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System resources low message 1
- Thread starter hchman
- Start date
Jakespeare
Vendor
You are suffering from a very, very common problem with Windows, and Windows programs that do not utilize memory / RAM very efficiently.
I will ask that you take a moment to consider my answer. I'm going to give you a couple of choices on this.
> One, I'm going to offer you a semi-quick fix to partly, only partly eliminate some of the problems with low resources.
> Two, I'm going to give you the choice, by following my recommendations below, to become proactive in your PC usage, and make the move to knowing more about your PC,
how it works, and more importantly, how to maintain it.
Your computer loads up many smaller functions, and programs on startup, besides Windows. You know that.
> When looking at the programs or apps that load at startup,
it isn't always the number of programs, but which ones.
Here is how to see a list of programs that load at startup.
Go to:
> START
> PROGRAMS
> ACCESSORIES
> SYSTEM TOOLS
> SYSTEM INFORMATION
There you will find:
A tool bar:
> Choose TOOLS
& System Configuration Utility
> Go to Startup
Inside is the programs. Alongside them are CHECK BOXES. Uncheck a box,and that program doesn't load up anymore.
Common programs to DUMP are: Real Player; AOL IM; Printer Monitor software; Microsoft IM; Utility software that is a great resource hog.
Take a look at the list on your computer.
> Send me a list of what is in the STARTUP LIST.
You may also have SPYWARE on your computer. Those are evil programs that will cause excessive CPU and memory usage.
Please write back with a comprehensive list of all that is listed.
I will be able to help you decide what is necessary, and help
illuminate some facts for you.
Now, the big choice comes for you, on how much you want to learn about this one part of Windows: Memory management. (see below)
Geek Reports.
NEXT: On to the geek reports. If you just follow this advice and read this in-depth article, you will know a LOT more that you know now, and many of your questions will be answered. You will also have a strategy that you can start. With this information you can go step by step and learn to optimize your system. It will work better, I absolutely guarantee that, but it won't cure the inherent problems that software causes from using resources, and not letting Windows be able to reclaim those.
On this link: Fred Langa is a true expert, and I do Not use that term lightly. I have built Well over 500+ computers, and I consider myself an authority on the subject of building computers, not an expert. As far as software, Fred Langa is a top pro, a real expert. With that said, here is the link I recommend that you use.
This is a 4-part article. If you read it, like I said above, you will have a much greater understanding of this entire issue, and will be able to move towards making your machine run Much better.
I will ask that you take a moment to consider my answer. I'm going to give you a couple of choices on this.
> One, I'm going to offer you a semi-quick fix to partly, only partly eliminate some of the problems with low resources.
> Two, I'm going to give you the choice, by following my recommendations below, to become proactive in your PC usage, and make the move to knowing more about your PC,
how it works, and more importantly, how to maintain it.
Your computer loads up many smaller functions, and programs on startup, besides Windows. You know that.
> When looking at the programs or apps that load at startup,
it isn't always the number of programs, but which ones.
Here is how to see a list of programs that load at startup.
Go to:
> START
> PROGRAMS
> ACCESSORIES
> SYSTEM TOOLS
> SYSTEM INFORMATION
There you will find:
A tool bar:
> Choose TOOLS
& System Configuration Utility
> Go to Startup
Inside is the programs. Alongside them are CHECK BOXES. Uncheck a box,and that program doesn't load up anymore.
Common programs to DUMP are: Real Player; AOL IM; Printer Monitor software; Microsoft IM; Utility software that is a great resource hog.
Take a look at the list on your computer.
> Send me a list of what is in the STARTUP LIST.
You may also have SPYWARE on your computer. Those are evil programs that will cause excessive CPU and memory usage.
Please write back with a comprehensive list of all that is listed.
I will be able to help you decide what is necessary, and help
illuminate some facts for you.
Now, the big choice comes for you, on how much you want to learn about this one part of Windows: Memory management. (see below)
Geek Reports.
