what does it mean when your computer puts up a notice telling you your virtual memory is too low?

Answer 1

Too much junk in your system.

Remove unnecessary programs by uninstalling them.

Cheers!

Simon Templar

Answer 2

All computers have a limited amount of memory (RAM) in them. As you run programs, that memory can get filled up. So Windows will move things that you are not currently using to temporary storage on your hard drive in what is called a "swap file" or "virtual (meaning fake) memory". When the information is needed again, it will be reloaded.

You will often see this at work when you have a large document and go to scroll to a different page. Everything stops for a second or two as it swaps out the current section of the document and loads the next. Then everything starts working again.

Your computer starts with a preset size for the swap file. If you get a lot of programs running or a large document opened, the swap file may not be large enough to hold everything. That is when you get the "low virtual memory" message. It simply means that Windows is going to increase the size of the swap file so it can hold everything. It is left over from the days when hard drives were every small and increasing the swap file could crash your PC. Today, with hard drives in the 10's of Gig, it is rarely an issue. The next time you reboot, the swap file will return to its preset size, giving you back the extra space it was using.

When you get the message, you can usually ignore it. It is just a "message", not an error. You might want to consider closing any programs you have open at that moment that are not essential. It will keep your computer running faster if you do.

You can also increase the preset size of you swap file if you want. But it is not necessary. Control Panel > System icon > Advanced tab > Change button in the Virtual Memory section > Increase the Initial Size and Maximum Size of the swap file.

You can also consider adding more RAM memory to the PC to reduce the need for a larger swap file.

Finally, you can check to see what all is being "preloaded" on your PC during start up. Click on Start > Run > Type in: msconfig
Go to the "startup" tab. You will see all the programs that are "preloading" themselves into your RAM memory every time you turn on your computer. Most (if not all) of them are not essential. Uncheck any that you do not want to load on start up (which normally is all of them). If you discover you do need one, you just go back and recheck it. Reducing the numbers of things loaded into RAM at startup will reduce the amount of Virtual Memory you need.

Answer 3

you need to go in and clean up your computer, empty recycle and delete some programs that you don't use to open up some disk space. if there is nothing you can delete then you can buy an external drive for memory, but if you downloaded a lot of things then you need to go to control panel open up install/remove and a list will come up and actually tell you things that have rarely or never used. best bet is to copy all things to a disk in case you may one day want to reinstall something if this doesn't work then you can use your recovery disk that came with your computer and you can restore it back to factory settings when you first got the computer, people don't realize that downloading pictures and song and even games take up a lot of space. Sometimes you need to upgrade your memory when buying a computer because they do fill up fast. you may also be able to go in and compress your files to free up disk space.

Answer 4

you either have too many programs running, or you have couple of programs running which are occupying too much of your memory. Programs such as pictures - graphics or video editors can cause this. you can avoid and speed up your computer by adding some more memory. Minimum of 1 GB is recommended.

Answer 5

you either have a lot of start up programs running which some are not needed or one program your using takes up a lot of resources.
Restarting computer will give you fresh memory but you have to find what program is hogging your resources

Answer 6

The everlasting soution: in case you're employing homestead windows xp, marvelous-click on my computing gadget and goto properties (or get right of entry to from administration panel >> gadget). Then click on the stepped forward tab. under the overall performance heading click on settings. Then develop the internet site report length from the presently set length. purely ensure you have greater room obtainable on your annoyingpersistent then the size of the pagefile you go with. non everlasting answer: close different classes you're employing.

Answer 7

Lot of start up programs may be running and using lot of resources. Remove the unwanted. Before all just check your "temp" folder.

Answer 8

Take it to someone who works with computers. They can fix it. ( Trust my my uncle works with computers)

Answer 9

You need more memory.

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Answer 10

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_can_i_fix_too_little_virtual_memory_in_windows.html