3GB RAM and it's always telling me to close apps

Ok, so I have Vista Ultimate 64-bit with 3GB of memory. I'm constantly
having to reboot every few days because Vista will start telling me to close
windows, all of which I need open so I can use them. When I look at how
much of the Page File (according to Task Manager) is in use (when it pops
that up), it's usually around 3.2GB out of 3.4GB. Even when I close all
open windows it's still over 2GB, so re-opening everything again just gives
me the same popup. The only way around it is to reboot and then it slowly
goes back up to the popup and I'm forced to reboot all over again. Never
had a memory problem using the exact same applications until I upgraded to
Vista.

The apps I normally have open are: E-Mail (the app that came with Vista),
Firefox, FlashFXP, Visual Studio 2008, a few explorer windows, and Excel
2008. Every 2 or 3 days I'm forced to reboot. It's annoying as hell. I
have 3GB of physical RAM, I shouldn't be having memory problems.

I do have my swap file set to 512MB because letting Windows manage it was
causing too much swapping and my system was extremely slow while it's
constantly grinding the hard drive (lowering it 512MB showed a huge
performance boost). Either way, I have 3GB of physical memory, it shouldn't
be consuming more than that. When I reboot and load everything back up and
start using it, Page File shows just over 1GB of memory. Apparently it goes
up 1GB every day until I'm forced to reboot.

Anyone have any suggestions? Any services I can turn off or am I screwed
and have to hope they fix this in Windows 7?

Thanks,
Greg

Oops, meant Excel 2007, not 2008

"Greg" <> wrote in message
news:38E069D4-3048-4052-AD5D-...
> Ok, so I have Vista Ultimate 64-bit with 3GB of memory. I'm constantly
> having to reboot every few days because Vista will start telling me to
> close windows, all of which I need open so I can use them. When I look at
> how much of the Page File (according to Task Manager) is in use (when it
> pops that up), it's usually around 3.2GB out of 3.4GB. Even when I close
> all open windows it's still over 2GB, so re-opening everything again just
> gives me the same popup. The only way around it is to reboot and then it
> slowly goes back up to the popup and I'm forced to reboot all over again.
> Never had a memory problem using the exact same applications until I
> upgraded to Vista.
>
> The apps I normally have open are: E-Mail (the app that came with Vista),
> Firefox, FlashFXP, Visual Studio 2008, a few explorer windows, and Excel
> 2008. Every 2 or 3 days I'm forced to reboot. It's annoying as hell. I
> have 3GB of physical RAM, I shouldn't be having memory problems.
>
> I do have my swap file set to 512MB because letting Windows manage it was
> causing too much swapping and my system was extremely slow while it's
> constantly grinding the hard drive (lowering it 512MB showed a huge
> performance boost). Either way, I have 3GB of physical memory, it
> shouldn't be consuming more than that. When I reboot and load everything
> back up and start using it, Page File shows just over 1GB of memory.
> Apparently it goes up 1GB every day until I'm forced to reboot.
>
> Anyone have any suggestions? Any services I can turn off or am I screwed
> and have to hope they fix this in Windows 7?
>
> Thanks,
> Greg

Greg wrote:
> Ok, so I have Vista Ultimate 64-bit with 3GB of memory. I'm constantly
> having to reboot every few days because Vista will start telling me to
> close windows, all of which I need open so I can use them. When I look
> at how much of the Page File (according to Task Manager) is in use (when
> it pops that up), it's usually around 3.2GB out of 3.4GB. Even when I
> close all open windows it's still over 2GB, so re-opening everything
> again just gives me the same popup. The only way around it is to reboot
> and then it slowly goes back up to the popup and I'm forced to reboot
> all over again. Never had a memory problem using the exact same
> applications until I upgraded to Vista.
>
> The apps I normally have open are: E-Mail (the app that came with
> Vista), Firefox, FlashFXP, Visual Studio 2008, a few explorer windows,
> and Excel 2008. Every 2 or 3 days I'm forced to reboot. It's annoying
> as hell. I have 3GB of physical RAM, I shouldn't be having memory
> problems.
>
> I do have my swap file set to 512MB because letting Windows manage it
> was causing too much swapping and my system was extremely slow while
> it's constantly grinding the hard drive (lowering it 512MB showed a huge
> performance boost). Either way, I have 3GB of physical memory, it
> shouldn't be consuming more than that. When I reboot and load
> everything back up and start using it, Page File shows just over 1GB of
> memory. Apparently it goes up 1GB every day until I'm forced to reboot.
>
> Anyone have any suggestions? Any services I can turn off or am I
> screwed and have to hope they fix this in Windows 7?
>
> Thanks,
> Greg
Try setting it to 1 gig instead of 512. You're obviously are running
out. The other problem may be that you have a program that's not
releasing the memory aka memory leak. I don't see why rebooting every 3
days is a problem. I shut mine down every night. No big deal.

