What does the term 'your computer is low on virtual memory' mean and how do I fix it?

Answer 1

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virtual memory is memory that your operating system uses. its not its own physical item, rather it resides on empty hard drive space. you can increase it...

right click on my computer, select properties, select advanced, select settings under performance, select advanced again, find virtual memory and select change. select custom size, increase the amount, look at what is currently used and add on some more to that for example if its 1000mb, try 1500mb.

Answer 2

It is telling you that your "Swap" file is to small. There are two cures for this.
1. Install more RAM.
2. Right click My Computer and choose the Advanced tab. Under Performance click Settings. In the Performance Options window, click "Advanced". Under "Virtual memory, click "Change". In the Initial size (MB): high light the number and increase its size. Click "Set" and then "Ok". Close all windows and do a restart. That should do it.

What this is all about is: When windows needs more memory (RAM) then you have installed it uses some of the hard drive. This is called (virtual memory) or (The swap file). Since a hard drive works at a much slower speed then does RAM, you will notice a fairly significant slow down when your system need to "swap file". Like I said in the beginning, adding RAM can, in most cases, stop the system from swap filling.

Answer 3

Per:
http://askbobrankin.com/low_virtual_memory.html

Feelin' Mighty Low (on Memory)

When all of your computer's real physical memory (RAM) is in use, Windows will try to create virtual memory by grabbing a chunk of hard drive space and treating it like real memory. Your software can't tell the difference between real and virtual memory, but you might because virtual memory access is much slower, due to the hard drive activity it requires.

If you encounter the low virtual memory error message, then you have used the maximum amount of real plus virtual memory that is supported on your system. Sometimes programs that crash or ones that are poorly designed will not return their working memory space to the operating system when they're done using it. Other programs that need a large amount of memory to run may fail because Windows cannot "see" the available memory. In most cases, a shutdown and restart will resolve this problem.

Windows Knows Best
If you still see the dreaded "Your system is low on virtual memory" message then the first thing to do is make sure your computer is configured to allow Windows to automatically manage the virtual memory. In Windows XP, follow these steps:

Click Start, then open the Control Panel.
Click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System.
Click the Advanced tab.
Under Performance, click Settings.
Click the Advanced tab.
Under Virtual memory, click Change.
Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file (virtual memory) settings that you want to change. In almost every case, this will be your C: drive.
Click to select the "System managed size" option, then click Set.
Click OK three times and restart your computer.

When you allow Windows to manage your virtual memory, it should make the optimum amount of virtual memory available, by automatically shrinking or enlarging the paging file as needed. If that doesn't solve the low virtual memory problem, there are a few more things you can try.

Eliminate Non-Essential Programs
Over time, we tend to accumulate a bit of clutter on a computer. My article "Making Windows XP Run Faster!" will show you how to keep your system updated, eliminate viruses & spyware, scrub the hard disk of unneeded files, slim down your startup selections, and eliminate unnecessary system services. All of these things will free up resources in your computer, making it run faster and more reliably.

Add RAM to Your System
It might just be the case that your computer needs more real, physical memory. By this I mean RAM sticks that can be purchased in most computer, electronics, or office supply stores. If your PC is more than three years old, chances are it's close to being obsolete -- at least in terms of the ability to run today's resource-hogging software packages. And adding RAM to an older computer is the most effective thing you can do to upgrade it.

To see how much memory you have installed, follow these steps under Windows XP:
Click Start, then open the Control Panel.
Click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System.

On the System Properties window, you'll see the type and speed of your processor (CPU) and the amount of RAM. Note that Windows always seems to report that you have slightly less memory than you actually have. For example, if Windows reports 496 MB of RAM, you actually have 512 MB. (Memory will always be installed in 64 MB increments.)

The more RAM you have, the better your computer will perform. I recommend you have a minimum 256 megabytes (MB) of RAM, but with 512 MB or even a gigabyte of RAM, you'll notice much better performance.

Answer 4

You can't just jack up the virtual memory in windows. Doing that can make your system run even worse. VM should be set to no more than 2.5x your installed RAM for best performance. The best thing for most users is to let windows manage your VM.

It could be that the offending app just needs more ram than you have, or that the app itself has a memory leak. If you are running more than one program at one time, close some of them.

When you see that message, open Task Manager and see what is eating your system up.

Rebooting will free up the VM until you overrun it again. Add RAM if you can.

Answer 5

If you have Windows XP:

To change the size of the virtual memory paging file

You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure.

1.
Open System in Control Panel.

2.
On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings.

3.
On the Advanced tab, under Virtual memory, click Change.

4.
Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file you want to change.

5.
Under Paging file size for selected drive, click Custom size, and type a new paging file size in megabytes in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, and then click Set.

If you decrease the size of either the initial or maximum page file settings, you must restart your computer to see the effects of those changes. Increases typically do not require a restart.


Note

• To open System, click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System.

• To have Windows choose the best paging file size, click System managed size.

• For best performance, do not set the initial size to less than the minimum recommended size under Total paging file size for all drives. The recommended size is equivalent to 1.5 times the amount of RAM on your system. Usually, you should leave the paging file at its recommended size, although you might increase its size if you routinely use programs that require a lot of memory. (Note: 1536 has worked well for me)

• To delete a paging file, set both initial size and maximum size to zero, or click No paging file. Microsoft strongly recommends that you do not disable or delete the paging file.


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Answer 6

Its sort of like when you are taking a nice warm bath and you leave the water on. you ease back in the tub close yer eyes and the next thang ye know yer tub is overflowing.you gotta face the music,pull the plug, dump some temporary files.do a disk cleanup,get rid of some of the internet files that clog yer PC and rob it of its perfomance.go to system tools and do a disk cleanup...also close some of the things you have running ...how to know whats running....hit control alt and delete once and a window will magically pop up and tell you whats running on the PC right this momento. close out some of those program and that PC will run faster some more...si vous plais?

Answer 7

Right click on My Computer->Properties. Go to Advanced . Then click the first settings button (under) Performance, it will appear a new window, click advanced here too, then click the change button (right down). Pick your Windows partition (usually C) then choose Custom size: put something like 1024 to initial and to maximum. (usually you have to put twice the amount of ram that you have, but i haven't found any games that requires more that 1024 mb ) click set and your done

Answer 8

in windows:
go to settings
go to system
go to advanced
1) in this screen click on advanced tab
2) under performance click on settings
3) click on advanced
4) under virtual memory click on change
5) set virtual memory to a higher number that what its on

Answer 9

It means you have too many programs trying to access memory resources. If you don't have several running, then reboot. Your computer will sort itself out.
-MM

Answer 10

Make sure you have enough free space on the hard drive first, also cut down on startup items.