NEXT: On to the geek reports. If you just follow this advice and read this in-depth article, you will know a LOT more that you know now, and many of your questions will be answered. You will also have a strategy that you can start. With this information you can go step by step and learn to optimize your system. It will work better, I absolutely guarantee that, but it won't cure the inherent problems that software causes from using resources, and not letting Windows be able to reclaim those.
On this link: Fred Langa is a true expert, and I do Not use that term lightly. I have built Well over 500+ computers, and I consider myself an authority on the subject of building computers, not an expert. As far as software, Fred Langa is a top pro, a real expert. With that said, here is the link I recommend that you use.
This is a 4-part article. If you read it, like I said above, you will have a much greater understanding of this entire issue, and will be able to move towards making your machine run Much better.
Guest_imported
New member
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
I am having a related problem. I have a pentirm 200 mmx, and I recently wiped the hard drive and re-installed windows 98. I can now open my computer/ start etc.., but when I try to open interent explorer it says not enough memory to continue, please close one or more programs and try again. I only have systray/explorer running, and have NOTHING on my hard drive except for the standard win 98 stuff?? anybody know somethiung I can do to remedy this problem?
-
1
- #4
Don't mean to duplicate Jakespeare's response, but these are my typical speed-up tips:
If it's running that poorly, right-click on My Computer, click the Performance tab and verify the File System and Virtual Memory are 32-bit.
Click the Virtual Memory button and make sure that Windows is managing the virtual memory. Move your swapfile to a partition with more space, if possible.
If those are OK, try these steps to eliminate unecessary program running:
The things that make the computer slow are the many unecessary items that automatically startup when Windows starts.
Right-click on the icons in the tray area, open each, go through the options to turn off the "tray" or "run at startup" feature.
For the others, go to Start>Run, type msconfig. Leave systray, scan registry, Load Power Profile (both), your virus scanner and firewall if you have one.
Go to Start>Run, type sysedit. Look over the autoexec.bat for unneccessary lines, click the win.ini and check for programs loading here:
[windows]
load=
run=
Open Explorer and navigate to c:\windows\temp and delete all files here. Empty the Recycle Bin.
Open Internet Explorer, go to Tools>InternetOptions, click the Delete Files and Clear History buttons. Click the Settings button, then set a reasoble size for the temporary internet files cache. I'd suggest 40MB for a 56K connection, as little as 10MB for a cable or DSL connection. If you have more than 4 folders under this key:
C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5
If you're familiar with DOS, you can do this:
It will totally clean everything.
Click Start, click Shut Down, click Restart In MS-DOS Mode, and then click OK.
At the command prompt, type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each command, and pressing Y if you are prompted to confirm folder deletion:
cd\windows
smartdrv
deltree cookies
deltree history
deltree tempor~1
exit
The neccessary files and folders will be rebuilt at startup
Right-click on the desktop, make sure Active Desktop is turned off, then click properties and click the Effects tab. turn off Animate windows, menus, and lists.
Close all tray applications and hit Alt_Ctl_Del and end task on all items except for explorer and systray, disable your screensaver, then run scandisk, then defrag.
If you don't know what an entry is or what it does, post back.
If you're using Microsoft Office, look up this Knowledge Base article to kill the Find Fast Indexer
In Internet Explorer, go to Help>Online Support, choose the Microsoft Knowledge Base, then check the box that says specify an article ID number, then paste Q158705 into the search box. I'ts titled "How to Disable the Find Fast Indexer"
reghakr
If it's running that poorly, right-click on My Computer, click the Performance tab and verify the File System and Virtual Memory are 32-bit.
Click the Virtual Memory button and make sure that Windows is managing the virtual memory. Move your swapfile to a partition with more space, if possible.
If those are OK, try these steps to eliminate unecessary program running:
The things that make the computer slow are the many unecessary items that automatically startup when Windows starts.
Right-click on the icons in the tray area, open each, go through the options to turn off the "tray" or "run at startup" feature.
For the others, go to Start>Run, type msconfig. Leave systray, scan registry, Load Power Profile (both), your virus scanner and firewall if you have one.
