KB divided by 1024 equals MB) For both, this is the consequence of leaving them open for more than a week straight. Almost every application will use more memory the longer you keep it open, though some are worse than others. This is one reason that Windows becomes more and more unresponsive the longer you keep it running, and why you end up eeding to restart your computer periodically. Once you determine which process is using more virtual memory than it should, you need to determine what the process is. Some are pretty obvious, like winword.exe is Microsoft Word, iexplore.exe is Internet Explorer, and so on. Others aren't so obvious. The best way to determine the source of a specific process is to use a search engine to search for the Image Name as shown in Task Manager. Resolution Now that you know which application is causing the problem, let's resolve it. One common thing to try is to uninstall and reinstall the offending application if possible. Searching the Internet, and checking the support site of the software vendor would be the next two steps I would try. Without knowing which application is at fault, it's difficult to recommend a specific solution. Thanks to Chris Buechler for his extraordinary assistance with this thorny puzzle
More Useful Windows PC Help Articles:
✔ What's the easiest way to speed up my Windows PC laptop?
My Dell Windows 7 laptop is starting to drive me crazy. It's so darn slow! I've had it a few years and I...
✔ Can I force a Windows 7 OS system update?Every so often Windows 7 pops up a window and tells me that there are updates. That's nice, but how can I force...
✔ Fix Google Drive (Gdrive) no longer supported (out of date)?I'm a big Google fan and have been using Google Drive for quite a while as a cloud storage device. It's a breeze,...
✔ How do I open or unpack a RAR archive on my Windows PC?I have some ".rar" files on my Windows 8 PC and am curious how to unpack them to see what's inside. From a...
✔ How can I shrink my Windows 8 Desktop file icons?I've figured out most things in the new Windows 8 interface, except I can't see how to easily reduce or shrink the file...
Let's stay in touch!
Sign up for my weekly AskDaveTaylor Newsletter and you'll receive even more tech and gadget help
right to your inbox, along with exclusive news and industry updates. It's good stuff. I promise!
Categorized:
Windows PC Help
(Article 3972,
Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: Previous: Can't change fonts in Microsoft Outlook Express 6? Next: How do I delete all occurances of a file in Linux? Reader Comments To Date: 353Dave said, on July 4, 2005 10:07 PM:
Great Information, Thanks for providing it ! Jonathan Mbewe said, on July 13, 2005 6:51 PM:
1. I'm running Windows 2000 on a 300 MHz PII with 96 MB SDRAM. It used to run smoothely initially. Recently it has been painfully slow. I tried opening Task Manager and realised there is a small program called SVCHOST.EXE that now takes up to 98% of my processor time. Where did it coming from? How I deal with it? 2. Since my first Defragmentation, the system has been giving an error message on booting; something like "Paging file does not exist, or is too small". I followed the instructions on rectifying it. However this problem reappears each time I boot. Please help. Sarteck said, on August 15, 2005 6:01 AM:
Dave, Thanks for this (found it through Google, just because I was curious about the Virtual Memory error, heh). As in your example, FireFox is usually the offending application when it comes to my Virtual Memory running too low. The problem is, I am otherwise a hardcore FireFox fan, so I'll now be researching how I can patch up the memory leaks (I often leave my FireFox open overnight or even days at a time). Thanks again, Sarteck paul said, on October 7, 2005 8:17 PM:
Im running windows xp, when i turned on my computer it told me i'm running out of virtual memory. My problem is that it wont let me do anything...if i can even get the computer to boot up, it wont let me open any programs including task manager... Christine said, on January 17, 2006 12:22 PM:
Dave - Ok I'm working with MS Publisher 2003. I have artwork saved on 8.5X11 sheets that I want to save on 20 X 20 sheets and as JPEG's or BMP's but when I try to save the files in the larger formats, I receive and error telling me that I can't save. I'm lost. I have increased the virtual memory and I have the space on the harddrive so I don't know what to do. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Oh and I'm working with XP if it matters. Paul said, on May 27, 2006 2:35 PM:
I have a windows 2000 system, and I upgraded from 10gig to 32gig via ghost2003. The system gets up to log in and then goes to a grey screen with a big box that says "Paging file does not exist, or is too small" and a bunch of other related things. I cannot get past this, I tried safe mode and it stops at the same place. carrie ross said, on July 27, 2006 11:51 PM:
can u please explain an easier way of fixing my computer? i have windows 2000 professional and when im on aol it tells me that my " virtual memory is too low". thank you very much! Melinda said, on August 29, 2006 7:46 PM:
After going through your process to help me restore more efficiency with my computer, and to check the Virtual Memory, I discovered that aolsoftware.exe had 453,472K. I know I need aol, but is there a way to reduce that? Mike said, on August 30, 2006 10:35 AM:
I recently installed a new 80gig internial hard drive and loaded xp on it, after I set it up a blue screen appeared and said something to the effect, fatial error has occured try rebooting and it also said something about virtual memory. now I can't get the thing to boot up at all. even tried putting the old hard drive back in with no luck. please help..... Sue said, on September 20, 2006 2:03 PM:
I bought a Seagate 160 GB external hard drive and it only shows 148 gb how can i recover the lost gb? Running windows xp pro Michael Daley said, on September 25, 2006 4:03 PM:
Dave, Help!!! tom n said, on October 4, 2006 3:08 PM:
hey im low virtual memory and my max program is systray.exe which turns out to be system tray and is needed. it also takes up only 48,540k. Don Fassler said, on October 14, 2006 3:44 PM:
thanks I needed that. Matt W said, on October 23, 2006 9:41 AM:
I have a similar problem. Several programs, including explorer.exe, my internet browser, and most other programs I open myself end up using too much virtual memory. They start at a normal amount (about 50000kB) and increase to a huge amount (200000kB or more. carolyn said, on November 25, 2006 4:38 PM:
I have a compaq presario 7500. 128/512gb/56 and my hard drive is ultra dma 40 gb,my cdrw drive is48x12x48 max speed.yet it says low on vertual memory.I have dial up.How do I fix this problem?How can I fix,I have the pc tool,to fix registry called registry mechanic.Still shows a window saying low on memory.Thank you,skyhawlk7@bellsouth.net Technomage said, on December 1, 2006 9:17 PM:
Dave, thank you for this info! The only article that actually tells the truth about what happens under the hood. I have this behavior on a laptop occasionally when Windows is suspend/resumed with a few IE windows open. Seriously "a few" - is 5 many!? Now, true, my pagefile is set to 96 MB fixed size [because a) fluid size slightly decreases performance, and b) with 512 MB RAM and applications I'm running that sould be more that enough]. When this message pops up and I look into TaskMgr (or lately ProcessExplorer of Sysinternals - one of "Pricelessware" utilities) it shows over 300 MB free and available! What drives me nuts is: Microsoft and anybody else just says in response to this message - you need to increase pagefile size; my take on it - why!? If there's more than half my RAM available, why does a stupid application need "virtual memory"!? Since most services are stopped [performance reasons, I'm not lazy to start 'em when I actually need 'em], list of tasks is usually pretty small: 12-17, and when this message pops up I seem to always have IE open. So my hunch is that it is the offending app, since others play nicely. IE version is 6.0 sp1, Win - 2000 sp4 with all latest updates, same occasionally happens under Win XP too [with pagefile also fixed]. Of course, increase the pagefile size and most of us won't even see the message. Doesn't mean the problem actually has been solved! Thank you for fighting for better quality software!! Vinay said, on December 4, 2006 8:27 AM:
while installing ms office 2003 on winXP+SP2 platform in betwwen my cd drive get discounected in system, after few days i also notice that sometimes scanner n printer also giving problem. every time ui have to reboot machine. Richard said, on December 13, 2006 9:15 PM:
Thanks for the help...needed it. Joe said, on January 3, 2007 4:20 PM:
Dave the way that you explain things seem so down to earth, that even I can grasp all that you say. kathy said, on January 14, 2007 2:59 PM:
I'm a dummy, but was able to understand your amazing explantion! Thanks ever so much Bart said, on January 16, 2007 5:16 AM:
Dave, the info you gave on the Virtual Memory problem was very easy to find, thanks for your help on these issues. My problem I believe is along the same line as the firefox, I have Spyware Doctor, that's using 109,204K and when I have the Active Guard on, the memory column uses anywhere from 40,000K to 60,000K. I turned the active guard off which lowered the memory usage to 3,604K but the VM is still 109,204K. My question is, will turning the Active guard off on the Spyware Doctor help with the Virtual Memory pop up problem? Thanks again Dave. jayant said, on February 4, 2007 12:37 PM:
i ve the same prob with VM..and the error process seems to be svchost.exe.. Crys Stephens said, on February 11, 2007 5:57 AM:
I love this site! Thank you so much for making all of this available to me. I was so tired of trial and error. mark said, on February 24, 2007 9:31 PM:
Thanks Dave, when I looked at my Virtual memory I immediately found the offending problem and cured me. I have looked on many sites for this answer and you were the first to have this easy solution!! Rob T said, on February 27, 2007 8:05 AM:
Dear Dave, Have run out of ideas. Any suggestions ? Thanks, Rob T rohan said, on February 28, 2007 5:27 PM:
Dave, I am using Windows XP and a 512 RAM. please advise, how do i fix this error i get each time i try logging onto windows which says 'scv host not found please search again using search from start menu' and then a the windows32 folder opens by itself with DRVSTORE file highlighted. what do i do to fix this up? And im also having problems with low virtual memory, i cannot even figure out which is the program causing it. All of this has resulted to the machine being awefully slow. please advise. LuLu said, on March 22, 2007 11:33 PM:
...Well I am feeling like a dummy cuz everyone else seems to say they got it! I did all the steps, and the thing that runs the most is the Iexplore, but when you say...Once you determine which process is using more virtual memory than it should...I am trying to understand HOW do I know when it is using more virtual memory that it should??? I continued to research on how to fix it and found very few people talk about the leaks(and that's all they did...not even how to fix), and most sites just told you to increase the pagefile size (or something like that)...My computer just recently started doing this, so to me it sounds like something needs to be fixed. The only thing new on my computer is a new CD/DVD combo, and we haven't really used it yet. Can you help me out a little more??? Thanks. XplicitMan said, on March 29, 2007 7:40 AM:
Thanks Man I think it was real player on my system Tom said, on April 6, 2007 7:42 AM:
good job - thank you Amanda Thompson said, on April 9, 2007 7:37 AM:
