Virtual Memory Question
Monday, March 17, 2008 by PoSmedley | Discussion: Personal Computing
I recently upgraded my memory. I have a very modest computer and finally grew tired of seeing the little pop-up telling me my virtual memory was low while I was in the middle of a Photoshop project. I went from 512MB to 2GB. I'm still getting the low virtual memory message. I know it can be adjusted and I also know if you don't do it right, it can just make the performance worse.
This is what I am working with.
Any help would be appreciated. I know there is probably a standard setting for what I have to work with and probably a tweaked for optimum performance setting, so if you could let me know which way you're taking me with any adjustments, I would be grateful.
Thanks.
This is what I am working with.
Any help would be appreciated. I know there is probably a standard setting for what I have to work with and probably a tweaked for optimum performance setting, so if you could let me know which way you're taking me with any adjustments, I would be grateful.
Thanks.
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PoSmedley
Reply #22 Wednesday, March 19, 2008 12:28 PM
Reply #22 Wednesday, March 19, 2008 12:28 PM
Okay...it would now appear my PC is rightly f___ed.
msconfig will not open through 'run'...though when I check Winpatrol, it says it's open.
The console panel opens for Defrag...but when I click analyze or defrag, it freezes..through Winpatrol says it's running.
My cursor has developed this new habit of vanishing, usually on the desktop, not on an application. I nudge the mouse and it reappears. It does this whenever it senses there is a chance to cause a blood vessel to bust in my brain.
Snag -It is playing the same game as msconfig, except only when it's feeling like being bitchy, not everytime.
I can open msconfig with Launchy, but I get Microsoft NET Framework 1.1 Configuration panel (?)
I just reformatted and re-installed XP and everything about 2 months ago, the memory upgrade about a month ago.
I really don't want to have to do all that again. Can anyone offer assistance?
also....last night when things seemed to go buggy, I ran chkdisk. I got a message..
"Windows has replaced a bad cluster. (don't quote me on this. I wrote it down but left it at home) in section 15086 (?) in the name of /hibrfil.sys (?)"
msconfig will not open through 'run'...though when I check Winpatrol, it says it's open.
The console panel opens for Defrag...but when I click analyze or defrag, it freezes..through Winpatrol says it's running.
My cursor has developed this new habit of vanishing, usually on the desktop, not on an application. I nudge the mouse and it reappears. It does this whenever it senses there is a chance to cause a blood vessel to bust in my brain.
Snag -It is playing the same game as msconfig, except only when it's feeling like being bitchy, not everytime.
I can open msconfig with Launchy, but I get Microsoft NET Framework 1.1 Configuration panel (?)
I just reformatted and re-installed XP and everything about 2 months ago, the memory upgrade about a month ago.
I really don't want to have to do all that again. Can anyone offer assistance?
also....last night when things seemed to go buggy, I ran chkdisk. I got a message..
"Windows has replaced a bad cluster. (don't quote me on this. I wrote it down but left it at home) in section 15086 (?) in the name of /hibrfil.sys (?)"
x3lumin8x
Reply #23 Wednesday, March 19, 2008 1:20 PM
Reply #23 Wednesday, March 19, 2008 1:20 PM
Check the System Managed Size option. Winpatrol, huh? Hmmm.
scorpNZ
Reply #24 Wednesday, March 19, 2008 2:11 PM
Reply #24 Wednesday, March 19, 2008 2:11 PM
hibrfil.sys is your hibernation file,in xp it comes under power options,unticking the hibernation box & i assume a restart will delete it,(not sure if you need to restart but i do as i usually defrag in safe mode),you also need to untick the hiber as it does'nt defrag
CarGuy1
Reply #25 Wednesday, March 19, 2008 2:24 PM
Reply #25 Wednesday, March 19, 2008 2:24 PM
Have you tried running msconfig while in safe mode?
Have you tried restoring your computer to an earlier time?
Perhaps you have a restore point prior to the trouble you are experiencing.
Have you tried restoring your computer to an earlier time?
Perhaps you have a restore point prior to the trouble you are experiencing.
Phoon
Reply #26 Wednesday, March 19, 2008 5:38 PM
Po', I fear that your hard drive is near
This would also 'splain the other issues you have been having.
Reply #26 Wednesday, March 19, 2008 5:38 PM
"Windows has replaced a bad cluster. (don't quote me on this. I wrote it down but left it at home) in section 15086 (?) in the name of /hibrfil.sys (?)"