Go to Start>Run, type sysedit. Look over the autoexec.bat for unneccessary lines, click the win.ini and check for programs loading here:
[windows]
load=
run=
Open Explorer and navigate to c:\windows\temp and delete all files here. Empty the Recycle Bin.
Open Internet Explorer, go to Tools>InternetOptions, click the Delete Files and Clear History buttons. Click the Settings button, then set a reasoble size for the temporary internet files cache. I'd suggest 40MB for a 56K connection, as little as 10MB for a cable or DSL connection. If you have more than 4 folders under this key:
C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5
If you're familiar with DOS, you can do this:
It will totally clean everything.
Click Start, click Shut Down, click Restart In MS-DOS Mode, and then click OK.
At the command prompt, type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each command, and pressing Y if you are prompted to confirm folder deletion:
cd\windows
smartdrv
deltree cookies
deltree history
deltree tempor~1
exit
The neccessary files and folders will be rebuilt at startup
Right-click on the desktop, make sure Active Desktop is turned off, then click properties and click the Effects tab. turn off Animate windows, menus, and lists.
Close all tray applications and hit Alt_Ctl_Del and end task on all items except for explorer and systray, disable your screensaver, then run scandisk, then defrag.
If you don't know what an entry is or what it does, post back.
If you're using Microsoft Office, look up this Knowledge Base article to kill the Find Fast Indexer
In Internet Explorer, go to Help>Online Support, choose the Microsoft Knowledge Base, then check the box that says specify an article ID number, then paste Q158705 into the search box. I'ts titled "How to Disable the Find Fast Indexer"
reghakr
Mechelsdic
Technical User
A little more info on what's causing the message to pop up is that no matter how much RAM you have and how much hard disk space is free, when it refers to resources it is speaking of the 3 - 128kb (approx) heaps of memory that handle all the different processes going on. Like a central clearing house or a dispatchers office. They are the System, User and the all important GDI heaps. For example the GDI keeps track of graphical information like objects, brushes, etc. Many programs are very dirty in the way they handle themselves in this area and don't clean up after themselves which causes memory leaks in the worst possible of places which can make the problem even worse than just not cleaning up alone is. And once any one of these tiny parts of memory are low you are effectively out of memory. There are many memory utilities out there that free up unused ram but one thing they have all learned, you don't mess with the system resources if you want to sell your product. hehe In other words, there really isn't anything you can do to fix the problem once it's happening. You can't reclaim the memory if the apps using it don't do it themselves. But a lot of you are on the right track in eliminating unnecessary programs so there are fewer hands in the resources at the same time. While you're eliminating these you might want to watch carefully and see if you can tell if one or more of them are actually causing a bigger problem of being rude with the resources. If you can find one or two that are causing memory leaks and get rid of those or reconfigure them so they don't abuse the resources then maybe you don't have to give up everything. After all it's just this one guys computer (in the given situation) thats doing this so whats different about his? What apps does he run that no one else does? Look at those first. 
And use the Resource Monitor that comes with Windows. You can watch how resources fluctuate when you do obvious things like load a program or play a video, etc. You can also see if you get any resources back after a program is done using them so intensely or when you quit and unload the app. There isn't anything really that we can do to fix the problem as it happens, but if we watch closely while we work and while we eliminate programs from running it can be figured out how to prevent it from happening as much. It's downright humbling to have 512MB of ram and lose 128kb and get "you are out of memory" errors and crash isn't it? lol
And use the Resource Monitor that comes with Windows. You can watch how resources fluctuate when you do obvious things like load a program or play a video, etc. You can also see if you get any resources back after a program is done using them so intensely or when you quit and unload the app. There isn't anything really that we can do to fix the problem as it happens, but if we watch closely while we work and while we eliminate programs from running it can be figured out how to prevent it from happening as much. It's downright humbling to have 512MB of ram and lose 128kb and get "you are out of memory" errors and crash isn't it? lol- Thread starter
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