My Virtual Memory is Low....Crucial?

One of two things.

1)Your Hard drive disk is extremely small and it cannot take what you are trying to store on it.
2)Your amount of RAM (Random Access Memory) is so low.

Try upgrading both.

Check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_memory

right click on "my computer">properties>advanced>"settings" under performance>advanced from the popped up window>last option is "virtual memory", click on "change" and increase the size.
hope it helps.
(i assumed you are running on windows xp)

delete some unnecessary files, clean trash bin, clean browser history. defrag ur harddriver. usually, should be enough.

david

Go buy System Mechanic at Walmart, or Target it is $20 bucks pretty cheap makes your computer run like new. I think you can download it online too.

I'd also like to add that your virtual memory can become very low if you don't fully shut down your computer for extended periods of time. The problem with the Windows OS is that it doesn't fully reclaim your used memory after an application is shut down/closed. The only way to fully reclaim everything is to do a complete reboot of your computer. This is also known as 'memory leaking', and this can have very serious consequences if you don't shut down your computer regularly (I'd say at least once every 48 hours at the bare minimum).

I get this message afew times a day my self. However I am also using an older laptop for all my work. Which really doesnt have much space left on it any more. After owning it for 6 years or so now. However I have found that when I try to do to much at once this is where the problem comes in. Most of the time it is from using firefox itself with about 30 windows open. Unfortunatly when you close the windows it is still eating up your memory from all the prior work. There for I open up the windows task manager and end firefox processes. This brings the memeroy back down with out lose of any work. Then just restart firefox and it will ask you to restore.

This also helps if you see any programs still running that you closed out awhile ago. One imparticular is open office. Even after you close open office it will still run in the background of your computer with out you knowing. There for do the same as I said for firefox and find any unused unclosed programs and end their process. This should solve your problem for the time being. But it would be best to restart your computer as soon as possible after saving your work.

You might also try running malwarebytes. For you may have something infecting your computer. It is best to run any and all virus, malware, spyware or any other protection programs have. If none of the above works temporally then you may need to look into upgrading your memory and or harddrive as mentioned above. Best of luck to you hope this helps.

I highly recommend downloading CCleaner. You can delete unnecessary files on your computer and increase performance. It's also free.

I used to have this problem especially while running many large programs at the same time like photoshop and dreamweaver. I used to continuously clean up my computer to make more room, but the only thing that stopped this message was upgrading my hard drive.

I can't believe how much misinformation there is about computers. I suppose it's much like Internet Marketing, a lot of people repeating things they don't fully understand.

Your computer has two types of memory that you can do anything about. Your hard disk drive (HDD) is primarily for long term storage of data, and your Random Access Memory (RAM) is for temporary use while the system is operating. When you open a program, it is loaded from the HDD into RAM and program execution begins. If you don't have enough RAM (memory) to store the entire program, the operating system only loads the first part of it, then pages the rest into "virtual memory" which is a termpoary file that resides on your Hard Drive. If you open several programs at once (not unusual at all) the operating system manages the virtual memory and RAM to keep the most important program in RAM, while paging the rest as needed to the Virtual Memory file on the HDD. If you repeatedly need extra space and the Virtual memory file isn't large enough, the operating system will pop up a message to that effect. If you see this only occasionally, you really don't have much of a problem.

There is some truth in some of the other responses, but I think the information has been distorted somewhat through the many people that have passed on various bits...
1) Microsoft, like many operating systems, doesn't always reclaim the RAM that a program uses when the program terminates. Generally, if the program ends normally, the RAM goes back into the pool to be re-used. If the program crashes out, or is improperly coded, it may not allocate RAM properly, and the Operating system cannot reclaim it. (One of the worst offenders is Internet Explorer. It seems to crash a lot more than it needs to.) As a result, after a period of time, the system may be running on less and less RAM. This causes the operating system to page the active programs into Virtual Memory file sooner or more often, causing the system to slow, and you may also get the virtual memory error message.
2) It is not necessary to reboot your comptuer every day or even 48 hours. Generally, you should be able to run your computer at least a week without needing to reboot, even if you use a bunch of different programs. Unless, of course, you have applications that crash a lot on you. I have servers that run six months or more at a time without a reboot, and have had workstations run a month without issues if they were running reasonably coded programs. I routinely carry my notebook back and forth between home and work without rebooting it for a week or more at a time. Not to be recommended because of potential shock damage to the HDD from carrying it around running, but it is possible if you are careful.
3) you can reduce the likelihood of having problems with low memory or virtual memory errors by adding RAM. Most computers run with very low memory, compared to what they should because manufacturers try to sell systems for a minimum dollar to make them attractive to consumers. Windows XP should really have at least 1GB (Gigabyte), and is happier with 2GB. Vista pretty much should have 2GB just to get by, as should Windows 7. Putting more than 4GB in is not all that useful for Vista, but Windows 7 can handle more. These days, RAM is pretty cheap.
4) if you have the extra space on your HDD, you can expand your Virtual Memory file, but you may need to defragment the HDD first to get Windows to make a larger Virtual Memory File. Bear in mind the first thing you should do is add more RAM, then consider a larger Virtual Memory file if you care about speed (A larger Virtual memory file just means more programs can be paged onto it, and this is much slower than operating the same program out of RAM). If you aren't as concerned with speed, the cheapest method is to expand your Virtual Memory file if you have the extra room on your HDD.
5) many people make the problem worse with all of the extra crap they have running on their computer. Everything counts and uses up RAM. That animated wallpaper (background) that looks like an aquarium, the theme that has the funny looking cursor you use. The add-on applications that every additional program downloads at the same time as a useful application. I've seen systems with three or four "search bars" in the same web browser. Any number of other programs that are pre-loaded to make them start faster. Each of these items takes RAM and makes the computer appear to run slower. It actually runs as fast, it's just running a lot more applications than you may realize in the background. This makes the one you want to run in the foreground appear to be slower than it should.

Hope this sheds a little light on the subject...

The best program that comes in my mind for cleaning your pc is Tuneup Utilities, and also use an antivirus like nod32, maybe you have a little virus.

The most common cause of this issue is insufficient RAM, and the easiest way to get rid of this is to upgrade your machine (this applies to both Mac and Windows machines) to at least 4GB of RAM.

Thank you, RickFrasier1 for a really useful post, I learned a lot from it.

I've been getting these calls from my computer telling me my virtual memory is low more frequently in the past couple of months but had no idea what to do about it.

Didn't even know my computer's RAM - just looked it up - only 512MB of RAM, with total disc space of 71.4GB, of which I'm using just 31.8GB.

Next question, how do I increase my computers RAM (without buying a new computer, that is!).

Thanks,
Rachel

It is critical to have low virtual memory. It slow downs the speed so try installing a hard drive which is bigger than your previous one. Also install Bigger RAM which is better than this one.

I would first go for defragmenting you hard drive, after that use some cleanup tools and and an antivirus, i recommend kaspersky antivirus

My advice is to buy some RAM . And format the hard. You will see after this that your pc will works better . Good luck !

I had luck with CCleaner in the past.

why dont you increase ur virtual memory with hard disk, also, delete unnecessary files to free-up your virtual memory