Virtual Memory too low

[neil]

What does the above term mean?

What should one do in such a situation?
and my task bar has shifted from the bottom of the page to the left side !!

 

[neil]

And the Pc now takes an age to load or change pages - like walking in treacle - is it time to bin the Pc??

 

[nine]

Its time to backup all of your data files (and make sure you can read the backup after you do so).

Then reinstall windows xp. And then your software.

Windows gradually slows down. I reinstall every 1-2 months (just waiting for the sp3 release at present) using Acronis True Image which I used to save an image of a fresh install of XP Pro SP2 with all of my core software. My reinstall takes 20 minutes and then another hour to get everything up to date including the data files that have changed since I originally took the image.

Edit: I agree with what 0007 says below about sorting out the problem. 0007 you should try the re-imaging strategy though. You will be surprised how freeing it is not to have to worry too much about messing up a pc when you can restore it quickly

 

[0007]

What does the above term mean?

What should one do in such a situation?
and my task bar has shifted from the bottom of the page to the left side !!

Windows uses "virtual memory" when it believes it has insufficient RAM memory (this is what we mean normally when we quote memory eg the typical 1 Gb of a modern system). Virtual memory is in fact space on your hard drive - its disadvantage is that it works much more slowly. Normally, Windows will allocate & manage memory although you can manually change settings if you wish.

If your PC has been working OK, I would be suspicious if it starts playing up. This could be due to many things - 1 possibility is a virus or some kind of malware.

Do you have a firewall and anti-virus program? Do you have kids that download stuff from the web eg? Do you make regular backups?

Nine's suggestion of a complete re-image (restore software from good copy kept on eg Acronis) will get you going again (in future perhaps!) but it's still important to diagnose the cause. You should backup all your data files soonest but if you have suffered any kind of corruption it may be sub optimal.

After that you could try a restore - this is easier than reloading Windows if you haven't got an "image" as described by Nine.

I think Nine's policy of reloading every 2 months or so is not strictly necessary, though it will certainly ensure a clean, good system - his description of Windows gradually slowing up is realistic but you can take measures to minimise this. I am very strict with not accepting cookies, ensuring firewall and several types of anti-malware programs are in use; I do not have any problems and my current copy of XP has been running satisfactorily for several years. I do run a small home network (currently 3 PCs) this way and have no problems (famous last words!).

It would be useful to know more symptoms of your problem: when it occurred, was it ok before, what protective software do you run, any backups, have you installed any new software or downloaded any.

Most important is to make some copies of your essential data - all the rest can be reloaded eventually (a pain, of course) assuming you have original disks etc.

Over to you. (long live the paperless office )

 

[Mayfly]

I doubt if there’s anything wrong with your pc, you just need to undertake some basic house keeping and you can find some freeware to do this here:

MajorGeeks.com - Download Freeware and Shareware Computer Utilities.

and then go to free up your hard drive (a couple of choices here):

MajorGeeks.com - Download Freeware and Shareware Computer Utilities.

and then defrag it:

MajorGeeks.com - Download Freeware and Shareware Computer Utilities.

Personally, I prefer O&O’s software suite and use Drfrag10 because it’ll defrag my disks and page file(s) outside Windows (i.e. on start-up), or in the background if I want to do this. From memory, O&O do 30 day trials and you can find out more here: O&O Software - Creating Solutions!

There’s a freeware version of O&O Defrag 2000 here: Download O&O Defrag 2000 Freeware - filehippo.com

HTH

Cheers

M

 

[Crap Buddist]

What does the above term mean?

your getting old ? symptoms may include memory discharge. Try drinking a few more beers to encourage real memory to whack in, enjoy!

 

[Lightning McQueen]

I did read on the net recently and apologies I can't remember where, that if your C drive is a bit full, then you will fragment the drive by a much faster rate, therefore considerably slowing the PC very quickly. I would check how full your C drive is, that would limit virtual ram also.

Anyone remember the win 95 & 98 registry hack that forced windows to use physical ram first and not to use virtual ram unless the former had run out, made yer PC fly for sure, I wonder if this would work for xp & vista ...probably not

 

[0007]

made yer PC fly for sure,

Wot ? like this you mean?