Po', I fear that your hard drive is near
This would also 'splain the other issues you have been having.
scorpNZ
Reply #27 Wednesday, March 19, 2008 9:01 PM
Reply #27 Wednesday, March 19, 2008 9:01 PM
Po
Don't forget to make a set of recovery disks for your hp & use good quality media,if you don't make a recovery set you'll have to buy them from hp if your hdd shits itself, it's the only way to reinstall windows onto a new hdd,you need to use good media as those twits at hp only allow you to make 1 set.I don't know why as they can't be used on any other machine other than that model of hp
Push F8 to get to safe mode assuming all hp's are the same.
Don't forget to make a set of recovery disks for your hp & use good quality media,if you don't make a recovery set you'll have to buy them from hp if your hdd shits itself, it's the only way to reinstall windows onto a new hdd,you need to use good media as those twits at hp only allow you to make 1 set.I don't know why as they can't be used on any other machine other than that model of hp
Push F8 to get to safe mode assuming all hp's are the same.
WOM
Reply #28 Wednesday, March 19, 2008 9:23 PM
Reply #28 Wednesday, March 19, 2008 9:23 PM
Have 7.15GB of Virtual Memory with 5.94 free. Yesterday it was 6.05 free. Oh well. 
PoSmedley
Reply #29 Wednesday, March 19, 2008 10:52 PM
Reply #29 Wednesday, March 19, 2008 10:52 PM
I just did a compltet System Recovery, reformat, etc. I am staring at WindowsXP Blue skin *gak and about 18 or 20 icons on my desktop of all the goodies HP throws in here.
I wanna clean this crap out right.
You may want to shield your eyes. This is what I got. I haven't removed anything yet.
I know the 'Game Channel' is crap.
My 2 biggest problems are going to be properly uninstalling Norton/Symantec
and
properly removing all this other crap that is sitting somewhre in my system waiting to be installed, like Quicken, the 60 day Office trial,HR Block and heaven knows what else.
I would really love some good solid advice on getting symantec/Norton completely off of here. It's not 'completely' installed, but on the second restart, it started to install and I stopped it.
And please hurry. I'm starting to like that nifty little Compaq/Walmart sidebar thingy they call Compaq Organize. It..it almost seems to be calling to me...
I wanna clean this crap out right.
You may want to shield your eyes. This is what I got. I haven't removed anything yet.
I know the 'Game Channel' is crap.
My 2 biggest problems are going to be properly uninstalling Norton/Symantec
and
properly removing all this other crap that is sitting somewhre in my system waiting to be installed, like Quicken, the 60 day Office trial,HR Block and heaven knows what else.
I would really love some good solid advice on getting symantec/Norton completely off of here. It's not 'completely' installed, but on the second restart, it started to install and I stopped it.
And please hurry. I'm starting to like that nifty little Compaq/Walmart sidebar thingy they call Compaq Organize. It..it almost seems to be calling to me...
scorpNZ
Reply #31 Wednesday, March 19, 2008 11:50 PM
Reply #31 Wednesday, March 19, 2008 11:50 PM
There's a number of options at your disposal po' ,the question is which road to travel
1)-Use symantec's downloadable removal tool before attempting anything first as it can in some cases break systems..lol..,remove the rest of the goodies that hp were kind enough to let you have
,once system is cleaned up,untick hybernation box,not sure if necessary but set page file to none,reboot to safe mode & defrag & disk clean up,registry clean with ccleaner,reset pagefile to whatever size tho it would be best above 1GB,i've got 1gb ram & set my pf to 2gb,then rebbot back to windows,install your most used programs first,then the others,after that lot head to ms & don't leave till fully updated. once everything is back to normal use disk imaging software to make a complete backup to another hdd,the image can go onto a disk that's smaller so long as the data does'nt exceed the drive's capacity,this link is to a free imaging software,i don't know how well it works as i've never used it,for other imaging there's acronis 9.0 or above or ghost.
WWW Link
2)-create recovery disks if you have'nt already(should be in "pc help & tools or just poke around the all progs list),then if you have a spare hdd test to see if the disks work,you'll need to remove the original hdd & set the secondary to master for this operation ,if all goes well,make some copies of those burned disks & put em in a safe place,then get a RETAIL copy of xp home or prof & load it onto whichever hdd you want this will free up some GB as there won't be a FAT recovery partition or any junk,again load most used programs first,update,defrag & use imaging software to make a complete backup to another hdd.