gls858

On Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:59:02 -0700, "Greg" <>
wrote:

>Ok, so I have Vista Ultimate 64-bit with 3GB of memory. I'm constantly
>having to reboot every few days because Vista will start telling me to close
>windows, all of which I need open so I can use them. When I look at how
>much of the Page File (according to Task Manager) is in use (when it pops
>that up), it's usually around 3.2GB out of 3.4GB. Even when I close all
>open windows it's still over 2GB, so re-opening everything again just gives
>me the same popup. The only way around it is to reboot and then it slowly
>goes back up to the popup and I'm forced to reboot all over again. Never
>had a memory problem using the exact same applications until I upgraded to
>Vista.
>
>The apps I normally have open are: E-Mail (the app that came with Vista),
>Firefox, FlashFXP, Visual Studio 2008, a few explorer windows, and Excel
>2008. Every 2 or 3 days I'm forced to reboot. It's annoying as hell. I
>have 3GB of physical RAM, I shouldn't be having memory problems.
>
>I do have my swap file set to 512MB because letting Windows manage it was
>causing too much swapping and my system was extremely slow while it's
>constantly grinding the hard drive (lowering it 512MB showed a huge
>performance boost).


You start out saying your Page file is "using" 3.2 GB. then later you
say your swap file is SET to only 512 MB. For most people the paging
file should be 1.5 times the size of your physical RAM, you got yours
set to less than 20% of your RAM. That's crazy! Reset it so it is 4.5
GB or just let Vista manage it's size which means it will grow and
shrink as needed.

I'll wager what is happening is there isn't enough contiguous space on
your root drive for your page file to expand to use as much space as
it is starved for. Accordingly it is forced to use a tiny space of
what's roped off for it's use and that is what is causing the sluggish
performance and drive trashing. If so, you need to correct this in two
steps. Remember the paging file MUST have contiguous space. It makes
no difference how much is set aside for it if they space is fragmented
it can only use the biggest portion of it that's contiguous. To
remedy:

1. First totally kill the paging file so you have none at all.

2. Next do a full defrag of your root drive (C). Since you killed
the paging file in step one, this should free up your entire
hard drive allowing you to reset the size of the paging file
and be able to use all the space you assign to it.

3. Now reset the paging file to 4.5 GB or just let Vista manage it.

Remember to reboot when instructed. You should see a dramatic boost in
performance IF this was the issue.

"gls858" <> wrote in message
news:%...
> Try setting it to 1 gig instead of 512. You're obviously are running out.
> The other problem may be that you have a program that's not releasing the
> memory aka memory leak. I don't see why rebooting every 3 days is a
> problem. I shut mine down every night. No big deal.
>

Closing out my work and rebooting is a major annoyance for me. I think
Visual Studio is the culprit and unfortunately I need to use it I rarely
reboot my iMac, which I run far more things on at a time on, but
unfortunately I like Visual Studio, thus the reason for the PC.

"Ringmaster" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> You start out saying your Page file is "using" 3.2 GB. then later you
> say your swap file is SET to only 512 MB. For most people the paging
> file should be 1.5 times the size of your physical RAM, you got yours
> set to less than 20% of your RAM. That's crazy! Reset it so it is 4.5
> GB or just let Vista manage it's size which means it will grow and
> shrink as needed.
>
> I'll wager what is happening is there isn't enough contiguous space on
> your root drive for your page file to expand to use as much space as
> it is starved for. Accordingly it is forced to use a tiny space of
> what's roped off for it's use and that is what is causing the sluggish
> performance and drive trashing. If so, you need to correct this in two
> steps. Remember the paging file MUST have contiguous space. It makes
> no difference how much is set aside for it if they space is fragmented
> it can only use the biggest portion of it that's contiguous. To
> remedy:
>
> 1. First totally kill the paging file so you have none at all.
>
> 2. Next do a full defrag of your root drive (C). Since you killed
> the paging file in step one, this should free up your entire
> hard drive allowing you to reset the size of the paging file
> and be able to use all the space you assign to it.
>
> 3. Now reset the paging file to 4.5 GB or just let Vista manage it.
>
> Remember to reboot when instructed. You should see a dramatic boost in
> performance IF this was the issue.
>

That's because of instead of saying how it technically is, I said it the way
it's represented in Task Manager (thank you Microsoft). In Task Manager,
they're combining both physical memory and swap file into one value called
"Page File". I have my swap file set at 512MB, setting it higher causes
poor performance (hard drive is slower than RAM), not to mention what the
hell does it need 3GB+ of swap space for? I'm not setting it that high, I'd
rather reboot than run all of my apps with its memory in the swap file
(that's where my performance issues are from).

