PCTalk.info

Keep getting Virtual Memory Is Low -sign. Have 130 mg phsical memory on 2 cards. My comp only has 3 slots. Know I need much more memory. Will adding another card help enough much so I can gain more. $80.00 to add 256mg or 100.00 for 512mg... Like to surf fast as possible and recieve some viedo. Or is it time for a new comp?

Lester wrote:... $80.00 to add 256mg or 100.00 for 512mg...

I don't know where you are getting your memory from but I use Crucial.com to order my memory. You will find they have medium to low prices but very good service. If you add more memory, your computer should process faster and not need to use as much slow virtual memory.

Is that 130MB? What is MG?

If you have three slots maybe you can add 3 - 256MB of memory or how about 3 - 512MB? How large is your hard drive space? Just curious.

I had the same message you are getting about "virtual memory low". I called my gateway support. They walked me through some steps to increase my virtual memory. It worked. I'm sorry I don't remember what settings they had me change.

I now wish I would have written down steps taken to fix issues with my notebook.

Virtual Memory uses space on the hard drive, so you don't really want to use it if you don't have to. To change it, right-click on My Computer, select Properties, and it's one of the buttons under one of the tabs from there. If I remember correctly, it's called Performance.

Sorry thats MB yes. Hard Drive 9.5 GB and only using 2GB at present. Icy, I understand more now. 3-512's give me 1.5 GB RAM memory. Found Performance and have 98MB Initial Size and I left that alone. Max. Size was 198MB and I raised it to 250MB. Sound appropiate or change more? Will research Crucial.com Krank, Did you make this one?

I would recommend leaving the Virtual Memory size up to Windows to determine. That way it is possible it will decrease the size as well as increase it if necessary.

Did the changes help any Lester?

Lester wrote::krank: Krank, Did you make this one?

Lol, Nice emoticon!

Sorry, locked myself out. Big help. Took out 2- 64 MB modules. Found 3 in inventory all 130MB and installed. Total for 391MB. NO--- LOW VIRTUAL MEMORY SIGN NOW. So, put virtual memory spec. back to original 198MB and still no sign. Big help in speed also. Thanks

Wanted to follow up with a Streaming Video speed problem. I thought I would solve the buffering with more memory. 391MB I know I am still very low today's standards. Would more resolve the problem. Or is the buffering caused by low clock speed? Have 500MHz. and highspeed cable internet.

Lester wrote:... I thought I would solve the buffering with more memory. ...

And you thought correctly. The more memory, the more available for a memory buffer, therefore the faster a video or sound file will be able to play. The real problem is, how fast can your computer download the file and place it into the buffer.

500 MHz is not that fast if you are trying to look at large files. Once the file is completely downloaded into memory, however, you should be able to view it at full speed.

As always, additional comments, even contradictory, are welcome. Some of my knowledge may be outdated by newer technologies. Have you tried looking on http://howstuffworks.com/ to see if they have an explanation that is easy to understand and explains what you want to know?

Actually Spock is right on the dot.

One thing to always remember is that the download is as fast as the weakest link in the chain, meaning this:

1- your computer

2. the line (Internet connection)

3- the server your getting your downloads from.

Now for easy writing I'm starting backwards so bare with me here

The server in question probably is fast enough, so not to worry there, and if it isn't then there is not much you can do about that one either. You wrote in your post that you have an fast Internet connection, so lets go with that as in being k too shall we?

Now your computer:

And you thought correctly. The more memory, the more available for a memory buffer, therefore the faster a video or sound file will be able to play. The real problem is, how fast can your computer download the file and place it into the buffer.

Lets take a deeper look into this statement:
If he has a 10 gig Hard drive and is using a Windows determined Page file, also called Swap file then it works as follows:

Lets assume for easy thinking here that from the 10 gig he has 1 gig Swap file, for speed its nice to have a separate partition just for the Swap file alone, but on a 10 Hard drive thats obviously not an option

So here we go:

Server with the file ------> Internet connection ----> computer.
translates into speed like this:

Fast enough server ---> fast enough Internet connection ---> 500 MHz cpu (central processor unit) + Ram +/- 400 MB ---> 1 gig Swap file

The weakest links in here are both the Processor as the Hard drive, and then maybe the amount of Ram.

I will try to explain why:

Your computer significantly slows down if the Hard drive is not big enough. (read filled up with data) and 10 gig total isn't much, lets put it this way, its a Windows thing, not your fault

Windows does more btw, it uses +/- 250 MB Ram for itself, so your left with 150 Ram to play with or multi task or whatever. (assuming you are running Windows XP here)

The workaround for this problem is the Page file, so what happens is this:
You are trying to download a movie file with 150 MB ram, using a 500 MHz processor on a maybe full Hard drive, so windows first writes it down to the page file, which act's like a temporary file, read buffering, when the Page file is full it starts to "use" the left over Ram and you will either get the error msg you got before or notice the slowdown you are talking about.


I hope this bit of information makes some sense, so you maybe have a clearer idea what your computer does.

And no i did not make that smilie

You may want to check your MB stat's to see how much memory your system can take, before you shell out money for more ram?

Krank wrote:Windows does more btw, it uses +/- 250 MB Ram for itself, so your left with 150 Ram to play with or multi task or whatever. (assuming you are running Windows XP here)

Based on the Speed and Memory amount, hdd size, I assume 98se. A little background info tells me the same.

Unless you eliminate the need for a Paging file, it is best to allow Windoze to manage it.

It's a horrible thing when a person removes the paging file on a server because it has 8gb of memory...without evaluating the machine. There can be serious consequences, and thousands of lost dollars.

TY Krank, That's a lot of what I wanted to know. Will study more.
No it is Win 2000 now but I see more clearly that it's new comp time.
So is it possible to increase Page File so the hard drive doesn't have to go to ram so there is less transfer time to see if it helps? Will check on max memory allowed by MB. Will continue with How Stuff Works.

This is the ex. I was looking for. When an icon is used like this and it jumps the preceding text to the next line does it cause wasted space or are there any other concerns? No ----Krank! The one above.

Lester wrote:So is it possible to increase Page File so the hard drive doesn't have to go to ram so there is less transfer time to see if it helps? Will check on max memory allowed by MB. Will continue with How Stuff Works.

Actually, you want the exact opposite. You want your information stored in RAM because it's faster than the HDD.

The paging file(Virtual Memory) is basically RAM on the Hard drive, but runs like a bicycle compared to a race car(RAM).

If your running XP about a GB of RAM will set you well, however if your using Vista you may want a min. of 2 GB's. But not sure a 500 Mhz CPU is worth the RAM upgrade?