virtual memory

[radspanner]

after browsing the web for a while i get a warning that im low on virtual memory,and good old windows is sorting it out for me.

just lately its happening quite a lot...should i worry, and if its serious can i enlarge my stash of VM myself.


(whats virtual memory when its at home anyway?)

[mgriffit]

You may have spyware/ad-ware or a virus. Make sure you have recent editions of spyware and virus removers. Internet Explorer bar add-ons and plugins can be a cause.

Virtual Memory allows your computer to load more programs than it could fit into "real" memory. It does this by temporarily unloading (parts of) programs that you aren't using and putting them into a harddrive paging file. When you go back to that program, it reloads what it needs into real memory and unload parts of other programs. This process is called Swapping. When your computer is constantly loading and unloading programs, it's called Thrashing and it seriously affects the performance of your computer. So Virtual Memory is the amount of physical RAM that you have plus whatever hard drive space is reserved for swapping.
To monitor memory usage, press ctrl-alt-delete and click on Task Manager. Then click on the Performance tab. The numbers under Physical Memory show how much RAM you have installed, and how much is in use. The numbers under Commit Charge show how much Virtual Memory is being used (total), how large virtual memory can grow (limit) and what is the highest amount of virtual memory you have used since you powered on the computer (peak).
If you have not adjusted the virtual memory manually then it defaults to about the same size as the amout of RAM that you have and can increase to use the remaining space on your hard drive. So you may be about out of room on your harddrive. Are you getting warnings about this?

[Jazz]

Originally Posted by radspanner

after browsing the web for a while i get a warning that im low on virtual memory,and good old windows is sorting it out for me.

just lately its happening quite a lot...should i worry, and if its serious can i enlarge my stash of VM myself.


(whats virtual memory when its at home anyway?)

Have a read here, radspanner: -

Article ID : 308417

How to set performance options in Windows XP

[radspanner]

thanks chums for your replies,ive dipped into the task manager and here are the results


physical memory

total 196080
available 53232
system cache 55424

commit charge

total 202040limit329376
peak 220812


also i have 90% freespace on my hardrive so space is not a problem i wouldnt have thought.

give it to me straight doctor is my pc very poorly?

jazz as always thanks for the link im printing it off so i can read it more easily.



mgriffit,just followed the instructions in jazz's link and the numbers come up as

minimum 2mb
144mb and 288 mb allocated

initial size 144maximum size 288
recommended 286mb

currently allocated 144mb

space available 49833mb



does this give you any ideas at all.