If I'm getting out of memory issues with 3GB of physical RAM and a 512MB
swap file, setting the swap file higher will obviously stop that happening.
My issue is with it using that much to start with. I have the same problem
on my laptop, which has 4GB of physical memory, just takes longer. Maybe
I'll just go back to XP where I was consuming less than 1.8GB of RAM and had
my swap file set the same. I was hoping there would be some other solution
to this.

Greg

You are not making sense or you do not understand what others are telling you. Paul and Ringmaster both are correct and I think instead of you trying to set you Page File correctly let Windows manage it. It will be much more advantageous for you

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.

"Greg" <> wrote in message news:188BEDFC-5961-401F-B1D8-...
>
> "Ringmaster" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>>
>> You start out saying your Page file is "using" 3.2 GB. then later you
>> say your swap file is SET to only 512 MB. For most people the paging
>> file should be 1.5 times the size of your physical RAM, you got yours
>> set to less than 20% of your RAM. That's crazy! Reset it so it is 4.5
>> GB or just let Vista manage it's size which means it will grow and
>> shrink as needed.
>>
>> I'll wager what is happening is there isn't enough contiguous space on
>> your root drive for your page file to expand to use as much space as
>> it is starved for. Accordingly it is forced to use a tiny space of
>> what's roped off for it's use and that is what is causing the sluggish
>> performance and drive trashing. If so, you need to correct this in two
>> steps. Remember the paging file MUST have contiguous space. It makes
>> no difference how much is set aside for it if they space is fragmented
>> it can only use the biggest portion of it that's contiguous. To
>> remedy:
>>
>> 1. First totally kill the paging file so you have none at all.
>>
>> 2. Next do a full defrag of your root drive (C). Since you killed
>> the paging file in step one, this should free up your entire
>> hard drive allowing you to reset the size of the paging file
>> and be able to use all the space you assign to it.
>>
>> 3. Now reset the paging file to 4.5 GB or just let Vista manage it.
>>
>> Remember to reboot when instructed. You should see a dramatic boost in
>> performance IF this was the issue.
>>
>
> That's because of instead of saying how it technically is, I said it the way
> it's represented in Task Manager (thank you Microsoft). In Task Manager,
> they're combining both physical memory and swap file into one value called
> "Page File". I have my swap file set at 512MB, setting it higher causes
> poor performance (hard drive is slower than RAM), not to mention what the
> hell does it need 3GB+ of swap space for? I'm not setting it that high, I'd
> rather reboot than run all of my apps with its memory in the swap file
> (that's where my performance issues are from).
>
> If I'm getting out of memory issues with 3GB of physical RAM and a 512MB
> swap file, setting the swap file higher will obviously stop that happening.
> My issue is with it using that much to start with. I have the same problem
> on my laptop, which has 4GB of physical memory, just takes longer. Maybe
> I'll just go back to XP where I was consuming less than 1.8GB of RAM and had
> my swap file set the same. I was hoping there would be some other solution
> to this.
>
>

Yes, I understand what people are telling me. This has been Microsoft's
recommendation for a very, very long time. My problem isn't with the page
file size, it's with my system consuming 1+GB more each day. Increasing it
will just allow it use more and will slow down my system because all of the
reading and writing to the page file and then I'm sure I'll run into the
same issue.

The solution is to determine why it's consuming so much more each day.

"Peter Foldes" <> wrote in message
news:...
Greg

You are not making sense or you do not understand what others are telling
you. Paul and Ringmaster both are correct and I think instead of you trying
to set you Page File correctly let Windows manage it. It will be much more
advantageous for you

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.

