Member Avatar for Cristalle

I've been pondering over how I can set my virtual memory to actually stay set at the level I set it at. It seems as if it's being a teeny bit stubborn.

I normally get informed that it will be increased automatically but then I thought "What's the point of getting this annoying message when I can set it at that level permanently?"

So the Initial Size is normally 318MB - that's the recommended amount. The Maximum Size is about 768MB and my game needs 500MB so I decided to set it to 500MB. So I done it and pressed Set about 5 times to make sure. Then I restarted and everything was running smoothly.

But afterwads, it went back to its Initial Size which was a bummer and I tried to set it back to 500MB but it still showed 318MB so I didn't know what to do other than try and see what the problem is.

My Specs:

Microsoft XP Professional

Service Pack 2

Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.26Ghz

2.27Ghz. 256MB RAM


I've attached a file so you can have a look if you wish.

Attach.doc (639 KB)
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Short summary and what’s likely happening: Windows will fall back to a temporary or different pagefile at boot when it can’t create the file you asked for — common causes are NTFS permissions on the drive root, lack of free space, imaging/Sysprep steps that remove or reset the pagefile, or a disk-controller/utility interfering with pagefile creation. Letting Windows manage the pagefile is normally fine (XP historically sized it at about 1.5× RAM), but that doesn’t fix a permissions or driver problem. ()

Practical troubleshooting (do these in order): 1) In Control Panel → System → Advanced → Performance → Advanced → Virtual Memory set your custom Initial and Maximum, click Set, then apply and reboot. 2) After reboot, open regedit and check HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PagingFiles — it should show the drive, initial and maximum values you entered. 3) If the registry value isn’t what you set or the system created a temporary paging file, verify the drive has plenty of free space and that the SYSTEM and Administrators accounts have Full Control on the drive root (missing permissions is a documented cause of the “temporary paging file” behavior). 4) If the machine was imaged or uses vendor utilities, check for Sysprep/ imaging scripts or old controller utilities (Intel Application Accelerator) that are known to affect pagefile behavior. (learn.microsoft.com)

Quick fixes and best practices: set Initial = Maximum to stop dynamic resizing (reduces churn and makes the file persistent), keep a small pagefile on the boot volume if you want crash dumps, and if permissions/drivers look OK but the setting still won’t stick, recreate the pagefile (set No Paging File, reboot, delete any pagefile.sys, set the desired size, reboot). Adding RAM (as and suggested) will help performance, but first confirm the configuration isn’t being blocked by permissions or imaging. (learn.microsoft.com)

Checklist to try now: set Initial=Maximum and click Set → reboot → confirm PagingFiles registry entry and presence/size of pagefile.sys → check free disk space → check NTFS permissions for SYSTEM/Administrators → look for imaging/third‑party utilities and update/uninstall them. If these steps don’t fix it, report the exact PagingFiles value and any “Windows created a temporary paging file…” messages or Event Viewer entries and that will narrow the next step. (learn.microsoft.com)

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Member Avatar for xcellpro6

Hi there

Others may differ but my rule of thumb is at least a minimum of 512 megs of ram is required before making changes to the Paging file or Virtual memory.


Get another 256 megs they are cheap and you will see the difference straight away.

HTH

Darren
South Africa

Member Avatar for Chaky

It is win's default page file size - 150% of your phisycal RAM. Did you notice if it was back to "system managed size"? And is it on the right partition? You can have 2 page files on 2 partitions.

Member Avatar for goldeagle2005

Also, you have to restart the computer after changing the page file settings.

Member Avatar for Cristalle

It is win's default page file size - 150% of your phisycal RAM. Did you notice if it was back to "system managed size"? And is it on the right partition? You can have 2 page files on 2 partitions.

Urm, it doesn't go back to System Managed file, it goes back to the Initial Size. What I don't get is that it has stayed set before and sometimes does stay set for a while and then it goes back on itself.

Member Avatar for Cristalle

Also, you have to restart the computer after changing the page file settings.

I tried that lol and that makes it worse sometimes.

Member Avatar for Cristalle

Hi there

Others may differ but my rule of thumb is at least a minimum of 512 megs of ram is required before making changes to the Paging file or Virtual memory.


Get another 256 megs they are cheap and you will see the difference straight away.

HTH

Darren
South Africa

Urm, isn't there any other way? Because I don't really know how much this would cost me to do.

Member Avatar for Chaky

Roughly...~$50. Maybe more.

Member Avatar for Dortz

yeah, i agree with xcellpro6 on this one. an extra 256mb of ram will give you an immense performance boost.

You have an intel celeron processor, clocked pretty fast, so i'm going to assume that you have a laptop?

if this is the case, unless you can find detailed instructions, i would not attempt to upgrade your ram by yourself. take your laptop up to bestbuy and have them do it for you.

if it is a desktop though, double check with your manufacturer about the specs (type, speed, etc.) of your ram, they may even have offers for you to buy memory upgrades from them. Having ram of the same speed will give you the optimum performance boost. again, like with the laptop, you are guaranteed of the compatibility if you take it to bestbuy and have them do it, but it is relatively simple to upgrade your ram in a desktop.

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