QUESTION: I have a Pentium IV having a 2.4GHz processor with 256MB RAM and Windows XP. Many games that I used to play have stopped running and I get the following error message: “Virtual memory low as minimum.” What is virtual memory and how can my problem be solved? Usama Usman
usama_usman_16@hotmail.com
EDITOR’S REPLY: Most computers today have something like 64 to 128MB of RAM available for the CPU to use. Unfortunately, that amount of RAM is not enough to run all of the programs that most users expect to use simultaneously. For example, if you load the operating system, an e-mail program, a web browser and word processor into RAM simultaneously, 32MB will not be able to hold it all. If there were no such thing as virtual memory, then once you filled up the available RAM space, your computer would say, “Sorry, you cannot load any more applications. Please close an application to load a new one.”
With virtual memory, the computer checks RAM for areas that are not being used (for instance, the WinAmp that’s been running in the background for 15 minutes without playing a single song) and copies them on the hard disk. This frees up enough space in RAM for a new application.
Because this copying happens automatically, you don’t even know it is happening, and it seems as if your computer has unlimited RAM space. Because hard disk space is so much cheaper than RAM chips, this also has an economic benefit.
The area of the hard disk that stores the RAM image is called a page file. It holds pages of RAM on the hard disk, and the operating system moves data back and forth between the page file and RAM. On a Windows machine, page files have a .SWP extension. Windows 98 has an intelligent virtual memory manager that uses a default setting to help Windows allocate hard drive space for virtual memory as needed.
Under most circumstances, this should meet your needs, but if you want you can manually configure virtual memory, especially if you have more than one physical hard drive or speed-critical
applications.
To do this, open the “Control Panel” window and double-click on the “System” icon. The system dialogue window will open. Click on the “Performance” tab and then click on the “Virtual Memory” button.
Click on the option that says, “Let me specify my own virtual memory settings.” This will make the options below that statement become active. Click on the drop-down list beside “Hard disk” to select the hard drive that you wish to configure virtual memory for.
Remember that a good rule of thumb is to equally split virtual memory between the physical hard disks you have.
In the “Minimum” box, enter the smallest amount of hard drive space you wish to use for virtual memory on the hard disk specified. The amounts are in megabytes. For the “C:” drive, the minimum should be 2MB. The “Maximum:” figure can be anything you like, but one possible upper limit is twice the physical RAM space. Windows default is normally 12MB above the amount of physical RAM in your computer. To put the new settings into effect, close the dialogue box and restart your computer.
Under WinXP:
Click Start, click Run, and then type sysdm.cpl in the Open box.
1. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Performance.
2. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Change under Virtual memory.
3. Under Drive (Volume Label), click the drive that contains the paging file that you want to change.
4. Under Paging file size for selected drive, click Custom size, type a new paging file size in megabytes in the Initial size or Maximum size 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. 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 three times that figure for the maximum size. For example, if you have 256MB of RAM, the minimum size is 384MB, and the maximum size is 1152MB.
The amount of hard drive space you allocate for virtual memory is important. If you allocate too little, you will get “Out of Memory” errors. If you find that you need to keep increasing the size of the virtual memory, you probably are also finding that your system is sluggish and accesses the hard drive constantly.
In your case, please also ensure that you have at least 500MB on your C:\ drive (where your OS is) free. That may be the cause of the problem.
Transferring websites
I have a website which will expire soon. Is there a way to transfer my website to or ? I would also like to know about the payment method, because I don’t have a credit or debit card.
Atif Mushtaq welatif@hotmail.com
You should contact the websites yourself. Please visit the ‘Contact Us’ page on each website and ask them for payment options. I think they might accept bank drafts.
Hard disk
1. When I start my computer I get the following message: “Hard disk could not be found. Press enter to continue.” However, when I plug out the hard disk from the system and then plug it in again, it works properly. But only for a few days, after which the same error message appears. What is the problem?
2. What is the correct way to scan drives for errors. And how can drive errors, which the computer detects while installing Windows 98, be fixed?
1. I recommend that you get your motherboard checked by a proper technician. Please ensure that you are not using a chipset board or any other board except Intel, because these have been known to cause problems.
It is possible that your hard disk is about to crash. In case this is true you should get it replaced immediately.
2. Scandisk is the best scanning tool for checking drives. You can run it through “Properties” of your hard disk, or let setup take care of it. If scandisk cannot repair your errors, then I would recommend that you get a new hard disk.
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Virtual memory
