Author Topic: virtual memery paging file  (Read 509 times)

Offline -ammo-

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virtual memery paging file
« on: February 16, 2003, 04:35:38 PM »
Recentl, I get a windows message saying that windows (win 2000 professional) is increasing my paging file, saying that my sytem is low on virtual memory.  I also get a similar message when windows starts at boot up.  WHat could be my problem(s) and how do I go about isolating it and fixing it?  I cant think of anything that would have triggered this, my PC has ran fine.

thx for any help

Athlon XP 1600
512 Mb of DDR 2100 RAM
current page file set by windows is 194 Mb
Geforce 3 original
Commanding Officer, 56 Fighter Group
Retired USAF - 1988 - 2011

Offline SKurj

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virtual memery paging file
« Reply #1 on: February 16, 2003, 07:13:47 PM »
194 mb is TOOO small..

recommended for w2k is 1.5 times RAM.  I set mine closer to 2x


Set it fixed, max and min a 1gb


SKurj

Offline BNM

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virtual memery paging file
« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2003, 10:15:27 AM »
2nd what Skurj says...

Offline Siaf__csf

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virtual memery paging file
« Reply #3 on: February 17, 2003, 10:28:34 AM »
Actually with 512Mb of ram you don't necessary need a pagefile at all. Situations where you will fill that amount should be rare, and it should never happen with playing AH.

If your system repeatedly cries out for more pagefile, check out your settings.. Which HD you have set the pagefile to? Does the SYSTEM have read/write priviledges on that hardrive if you use ntfs?

Pagefile report at bootup is a sign of either not having an active pagefile at all (system can't read/write to the hd it tries to access) or your computer is infected by something that's eating up all your available ram immediately as you boot the computer.

In either case it's necessary to get the computer checked by someone who know's how to troubleshoot.

The 1.5x ram advice above is an urban legend carried out from the times when computers used to have 16mb of ram and the pagefile was a crucial extension to the ram.

NT, w2k and xp only reckommend 1:1 ram/pagefile because they want to make a full memorydump in case of a BSOD. Memorydumps are not usefull nor necessary so you can safely set your pagefile as small as necessary.

I use typically at max 85% of my RAM even when I'm doing videoediting (albeit vcache is being used at that time), and I have as much ram as you do. So in my system I can disable pagefile totally if I wish to do so, without any side-effects to my normal usage. At extremely memory consuming tasks such as editing above, you might need a pagefile, but not likely with any decently coded game (notice how I left out WW2OL.. ;) )
« Last Edit: February 17, 2003, 10:32:42 AM by Siaf__csf »

Offline SKurj

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virtual memery paging file
« Reply #4 on: February 17, 2003, 11:44:32 AM »
Quote
Originally posted by Siaf__csf
.

The 1.5x ram advice above is an urban legend carried out from the times when computers used to have 16mb of ram and the pagefile was a crucial extension to the ram.

NT, w2k and xp only reckommend 1:1 ram/pagefile because they want to make a full memorydump in case of a BSOD. Memorydumps are not usefull nor necessary so you can safely set your pagefile as small as necessary.



Hmm Really? even today's textbooks recommend 1.5x for w2k as well as MS


SKurj

Offline spiffykraits

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virtual memery paging file
« Reply #5 on: February 17, 2003, 12:17:55 PM »
With 512MBs of Ram (or more for xp, win2000) the page file can be quite small, or even non-existent for Win98/ME.

For win98SE/ME if you use:
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 switch added to the system.ini under the [386Enh] section, Windows won't bother to install a swapfile at all if you re-install Windows over your existing system as those OS will only use 512MBs maximum limit.

To be safe I leave Windows to manage the swap file with Win98SE in the virtual memory settings but it never uses one if the switch is enabled. :)

Note this switch is ONLY for win98/ME systems.  XP and the 32 bit OS can use more RAM than 512 MBs.
« Last Edit: February 17, 2003, 12:20:13 PM by spiffykraits »

Offline Siaf__csf

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virtual memery paging file
« Reply #6 on: February 17, 2003, 12:32:47 PM »
Skurj by now you should have learned that MS reckommendations have little to do with actual needs.

