Page File Usage Abnormally High

renegade

renegade

Staff member
Super Mod
I checked the windows task manager when my pc started behaving really slow. There it was PF usage which normally stays below 200MB was upto 720MB!! The tasks were running fine within their limits and no hangups.
I have my virtual memmory set and fixed at 500MB.

Well so i restarted my PC and reconnected the net and now after an hour or so the PF usage has again shotup to 435MB (and rising) and CPU usage to 70% and I am just typing this post and downloading a software.

Do I need to say 'I need help'
The cpu usage is fluctuating nevertheless high.
 
Could you please list the softwares/utilities which were running at the time!
A list of running processes should also help! Also mention how much RAM you have.
 
By default, Windows sets the page file to an initial size of 1.5 times the amount of RAM you have and a maximum of three times the amount of RAM.So are you saying that even after setting the pagefile*,still it keeps changing ?

*=My Computer->Properties->Advanced tab->Performance->Settings ,in the Performance Options dialog box. Click on the Advanced tab there, then under Virtual Memory click Change. Click the Custom Settings radio button to enter your own Initial and Maximum sizes.

Solutions
1.If you start to get messages,errors fro windwos saying "PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA ",then the problem has spilled into the hardware which you can solve as suggestd by Microsoft here.
his Stop message usually occurs after the installation of faulty hardware or in the event of failure of installed hardware (usually related to defective RAM, either main memory, L2 RAM cache, or video RAM). If hardware has been added to the system recently, remove it to see if the error recurs.....more
Click to expand...

2.Even when you set the page file values properly, some systems don't retain your settings. Heres what you can try...
1. Start regedt32.exe (not regedit.exe)
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\ControlSession Manager\Memory Management
3. Double-click PagingFiles. The entry will appear as D:\pagefile.sys 700 700(location initialsize maximum size)
4. The first value is the location; the second is the minimum size; and the third is the maximum size.
5. Ensure the values are correct and click OK.
6. Reboot the machine.
Click to expand...

Resources
1.How can I optimize the Windows 2000/XP/2003 virtual memory (Pagefile)?
2.How to set performance options in Windows XP- Microsoft Help & Support
3.How To Move the Paging File in Windows XP - Microsoft Help & Support
4."Your System Has No Paging File, or the Paging File Is Too Small" Error Message After Windows XP Upgrade - Microsoft Help & Support
5.More on pagefile at Microsoft Support
 
Renegade said:
I have my virtual memmory set and fixed at 500MB.
Click to expand...

PF in task manager = virtual memory + physicalmemory. Right??

I have 256MB RAM. and i just had download manager, yahoo, msn, firefox and IE running. and yes java, explorer and reliance connection manager
 
could you check the process tab in task manager for the list of running processes ? check which is using the most memory and cpu cycles .. post a screen shot of that page if possible
 
Well there were some 20-25 processes and the most taht was being used was 24 MB by explorer.

Anyway the problem is solved after I ran a spyware check 2-3 times and installed a firewall.
Now I have to download an antivirus.
 
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