Virtual Memory - help please!!!

[kerryb]

Hi

Can anyone advice

My computer chunters away to itself every time I try to do something getting slower and slower.

I keep getting a message about my virtual memory being low but have not an idea what this means.

Looked on help and it talked about dividing directories.  Huh!!!

Please help someone! 

I have had a look at the sizes of my folders and don't seem to be huge, I have previously taken all images off, onto CD.  There seems to be plenty of room on folders.  Don't even know if this would be the problem.

Thanks

Kerry

[bekahsgran]

Hi
My hubby has this trouble on his laptop, and from what I can make out it is:
If you are working at full capacity of your RAM and the progs need a little more, they borrow it from your hard drive (I think) so its virtual because its not really there in the first place. Thats as simple as I can work it out.
Who knows maybe I'm wrong, but I know it happens if hubby tries to run Paint Shop Pro at the same time as Photoshop CS2, so it sounds about right.
I'm sure someone will put us both right!
Anne
PS Now I'm confused as well!

[RJ_Paton]

bekahsgran is quite correct .... to assist in running the programs you use, the computer uses part of your hard drive as "virtual memory" ....... depending upon your version of windows it is operated in slightly different ways.
Infopackets Newsletter - Memory click here. gives more information.

Although your hard drive may have plenty of spare space it will likely be fragmented and in clusters all over the place ....... basically your computer knows all the stuff it put there is there but it's having to look in every drawer in every room to get all of the pieces together. ...... rather like having to sew together the pieces of material to make yourself a jacket before going out rather than simply picking a complete one up off of the peg.

[Taidquest]

hi all,just sent that link to my brother
as he said the message about the virtual memory
is happening with his computer too and like me
not very good with the tech' end of things.
so thanks for the link and who knows
maybe he will become a rootschatter as a result.
                                     regards. anne

[corinne]

It won't hurt to do a "disc cleanup" and "defrag" your computer either.  On my computer (Windows XP) you find these utilities from START menu, ACCESSORIES, SYSTEM TOOLS.  You should defrag regularly (once a month if you are doing a lot of shuffling of data and stuff) - those bits all over the place that a previous poster mentioned will then mostly get organised and leave more free space in your hard drive. 

You could also consider getting a bit more RAM.   If your computer is one of those that is fairly easily upgradeable, then any computer repair place should be able to put another stick of RAM in fairly easily and quickly.  From memory a RAM upgrade on mine cost about 30 pounds.

Another option if you feel like looking for it is to assign a bit more hard drive space to virtual memory.  I'm not a techie, but I did figure out how to do this at one point.  If you know someone who is a bit more computer savvy they might be able to give you instructions.

[Susan41]

Hello,

I had been having the same problem because I like to have several programs open at the same time.  Even though I would close down a program it wasn't always "giving up" all the memory it had been using right away so I was rebooting a couple of time a day.  I solved my problem by adding another memory chip.

Susan

[kerryb]

Thank you everybody for your help, I think I now understand what is going on.

I do regularly disk defrag, mainly because I am always taking digital photos and downloading them.

However last night I did a disk clean up and went through my C drive and deleted a load of rubbish.  It seems a little faster now.  We'll see how it goes.

Thanks

Kerry

[RJ_Paton]

adding more RAM to your computer is probably one of the most cost effective and noticeable upgrades you can do ........ especially if your machine has 512Mb or less.

Although you must be aware that sometimes some manufacturers fill the memory slots with low capacity units and therefore to increase you need to remove existing memory.

This can be checked with various tools although a company "Crucial" at http://www.crucial.com/uk/ do make it a lot easier by listing all of the manufacturers and their machines to help you decide which type. They also supply a small program which does an analysis of your machine and lets you know what type of memory is already installed.

[kerryb]

Arrh now I understand!!!!

Thanks Falkryn

I went to Crucial and did an analysis of my computer, I currently only have 256 mb memory, I thought I had more than that. 

That explains a lot.  That's a useful site.  Time to upgrade!

Kerry