My computer has alerted me that my Virtual Memory is low. What do I do?

Question

In all my time of having a computer and working with them I've never seen this alert come up. It shows up as an exclamation point inside of a yellow triangle. And there is a statement about Virtual Memory being low. What do I need to do to resolve this issue? Thanks!

Answer 1

You have to many programs running. Use Task Manager to END TASK some of the junk.

The best thing to do, is to get rid of these SPYWARE, ADWARE and other bogus tasks. Use MSCONFIG at the RUN command and UNCHECK anything but your anti-virus software. Reboot to be sure, then check.

Keep your own Anti-virus up to date, and check the status regularly.

Get and update several Anti-spyware solutions. I use AD-AWARE and SpyBot Search & Destroy. I use the free versions from http://www.download.com Update and run these regularly. Especially IMMEDIATELY after an upexpected pop-up.

Download and install FireFox free from http://www.mozilla.com This is a browser that is safer to use than IE. Use this for general surfing and google searching. Only use IE when you MUST have IE, such as Windows Updates.

If you have Windows XP with SP2, activate the Windows firewall and check the status. If you don't, get Zone Alarm the free version from http://www.zonelabs.com

Take these steps to keep your computer ALIVE.

Answer 2

It means you have too many applications open at the same time. Or one application has taken too much memory.

The windows operating system uses the computer memory for temporary storage of data for calculations or other purposes. There are other memories like, Video RAM and allocated memory space from hard disk that the computer(Operating system) may use when necessary. But when that memory gets full, including the allocated Virtual memory(Hard disk space). It will raise this warning.

All you should do is close some applications or simply restart the machine.

Increasing the virtual memory a lot will eventually, slow down the speed. Because accessing data from hard disk is much slower when compared to retrieving data from RAM.

Anyway, if you still want to play with Virtual memory, do this.
Click Start-->Control Panel.
Click System
Click the "Advanced" tab.
Click the "Settings" of the Performance box.
Click the "Advanced" tab.
Click the "Change" of the Virtual Memory box.
Click the "Custom Size" radio button.
Put 2048 for Initial Size and 4096 for Maximum size.

Click "Ok", "Ok" and "Ok".

If your current Maximum size is more than 4096. I would recommend you to increase your RAM or reduce the number of open applications.

Answer 3

virtual memory is actually hard drive memory being used like as though it were ram. this comes into use when the ram is full. if this fills up too then you would get the error message. there are two ways to work around this.
1.) Remove any unwanted programs from applications in the system task manager. i'd not recommend you remove ur anti-virus if you were to go online or are online( on the net ).
2.) Increase the size of your virtual memory page file. heres how you do it. Press the windows key and pause key on the keyboard simultaneously. the system properties opens. click on the advanced tab. in that under performance, clck settings.then again click advanced. you should notice the virtual memory tab there. click change. ideally the page file size should be double the amount of RAM your system has. you could set it higher. this definitely will help.
3.) Upgrade you ram to a greater capacity.(costly)

Answer 4

READ patiently:

Your computer was low on memory. Most probably it also notified you that it is automatically increasing the virtual memory allocation (are you on Windows?). If not, go to the settings and set the virtual memory management to "auto". You may use the Windows help feature as a guide. It is very adequate.

Also look for any virus or spyware. If you have recently added any program which you really need, then you may think of increasing your RAM. Its easy and not much expensive, (compared to the costs which you might be afraid of in your dreams.)

Answer 5

Your virtual memory is a portion of your hard drive that is set aside to handle memory overflow. The overflow occurs when you have more programs open than can reside in RAM. When that happens windows writes the excess to the virtual drive.
You are probably getting this message because your hard drive is filling up and the virtual memory space is being used up to store those programs.
If you can off load some stuff from your hard drive, things like pictures and music etc, to a DVD or CD, then defrag your hard drive the error message should go away.

Answer 6

Here is the process of virutal RAM.

Everytime you run a program or run any type of application the parts of the program get put into RAM for faster accessing. If you have lets say 128 MB RAM (which is too low for XP) and you are running graphics programs. Your RAM will get filled up really fast.

There is a section on your hard drive called "Virtual Memory". This is just what it sounds likes... Virtual memory. Instead of programs being dumped into RAM they are dumped on your hard drive temporarly. This causes the computer to SLOW down.

You need to UPGRADE your ram. Add nother stick. I would suggest running at least 512 on an XP machine.

Answer 7

It means you have cluttered up your hard drive. Time to clean it out.
Your computer uses part of the hard drive to supplement your memory. This is called "virtual memory".
Start by deleting programs you don't use, followed by accessing My computer, right-click on your c: drive, and click "properties"... choose "disk cleanup". It would be a very good idea to run a good spyware program like AdAware (it's free, too), because I'm sure your system is full of it if it's cluttered to this point. Next, take a look at your toolbar, next to the clock. If you have more than 6 little icons down there, you likely have too much junk like Yahoo toolbars or such running.

Answer 8

Programs that are being used are stored in the memory. The RAM is one type of memory that is used first, and then when it is full up, it begins to use the virtual memory which is on the hard drive.

when it says the virtual memory is too low, it quite often means that something is using up a lot of memory and you have too many things open. then it increases the space on the virtual memory, and it should then be fine!

Answer 9

WELL... if i where u id just reboot your comp. if it happons again u should go to... programs/accessories/system tools/disk defragment
a screen will come up and just defrag your comp wat it dose is compact all your used space & give u a much memory as your comp can give, this may take an hour or 3. and of that dosent work delet some old programs that u dont need or use then try the defragment again and if all of the above dosent work go to an computer store & buy a second vurtial memory card. thats all i would guess so good luck

Answer 10

Not being a computer geek (sorry all you computer people), I don't really know whats happening, but I know it happens on my computer alot, too. Do you play a lot of games online? Sometimes those initiate that error message (that's what I call it anyway), so if you close out of everything, go into settings and then to internet options, delete your cookies and temporary files...opens up a bit more space.

Otherwise, you can invest in bigger memory card.