That's pretty much it use imaging software to create backups.
ps: it may not be necessary to make those recovery disks as i think's it's possible to use any xp home disk to re-install using the original OEM key on your sticker at back of machine ???
pps: been in your situation so everything i've said about imaging i've done,i also got me self a retail copy of xp prof onto a large hdd,made an image for recovery purposes & kept the original 40gb xp home as a spare in a cupboard if i ever need it,if all goes to custard i can be backup & running in the amount of time it takes to switch cables,to image say 200GB of data from one hdd to another it takes around 2-3hrs at a guess,either way a lot faster than deleting,installing,updating each time the shit hits the fan
1)-Use symantec's downloadable removal tool before attempting anything first as it can in some cases break systems..lol..,remove the rest of the goodies that hp were kind enough to let you have
,once system is cleaned up,untick hybernation box,not sure if necessary but set page file to none,reboot to safe mode & defrag & disk clean up,registry clean with ccleaner,reset pagefile to whatever size tho it would be best above 1GB,i've got 1gb ram & set my pf to 2gb,then rebbot back to windows,install your most used programs first,then the others,after that lot head to ms & don't leave till fully updated. once everything is back to normal use disk imaging software to make a complete backup to another hdd,the image can go onto a disk that's smaller so long as the data does'nt exceed the drive's capacity,this link is to a free imaging software,i don't know how well it works as i've never used it,for other imaging there's acronis 9.0 or above or ghost.WWW Link
2)-create recovery disks if you have'nt already(should be in "pc help & tools or just poke around the all progs list),then if you have a spare hdd test to see if the disks work,you'll need to remove the original hdd & set the secondary to master for this operation ,if all goes well,make some copies of those burned disks & put em in a safe place,then get a RETAIL copy of xp home or prof & load it onto whichever hdd you want this will free up some GB as there won't be a FAT recovery partition or any junk,again load most used programs first,update,defrag & use imaging software to make a complete backup to another hdd.
That's pretty much it use imaging software to create backups.
ps: it may not be necessary to make those recovery disks as i think's it's possible to use any xp home disk to re-install using the original OEM key on your sticker at back of machine ???
pps: been in your situation so everything i've said about imaging i've done,i also got me self a retail copy of xp prof onto a large hdd,made an image for recovery purposes & kept the original 40gb xp home as a spare in a cupboard if i ever need it,if all goes to custard i can be backup & running in the amount of time it takes to switch cables,to image say 200GB of data from one hdd to another it takes around 2-3hrs at a guess,either way a lot faster than deleting,installing,updating each time the shit hits the fan
PoSmedley
Reply #32 Thursday, March 20, 2008 12:31 AM
Reply #32 Thursday, March 20, 2008 12:31 AM
Checking it out, yrag.
I have 3 sets...and the D: partition to/ I learned that lesson years ago, the hard way.
create recovery disks if you have'nt already
I have 3 sets...and the D: partition to/ I learned that lesson years ago, the hard way.
scorpNZ
Reply #33 Thursday, March 20, 2008 3:17 AM
Reply #33 Thursday, March 20, 2008 3:17 AM
My recovery set failed the last disk was corrupted,never again did i trust verification,luckily i managed to get a set of floppie download images from somwhere that i was able to use instead.
Hawkeye666
Reply #34 Thursday, March 20, 2008 6:11 AM
Reply #34 Thursday, March 20, 2008 6:11 AM
If you have a page file Windows will use regradless of how much RAM you have. In addition apps like Photoshop automatically use it regardless of real RAM. Photoshop uses it for everything from brushes data, to undo information, again even if you have loads of free RAM.
Another trick I use is to set pagefiles on multiple drives. I find it works quite well at least in Vista. In general put the page file on your fastest drive, even if it is the C: drive. If all drives are the same speed, (IE 7200 RPM) then definitely put it on a different physical drive than your programs.
Another trick I use is to set pagefiles on multiple drives. I find it works quite well at least in Vista. In general put the page file on your fastest drive, even if it is the C: drive. If all drives are the same speed, (IE 7200 RPM) then definitely put it on a different physical drive than your programs.
Phoon
Reply #35 Thursday, March 20, 2008 8:02 AM
Reply #35 Thursday, March 20, 2008 8:02 AM
Po,
before you get too far you really need to scan your hard drive. See what brand of hard drive it is, go to the manufacturers website and download their diagnostic tools. That bad cluster message you got troubles me. If that drive is going bad you will be doing all of this for nothing unless you replace it.
before you get too far you really need to scan your hard drive. See what brand of hard drive it is, go to the manufacturers website and download their diagnostic tools. That bad cluster message you got troubles me. If that drive is going bad you will be doing all of this for nothing unless you replace it.
PoSmedley
Reply #36 Thursday, March 20, 2008 9:46 AM
I have to reinstall PhotoshopCS3. The last time it reccomended that I make a seperate partition for it because of the memory it uses. I don't know how. I'm guessing I should if I want to get the best performance from it and my PC?
Sigh. You had to bring that up. You're right. Before I go installing anything I will do just that. Thank you.
Reply #36 Thursday, March 20, 2008 9:46 AM
If you have a page file Windows will use regradless of how much RAM you have. In addition apps like Photoshop automatically use it regardless of real RAM. Photoshop uses it for everything from brushes data, to undo information, again even if you have loads of free RAM.
