computer issues... low memory

[Guest LadyC]

i just bought this stinking laptop less than two months ago. all of a sudden, i mean as of just tonight, i keep getting low memory errors. the only program i'm actively using is my browser. all other programs that don't normally run in the background are closed. i have 4 gigs of ram, but only 453 mb are available. what the heck?

 

i haven't been downloading programs lately, other than games that are only played occasionally. i did download avg's pc tuneup tonight, ran it, made the recommended fixes, and it only increased my available memory by about 30 mb.

[missmuffet]

Sticking computer LOL!!  It sounds like you are not real happy with it right now.Maybe Pat will come along and help you.

[Guest LadyC]

i decided to clear the cache because somewhere on some google search i read that the cache can cause memory problems. i don't know if that's it or not, but i clearned the cache in my browser, and it took like two minutes to clear. it's been five minutes so far without another warning pop up. i'm hoping that it solved the problem. 

 

if it didn't, i'm sure that warning will pop back up momentarily.

[Rex11]

It's your page file size, "virtual memory"  Just set it to allow windows to manage page file size,  instead of setting a size. That will take care of the low memory flag

 

Win 7

Start

control panel

system

scroll down till you see "computer name" work-group ect

hit change settings

advanced tab

performance "settings tab"

advanced tab

virtual memory "change tab"

select -> automatically  manage page file size for all drives

 

Hit ok and save on the way out you will be prompted you need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

Problem solved

[Guest LadyC]

it's windows 8, but i'm sure it works the same way. i'm gonna try it, shut it down and i'll let ya know tomorrow how it works!

[Guest LadyC]

problem.... i got all the way to the last part, and it was already selected to automatically manage page file size.... now what?

[Rex11]

Step 2

If you are running too many programs at the startup which immediately take up RAM resources, you are likely to face this error. Limit the number of programs which load up at Windows 8 startup and the error shall be fixed. First check which programs are taking up high RAM resources and then disable them. To check these programs, right click anywhere on the taskbar and click “Task Manager”. Alternatively, you can bring up “Task Manager” by searching for it from the “Search Charm” On the Task Manager window, click the “Processes” tab and then scan the faulty programs which are sucking up RAM like anything. Once you have found the culprit, click the “Startup” tab, locate and select it, and then click the “Disable” button. If you ever want to enable it, click the “Enable” button after selecting it from the “Startup” list. If there are more such programs which you want to disable, disable them one by one and then the low memory error shall be fixed.

[Guest LadyC]

can't sleep. got back up. the startup list is way different than it was with previous versions of windows. it shows only nine programs that run at startup... most of them are necessary. not sure about the 'gateway my backup' one, and it does use a little more ram than most of the other process running. and of course, the background processes that are running are pretty numerous. the one that seems to be the worst is..... google chrome. still, the amount it is using is in mb, not gigs! the application is running 122 mb. below the list of "apps" that are running (there are two besides chrome, one being windows explorer, and the other is the task manager, big surprise)... under that list is a list of background processes, and among those are TEN google chrome processes. together, those add up to about 170 mb. 

 

every process is running mb. there is no way those are adding up to 3 and a half gigabytes. and like i said, it only started doing this tonight (last night, actually... it's after midnight now.) it started giving me the low memory warning out of the clear blue. i hadn't been doing anything hardly. heck, there's only about a half dozen websites we frequent. and i'm almost always the one on the computer, and other than my mother playing waterbugs on it yesterday, i'm the only one at all who has been on it for the last couple of days. i really don't understand this problem. it's frustrating.

[Guest LadyC]

i didn't even know ram could go bad. it is still under warranty, i guess we'll have to find out if it goes in for repair or just gets replaced. thanks cobalt.

[The_Patriot21]

you could go and warranty it, but before you do you can test the RAM. Download memtest86 and burn it to a DVD, then boot off of it and run the test for several hours. If it finds any errors, you have bad memory-if after 4 or 5 runs it is error free, your memory is still good.