Of course if you want to make absolutely sure you will never ever run out of virtual memory, by all means set it to 10x if you like. It won't make your computer run any faster or better, however. It's probably going to make it run slower instead.

Next time when you run AH, open IE and E-mail and whatever and check how much memory your system is using..

At the moment I have Kazaa loading stuff, IE open, e-mail open, aces high running and several smaller apps out in the background and the resource meter shows I'm using a serious amount of ram. All 166Mb in use of the 512 available.

:)

Offline -ammo-

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virtual memery paging file
« Reply #7 on: February 17, 2003, 05:15:47 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by Siaf__csf
Actually with 512Mb of ram you don't necessary need a pagefile at all. Situations where you will fill that amount should be rare, and it should never happen with playing AH.

If your system repeatedly cries out for more pagefile, check out your settings.. Which HD you have set the pagefile to? Does the SYSTEM have read/write priviledges on that hardrive if you use ntfs?

Pagefile report at bootup is a sign of either not having an active pagefile at all (system can't read/write to the hd it tries to access) or your computer is infected by something that's eating up all your available ram immediately as you boot the computer.

In either case it's necessary to get the computer checked by someone who know's how to troubleshoot.

The 1.5x ram advice above is an urban legend carried out from the times when computers used to have 16mb of ram and the pagefile was a crucial extension to the ram.

NT, w2k and xp only reckommend 1:1 ram/pagefile because they want to make a full memorydump in case of a BSOD. Memorydumps are not usefull nor necessary so you can safely set your pagefile as small as necessary.

I use typically at max 85% of my RAM even when I'm doing videoediting (albeit vcache is being used at that time), and I have as much ram as you do. So in my system I can disable pagefile totally if I wish to do so, without any side-effects to my normal usage. At extremely memory consuming tasks such as editing above, you might need a pagefile, but not likely with any decently coded game (notice how I left out WW2OL.. ;) )


I appreciate the response. My hardrive ois formatted in NTFS and I now wonder if is not a settings problem.  Also,  here is the message I receive from windows when I go to set my pagefile Windows created a temporary p[aging file on your computer because of a problem that occurred with your paging file configuration when you started your computer. The total paging file for all disk drives may be somewhat larger than the size you specified

It has both my hardrive and my zip drive listed.  So how do I ensure that my settings is all OK?
« Last Edit: February 17, 2003, 05:19:08 PM by -ammo- »
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Offline Siaf__csf

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virtual memery paging file
« Reply #8 on: February 18, 2003, 03:46:54 AM »
You should remove the zip drive from the list immediately. It's not supposed to be listed. If windows manages to swap to the zip, it will freeze up your computer royally because the zip drives are quite slow compared to normal ide hd's..

So, my reckommendation is to remove the zip drive from the list (actually you can't remove it from the whole list, just set the amount to 0.)

possibly it's a good idea to remove all vmem settings and reset them to a drive. If you have multiple hd's try to set the pagefile to a hd that's using different ide channel with the root drive (c:)

If you remove all settings, then set the pagefile to a certain hd and define a size for it, you shouldn't get the pagefile errors on bootup anymore. If you still do, check the root user permissions for the hd in question. The drive must allow SYSTEM to have full priviledges to the drive as well as your own user naturally.

If SYSTEM is missing from the userlist, add it and grant it full priviledges to the root of the drive that contains your swapfile.

I had this problem once when I upgraded a system and the imported ntfs drive failed to reckognize the system priviledges.. I wondered why my swapfile didn't set right and I noticed that all the user privs were completely fuxxored :)

I hope that your prob is as simple as that.

Offline -ammo-

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« Reply #9 on: February 18, 2003, 10:23:36 PM »
Bingo!  

The drive must allow SYSTEM to have full priviledges to the drive as well as your own user naturally.


Right on the money!

Thx again:)
Commanding Officer, 56 Fighter Group
Retired USAF - 1988 - 2011

Offline Siaf__csf

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« Reply #10 on: February 19, 2003, 12:23:17 AM »
Glad to hear it worked.