"Greg" <> wrote in message
news:188BEDFC-5961-401F-B1D8-...
>
> "Ringmaster" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>>
>> You start out saying your Page file is "using" 3.2 GB. then later you
>> say your swap file is SET to only 512 MB. For most people the paging
>> file should be 1.5 times the size of your physical RAM, you got yours
>> set to less than 20% of your RAM. That's crazy! Reset it so it is 4.5
>> GB or just let Vista manage it's size which means it will grow and
>> shrink as needed.
>>
>> I'll wager what is happening is there isn't enough contiguous space on
>> your root drive for your page file to expand to use as much space as
>> it is starved for. Accordingly it is forced to use a tiny space of
>> what's roped off for it's use and that is what is causing the sluggish
>> performance and drive trashing. If so, you need to correct this in two
>> steps. Remember the paging file MUST have contiguous space. It makes
>> no difference how much is set aside for it if they space is fragmented
>> it can only use the biggest portion of it that's contiguous. To
>> remedy:
>>
>> 1. First totally kill the paging file so you have none at all.
>>
>> 2. Next do a full defrag of your root drive (C). Since you killed
>> the paging file in step one, this should free up your entire
>> hard drive allowing you to reset the size of the paging file
>> and be able to use all the space you assign to it.
>>
>> 3. Now reset the paging file to 4.5 GB or just let Vista manage it.
>>
>> Remember to reboot when instructed. You should see a dramatic boost in
>> performance IF this was the issue.
>>
>
> That's because of instead of saying how it technically is, I said it the
> way
> it's represented in Task Manager (thank you Microsoft). In Task Manager,
> they're combining both physical memory and swap file into one value called
> "Page File". I have my swap file set at 512MB, setting it higher causes
> poor performance (hard drive is slower than RAM), not to mention what the
> hell does it need 3GB+ of swap space for? I'm not setting it that high,
> I'd
> rather reboot than run all of my apps with its memory in the swap file
> (that's where my performance issues are from).
>
> If I'm getting out of memory issues with 3GB of physical RAM and a 512MB
> swap file, setting the swap file higher will obviously stop that
> happening.
> My issue is with it using that much to start with. I have the same
> problem
> on my laptop, which has 4GB of physical memory, just takes longer. Maybe
> I'll just go back to XP where I was consuming less than 1.8GB of RAM and
> had
> my swap file set the same. I was hoping there would be some other
> solution
> to this.
>
>

That's what I'd flag too.

The easiest way is probably:
Open Task Manager
Go to the Processes tab
Click Show Processes from All Users
Make sure these columns are on: Memory (Private Working Set), Commit Size,
Handles, GDI Objects

When your system start choking: who are the ""leaders"" in those columns?
At what numbers?

Note that there's *much* better ways at doing this sort of diagnostic, but
this is a pretty easy in-box way to do it.

--
Speaking for myself only.
See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
--
"Greg" <> wrote in message
news:OHlWC$...
> The solution is to determine why it's consuming so much more each day.

On Tue, 30 Sep 2008 10:12:35 -0700, "Greg" <>
wrote:

>Yes, I understand what people are telling me. This has been Microsoft's
>recommendation for a very, very long time. My problem isn't with the page
>file size, it's with my system consuming 1+GB more each day. Increasing it
>will just allow it use more and will slow down my system because all of the
>reading and writing to the page file and then I'm sure I'll run into the
>same issue.

RAM isn't consumed. That suggests it gets used up and needs to be
replaced. No matter how much RAM you install Windows is designed to
STILL USE THE PAGING FILE. Trying to limit it's size is working
against you and making your system slower than it would otherwise
would be. Vista is designed to constantly shuffle things between the
Paging File and your RAM regardless how much physical memory you have.

You also seem to be confusing system resources with the Paging File.
Without getting too technical every time you restart your computer
system resources get refreshed. Because of how Windows is designed if
you use your computer for a long time and don't shutdown some tasks
due mainly to poorly written software don't release memory when
they're done with it. This causes system resources to deplete and grow
smaller until they are refreshed on your next reboot which will flush
everything out of memory. While Windows handles system resources
better than XP did, it still can get overwhelmed with the only cure
being a reboot.

I don't understand why you're so set against giving Vista the room it
needs to run correctly. Even on a "small" hard drive we're only
talking about 3-4 GB for a typical paging file. Surely you can give up
that much space can't you?

>The solution is to determine why it's consuming so much more each day.

YOU using your computer are consuming Vista's resources. Again you
seem confused over what is suppose to be happening. Your physical
memory and Paging File work as a team. If you have too little of
either Vista won't run well. You should either let Vista set the size
of the Paging File and forget it or if you must fiddle set the min/max
to appropriate size. You'll need to test how you run your computer
(meaning what applications you use most) to determine the "sweet spot"
if you want to go this route. Again, it is best to just let Windows
set it, then you forget it.

I'll try a simple analogy. If you have your car's fuel injector all
plugged up with gunk it doesn't matter how much horse power your
engine has, your car won't run right. Clean out the fuel injector or
carburetor and things will run better. Same with the Paging File, if
you don't know how to tweak it (you don't) leave it alone and let
Windows control it. It was designed to.