Virtual Memory Low

[RitaM]

It has been a while since I have been really into the hardware (or even software aspect) of computer technology, and unfortunately I am having what seem to be some hardware related issues. As of about a week ago, my computer has been running extremely slow at times, especially in the morning when I get on and it has been left on all night. It has also been giving me a windows error that says my "virtual memory is running low" and that "windows is adjusting it now," etc. Well whatever windows did doesn't seem to be working because I am getting the message increasingly more often. After the message pops up, I get a few "Progrom not responding" prompts from various programs and the computer locks up and I must reset using button. What little info I knew regarding memory types and computer hardware in general is now lost, and I call on you guys for help. Thanks a lot, and here are my specs:

- ASUS K8 Triton Series, nForce3
- AMD Athlon 64 3500+
- Seagate 80gb HD @7200rpm (about 89% full)
- Kingston ValueRam: PC2700, 512gb x 2
- ATI Radeon 9800Pro

Things I plan to try tonight:

- Complete defrag
- Full system scan (anti-virus, spyware)
- System clean-up

[White Wolf]

It means your computer is using all of its RAM and is starting to use your hardrive for extra RAM...that is virtual memory...so to be low on Virtual Memory you are using all your RAM and Hard Drive Space allowed.

You can increase your virtual memory (also called the page file or swap file) by doing the following:
(It may vary a bit with your operating system i'm on XP)
Right click my computer, go to Properties
Click the advanced tab.
Click on Performance.
Virtual Memory click settings or change.
I have mine set to 1200 - 1600
but you really don't have much hard drive space left I would suggest uninstalling programs you don't use or buy another hard drive setting it up as a raid or slave.

I would also suggest stoping programs on startup that you do not use you can do this by....start-->run type in "msconfig" ---> startup and disable everything exept security programs such as nortons. It will then ask to reboot on start up a popup will display saying that there were changes made to the way computer starts check "do not show this again"

[Menard]

If this is recent behavior, and you have not added any programs to your start-up, it may well be some spyware which has gotten into your system and most likely has a memory leak.

[Andy]

1 gig of memory should be plenty for normal use. I agree with Menard that the problem is likely to be some software that has a memory leak. Defragging would have no effect on this. Defragging can only speed up disk access if it is required.

p.s. your system is very similar to mine apart from you have a relatively small hard disk which I would think is ok with ~8GB left.