Odd things happening with Virtual memory

[bigdin]

I have xp and just about a week ago i started getting pop up info boxes telling me that Virtual memory was very little. I went in to properties and avanced and changed it to user defined and put it up to 500 but tonight i tried opening a word doc that was sent to me and it wouldn't open saying that there was to little virtual memory.
Any takers on this one, I can't work it out.

kind regards....Denis

 

[stduc]

Any clues from task manager? Take a look at the performance tab - available physical memory and pf usage in particular. On the processes tab sort by memory usage and see if there are any memory hogs.

Double check for the possibility of a virus or malware.

You don't say how much RAM you have but as a general rule set the virtual memory to be 1.5 to 2 * RAM. But if you have the disc space to spare then there is no harm in setting it to 3GB (XP's limit)

It is a good idea to fix the swap file so that it can't become fragmented.

The way to do this is to set no virtual RAM and re-boot. Then defrag the system disc several times until it defrags no faster. Then set up a fixed virtual memory size. Set min=max. This ensures the swap file is contiguous.

I have been known to be wrong.
The best way to thank someone who helps you is give them a star.

 

[linney]

Can you open that Word.doc on any other machine, it might be a coincident, and the .doc may just be corrupted.

Do you get this error in Safe Mode, test with the same Word .doc?

Error Message: Your System Has No Paging File, or the Paging File Is Too Small

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;315270

315351 - Error message when you start Windows: "Your system is low on virtual memory"

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315351&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

RAM, Virtual Memory, PageFile and all that stuff

http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/WindowsGeneralWeb/RAMVirtualMemoryPageFileEtc.htm

308417 - How to set performance options in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308417&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

811153 - Virtual Memory Error Message When You Shut Down the Computer

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;811153&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH