I'm running out of virtual memory [Archive]

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Alice S. Fuzzybutt

06-07-2006, 12:24 AM

I asked two people who know about computers. I really appreciate their answers but I need an answer from the TRUE GEEKS of the board (you know who you are) WHAT THE FUCK DO I DO?My comp is about 4 years old. I have pics, music, and some porn on it. I listen to the music. Maybe I look up a pic now and then. I really don't delve into the porn. The meds made it boring. WHATEVER!My ex-husband ran into the same problem. He just added a D drive. Will that work?I'm pretty much at the mercy of  the nerd's request, aren't I?

sr71blackbird

06-07-2006, 02:17 AM

<img height="272" src="http://www.edsign.co.uk/ecommerce/images/1GBCruzer.jpg" width="340" border="0" /> I got one of these, its called a thumb drive.  This one is on eBay for like $24 and it has a gig of space on it.  See the metal end?  It plugs into a USB port on the back of your computer (usually next to where the mouse plugs in) and as soon as you plug it in, youll see a window open up on your screen and then you can drag the files that are eating up space into the window and it will save onto the thumb drive and then you can pull it out and delete the files.  If you want to see the files again, just plug in the thumb drive.  Its a great solution. It can hold all kinds of files, pics, music, whatever.

narc

06-07-2006, 03:58 AM

<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/34/Virtualinsanityvideo.JPG"
 
That's insane. 
Great tune.

OGC

06-07-2006, 04:39 AM

Do you mean that you are running out of virtual memory or that you are running out of disc space ?Your boyfriend adding a D drive (another hard drive ?) wouldn't solve the virtual memory problem, but it certainly would solve the disc space problem.By the way, what kind of porn do you have there ? Anything a normal (no homo) guy might be interested in ?

fezident

06-07-2006, 05:34 AM

You can adjust the amount of virtual memory your system uses.  Do you have Windows XP?  It'll only take a minute. Go to your START MENUgo to CONTROL PANELgo to PERFORMANCE AND MAINTENANCEgo to SYSTEMa little rectangle will open that says SYSTEM PROPERTIESit will have several tabs on top, click on ADVANCEDunder PERFORMANCE, click SETTINGSunder SETTINGS click ADVANCED then VIRTUAL MEMORY then CHANGE.   EDIT: Here's an instructional link: <a href="http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php">http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php</a>

ShelleBink

06-07-2006, 05:42 AM

fezident wrote: You can adjust the amount of virtual memory your system uses. Do you have Windows XP? It'll only take a minute. Go to your START MENUgo to CONTROL PANELgo to PERFORMANCE AND MAINTENANCEgo to SYSTEMa little rectangle will open that says SYSTEM PROPERTIESit will have several tabs on top, click on ADVANCEDunder PERFORMANCE, click SETTINGSunder SETTINGS click ADVANCED then VIRTUAL MEMORY then CHANGE. EDIT: Here's an instructional link: <a href="http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php">http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php</a>   My laptop and I thank you.

feralBoy

06-07-2006, 07:09 AM

Is your hard-drive almost full?  How much space do you have left?  You should make sure that windows is allocating the virtual memory for you.  Also, run a defrag on your drive.  That's very imporantant for performance.If you do get a new drive, you should put the virtual memory on that new drive, because it will most likely be faster, and have more cache compared to a 4 year old drive.  Also, dump your music, movies, etc onto the new drive, to free up room on your root drive.  This will increase performance.

JPMNICK

06-07-2006, 08:09 AM

if it is a desktop, you should maybe look into some more RAM. it will greatly increase the performance of your PC

Death Metal Moe

06-07-2006, 08:26 AM

If you're looking for comp parts I can help you Petrina.There's great deals on Newegg.com for RAM and hard drives.  Someone also posted a really great tool to find out what kind and how much RAM you have.  I upgraded my older computer I gave to my band for like $20 a pop for 256MB RAM.  Filled the 2 open spots in my motherboard, sped it up nicely.The virtual memory thing is probably only that setting you need to adjust, unless you are nearing a full hard drive.  In that case you either need another one or you need to eliminate stuff off your existing hard drive.  If you have a CD-R/DVD-R burner you can back it up or use external hard drives, store stuff online, use that data stick described earlier, etc.Do you know how to check how big your hard drive capacity is?  If you're running with less than 20 Gigs I'd say it's about time to get a new one.

narc

06-07-2006, 09:05 AM

I actually don't have enough memory to defrag and haven't for some time now. Running on fumes in my C drive. I do have a nice sort of new D drive that I've installed that already has a lot of my music on it and other stuff that takes up a lot of space. But it's designated as my slave drive. Does anyone know potentially how I make my D drive my master and put my C drive as slave? Do I have to reinstall XP on the D drive?

