[mphenterprises]

Hi Tasha and welcome to the PCWorld Communities. :D




I had a very strong feeling this was a virtual memory issue from the very beginning. If I remember correctly, you have 512MBs of memory, of which, 64MBs is shared. Obviously increasing the physical memory is best; however, if that is not an option, you can increase the virtual memory is the next best thing. Here is what you can do to increase your virtual memory:

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For you specific situation, the Paging File Size should be set to 768MBs. Please do this and see if this corrects your issue.

[lilxkid24]

Your problem is that your low on virtual memory and you can increase the paging file. You can optimize virtual memory use by dividing the space between multiple drives and by removing space from slow or heavily accessed drives. To best optimize your virtual memory space, divide it among as many physical hard drives as possible. When you select drives, follow these guidelines: ? Try to avoid having a paging file on the same drive as the system files.
? Avoid putting a paging file on a fault-tolerant drive such as a mirrored volume or a RAID-5 volume. Paging files do not require fault-tolerance, and some fault-tolerant computers experience slow data writes because they write data to multiple locations.
? Do not put multiple paging files on different partitions on the same physical disk drive.

How to manually change the size of the virtual memory paging file
You must be logged on as an administrator or as a member of the Administrators group to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure. 1. Click Start, click Run, and then type sysdm.cpl in the Open box.
2. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Performance.
3. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Change under Virtual memory.
4. Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file that you want to change.
5. Under Paging file size for selected drive, click Custom size, type a new paging file size in megabytes (MB) in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, and then click Set.
If you decrease the size of either the initial or maximum paging file settings, you must restart your computer to see the effects of those changes. When you increase the paging file size, you typically do not have to restart your computer.

Notes? To have Windows select the best paging file size, click System managed size. The recommended minimum size is equivalent to 1.5 times the RAM on your computer, and 3 times that figure for the maximum size. For example, if you have 256 MB of RAM, the minimum size is 384 MB, and the maximum size is 1152 MB.
? 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 equivalent to 1.5 times the RAM on your computer. It is good practice to leave the paging file at its recommended size. However, you may increase its size if you frequently use programs that use much memory.
? To delete a paging file, set both the initial size and the maximum size to zero, or click No paging file. We strongly recommend that you do not disable or delete the paging file.

How to manually optimize the memory usage
You can optimize your computer's memory usage. If you use your computer primarily as a workstation instead of as a server, you can devote more memory to your programs. Your programs will work faster and your system cache size will remain the default size that came with Windows XP. You can also set aside more computer memory for a larger system cache if your computer is used primarily as a server, or if you use programs that require a larger cache. 1. Click Start, click Run, and then type sysdm.cpl in the Open box.
2. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Performance.
3. Click the Advanced tab, and then use one of the following methods under Memory usage: ? Click Programs if you use your computer primarily as a workstation instead of as a server. This option allocates more memory to your programs.
? Click System cache if your computer is used primarily as a server or if you use programs that use a larger cache.

[JimH443]

There's a chance the computer has done this automatically. It wasn't until now that I realized I hadn't updated my Page File size from the days when >I< had 512MB. (I now have 1.5 GB) Sure enough, when I followed your link and checked, my page file setting had changed itself to about 2200 MB.

[mphenterprises]

Hi JimH. That is absolutely correct. Windows should automatically adjust the Paging File Size based on the current computer configuration. The fact the error comes up may be an indication that, at least in this case, it did not adjust automatically. That all being said, I believe Coastie or Flashorn touched on this earlier but the best solution for Virtual Memory errors is to increase the actual or physical memory install in the computer.

[coastie65]

Hi Tasha, OK, the information from the Harddrive isn't particularly useful, as the it doesn't contain the model number. Hopefuly my, my photo illustrated post will be helpful in locating it. Also, the type of memory, should be on the memory modules themselves. Adding as much memory as you can will certainly be helpful. I believe you said something about having a Photo Application installed. Those things generally use a lot of resources and you should have a lot of memory. Once your physical memory starts getting getting full, then the computer will use the Virtual memory, which is a certain amount of space on the Hard Drive. Not knowing how old your computer is or the model #, it would be nothing more thanguess work as to the type and speed of the memory your computer takes and adding memory would be helpful to be sure. I'll be checking back as I'm working on a Problem with my CD/DVD optical drive. coastie

[coastie65]

Hi lil, That is a good post, but a bit advanced for her experience. Good work though. coastie

[Tasha]

You're correct Coastie. Lil is way advanced for me. Getting a little overwhelmed by this all. Thank you once again for all your help. Will try to locate that model # for you.