Genealogy Chat

Top tip - using the Genes Reunited community

Welcome to the Genes Reunited community boards!

  • The Genes Reunited community is made up of millions of people with similar interests. Discover your family history and make life long friends along the way.
  • You will find a close knit but welcoming group of keen genealogists all prepared to offer advice and help to new members.
  • And it's not all serious business. The boards are often a place to relax and be entertained by all kinds of subjects.
  • The Genes community will go out of their way to help you, so don’t be shy about asking for help.

Quick Search

Single word search

Icons

  • New posts
  • No new posts
  • Thread closed
  • Stickied, new posts
  • Stickied, no new posts

What is 'Virtual Memory'? Help needed

ProfilePosted byOptionsPost Date

Kim from Sandhurst

Kim from Sandhurst Report 22 Jan 2006 22:14

and how do you get it back? PC is saying no virtual memory how do I correct this please. Kim

Val wish I'd never started

Val wish I'd never started Report 22 Jan 2006 22:18

hi I keep getting that too on other threads on here it says it can be too many programmes running in the background, but i dont know how you delete them. Someone will tell you I am sure. You should also Defrag delete cookies and some other stuff.

Guy

Guy Report 22 Jan 2006 22:33

Dear Kim, Virtual Memory is a file your processor and hard drive use to swap memory between them when either your hard drive is getting full or your memeory chips cannot handle the amount of data you are processing. You may need to update your RAM,Hard Drive or Processor to resolve ths problem i hope this helps?, all the best Guy Hewer

Bobtanian

Bobtanian Report 23 Jan 2006 00:27

cant recall which menu its on, but there is a facilty to allocate some of a hard drive to act as 'virtual ' memory, temporarily, to act instead of RAM. bob

Fred (“\(*-*)/”)

Fred (“\(*-*)/”) Report 23 Jan 2006 02:33

Ypu can check and change the Virtual memory settings 1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel. 2. Click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System. 3. On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings. 4. On the Advanced tab, under Virtual memory, click Change. 5. Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file that you want to change. 6. Under Paging file size for selected drive, click to select the System managed size check box, and then click Set. 7. Click OK three times. if you are prompted to restart the computer, click Yes

Paul

Paul Report 23 Jan 2006 04:17

Virtual memory is a block of space on your hard drive that is used by Windows as temporary memory if there is not enough RAM available. Virtual memory is much slower than RAM so when your computer is relying on the Virtual Memory a lot, you will notice it runs much slower. Windows normally creates this automatically based on your RAM and hard drive space available so it will get smaller as your hard drive gets full with other files. If Windows is reporting that it is running out of Virtual Memory it usually means that either you have too many programs open at the same time for example Word, Excel and an image viewer or you have run out of space on your C drive so that there is not enough room to create the Virtual memory (page file in Windows XP and NT and Swap File in other versions). Try cleaning up your hard drive by deleting any .temp files and dont forget to empty the Recycle Bin and also close any excess applications. I have seen people with multiple copies of Word and Excel open at the same time and then complain that their computer is too slow. Running Disk Defragmenter may also help. Whilst you can force Windows to create a larger permanent block for virtual memory - you have to have enough free space available first and its normally best to let Windows manage this. The last resort is to add more RAM and/or a bigger hard drive . Better maintenance of your files etc is free and usually does the job. Paul

Kim from Sandhurst

Kim from Sandhurst Report 23 Jan 2006 08:13

Thank you everyone for your advice, going to do a clean sweep today. Kim

InspectorGreenPen

InspectorGreenPen Report 26 Jul 2007 06:51

Nudge for Betty

InspectorGreenPen

InspectorGreenPen Report 26 Jul 2007 06:58

Nudge for Betty

Rita

Rita Report 26 Jul 2007 13:39

n for RIta