zentraed

06-07-2006, 09:19 AM

Switching XP to a new hard drive isn't as easy as you'd think, but you can place your swap file (virtual memory) on the new drive. I suggest specifying a specific size in the properties. You'll never get that error about "Virtual Memory is low on space" or whatever because it won't ever have to resize itself again. I have 2 GB of RAM and I have a 2 GB swap file specified. I would also use the second drive as a data store. Organize folders for music, movies, porn, etc.Right offhand, I can't think of a free way of transferring XP to another drive, but it can be done.

narc

06-07-2006, 09:22 AM

I have a legit copy of XP, so expense isn't a problem. And I know it's a pain in the ass. Or at least it was when I first installed XP anyway. I was on the phone for like an hour with it.

feralBoy

06-07-2006, 09:41 AM

narc wrote: I actually don't have enough memory to defrag and haven't for some time now. Running on fumes in my C drive. I do have a nice sort of new D drive that I've installed that already has a lot of my music on it and other stuff that takes up a lot of space. But it's designated as my slave drive. Does anyone know potentially how I make my D drive my master and put my C drive as slave? Do I have to reinstall XP on the D drive? There are programs that do this.  Ghost is the big one.  Symantec just bought it out.  You would have to buy it, I don't think it's free.  Or if you were so inclined, you could probably download it off limewire or something.Other than that, you would have to re-install windows on the new drive, and re-install all of your programs.  A pain in the ass.  You cannot simply transfer the contents of the c drive to the d drive and then switch it over.One thing to keep in mind, is you can buy a brand new dell celeron computer for like $300.  It's the slowest thing out there right now, but it's 10 times faster than anything 4 years old.  I would never spend too much on upgrading.  It's not really that cost effective.

Knowledged_one

06-07-2006, 10:13 AM

I get the low memory too because i have windows media player goingalso how many processes should your comp run when you are just doing normal stuff on your computeri have like 53 of them.  And what is svchost.exe

Ndugu

06-07-2006, 10:16 AM

Description: svchost.exe is a system process belonging to the Microsoft Windows Operating System which handles processes executed from DLLs. This program is important for the stable and secure running of your computer and should not be terminated.

zentraed

06-07-2006, 10:37 AM

Knowledged_one wrote: I get the low memory too because i have windows media player goingalso how many processes should your comp run when you are just doing normal stuff on your computeri have like 53 of them. And what is svchost.exe    Even though I have a ton of ram, I don't run too many background apps (basically, those little things by the clock). Windows has a lot of parts to it though. I have 41 going right now and I'm not even doing anything yet.RAM is really cheap these days (512MB sticks are $40 at newegg.com), so all of you guys might want to consider picking some up. It's very easy to install and if your computer is utilizing your virtual memory extensively, you'll notice your computer runs a lot smoother. Also, no more of that hard drive access noise all the time

Snoogans

06-07-2006, 10:42 AM

I get low memory warnings after about 14 hours of the comp being on. I have a low amount of memory, so I just figured it had to do with that

SatCam

06-09-2006, 06:25 PM

You should check your processes list and see if you have any spyware using up memory. I can't see a reason that you would suddenly notice your virtual memory running low unless you decreased the size of hd space allocated, began using some more memory intensive programs or if you (most likely) had spyware installed on your computer.

Snoogs, you should restart your computer if you've had it on for a while and you notice you start running low on memory. Programs you have ran probably leaked some memory that can be cleaned up by restarting.

PaulF

06-09-2006, 07:24 PM

If you're running low on virtual memory and you're hard drive is not full, then you either have too many items running at startup and/or you have a virus or spyware.You can disable startup items by clicking on Start > RunType in msconfig and click OKClick on the Startup tab and uncheck items you are sure you do not need. All items in the list are non-Windows items meaning they should not prevent your computer from booting, but some software and/or hardware may not function. Examples are antivirus, printers, graphics tablets, etc.If you are not sure what an item is, go to the following site:<a href="http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php">http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php</a>This will tell you what an item is and if it is necessary at startup.Click OK and reboot your computer

LordofIron

06-09-2006, 10:35 PM

If you download porn then you also get free spyware and trojan programs that eat space.  I'd suggest running spyware (free on the net).  Also run a defrag as well.  That is a huge space saver.  Should run a defrag every 60 days or so or even more if you surf the web often.  Lastly,  add more memory.Defrag should be done right now.