Hi Dave I hope this site is still running, I just came across it today and it looked the best one to help me. I have followed your instructions so far to locate my problem. My problem is exactly what you say in your first paragraph up the top. When I searched on my computer for the file that is taking up so much virtual memory (ccSvcHst.exe is 75, 392K VM size with a username of SYSTEM and iexplore.exe is 44, 476k VM size with username as owner). I think my problem is the ccSvcHst.exe and when I did a search it says it is in a file I think called C:\ProgramFiles\CommonFiles\SymantecShared. Do you know how I can determine if this is a safe file and if not how I can safely get rid of it? Please can someone help me? Thank you. donnie said, on April 12, 2007 2:27 AM:
Hi dave cessie said, on April 14, 2007 10:44 PM:
i understand a lil bit but half of it is i'm getting confious... the problem is correct exactly but the resolution is not clear yet for me... could u pls add more details?? plsss.... kenny said, on April 15, 2007 6:08 AM:
this site has helped me alot and i have reolved my problem thnaks a lot. gokulnath said, on April 16, 2007 1:56 AM:
Thanx for solving my virtual memory problem. I came to know about virtual memory & its impacts through this article... BoeDdha said, on April 22, 2007 3:34 AM:
Great! thx for solving the problem Ann said, on May 1, 2007 1:40 AM:
My computer only has 512 RAM but has another slot for another 512K of RAM? Would buying this and installing it help my "virtual memory" problem? Ann Ray said, on May 4, 2007 7:52 AM:
Dave, I seem to have the same situation as Amanda. ccsvchst.exe is continuing to pump up the page file memory. When I try to terminate the program accessi s denied since it is a process in the NAV or NIS system. Any clues? Thanks. Scott said, on May 4, 2007 11:08 PM:
Dave, I work for a company that has process control systems running OS/2 Warp 3. (Floppy Version) Currently, the hardware for these systems is starting to fail. As a work around until we can get a new PLC system, I have been successful getting the PLC software to run on OS/2 Warp 4 within a MS Virtual PC environment. I seem to be having memory/page file issues with the host OS which is WinXP Pro. I have alotted 64MB RAM (even tried 128MB of 1GB physical) to the OS/2 VPC environment, and it works nearly flawlessly for roughly 24 hours. At that point, the software freezes in OS/2 although if I catch it soon enough, OS/2 will still respond and I can back out and restart the PLC software. Otherwise it freezes the OS/2 guest OS, and the host operating system will not open any programs claiming lack of memory errors. I have tried to force simulate the issue, but have only found I am able to do this when pulling up multiple trends within the PLC software. At that point, I can watch the available memory on the host OS dropping, and never regaining memory. I do not understand why this memory is being used, when I have only alloted 64MB to the guest OS, yet it seems to be using all of my physical memory. I apologize for being long-winded, but any advise/direction you could suggest would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, No Where Man said, on May 5, 2007 6:38 PM:
"Virtual memory and RAM are the same thing" is incorrect. Virtual memory is on the HHD, is not physical RAM, and is about 100 or so times slower than RAM. While some, including a few manufacturers tend to suggest that by increasing RAM one can eliminate Virtual memory, I must disagree. While theoretically, and given a large enough increase in RAM this may in [some cases] prove correct for a while, I seriously would not recommend it. At all! Get enough memory intensive apps and services running at once and guess what? On the other side, too much Virtual memory doesn't hurt provided the memory is available to spare. Virtual memory is Virtually free, so why even take the chance of crashing and loosing data. Scott said, on May 7, 2007 2:21 PM:
I am somewhat confused by your response No Where Man. Windows XP is currently regulating the host machines virtual memory for me, it is not disabled. Should I hard code it in at 1.5*physicalRAM or other? The virtual PC config is setup with 64MB to run OS2. The physical RAM is 1GB. Hopefully, I am clear enough. Joe Cavallo said, on May 8, 2007 4:03 PM:
what's the best way to format a c drive windows xp home? dhayalan said, on May 12, 2007 6:53 AM:
sir, Daved said, on May 13, 2007 12:33 AM:
Thank you for this information it helps me Graham said, on May 19, 2007 1:38 AM:
Hi, googled my problem and found this site. My search was 'svchost.exe system using cup memory' where said process is using all the CPU. PC has been running OK and this morning has been playing up. Got so bad that Cntl / Alt + Delete failed to do anything. PC not left on at all. Other PC we have has a Grisoft (?) AVG computer scan that fires up all the time and has to be shut down. For some reason it does not do it on this PC although the download was the same as I recall (update version of free edition). All PCs seem to have been hitting problems after going wireless with Netgear WG111v2. these seem to operate fast and then go slow (seems slower than the old dialup). leslie said, on May 19, 2007 12:27 PM:
i've read what you told we need to do but can you really show me step by step what to do because i don't want something to go wrong while doing this without assistance Scott said, on May 22, 2007 1:55 PM:
Regarding my May 4th/7th posting... Okay, I stand corrected... The virtual memory within Windows XP Pro (Host OS) was factory set at IBM to custom min/max allocations previously. I set it to let Windows manage it on Friday, and let everything run over the weekend. I verified the RAM allocation to the OS/2 VPC image is also a fixed 64MB and it reflects that in perfmon stats. The perfmon stat that is still eluding me appears to be Allocated Pages to the OS/2 VM. I show the following: All other perfmon stats read zero except like I said, the Allocated MB are fixed at 64MB. I read somewhere I can set the initial size of the page file while leaving the maximum blank. Is this possible, maybe through the registry??? I cannot get this to work in XP's GUI. The host PC is an brand new IBM ThinkCentre MT-M 8808-8HU w/ 1GB RAM, I have a 70GB drive w/53GB free. Upon returning yesterday morning after letting it run over the weekend... At this point, I am at a loss. It works great for hours and hours, and then...arrgghhh! I have not had this issue running any other OS's with MS VPC 2007. Is there a program that will monitor these various aspects of the VPC VM's resource usage on the physical machine? I have been using perfmon, and taskmgr, but am not making any real headway thus far. Thanks in advance for any and all help with this. Thanks, Suresh said, on May 26, 2007 5:47 AM:
Im upgraded to windows xp,on my Laptop with 512 mb Ram, when i turned on my computer it told me i'm running out of virtual memory. My problem is that it wont let me do anything...if i can even get the computer to boot up, it wont let me open any programs including task manager... nora said, on May 27, 2007 12:59 PM:
It is posible to uninstall internet explore and then install again. this is the one that is taking all my virtual memory from my pc Smiley said, on May 27, 2007 8:54 PM:
my computer says virtual memory is low how can i fix this problem on windows xp? PLEASE HELP Shawn said, on June 5, 2007 7:13 AM:
Trying to ghost a Windows 2000 Server system drive but I have a "low virtual memory" error that prevents logon, and redisplays the error, neverending. I need to ghost a system drive to a larger capacity because it's too full (~1Gb free). I tryed to make the pagefile size 0 as recommended by Microsoft and then re-ghost the drive, but same issue occurs. (Note I am using the main Administrator account but it acts like I don't have rights to the pagefile.sys or something) Shawn said, on June 5, 2007 7:15 AM:
Trying to ghost a Windows 2000 Server system drive but I have a "low virtual memory" error that prevents logon, and redisplays the error, neverending. I need to ghost a system drive to a larger capacity because it's too full (~1Gb free). I tryed to make the pagefile size 0 as recommended by Microsoft and then re-ghost the drive, but same issue occurs. (Note I am using the main Administrator account but it acts like I don't have rights to the pagefile.sys or something) Shawn said, on June 5, 2007 9:33 AM:
Trying to ghost a Windows 2000 Server system drive but I have a "low virtual memory" error that prevents logon, and redisplays the error, neverending. I need to ghost a system drive to a larger capacity because it's too full (~1Gb free). I tryed to make the pagefile size 0 as recommended by Microsoft and then re-ghost the drive, but same issue occurs. (Note I am using the main Administrator account but it acts like I don't have rights to the pagefile.sys or something) kunal said, on June 7, 2007 6:50 AM:
Hi, crystal said, on June 13, 2007 3:20 AM:
How do i know which one is the best for me? My system is running slow and bringin up the error messages! Amy said, on June 29, 2007 10:12 PM:
Great I have been playing a game and getting this error and now I know how to fix it thanks illmatic said, on June 30, 2007 9:40 PM:
Thanks heaps!!! my computer is suddenly 50x faster, found out the program, it was using.. well lets say.. 1,470,000 about that much VM, yes so im happy =] Emmanuel Amoah said, on July 11, 2007 9:42 AM:
pls i am having error on my pc any time i try working with it. that is low virtual memory,pls can get the solution for that,by your Experience thak you. i Jack C said, on July 13, 2007 11:26 PM:
i think the first ones are fake, but anayway, nice useful info.. oh my .. my IE's taking up alot... Anjanesh said, on July 19, 2007 12:44 AM:
I have 256MB + 512MB + 1GB = 1.75GB RAM, yet I still get this "too little virtual memory" inspite of only Commit charge showing 900MB / 2007MB ! James said, on July 19, 2007 5:54 AM:
Honestly, thank you man! I've always put my speed down to storage space on the Hard Drive or viruses. However every now and then I would get this message "Virtual Memory..". On a whim I looked it up and found your site. I followed your instructions and found something twice to three times the size of my IE. It was called ccSvcHst.exe or something. Turned out to be a glitch of Norton or something. The second I closed it things started going up to speed. I'm now working on fixing this error and checking out the other processes. Once again, thanks for the help! Ingo said, on July 19, 2007 7:27 AM:
How can i stop internet explorer from using so much virtual memory d said, on July 31, 2007 1:00 PM:
I try to change the virtual memory but Windows XP doesn't let me. I go through control panel/system properties/advanced/performance options/ advanced/ virtual memory/custom size and I change the page file requirements, only no change ever really takes place. The box below continues to read "total paging file size for all drives: 1406." Kimberly said, on August 5, 2007 1:11 PM:
Ok. Now. I tried to fix my problem. Yes, I'm young (Only 14) but I've been dealing with computers since I was little. And my father worked with them as well. But, currently. I was trying to fix my virtual memory problem. But, by closing down my Internet Explorer, my laptop's Start button as well as background image and entire task bar will not show. What do you think is the problem? Everything is displaying in black and the only window I can keep open at the moment is my FireFox. Your help is much appreciated. Ryan said, on August 19, 2007 8:01 AM:
Great WEb Site Very Helpful Many Thanks! Sheila said, on September 3, 2007 10:03 PM:
To Kimberly, You are closing explorer.exe by mistake. You want to close iexplore.exe to get rid of Internet Explorer as necessary. Prince said, on September 4, 2007 2:19 AM:
Hi Dave.I have a similar problem witm most of the people who hosted but still my problem is not resolved.I right clicked on my computer,properties,advance,perfomance,advanced and set virtual memory to sys virtual mem size but that did not work. On Task manager,processes mmsconfig.exe is running @ 229.777kb and i dont even know what it is plus there's a lot of processes that running that i dont know of. Guru said, on September 6, 2007 11:23 PM:
hey dave.. i m having the problems tht nowadays most ppl have.. my task manager has been disabled.. wen i press CTRL+ALT+DEL a message pops up "your task manager has been disabled". Tyler said, on September 16, 2007 8:49 PM:
I've been having the problem but i don't think its a memory leak or anything, ive uninstalled and reinstalled the program, i have 1gig of ram but when i checked my page file size it was only 768 to 1536 or something so i changed it to 1.5 times 1gig for the minimum and 2 times for maximum, and i think i fixed it Shawn said, on September 17, 2007 7:33 PM:
So simple! You're awesome T_T nitish kumar roy said, on October 3, 2007 4:30 PM:
hi dave, kim said, on October 10, 2007 4:45 AM:
My offending program is waol.exe ? what can i do ? Cory Kesty said, on October 15, 2007 5:22 PM:
I'm running Windows 2000 with a 512MB RAM. Recently it has been painfully slow. I realised there is a small program called SVCHOST.EXE that now takes up my processor time. Where did it coming from? How I deal with it? Q said, on October 23, 2007 7:18 PM:
YOU MADE IT SO EASY FOR ME TO FIND THE PROBLEM. THANKS! charitha said, on October 23, 2007 11:21 PM:
You r really good.keep up the good work! goodfish said, on October 24, 2007 6:42 AM:
Dave, you rock my world. VistaUser said, on October 24, 2007 7:44 AM:
Sorry wrong input for the first comment...here's the solution for windows vista users. http://unlockforus.blogspot.com/2007/10/unlockme-low-memory-warning-on-windows.html Renee said, on October 28, 2007 1:06 AM:
I did all that you recommended and found out that the biggest size of memory used was 24.576K, VM size: 377,008K by swdsvc.exe (User: System) I assume that I am not supposed to touch the system. The next biggest memory is: iexplore.exe 4 rows of it. Which program is that one? and what am I supposed to do about it. siva said, on November 5, 2007 5:12 AM:
I have a windows 2000 system, and I upgraded from 10gig to 32gig via ghost2003. The system gets up to log in and then goes to a grey screen with a big box that says "Paging file does not exist, or is too small" and a bunch of other related things. I cannot get past this, I tried safe mode and it stops at the same place.how to increase virtual memory at logon window itself, is there any command to increase it from the dos. Thanks&Regards, Micheal said, on November 20, 2007 7:11 AM:
Thanks! Finally i got it resolved! Dulith Perera said, on November 29, 2007 11:29 PM:
hi Dave, when i dbl click drivers on My Computer(C:,D:,E:) thanx. bryan said, on December 8, 2007 10:48 AM:
thanks a lot dave.. thanks for ur advice on troubleshooting low virtual memory.. by doing ur advice, my pc is now back to normal.. thanks a lot dave!! Dewain Barrett said, on December 20, 2007 10:44 PM:
Hi Dave, thankyou dewain. Martin said, on January 8, 2008 10:02 AM:
Hey I have a Intel pentium 4 2,80 Ghz processor with Windows XP home edition SP2 with 1 gig of ram and im always getting the Memory low error when i load windows, i've tryed alot of things including RegCure and other error fixing programs with no luck, I made sure that the Administrators and System account we're at full access and still the problem continues, Im pretty much pulling my hair here lol, let me know what you think or if you'd need more information on my system, Thank you very much Bhupesh said, on January 16, 2008 11:23 AM:
I am a Physics Teacher and You have all the qualities of an excellent teacher as one philosopher said " A teacher can affect eternity " Sorry about the spellings I am an Indian Suraj Kashyap said, on January 25, 2008 7:44 AM:
Hi! I've Intel Celeron D 2.13Ghz processor , 256mb RAM, 64mb Graphics Card, 40gb Hard Disc in my PC. I had installed NFS Most Wanted game in my PC, but when I play it, after 20 or 30 minutes of play, game closes itself and my PC display that 'Your System's Virtual Memory is Low'. I've all the requirement which this game needs, then what's wrong. I can't upgrade my pc yet, I've to wait for it for about 1 year. So, is there any way from which i can play this game? Brent said, on January 25, 2008 4:00 PM:
I'm confused. I'm looking at virtual memory numbers now -- but how much is 'too much?' My problem is that my laptop is -- sporadically, but especially on startup -- way too slow. I've already slimmed down the number of apps on startup. sharon said, on January 30, 2008 6:53 AM:
tnx po this info sha Claudio said, on February 5, 2008 6:43 PM:
Hi Dave and thanks for your help, I also get the low virtual memory message and I found out that Aolsoftware.exe is using 855.000k of VM even when not in use. Harini said, on February 9, 2008 10:25 PM:
thanks for the info... Gary Williams said, on February 18, 2008 10:04 AM:
Novice, can't and /or don't know where to look for my URL. Computer very sloe, have low virtual memory problems. Can I close AOLSSC.exe, Explorer.exe, mcvsescn.exe, svchost.exe, winlogon.exe, and aolsoftware.exe safely? luke said, on February 25, 2008 9:47 AM:
hello Melissa Kimpling said, on March 5, 2008 8:13 PM:
1) I am running Windows XP, winbook V-series/G330, Intel (R) Celern (R) M, Processor 1.50 GHz, 224 MB of Ram. Recently it has been very slow. I tried opening Task Manager and realized there are several small program called SVCHOST.EXE. What is this and how do I deal with it? 2. Since I did my Defragmentation, the system has been giving an error message on booting; Virtual memory low,(which I increased my virtural memory but not sure id its good) and when I open my Micro soft outlook, I will "Paging file does not exist,or wininstaller missing reeinstall Microsoft outlook. I do that and it doesn't work. I will open outlook and it will shut down on its own this problem reappears each time I boot. Please help. andri said, on March 13, 2008 6:14 PM:
I'm running a program Multimedia Center but,if i close this program always appear this comment " Runtime error! program:..common files\sonic shared\sonic central\Main\Mediahub.exe R6025
belle said, on March 15, 2008 7:28 AM:
Im running windows xp, when i turned on my computer it told me i'm running out of virtual memory, run time error and application error pops up often. My problem is that it wont let me do anything. While reading some of the ideas here I open the windows task manager and found IEXPLORE.EXE got the highest memory usage. Can I uninstall it and how can I reinstall it? How can I possibly increase my virtual memory? Thanks in advance for helping. Anand said, on March 19, 2008 9:17 PM:
Logging on to windows 2003 domain server (PDC) from XP client takes long time. kash said, on March 25, 2008 12:00 PM:
hello, I have a laptop compaq presario x1000. it was giving me msg saying virtual memory too low. but now i cant even get to start menu when i start the laptop i just see windows xp screen and its trying to load something thats all. it stops right there tried rebooting nothing is working. i am out of warranty. how to fix it. thanks in advance Roger said, on April 2, 2008 1:44 PM:
Really thanks a lot for the info. Jamie said, on April 2, 2008 6:22 PM:
Excellent, super fast fix - thought there wasnt much left to learn, obviously mistaken! mmmm ipoint.exe 2GB leaky OleSkoolJimi said, on April 9, 2008 5:17 AM:
Dave, Nicole said, on April 15, 2008 9:56 PM:
Thankyou so much- you fixed my problem. Young Cheriff said, on April 17, 2008 8:29 PM:
i have a pc with adm processor, 1.87 gig of ram, 1.80 GHz its very annoiyng plase help me !!!!!! Karthik said, on April 23, 2008 5:27 AM:
Great work Dave....keep it up Tracy Morgan said, on April 25, 2008 3:31 PM:
So helpful, Dave, thank you so much - for the first time ever I have read a help page that didn't confuse the life out of me! Good job! katrina said, on May 5, 2008 9:40 PM:
i dont know how can i fix my computer.. my computer is "virtual memory too low..." i dont really know what to do.. Smarty. said, on May 6, 2008 12:48 PM:
1.I am a Silver Surfer. Windows Medea Player latest upgrade.Am trying to burn from the Library onto blank CD. Have selected 'Audio CD' and 'WMA' format. Having dragged selected music title over to the List Pane, I am instructed to click 'Start Burn'. 2.I have burned another way using 'My Music' with a right click and 'Send to' method. The new CD will play OK on my computer, but not on a commercial CD Player. Smarty said, on May 15, 2008 5:23 AM:
Windows Media Player (XP)Latest upgrade. I want to burn music from the Library to a new blank CD. Have selected 'Audio CD' and WMA format. I drag selected music title from Details Pane to List Pane. Click 'Start Burn'. The blank CD is immediately ejected! I am missing a move somewhere. Hope you can help. Thanks from a Silver Surfer. Ginny Bryant said, on May 16, 2008 10:53 AM:
I have lost My IE on my computer. I use Windows XP. Is there a download where I can get it back? Gareth James said, on June 10, 2008 7:06 AM:
I have iexplore.exe and it is 151,592k and i dont understand what you mean when say if kept open for a week, i always turn internet off and link when use it, doesnt this turn it off ? also on my pc it says i have 87% free space on my c drive. KIM said, on July 8, 2008 6:44 AM:
Hi I am having the dreaded virtual memory problem and I am sure it is being caused by aol as my connection has been automatically upgraded and aol have also been downloading loads of files and extensions that have over loaded my pc and I have also let aol running for very long periods of time, Adam Philemon said, on July 8, 2008 11:51 AM:
Hello, thanks for the tips it really helped. I have a Dell Latitude and I need to do what ever I can to do all I can. pranami said, on July 16, 2008 3:55 AM:
Thank you so much. This has really helped me a lot. I was a doofus at not knowing. But this article has really helped me to find a solution to this constant problem of "low virtual memory". Thanks a million. Pranami :) Ian said, on July 21, 2008 3:05 AM:
Dave, Thanks for the help with this topic, it's useful. I have a problem though, my Task Manager does not load - when I hit cntl-shft-esc, I get the message "Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator" I can't see how that can be. I do know I have lost my desktop background, etc. I have the feeling my pc has been highjacked by something! ibrahimzaheer said, on July 22, 2008 4:16 AM:
Thankyou Dave this is the first time am visiting ur site thankyou verymuch its very helpful.. Web Development and Kalamazoo said, on July 28, 2008 2:49 PM:
I am running a pretty generic XP Home and IE 7, and IE is taking up a friggin 814 megs of virtual memory according to process explorer. I run out of virtual memory mid day every day. How in the world can I fix an IE memory leak?? By the way, I have all the MS updates installed. Michel said, on August 4, 2008 4:36 AM:
please you are the best I understood your explaination but I'm not linked to the internet so how can I over come this problem because I need to do a serious work with my PC today please help me thanks Richard Lenseth said, on August 5, 2008 5:07 PM:
My son has a HP laptop with 512Gb Memory. we thought the hard drive was shot, but decided to reinstall Thanks. karyn said, on August 6, 2008 11:20 AM:
thanks for this, it was very helpful and fixed my problem, THANK YOU! I looked at other sites, NOT as helpful! Venita said, on August 7, 2008 8:36 AM:
Very Cool Site. Thank you. Got my answer..complete and totally understandable. God (or other word of choosing) spede you God prosper you. Phil said, on August 9, 2008 1:57 PM:
Hello Dave, Jim Boswell said, on August 15, 2008 12:46 PM:
Dave,This web site is most impressive. Thanks for sharing......Regards...Jim Boswell chris said, on September 1, 2008 11:09 AM:
iexplore seems to take up my virtural memory it says 107.000kb can you help please mike said, on September 3, 2008 4:34 AM:
firefox/ mozilla apps are notorious for memory leaks. I have found that one of the biggest culprits to be an app called "webmynd". This app is designed to act like spyware for those who want to keep track of the goings on of their computer. A major contributor to the "low virtual memory" messages. Johnny said, on September 3, 2008 10:30 PM:
Worked like a charm. Found that the program with the leak was Talk & Write, an application written for Skype. Since I never use it, I went ahead and DELETE! Thanks Dave wanda said, on September 21, 2008 4:21 AM:
Hi Dave You advice was very useful, but I'm still experiencing virtual memory problems. My paging file size says 541 mb with custom settings that I've changed to 372-4050. My C-drive has 55138mb available and my laptop has 248mb of ram. The virtual memory message keeps coming up when I'm using the internet. My applications usage are: iexplore.exe 340mb I'd be grateful if you had any ideas?! Many thanks Laura said, on October 2, 2008 5:28 PM:
i have a problem ...my friend told me i need a bigger harddrive then i read ur page seems like it would work but the biggest one is my firefox next to that isccsvchst which i have no idea what that is should i delete it??? help Susan said, on October 3, 2008 5:35 AM:
Hello Dave, I followed your steps and learned that the Scanning Processes 78k and IExplorer 46K is my problem. Unfortunately, I have no idea with Scanning Processes is and how to delete or replace the software. Please help! Thanks loads! bhupesh said, on October 3, 2008 1:25 PM:
respected konran said, on October 17, 2008 2:10 AM:
I recently formatted my pc thinking the large space consumed in my hard drive is the cause why my pc shutdown automatically. I also got this @low vitual mem@ but it still happens (shutdown) I also happen to have this super converter exe and everytime i open it, my pc shows an error @system shutdown or something. HELP! Thanks... Candy said, on October 17, 2008 9:40 PM:
You explain what to do for Windows XP Pro but what about Windows XP Home? Also there are several Registry Cleaners advertised here. Will they really help my virtual memory? If so...which one do you recommend? Carla said, on October 22, 2008 9:58 AM:
I have been getting this windows XP little pop up window almost everyday now. "windows virtual memory minimum too low" and yes, that it is increasing my page file. This has worried me. That you so much for your help. SN said, on October 27, 2008 11:58 PM:
Hi , robbie barker-platt said, on November 18, 2008 1:32 PM:
hi,do not have a great deal of knowledge on computers!my comp says it is low on virtual memory.keeps crashing when i open applications and is on a completely go slow.i have a registered version of reg-cure.this helps for about 30 mins,then it is back to normal.crashing,on a go slow and low on virtual memory.any ideas please.it is driving me mad!please remember i am not a computer geek! pat doran said, on November 24, 2008 2:17 PM:
i have dvix and when i download movies and put them on my ex hard drive i get the message windows has encountered a problem and needs to close,can you help please,pat peter paul said, on November 26, 2008 7:39 AM:
I ve gone through the solution you gave , but ve not use it yet ,i hope it works.lastly i commend you for the good work you are doing already. SAU PAUL said, on December 7, 2008 1:46 AM:
My Task Manager,Several processes are running named svchost.exe due to which my the virtual memory is used up in maximum and the Computer Slows Down or a error message " Sys Fader : iexplorer.exe - Application error " instruction at "0x03c1ce40 ref memory cannot be read . come up and all the open IE windows are closed down . PLEASE HEPL ME SOLVE THE PROBLEM Eva said, on December 11, 2008 7:08 PM:
Just wanted to say thanks. I was googling this error message repeatedly, and clicking lots of links, and yours was the first that said something that was actually sensible and useful. Rob said, on December 15, 2008 6:02 AM:
I get the low virtual memory warning and only a blank screen. How can I get to where UI can address the problem? connie said, on December 25, 2008 7:05 PM:
In the task manager, it shows that indeed my firefox is first and yahoo messenger is second to take up my memory. firefox mem usage is 85,304k - vm sz.94,768k. messenger is 14,204k mem - 50,448k vm. What do you think I should do about it? I didn't see any answers to the questions people asked you. Thanks FRED LOGAN said, on December 27, 2008 11:05 AM:
Dave, Can you help? I have a windows XP OS and cannot boot it up whenever it gets to the windows intropage i get the "Your system is low on virtual memory. Windows is increasing the size of your virtual memory paging file." message and then nothing happens forever!!! I can't boot up the computer because of this so i cant get into it to try to fix it. Do you have any suggestions please. The computer has 512 RAM and 80 G hard drive thank you in advance for any thing you can suggest robert haggarty said, on December 30, 2008 8:40 AM:
dave can u tell me wot RPS.exe is becouse it is using more memory than internet explorer and i think this is slowing down my computer. i have windows xp if thats any help thx Mike said, on December 30, 2008 9:26 AM:
Thanks JohnBoyJenkins said, on January 2, 2009 11:56 AM:
You said, "Virtual memory is the sum of physical memory and the page file." This is false. Virtual memory is the opposite of physical memory. The page file IS the virtual memory. Brenda Fox said, on January 5, 2009 12:31 PM:
hello, I have a laptop compaq presario Sony Vao K33. it was giving me msg saying virtual memory too low. but now i cant even get to start menu when i start the laptop i just see windows xp screen and its trying to load something thats all. it stops right there tried rebooting nothing is working. i am out of warranty. how to fix it. thanks in advance David said, on January 7, 2009 3:03 PM:
I've had this problem before and as such, took my laptop to an I.T technician who carried out a general diagnostic, cleaned my computer of all little bugs and upgraded my RAM from 256 to 1Gb. Now however the'low virtual memory' problem is back! I followed ur steps provided and have identified the problem. iexplorer.exe has what seems like an excessive 403,048k of VM size where as my next highest is only 26,292k. Have you any advice for what my next step should be? Thank you very much in advance. Meesum said, on January 20, 2009 6:13 AM:
You are Awesome! I got it resolved in few minutes after reading your post. milind said, on January 22, 2009 12:13 PM:
i have a intel4 core duo with 1gb of ram. recently i installed winxp sp2 again fresh instal on d: drv (dual boot) .i think i have issue with virtual memory, but have never got any popup stating u r low on it .now the xp which i have on primary drive is corrupted & infected i guess as i get too lot of those messages. my firefox is taking 102896k vm .my available phy memory as per tsk mgr is 350mb .now the real problem starts when i use media player 11.with just 3 windows of firefox open my cpu usage reaches 92% and the songs i play in media plyr get stuck or appear scratchy..even media player takes 182464k in tsk mr . what all performance steps u can suggest to get me goin . dave this is the first site where i have seen such indepth issues but i don'nt see the answers to the questions asked . since i am a first timer 2 this site i have no clue how the questions r ans and how long it takes for ur reply ...anyways have got high hopes tht u wud b able to help me ( my pf usage in tsk reamins constant at arnd 550mb ). khanjee said, on February 2, 2009 2:35 AM:
my PC is 1GB processor and 256 ram,window xp instal.my system virtuial memory is very low.can anyone help me what can i do. Lissa Graham said, on February 13, 2009 5:57 PM:
Thanks Dave. It is so refreshing to read such helpful information explained in such a simple way. I am so glad I found your site and will be a fan forever. You rock!! :oD KK said, on February 17, 2009 10:24 PM:
Hi, What should be the Minimum and Maximum Virtual Memory I should configure to run it? My PC also needs to be running 24X7 as it is connceted and used for some updates to my Linux Server which has Oracle Database. Thanks :-) Elliot said, on February 26, 2009 4:35 PM:
Does anyone else have a problem with Safari, its taking up 668 of VM : ( Frosty said, on March 6, 2009 4:44 PM:
Windows has historical had this issue when it has a gig or more of ram to play with, I know for a fact the it exists in Windows ME and think it's silly of us to assume that anything has changed given Microsoft's history on actually fixing flaws in their OS, now if I could just find that fix again...... "For best performance, do not set the initial size to less than the minimum recommended size under Total paging file size for all drives. The recommended size is the same as 1.5 times the RAM on your computer. It is good practice to leave the paging file at its recommended size as performance can decrease if a paging file is too large. However, you may increase its size if you frequently use programs that use lots of memory, such as graphics programs or games." http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308417 From the horse's mouth sort of speak, so then this really shouldn't be a problem. Give this a try: Harry said, on March 12, 2009 12:58 AM:
Hai Dave, U r gr8... Thank you for ur info. Harry April said, on March 25, 2009 11:58 AM:
Hi Dave.. I am using Firefox and when I am on myspace the screen freezes and says that firefox myspace is not responding..I keep trying to refresh the page and most of the time it clears up..but sometimes it doesnt..and also windows says it is adding virtual memory and I saw where you said to uninstall and reinstall the program that I think is causing this..I did what you said and checked the virtual memory and yes firefox and IE is using alot of memory..if that doesn't work is there anything else I could do? Thanks April Rebecca said, on April 1, 2009 7:00 PM:
So I checked out what program was taking up all my VM and found out that it was Adobe Reader 8.0, and was taking up about 750,000 K... is this normal for this application, or does it require uninstallation and reinstallation? I'd rather not go through the process if it's not necessary. Gamnje ebenezer said, on April 10, 2009 11:27 AM:
Hi thank a million this helped me so much.Good bless u okay Lasitha-VEGA said, on April 11, 2009 6:59 AM:
Excellent... Sara said, on April 16, 2009 10:09 AM:
I went through and did what you said with the task manager...I have come to find that my SpySweeper is whats taking up the most VM. How do I fix this issue? donald noss said, on April 29, 2009 8:42 AM:
I have a 2 yr old system with 896MB of total physical memory. All of a sudden I started getting a few "Virtual Memory Error" messages. Orig had set min to (856*1.5)1344MB and max to 2688MB. Then I changed to min and max the same at 1344MB. Should I just let the system select what the min and max should be for Virtual Memory? I did that too but still got a few messages. I have Norton and some good Registry software. Should I defrag system even though when i go to analyze it, the system says it does Not need defragging? Thanks henG said, on May 2, 2009 9:39 PM:
thank you very much. :) romeo said, on May 5, 2009 7:45 PM:
why is it when i use the built in mouse on my laptop (i don't know how to call it), sometimes it freezes and when the cursor moves, it goes back to the previous page? please advise. thanks Tom said, on May 6, 2009 3:21 PM:
I have been getting error notices when closing Internet Explorer in the past few weeks and now am getting the "low on virtual memory" warning. Using your solution at the top of this post to diagnose the problem, it is my Internet Exporer app that appears to be using a lot of memory (158,984K). Should I uninstall and then reinstall Internet Explorer? and how do I do this process? Johnson said, on May 8, 2009 7:07 AM:
Question: What do I do to fix the virtual memory when it is too low? -Johnson Solution: I assume that you got a little balloon in the bottom right-hand corner announcing that your virtual memory is low and that Windows is adjusting it. If this happens just once, don't worry—as the message said, Windows found a problem and fixed it. But if it happens repeatedly, it could be that your settings don't allow Windows to make the necessary adjustment. First, make sure your drive isn't overly full. In Windows Explorer, right-click the drive icon and choose Properties. If the amount of free space is under about 10 percent, you'll need to free up some space. You can use the Disk Cleanup button right next to the free space indicator, or manually move some files to off-line storage, or uninstall unnecessary applications—whatever it takes to get more free space. If low drive space isn't the problem, the virtual-memory settings may be wrong. Right-click My Computer and choose Properties. Click the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button in the Performance panel. Click the Advanced tab in the Performance dialog. Click the Change button in the Virtual memory panel. Whew! This setting is buried quite thoroughly! Look for the System managed size option, select it if it isn't already selected, and then click OK, OK, OK. That should end the warnings. Gary said, on May 17, 2009 7:49 PM:
Task Manager shows the VM size of VSSERV.EXE on my computer is very large and my computer has slowed considerably recently. Could this be the cause and can I do any thing about it? minimee said, on May 19, 2009 4:52 AM:
When i turn on my computer my icons come up on the screen but behind the icons are a whole bunch of words about my desk top can you help me remove all of this? my computer runs fine but this is just a problem for me. CJ said, on May 21, 2009 12:04 PM:
I get low virtual memory....warning...i increased the virtual memory size, dont get that warning anymore...but my system is still slow. i must have several programs open at the same time to do my job..i work from home. my email has gotten very slow and sometimes fails to do simple task as open or show new emails. I also run yahoo messenger to communicate with supervisor.... help....i run advanced windows care daily at log off...i really dont know what to do i went to task manager and IE is my biggest user.....how do i uninstall and reinstall that? or is that the fix cougar said, on May 22, 2009 1:18 PM:
dave I installed a tiger woods 2003 pga golf game,the program was running fine,then all of a sudden a message stated "active x is reporting that your virtual memory is too low"after this message the screen resolution changed from my setting of 1024x768 to the computer setting itself to 800x600.and that I didnt have enough "video memory"to run the program.Previously I had 1024 sd ddr ram with no other games installed.Then yesterday I put another gig of ram into the computer which brings Maggie said, on May 29, 2009 12:09 PM:
And what if a "Select Columns" option ( in Processes tab in Task Manager) doesn't exist? Kari said, on June 6, 2009 7:23 PM:
Running Windows XP Professional and have checked to see where the leak is. The most used is iexplorer at 1,738,16... K, which seems to be extremely large. Next in line is Spybot at 97,000K and TEaTimer at 91,000K, Ad-Aware at 69,000K, and CCSVCHST at 41,576K. YAHOOM~1 is at 32,804 and explorer is at 24,748K. There are four more that are between 18000K and 24000K and then everything else is below 8,000K. My computer has been so slow on the internet that it takes forever to load some websites and then eventually freezes, forcing me to shut the computer down at the tower. I never leave it on overnight and keep it off until I'm ready to use it again. How can I fix my problem? G said, on June 11, 2009 6:02 PM:
When I hit control alt delete, my computer does not have the options you mention. Please update for ALL types of XP. venkat said, on June 13, 2009 6:18 AM:
dear Dave,pls help!!! thanking you venga Ankit said, on June 19, 2009 11:46 PM:
Hi i have been facing this problem from a long time now... the solution given above is a bit complicated... i found a soultion here... hope this helps others as well.. http://dummy-essentials.blogspot.com/2009/06/error-system-is-low-on-virtual-memory.html nick said, on June 24, 2009 6:50 PM:
U R GOD!!!!!!! Namolang said, on July 1, 2009 6:00 PM:
Hi Dave! I have the problem of installing network drivers for my laptop, it keeps complaining that they are incompatible, and my note is acer aspire 4315. please help. sonu said, on July 6, 2009 11:14 AM:
my graphics card memory is 256mb but now it became 96mb.please help me. Dipendra Maharjan said, on July 22, 2009 12:56 AM:
Hey!! Dave Penjor Gyeltshen said, on July 27, 2009 11:47 PM:
Thank you it is resolved Bing said, on July 29, 2009 3:19 AM:
Hi Dave, many thanks. Great article! Very well explained. Blue Fire said, on August 6, 2009 7:57 AM:
You answered my question perfectly about this issue. Excellent explanation and the screen shots help. M> said, on August 11, 2009 6:08 PM:
Dave, I am still kinda lost here with my virtual memory, I opened my windows task mang. clicked on the processor tab and then veiw and I see that iexplor.exe is taking up 91,768k in the vm size colm, next is my sprintSV.exe for my internet that is taking up 20,888k ... now I really don't know what to do next, I keep getting that message WOW said, on August 13, 2009 12:54 AM:
All you guys have to do is raise your virtual memory it is not brain surgery it is very easy to do and you will never get the your to low again. Just go to my computer and right click on the background and select advanced and under performance hit the settings button then select advanced then under virtual memory select change then select custom size then just double the speed numbers. WOW said, on August 13, 2009 1:05 AM:
i have dvix and when i download movies and put them on my ex hard drive i get the message windows has encountered a problem and needs to close,can you help please,pat DO the movies work before you put them on your ex hard drive? if so it could be the ex hard drive is failing. try to save what you put on it to another and clear it off. and then format it. If this works try not to put much on the old hard drive because if it has crashed once before it can again so keeping atleast 2 to 3 gigs free on it. any further questions email me notaredneckx@gmail.com BrutalBronco said, on August 18, 2009 6:13 AM:
From your words, it sounds like you can help my situation. I've been having problems w/ a slow pc. Having some familiarity with programming, I've already performed to steps you described here. My offending program seems to be avgnsx.exe (AVG 8.5 otc). It eats most of my VM (60,000 - 1,000,000 + KB VM whoa). I've re-installed, with same behavior. I suspect a memory leak, as you mentioned, and am wondering how to resolve this situation. Sserunjogi said, on August 27, 2009 6:55 AM:
thanks for the great job your doing for us. am always getting a message about low virtual, cant i disable it? george said, on September 18, 2009 10:47 AM:
Dave,Following your directions I pressed column but I did not get virtual size. I got box with 5 little squares for.... user name What now Mic Sena said, on September 29, 2009 3:29 PM:
I tried shutting down programs in the task managner and changing the settings, numerous times, and each time I reboot the virtual memory settings remain the same - 0. It makes no difference what size I put in for either memory blanks, from 2 to 4096 or anywhere inbetween, it always reverts to zero. Any idea where I need to look next? carl kurtides said, on October 10, 2009 5:07 AM:
George (Sept. 18, 2009) - Before selecting "view" and then "select columns" make sure you have selected the processes tab. The result you got happens when you have the users tab selected and you select "view" and "select columns". ivan2609 said, on October 10, 2009 3:12 PM:
how to turn off some programs which use most of virtual memory...exm. firefox 750,000k :(((( Angelica said, on October 13, 2009 3:19 PM:
What if internet explorer is the cause? How do u fix that? It shows up as 1st & 2nd on the list and then explorer.exe shows up 5th, iexplorer.exe again on lines 11 & 12 for a wopping 150,000+ K!!! How do I fix that? Angelica said, on October 13, 2009 3:27 PM:
I am using Windows XP Media center edition 2002 s/n AMD Athlon 64X2 dual core processor 4600+986MHz 2.00GB of Ram. I was told this was a very good computer for gaming but it seems I can't even have two programs (non-gaming) w/out my comp turning off unexpectadly. It's fan blows furiously, as if I was overloading it then everything just blacks out. I notice it does it when Norton tries to do a full system scan. I notice it happens more often when i have larger applications running. I checked my vertual memory & internet explorer takes a wopping 150,000+K! It also appears at least 4xs on the list. How do I fix this & could this be the cause or only cause? How does norton play into this? Hannibal Ostrenga said, on October 17, 2009 8:03 AM:
Virtual Memory Low will said, on October 17, 2009 3:35 PM:
I play computer games and i can play wow easy with no problem then I play a private server on a game that has minimal requirements to play compared to wow and I cannont play it because it says i have virtual memory low. I tried doing your steps and it was already set to system automatically. I've tried editing the page filling but that doesn't work. Can you please help me. Alec said, on October 24, 2009 5:03 PM:
Hey, thank you! I still live in a household and being a computer wiz compared to my family when the house computer started to state "virtual memory low" my mom thought I downloaded a virus. Yeeeaaaaaaaah, if anyone did, it would be my sister or my porn-surfing brother. Thanks. Mirza Fehimovic said, on November 2, 2009 7:28 AM:
Dear Dave, On my PC I run Windows XP, and the Internet Explorer has been acting strangely over the past several weeks. If I open a page of a let’s newspaper its home page covers the space of my monitor as it should be. But when I click on a page within their website the space starts “rolling up”. It shrinks. Every new page gets smaller space until it disappears completely. Can you please advise me what to do to sort this out? Many thanks. Mirza Gurmeet singh said, on November 9, 2009 10:09 AM:
Hi, DEV I read your answer and understand very well you are good teacher. your language is very simple and understandable. If I have some quary then how can I ask you ? Gurmeet Singh L said, on November 12, 2009 8:37 AM:
Thank you, this helped me figure out what the issue was. Ajay said, on November 15, 2009 4:04 AM:
I originally had 256 MB DDR and I upgraded the ram to 512 MB (256 MB + 512 MB =768 MB). When I installed window XP sp2 after installation XP system reboot automatically and showing a virtual memory error message. Can you resolve the problem any one. herme said, on November 15, 2009 10:38 AM:
been having trouble with this for a very very very long time. definitely helps to understand what virtual memory is and see what apps are comsuming it. thx so much!!!! anna said, on November 25, 2009 10:18 AM:
hey dave my pc is saying vertual memory low an it is really stickin an freezin but i dont knw wut to do can u help me please thanks Sanjay Kumar said, on November 26, 2009 7:25 AM:
My computer is Lenovo Core2Due Processor. When i tried to load some software and many website when i faced trouble about virtual memory. Please suggest me that how i increase my system virtual memory to i work easily without any difficulty. Zorah said, on November 26, 2009 7:41 PM:
Dave , Please help. I did everything you said. It shows 856,716 K is SERVICES.EXE. What's that? I a m tryin g to END PROCESS TREE, but It doesn 't work. Tom Leparskas said, on November 29, 2009 3:13 PM:
Big pagefile issues. Have checked and set all permissions in Safe Mode. Have uninstalled hard drive controllers and re-installed with Plug and Play. I have an Athlon XP2400 2GIGhz - 2 gig RAM. 2 hard drives 80 gig boot drive / second drive 160 gig. Running Windows XP Professional SP 3. The system is at a crawl. Help please. Thanks, Tom Leparskas hack said, on November 30, 2009 3:16 AM:
for u firefox fans that leave it open over night even days at a time press ctrl+d and close it(or click bookmark all-rightclick on a tab-).it takes u less than 10s to do it and also u can load pages again from bookmarks at firefox startup...no memory problem there Gill said, on December 2, 2009 6:23 PM:
How do I change the sound card on my computer. Keith said, on December 3, 2009 6:22 AM:
Hey. I was wondering if you could help me with an issue. Whenever I use an internet browser - explorer, firefox, or ggle.chrome - to download or watch video online. the browsers freeze, along with the laptop - the commit charge ratio starts increasing like wild fire. If I'm lucky I can shut down the browser from Task manager, but I usually have to restart laptop. I have run NOD32 no virus, malwarebytes no malware. not sure what else I can do. Hope you can help. Thanks. koos said, on December 3, 2009 11:23 PM:
Hi Dave Michael said, on December 10, 2009 11:55 AM:
I really appreciate a site that is very clear and consise in it's explanations. This is definately one of those sites. Dave thank you for providing this information. Michael Daniels naresh said, on December 13, 2009 10:17 AM:
i have some problem in my sysytem.. when i download files from internet then its show out of memory .. how can i slove this problem Mustafa said, on December 14, 2009 4:43 PM:
hi dave, i have deleted more than 1000 places which i had saved in google earth how can bring them back i really need them urgent plz reply me i'm waiting for you aravind said, on December 21, 2009 7:46 PM:
my computer shows that task manager is disabled. Please let me know how to enable the task manager. nathan woods said, on December 22, 2009 12:22 PM:
Dave my wife made a back up disk and accidently saved it to the hard drive of the computer and now the computer is saying that the memory is full.How do i get the computer back working right. presto said, on December 24, 2009 1:23 PM:
dave, i have a 128mb ram. now my problem is that im haveing a vm low. what can i do to fix this? shall i buy a bigger ram? or is there any solutions to my vm lo problem? squirk said, on December 28, 2009 12:59 PM:
Dave- Rahul said, on December 31, 2009 7:49 AM:
Scanner.exe is using almost 80% memory how to control it john said, on January 8, 2010 3:38 PM:
Why do you sell this stuff this way????? Dave Taylor said, on January 9, 2010 9:14 AM:
John, I'm afraid that you might have mistaken an advertisement on my site for the actually answer to your question about fixing the too little virtual memory error. I don't sell anything at all on this site, but my advertisers definitely do, just as they do on TV, the radio and in newspapers and magazines. Sorry for the confusion. prue said, on January 15, 2010 1:00 PM:
I am low on virtual memory sarah said, on February 6, 2010 10:30 AM:
Hi dave,, hope you can help. i`ve been trying to sort out a low virtual memory, when i cllicked the no paging file. after that my pc wont work, i cant even system restore, it just says not enough memory. please help (very frustrated) sarah Arachhi said, on February 8, 2010 10:44 PM:
arun said, on February 11, 2010 3:43 AM:
hi... i have a problem in virtual memeory, that is while running C#.net applications (Not in idle state of application), virtual memory size is keeps increasing and it leads to hang of computer.... pls help me.... Eric said, on February 11, 2010 2:25 PM:
Thanks for the troubleshooting tips! It led me to discover what a memory hog internet explorer is. I am off to find a better browser that more closely addresses my accessiblity requirements. Rajeev said, on February 13, 2010 11:01 AM:
i have a P III 700 Mhz with 128 MB RAM With WINDOWS XP. The message of virtual memory keeps on cropping up and hanging the system particularly Internet explorer 8. Please help sandra smith said, on February 13, 2010 12:15 PM:
hi ive read alot about memory probs, but ive just had windows 7 put on my laptop & its runing faster which is great, but when i went to download bing for assessing my email quicker it said id low memory, i use explorer & firefox so should i choose another browser? which is best please, thanks sandra woodie said, on February 21, 2010 4:20 PM:
Man...what a difference...Thanks Bro Peter said, on February 22, 2010 8:16 AM:
Thanks Dave, for your handy and admirable techy advice about troubleshooting malfunctioning pc. Rajshekarreddy said, on February 23, 2010 2:03 AM:
thanks ,for guiding to detect root cause and tell me how to fix this problem Dan said, on February 23, 2010 10:25 AM:
WOW.. this post started in 2005 and the comments just kept going! Something tells me this is a topic worth revisiting! Thanks for the great info Dave... do even remember writing this :) Dianne said, on March 3, 2010 6:33 PM:
I am having virtual memory problems. I followed your instructions and it is aolsoftware.exe. Is there a way to fix that? I am a retiree and spend a lot of time on AOL. Any suggestions to get this fixed would be appreciated. Thanks Dianne Dave Taylor said, on March 3, 2010 6:42 PM:
Dianne, sounds to me like aolsoftware.exe is your AOL system. You don't want to kill that or remove it if you still want acces to AOL. Maybe reboot the system every day, see if that helps? Make sure you don't have tons of other stuff starting up when your system boots, too. Bilal said, on March 6, 2010 11:54 AM:
U can also select priority for each task Rod Lockwood said, on March 13, 2010 4:50 AM:
Dear Dave: I am running Windows XP HOME Edition, SP2. I have very little RAM on my laptop, so I decided to build up the virtual memory. I have a 40G hard drive on the laptop. I have three external drives, two 80G and a 1Tb. I set the virtual memory from System>Advanced>Performance>Advanced>Virtual Memory to 1G (minimum and maximum) on the system drive and the two smaller drives, and 2G (minimum and maximum) on the 1Tb drive. After that the total paging file size for all drives read 1G. I rebooted. Still 1G. I have set all of the external drives to Basic /not/ Dynamic. I have found the Share Creation Wizard and set all of the root directories of the external drives to allow "Full Control" to SYSTEM. The pagefile.sys files in each of the root directories of the external drives is still 0 bytes and the total paging file size for all drives is still only 1G. What is going on? mtnluke said, on March 15, 2010 9:38 PM:
Hi. I just started patching my own memory leaks and virtual memory problems. I've noticed that the google engine started to leak a lot of memory and I know because I left the page open over night and even some times for a week at a time. Thank you so much for helping and I am happy that I can now patch my own memory leaks like many here have talked about in this post. mario said, on March 16, 2010 5:10 PM:
hey this worked for me thanks for the help. brenda bolger said, on March 22, 2010 12:54 PM:
hi Dave, Beloved said, on March 23, 2010 5:27 AM:
Hi Dave, Pls, what could cause a Laptop to suddenly hang and never come back again. and what can I do ro rescue my files. Sungirl said, on March 27, 2010 11:30 PM:
Thnx Dave, Jeron Guzman said, on March 29, 2010 1:53 AM:
my computer is too slow every time i start opening it.window xp and 256 MB of RAM.what can i do to make it fast. ronz said, on March 29, 2010 8:55 AM:
hi Dave, How can i fix my computer. What should the possible step i do? My PC is Windows XP Professional pleasehelp said, on March 29, 2010 9:42 AM:
I am running Windows XP professional and I read what you said about checking to see whats using the most of the VM size and it's MsMpEng.exe system. Can you help me reset this as I didn't quite understand your advice. My virtual memory is 192 mb. I am too new to this to understand without step by step instructions. Thank You, Ken antonio bayno said, on April 5, 2010 5:58 PM:
i have a problem to my computer (virtual memory too low)how to fit it...... Zaides said, on April 17, 2010 5:04 AM:
Dave, I'am playing a Online game which is called NosTale.... And everytime I play it always says... becki said, on May 6, 2010 9:29 AM:
.eYLa.Ela said, on May 7, 2010 12:00 PM:
honestly Dave, your my idol now ... your really good man ... i've learned / learns a lot from you ... muchas Gracias señor! A_Novo said, on May 7, 2010 1:52 PM:
Great info on the VM issue. Thanks danendar said, on May 14, 2010 12:05 AM:
i have application crash or hanging while playing some games only...i m using core2 duo,3gb ram 160hdd, palit 8400gs 512mb gp card...i also changed my graphics card , smps, ram due to this problem but no use..pls i need your help.... pragya said, on May 14, 2010 7:19 AM:
What is the difference between virtual memory and auxiliary memory? Katlyn said, on May 20, 2010 6:38 AM:
My computer too is running low on virtual memory. Once I find the culprit, in my case I have explorer at 20,000K, Opera at 40,000K and McShield at 116,000K. How do I go about getting rid of it? I would gladly remove explorer as I only ever use Opera. Please help. Shirley Hunter said, on May 20, 2010 10:25 AM:
Thank You for your help it is good to see that in this day and age people are willing to give information free and don't stick their hand out looking for money, it's good there are gentlemen out there. Thank you again Steve Brown said, on May 20, 2010 9:38 PM:
My computer will run like normal for about an hour or 2, then things start to freeze and run really slow. Once and awhile I get the virtual memory error low message. I regularly defrag, empty the cache, do a disc sweep, and run norton...but that stuff doesnt seem to help. I removed a lot of stuff from "add and remove programs" so thats not the problem. When I defrag, it says I have 69% freen space on my hard drive. Im lost...please help. Ibrahim Mohammed said, on May 21, 2010 3:38 AM:
I was running Windows Server 2003 and I haven this virtual memery low prolem when I click on Manage Users and Compters Active Directory. It alart me with Memory low problem and after some times MMC has encountered problem. I tried ur solution and I still have problem, what do I do please. Thank Lee said, on June 5, 2010 5:58 AM:
Hi My Windows xp home computer is running that slow it could stop! I also have a regular pop up stating something about virtual memory being low! I have tried virus scans, de frag, disc check etc to no avail...... Please help !!! Thanx Dave C. said, on June 13, 2010 10:43 AM:
Hi, cd/dvd drive has stopped working with dvd's. Nicole said, on June 14, 2010 8:45 PM:
Hi Dave, Chris said, on June 15, 2010 7:49 PM:
How come when i press ctrl alt del nothing happens? Trupti said, on June 16, 2010 1:15 AM:
hi... neville said, on June 17, 2010 12:33 PM:
when am playing a computer game desk top a messsage appears that my virtual memory is low and the programe shots down i need help chinmay said, on June 22, 2010 1:36 AM:
hey, Thanks first of all.. sravan said, on July 16, 2010 12:58 AM:
how i will redcuce the siz of virtual memory in my p.c ??? am using windows xp and intel core 2 duo processor Sherman Handberg said, on July 16, 2010 10:36 PM:
I just ran into the "no page file" on boot up problem. I previously had it on a Win98 computer a few years ago, and vaguely remembered the cure. My current computer was running XP home SP2. I recently tried installing Intel's Application Accelerator. Got a notice that "Windows created a temporary paging file on your computer because of a paging fle problem during startup".(not verbatim) In System Properties, virtual memory showed "total paging file size for all drives" was staying at zero, even though the custom settings were from 1728 to 3456. Didn't like Application Accelerator, so I uninstalled it. What I hadn't noticed, was that in the Device Manager, what was formerly listed as the "82801BA Bus Master IDE Controller" had been renamed to "82801BA Ultra ATA Controller" so Windows wanted to keep using the Ultra ATA drivers - Idechndr.sys and Idebusdr.sys. GRETCHEN said, on July 21, 2010 2:10 AM:
I'll give it a go: Windows keeps telling me that it's fixing it, but I no longer believe it! arun said, on July 28, 2010 12:06 PM:
thak u soo much for the information...... LC said, on July 31, 2010 5:04 PM:
I'm having problem with my computer it always shows "LOW VIRTUAL MEMORY". I tried to follow the instructions you've given in finding the source of the problem. And it shows that "AVP.EXE" is taking up the most virtual memory, what does "AVP.EXE" means??. By the way im using windows XP. Vaibhav said, on August 5, 2010 12:25 PM:
when I open the windows task manager,it doesn't display the title bar of the windows task manager.please give me solution. les said, on August 19, 2010 5:03 PM:
i notice that to fix my low visual memory problem on my p3 with 1/2gig memory i really need to buy your product..... otherwise i get absolutely nothing ... will your product absolutely help fix my low visual memory problem without extra costa at all .... and what is the cost ,,,,, do you take paypal for payment ... i do not want to download a program that continues hundreds of UPGRADES i await your answer regards les ISAAC said, on August 19, 2010 11:11 PM:
please let me know how to save pictures from power point-eg to save a photo from pp and use it as screen saver regards isaac Patrick said, on August 20, 2010 2:48 PM:
Don't know if some one already said it, but you should never mis match rams of different speeds, the computer is gonna run at the lower speed ram when you do that. hammad said, on August 25, 2010 10:01 PM:
dear dave Chris Easy said, on August 30, 2010 4:39 AM:
Hi Dave, Microsoft have recently swiped my copied Microsoft Office programmes, so I'm having communication difficulties, even though I also downloaded Open Office. The unit Has 2.50GHZ , and with the aid of AVG / Spybot / PC Health Manager everything works smoothly .... QUESTION : Can I get someone to implant a 'latest spec / updated' processor into my CPU ?? I want to help protect the environment, so if I can save trashing the metal & update it this would be my preferred option .... but can you buy processors ? Thanks for your help, Chris. Brandy said, on September 1, 2010 7:36 AM:
I have Dial-up and my firefox is running so slow and it takes so long to load a page and I have LocalNet Express sanket said, on September 12, 2010 1:13 PM:
Hi ! I recently format my computer and install windows xp ! But now my computer shows error msg when any software is runnin like '' program encounter with problem , sorry for inconviniance , pls close app. '' and sometimes computer restarts also ! Hw can i fix this problem ? charles said, on September 13, 2010 12:57 AM:
hi, im running on widows xp pro service pack 3 and i just installed a video game, every time i try and play it or any other game i get a message saying : you need 12 mb memory to run this game/ graphics acceleration material required. Vinod Kumar Bhardwaj said, on September 15, 2010 12:22 PM:
A great sol which will help everyone. jay said, on September 20, 2010 4:51 AM:
hi there. i upgraded my XP to windows 7. greentech07 said, on September 28, 2010 4:37 AM:
gud tips, gud guide thanks Kathy said, on October 4, 2010 7:30 PM:
Dave, Thank you so much..I found my culprit..it is TeaTimer.exe..Now, is this something that I can shut down? I'f I do will it hurt anything?..I'm really no computer expert but, i found it very easy to follow your steps in finding my VM hogg..Thank you so much and please let me know if it is ok to rid of this TeaTimer.exe Dave Taylor said, on October 4, 2010 7:41 PM:
Kathy, as best I can tell, TeaTimer.exe is part of Spybot S&D Realtime Scanner and I believe it can be killed, but I suspect it'll show up again next time you reboot. Why they can't name it coherently as, for example, "SpyBotScanner.exe", I don't really get... Dayton said, on October 13, 2010 1:24 AM:
Hi, I have a windows vista, and recently, out of no where, My computer that had 280 gigs left lost about 270 over night. I've tried lots of anti virus software and registry mechanic, and nothing is working in the slightest. What are possibles causes and solutions to those causes? Thank you, Stefan said, on October 19, 2010 2:47 AM:
Yes its true firefox its the best of my virtual and physical as well , it eats 185.000k from my VM and gets 191.000k of physical memory i have there delicious bookmarks and how about this "plugins-container.exe" can i dezactivate it somehow from firefox i hope i can. thanks for this post and others. Dora said, on October 20, 2010 1:34 PM:
thanks these posts have been of great help to me as concerns virtual memory on my computer. go to it through google.com Ivan said, on October 22, 2010 8:48 PM:
After loosing many hours with virtual memory I found your post! Thanks by you tips! Now I know what's the problem I can look for a solution... Sandra said, on October 25, 2010 1:41 PM:
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. My computer is working great thanks to your help. I can't believe it was so easy to fix. sandeep said, on October 28, 2010 4:29 AM:
Thanks alot man.. that was really great info.. i m facing the problem with google chrome. Kirsty said, on October 30, 2010 3:57 PM:
I'm not very good at all this technical stuff, loads of the information on here has gone straight over my head! I had this error message, found some step-by-step instructions on the microsoft website explaining how to increase my virtual memory. (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826513) Is this an appropriate way to fix my problem? Thanks natoya said, on October 30, 2010 10:18 PM:
hey dave vassoss said, on November 1, 2010 11:10 AM:
Dear Dave, rasheed said, on November 3, 2010 3:59 AM:
hey dave LaVerne said, on November 14, 2010 4:22 PM:
I unistalled internet explorer 8, because I was having a problem with it, however I have firefox, the problem is firefox will not open so that I can re-install internet explore or if it does it is stalling and the download stalls. What can I do to fix this and re-install internet explorer. Netanela said, on November 23, 2010 5:40 AM:
Can not possibly thank you enough. Scott said, on November 27, 2010 10:06 AM:
I increased the virtual memory by 100MB on the allication slot and on the max. slot. I am running XP pro. I went to reboot and now it will stop with a black screen and not finish loading. What possibly could be the problem? Help!! Original problem was "virtual memory to low" Thanks Buddhadev said, on December 14, 2010 12:09 PM:
Dave, I have windowsXP Pro as operting system . I use Yahoo as my homepage also use yahoo messenger & windows live.had been using this for over 3/4 years.But the problem of " Virtual Memory" is very recent matter to me--never experienced earler as doing now for last 2 monrhs. Oh! I use both Yahoo & google toolbars too.Is there anything new now that I am missing? now I face the warning very frequebtly why ? My computers configurations are same as nefore. PLease advice how can I overcome it. Steven said, on December 20, 2010 5:28 AM:
I thought this might help those running XP as a Parallels VM on Macs: Lacey said, on December 22, 2010 4:10 PM:
Hi Dave, ussama said, on December 24, 2010 8:09 AM:
DAVE, Gordon Galletly said, on March 22, 2011 5:29 AM:
I have a 7-year-old Dell desktop with Windows XP & running MS Works. When I go to "My Documents" and bring up a document I wish to amend, I scroll down to the area to be amended but the document automatically scrolls back line-by-line to the beginning and I am uinable to do any amending. I have uninstalled Works 7.0 and reinstalled it but the problem persists. Could anyone help please ? stephanie teague said, on March 30, 2011 2:37 PM:
when I check my computer to defrag it, there is a big green line that says it's unmovable files (what are those), it says my computer doesn't need defraged now, but it's still slow and constantly running out of virtual memory? Dave Taylor said, on March 30, 2011 7:05 PM:
Hi stephanie! Just to be clear, your disk space / disk has nothing to do with virtual memory. That is, if your disk is fragmented then it can definitely slow things down -- and if your computer is swapping to disk a lot due to insufficient memory, that can also cause it to slow down -- but it sounds like you need more RAM or need to figure out what's hogging your available memory. ahmadali said, on April 4, 2011 1:52 AM:
I could not understand how to increase window verthual memory pl let me know step by step and oblige elda said, on April 20, 2011 2:50 PM:
Re Virtual memory low problem Have followed your instructions BUT elda said, on April 20, 2011 2:56 PM:
Help I'm not too computer tech savy!!! I used your virtual memory advice and followed the instructions BUT when I got to & clked on the 'double click the VM Size' and when I try to clk on "End Process" a warning comes up saying """terminating could result in loss of data and system instability. The process will not be given the chance to save its state or data before it is terminated. Are you sure you want to terminate the process?? YES or NO""" sandy said, on April 24, 2011 5:15 PM:
My problem is different. I open my task manager and everything seems fine. I only have avg checked on start-up, nothing else. My computer is starting to slow some after we installed a new Linksye E3000 wireless. No one in the house has decent running computers and netflix does not load. Everything is pointing to my computer. Was going to kill disk it and start over but wanted to put the old modem back on. No one else wants me to. Can not find the reason for this. Any ideas? Thank you firdous said, on May 6, 2011 11:45 AM:
my problume is when i connect internet to my pc and i work in internet after i restart or shut down my pc there my windows get corrupted in second restart Maria Felten said, on May 16, 2011 11:36 AM:
How dangerous is it to end a process? For instance, I have three "iexplorer" running. Thanks, Dave, I'm glad I found your site! Maria Felten Rajesh said, on May 21, 2011 9:25 PM:
I am using Compaq precsario c506TU. Two days earlier my system used to restart automatically in between work. At once I noticed that my XP gone corrupted. I took the laptop to a service centre and was told that my motherboard is having some problem and they are unable to install XP. I brought to home and installed XP easily, it worked for sometime and started to SWoff automatically, sometimes showing not enough virtual memory and shutting off giving me no time to think what the problem would be. I m using 1.5GB RAM and my system used to work very fine, pls help to solve the issue Indi said, on May 31, 2011 1:49 AM:
The forex MT4 program always give me CRASHED ERROR message after few days or one week of been installed and used. Nono said, on June 14, 2011 6:23 PM:
Hey Dave, thanks for sharing this! I always figured that Firefox was the problem when my virtual memory was running low. I really love firefox and would rather not switch browsers, so I'm gonna have to read up on patching up the memory leaks. Pasokon said, on June 19, 2011 12:04 AM:
Each time when i turn on my computer first it shows this massange C:\WINDOWS\apps\Microsoft\Applications\Ms-office\Ms-Word\Networking\internet\system32\backup. i have uninstall Ms office and turn on the computer but problem is not solved.. would you please help to solve this problem. Pasokon
Tom said, on July 5, 2011 2:18 PM:
well that’s interesting…because i just had a severe trojan virus and it went away just after i removed conhost.exe….. Danny said, on July 30, 2011 5:18 AM:
You are my hero!!! Miguel Perez said, on August 4, 2011 8:19 AM:
Thank you for the useful article. I had an Internet Explorer window open on my Media PC which had been left open for over a week. The computer ran so slowly it took me forever to work out what the problem was. Gladly I found your article and within minutes closed down the offending program, making the PC function perfectly again. Lia said, on August 23, 2011 5:55 PM:
I started up my old computer-windows XP for my kids to have and I don't remember the administrator password. I don't have any set up disks either. Can you help me out? We're hoping to get internet and play computer games on it but, not able without the password. Would be grateful. Thanks! Krishan Kumar said, on September 2, 2011 11:20 PM:
Sir, Thank you, Krishan Kumar Terry Patrick said, on September 6, 2011 12:03 PM:
We are getting the virtual memory message. It Aronno said, on September 10, 2011 2:14 PM:
I followed your process and discovered some things,i always run internet explorer (its even on sometimes during the whole night) it doesnt matter though when i stop running it the memory drops but my main problem is the opera browser i dont use it much but it still take 106,276 virtual size even when its off pls tell me what to do a 13 year old boy seeking help Trinath said, on September 20, 2011 6:42 AM:
Dear Sir, Benji said, on November 4, 2011 10:26 PM:
Well my punk friend sent me a disguised batch file containing a command to open 300 command prompts mahendra said, on November 5, 2011 11:41 AM:
i m getting an error as low virtual memory paging file.my ram is 632mb.what should i do?and also my system date/time doesn't changes after shutdown it show wrong time.waiting for Ur answer pramod said, on November 7, 2011 6:59 AM:
i had tosiba laptop old model but when i start to opne just open microsoft windows 2000 proffessionnel technilogie NT and there is f8 to fix windows and if not fix continews go run than long time after open there is any things just blue screen so what i have to and i can fix or not please tell me i`m very nurvis this days sorry and hope that some ones can help this probleams please thanks waiting for help plzz shawn said, on November 15, 2011 12:09 PM:
ok i try to set the resolution to fit my tv but now i'm not getting any picture on my tv or monitor , what can i do to fix this problem or do i need to replace a part and wht part do u think it could be . it's my mom computer and i was trying to make life a bit better for her when she comes home from work . as she have a small room and the deskand chair is a bit of a problem for her JP said, on November 19, 2011 12:07 AM:
So basically you're saying to look in the Task Manager and you can see what processes are hogging memory, but you don't know what to do about it since you can't see our computers and don't know which processes are hogging memory. And this helps .... how? Dave Taylor said, on November 19, 2011 8:11 AM:
JP, it helps because - hopefully - it shows you how to do this analysis on your own computer and figure out what's going on for your PC then decide whether it's correct and/or what processes you should kill to fix things. Not sure about your question? I clearly can't remote diagnose your computer... David said, on November 24, 2011 6:26 AM:
I'm using a Windows 7 low-spec laptop with only 2GB of memory and I keep getting memory errors in Adobe Flash Professional CS5. I can update the RAM but I'm not sure if it's worth it when I intend to buy a new high-spec computer with lots of RAM soon and intend to stop using this one. How can I improve memory problems at least short-term without paying for more RAM and installation of it (I don't know how to do it)? Brian Kent said, on November 25, 2011 8:30 AM:
I installed Magic Jack and it assigned itself as the "Z" drive. NOw my virtual memory defaults to the Z drive with 3096kb pagefile instead of the C: drive which I set myself. Every time I go into the virtual memory settings and tell the computer not to set a pagefile for the small Magic Jack "drive" it re-writes the pagefile and assigns the C: as I requested (for one reboot only) and then it reverts back to the Z drive on subsequent reboots. The system is sluggish because it is runing off a small virtual drive "Z" and I cannot get XP to lock in on the C: instead. pramod kumar said, on December 6, 2011 6:11 PM:
Sir, I Pramod kumar my pc is problem before 10 days show any file downloading time show on desktop virtual memory is low pl clear this problem online thanking you Ann said, on January 5, 2012 10:25 AM:
I followed your instructions and found that explorer.exe is the culprit, using a whopping 504,676K. The low virtual memory problem occurred while I was renaming picture file folders. Is explorer.exe Windows Explorer? Any suggestions? Thanks! Brian said, on January 6, 2012 9:42 AM:
I have always had this window pop up and now at least I know to identify the offending program. Chandan said, on January 10, 2012 11:57 AM:
My Prob is at last solved with this guide. Thanks. Ivan said, on January 11, 2012 5:30 AM:
Great article...... Ping.exe is the process that is taking up 156,712K on my computer. I think it is part of the verizon security pack as mcshield.exe is using 195,032K. What should I do as I constantly get the memory low error. Thanks Joan MacGarvie said, on January 18, 2012 8:50 AM:
Just found this site, I am a senior and all the Kelly said, on January 21, 2012 5:39 PM:
Hi, I have added a second 256mb RAM to my pc but its not being recognised, I have tried taking them both out and switching them round but still nothing. The original one says its 256mb but when checked 'system properties' its says only 248RAM. Sandra Freeman said, on February 9, 2012 9:54 PM:
I have Windows7 Professional. April said, on February 16, 2012 4:04 PM:
Hi Dave Cris said, on March 14, 2012 11:15 AM:
Wow, 2012 and still usefull. Thanks! Alan Kerr said, on March 19, 2012 6:23 PM:
Hi, I See a lot of questions which are a lot like mine. But where are the answers?? Muzammil said, on April 17, 2012 4:54 AM:
Dave you are spot on!!! Dave said, on May 20, 2012 12:02 AM:
Do you know that there are 2 types of people in the World? there are those named Dave and others who wish they'd been named Dave! From one Dave to another... thanks for your help, I've certainly learnt alot today about my computer. Zashim Uddin said, on June 13, 2012 10:43 PM:
Dear Dave- I congratulate you lot. You have done indeed a good deed. I have read most of the problem. But where your solution for the above problems. If you solve the problem immediate after the description of the problem, e.g. 'Answer is below', is very user friendly interface and easy, I mean. Best wishes Larry Kirby said, on June 18, 2012 3:32 PM:
My first time at your site and glad I did. You seem to know what youre saying for sure. About 'Virtual Memory' you say to find the process using more Virtual Memory than it should. How do I know how much the process is supposed to use so I know if its using more than it should. Gurutoyce said, on June 22, 2012 10:44 AM:
Nice site thanks you for very nice aticle Gene C. said, on June 28, 2012 10:49 AM:
Thank you! This is excellent info! brian said, on September 14, 2012 6:02 AM:
i have a dell dimension b110 my memory is low do i just deleted programs in my task manager,also can i installed a bigger ram on this computer,it size say 517 MB jim said, on October 16, 2012 9:09 AM:
Had to laugh when I ran across this. Your example of FF was right on the mark. I was a faithful FF user (even with their decade-old print issues) until the early 4.x releases when their memory leakage problems skyrocketed. I finally tried Chrome ... and, except for when I need to FireBug something, I've never looked back. Good times. queen said, on October 17, 2012 4:42 AM:
my curson keep blinking as if its loading and its not leting me type or click perfectly bert tipton said, on October 22, 2012 2:23 PM:
thanks for your help. found that my problem was update to avira using too much virtual. removed and reinstalled no help so switched too avg and all o.k and seems my computer is working better and faster safdar said, on November 6, 2012 10:21 PM:
dear dave thanks for information. but i install windows xp 2006 from a new DVD and install require softwares from new dvd also but still facing " little V. memory " problem. I format my harddisk with MBR ( Modify Boot Record ) command. I scanned hole my harddisk from virus, I repair registry error with Recua software. but nothing happened. my pc is still working very slowly. plz help me. regards Kay said, on December 15, 2012 11:03 PM:
Dave, vsmon.exe(system) - VM is 282,440 ....iexplore.exe (owner) is 250,344...zatray.exe(owner) drops to 45,876...SO can I end vsmon.exe not knowing what it is? How do I close iexplore.exe and reinstall it...Will it start over at 0? From one of your "over 70 dummies" I keep reading and understanding more....thanks to you!!! Lenkzxpn said, on January 20, 2013 8:33 AM:
Thanks in advance.. Never had i been dreaming i could come here 2yo site. Now i couldn't wait 2try m out rightaway..4over 3wks marlon said, on January 21, 2013 3:13 AM:
thanks for the info.. it's so helpful.. Mohamed El Shenawy said, on March 5, 2013 2:01 AM:
check this Jim said, on March 26, 2013 7:28 AM:
holy annoying popups Batman. not worth my time to read...sorry Dave Taylor said, on March 26, 2013 1:38 PM:
Not sure what you're talking about, Jim. I'm not a fan of pop-ups either, and have none on this page. Are you sure you don't have some malware on your computer? sakshi said, on April 6, 2013 8:37 AM:
great guide with screenshots. thanks for it. but now i have windows 7 , so i will look forward to your windows 7 post. Lisa said, on April 25, 2013 12:20 PM:
You have helped so much, Thanks :) Alice Cornelios said, on May 15, 2013 11:56 PM:
You just made my day, I am a writer and I came to this post to find answers because I am having problem with my laptop heating up and lagging at the same time when I am opening multiple windows/tab due to my work's demand. Though I could not really understand the technical terms mention but I have a grip of where the instructions are going. Pretty clear to me. Thanks much.
I do have a comment, now that you mention it!Check This Out Too... |
Recent Entries
Look for Answers
Recommended
All Our Categories
Apple iPad Help
Articles and Reviews Auctions and Online Shopping Blogs and Blogging Building Web Site Traffic Business and Management Computer and Internet Basics d) None of the Above Facebook Help Google Gmail Help Google Plus Help HTML, JavaScript and Web Site Programming Industry News and Trade Shows iPhone and Cell Phone Help iPod, Sony PSP and MP3 Player Help Kindle Fire Help Mac OS X Help Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising Pinterest Help Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Shell Script Programming Tech Support Video Help The Writing Business Twitter, LinkedIn and Social Network Help Unix and Linux Help Video Game Tips and Help Windows PC Help Find Me on Google+ ADT on G+ |
DAVE, THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I HAVE VISITED YOUR WEBSITE BUT I AM SO GLAD I DID I HAVE BEEN HAVING A LOT OF PROBLEMS ON MY COMPUTER WITH VIRTUAL MEMORY BUT I READ WHAT YOU TOLD SOMEONE ELSE TO DO AND I AM GOING TO TRY THAT SO THANK YOU VERY MUCH SHEILA