I have to reinstall PhotoshopCS3. The last time it reccomended that I make a seperate partition for it because of the memory it uses. I don't know how. I'm guessing I should if I want to get the best performance from it and my PC?
before you get too far you really need to scan your hard drive. See what brand of hard drive it is, go to the manufacturers website and download their diagnostic tools. That bad cluster message you got troubles me. If that drive is going bad you will be doing all of this for nothing unless you replace it.
Sigh. You had to bring that up. You're right. Before I go installing anything I will do just that. Thank you.
PoSmedley
Reply #37 Thursday, March 20, 2008 11:48 AM
Reply #37 Thursday, March 20, 2008 11:48 AM
Okay...
It's a Maxtor. Went to the web site and downloaded SeaTools for Windows. Passed everything except the SHORT DST test.
Followed site suggestion and downloaded SeaToolls for DOS. Since I ahven't installed anythin on the PC yet, I had to dowmload the free iso image burner the site reccomended to make the DOS boot disk for SeaTools.
Ran the boot disk..16 errors. SeaTools was able to fix them all. Ran it on my second internal hard drive and everything passed. Rescanned main disk and everything passed.
Thank you, Phoon. The disk appears to be good to go now. I've run into trouble with HD's before but it's always the last thing I think of when I am having any problems. This SeaTool app is quite handy. For me to burn and run a DOS disk is amazing. The app is very easy to use. I would highly reccomend it to anyone using SEAGATE or MAXTOR disks (not sure if it works on other brands) and it was all free, including the iso burning app.
Yrag has been helping me and I am waiting for him to answer my email before I go any further. he gave me quite the scolding on how bloated my system was with crap and add-ons and stuff that was redundant. (I'm a bad Smedley when it comes to add-ons)
I want get everything off of here I don't need (realplayer, weatherbug, etc) and then put on only what I need. (I had a few too many security apps and such running) Hopefully, resulting in getting the full use from my newly installed 2GB of RAM.
It's a Maxtor. Went to the web site and downloaded SeaTools for Windows. Passed everything except the SHORT DST test.
Followed site suggestion and downloaded SeaToolls for DOS. Since I ahven't installed anythin on the PC yet, I had to dowmload the free iso image burner the site reccomended to make the DOS boot disk for SeaTools.
Ran the boot disk..16 errors. SeaTools was able to fix them all. Ran it on my second internal hard drive and everything passed. Rescanned main disk and everything passed.
Thank you, Phoon. The disk appears to be good to go now. I've run into trouble with HD's before but it's always the last thing I think of when I am having any problems. This SeaTool app is quite handy. For me to burn and run a DOS disk is amazing. The app is very easy to use. I would highly reccomend it to anyone using SEAGATE or MAXTOR disks (not sure if it works on other brands) and it was all free, including the iso burning app.
Yrag has been helping me and I am waiting for him to answer my email before I go any further. he gave me quite the scolding on how bloated my system was with crap and add-ons and stuff that was redundant. (I'm a bad Smedley when it comes to add-ons)
I want get everything off of here I don't need (realplayer, weatherbug, etc) and then put on only what I need. (I had a few too many security apps and such running) Hopefully, resulting in getting the full use from my newly installed 2GB of RAM.
CarGuy1
Reply #38 Thursday, March 20, 2008 12:05 PM
Reply #38 Thursday, March 20, 2008 12:05 PM
Po...I fear that your drive is on it's way out. How long before it goes is anyone's guess, it could be 6 months, could be a year. It sounds to me like it hit on 16 bad sectors and marked them as unuseable. This is a sign that more will follow.
Phoon
Reply #39 Thursday, March 20, 2008 12:35 PM
Reply #39 Thursday, March 20, 2008 12:35 PM
Yes, I concurr with CarGuy. The fix will most likely be a short term fix. Best to gather the essence of the piggy bank and get a new drive.
PoSmedley
Reply #40 Thursday, March 20, 2008 2:32 PM
What?!?! Do you know what I had to go through to get my wife to let me buy the memory?!?!?!?! My balance isn't that good to begin with and I think I'm allergic to latex. Along with that, nobody ..I mean NO-body should have to watch that many 'Beverly Hills 90210' reruns.
Reply #40 Thursday, March 20, 2008 2:32 PM
Best to gather the essence of the piggy bank and get a new drive.
What?!?! Do you know what I had to go through to get my wife to let me buy the memory?!?!?!?! My balance isn't that good to begin with and I think I'm allergic to latex. Along with that, nobody ..I mean NO-body should have to watch that many 'Beverly Hills 90210' reruns.
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Reply #21 Tuesday, March 18, 2008 9:21 AM
You might want to check the data thru-put of a USB2 port before trying that....as compared with a SATA or PATA ...