Member Avatar for DarkRubicant

Hey guys I've got a buddy having a problem with windows xp home.

Here are his specs
intel pentium d 830 3ghz dual core
250gig harddrive - ide wd
4gb ram crucial ballistix 4*1gb sticks
nvidia geforce 6800
sound blaster audigy 2 zs sound card

The problem he's having is when he has alot of programs open windows is acting like he doesn't have enough ram to open more. He has had more programs open before but recently it's started getting worse, he has run virus scans and has an active virus scanner. he has checked how much ram he has left, and windows is stating around 2.6 gigs, he is going to run memtest to make sure his memory is fine, i'll update this thread with more information when I get it. Just curious if anyone knows anything that could cause these types of symptoms? His cpu load is very low around 4% he uses programs that aren't very intensive, they can be alittle more cpu/memory intensive if they're open but he has them minimized, but that should be a problem because he's had more open before. I'm open to any thoughts/suggestions and i'm sure he is too, thanks.

I await cordial replies.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by caperjack

Dani AI

Generated

Short, prioritized triage and diagnostic notes that extend the suggestions already posted by , and . The symptom (many apps open, low CPU, inability to start more programs) usually means exhaustion of commit/virtual memory or a kernel/driver resource leak rather than raw CPU starvation. The checklist below isolates hardware, Windows memory limits, pagefile/commit charge, and driver/service leaks in a low-risk order.

  1. Confirm physical vs. reported RAM: boot BIOS/POST and note total installed DIMMs, then compare with Control Panel -> System (Installed memory). If totals differ, reseat DIMMs and test single sticks in different slots to rule out slot/match failures.
  2. Run a bootable Memtest86+ for at least two full passes (overnight). If errors appear, test sticks one at a time to find the bad module.
  3. Inspect Commit Charge and pagefile usage: open Task Manager -> Performance and watch Commit Charge (Total/Limit) while reproducing the problem. If Commit Limit is being hit, set Virtual Memory to System managed or raise the max (Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Performance -> Settings -> Advanced -> Virtual memory -> Change).
  4. Check for kernel pool leaks and per-process growth with Sysinternals Process Explorer (look at Private Bytes, Virtual Size and kernel Paged/Nonpaged totals). A steadily growing kernel pool points to a driver/service leak.
  5. Perform a clean boot (msconfig selective startup) or Safe Mode test; temporarily disable AV to see if the problem disappears. If it does, re-enable items one group at a time to isolate.
  6. Reinstall or roll back video and audio drivers (Audigy/Nvidia XP-era drivers are a likely suspect). If the issue persists after PASSING memtest and a clean boot, consider PoolMon or RAMMap for deeper kernel-pool diagnosis or a repair install.

Cautions: keep the pagefile system-managed during tests unless there is a clear reason to change it, and back up important data before hardware swaps or OS repair.

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Member Avatar for hughv

Start with the basics:
Defrag
Chkdsk
Check remaining disk space
What are the swap file settings?
Does this happen in Safe mode?

Member Avatar for caperjack

shouldn't need a swap file with 4 gigs of ram ,winxp has issues with that much ram,do a goolge search on winxp and 4 gigs of ram for more info

Member Avatar for DarkRubicant

He's going to try removing one of the sticks and seeing if that helps, but I don't see the problem being that winxp is having problems with his 4gigs of ram if it wasn't doing the same thing before. Any other suggestions I'll recommend these to him.

Member Avatar for caperjack

well you could get him to use hijackthis and you could post a hjt log in the spyware and other nasties section of this forum

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