Is Your Virtual Memory Too Low?

There are a variety of reasons for PC users to see the “Your system is low on virtual memory” error. Whether it is a real virtual memory problem, an issue with a program using too much memory, or your PC having too little physical memory, narrowing down the possibilities is a good place to start your troubleshooting.

Find out What's Running

One of the most obvious and easiest places to look is any program you’ve left open for an extended period of time (more than a day or two). Leaving programs open for extended periods of time tends to bog them down and with most programs the longer you leave them open, the more memory they require. Besides this, some malicious programs (Malware) can run in the background and take up virtual memory without your knowing it.

Check your programs to see if any of them are using an inordinate amount of memory. You can do this by displaying the current memory usage of programs running on your system in column view.

1. Access your Task Manager by hitting Control+Shift+Esc or alternatively Control+Alt+Delete

2. If you can't see columns; go to the Processes tab and click View and then Select Columns.

3. Check the Virtual Memory Size box and click OK

4. Now you can arrange the VM Size column largest to smallest and this will tell you your biggest memory hog culprit

Once you figure out which program is eating up the most memory, you can select it and clock “END PROCESS.” If it's a program running that you don't want on yoru PC, try uninstalling it. It's never a bad idea to do housecleaning on applications that are unused or outdated. (It frees up physical memory as well.) It’s also a good idea to get in the habit of closing out programs and periodically shutting down your PC.

Not Enough Virtual Memory

Virtual memory is a file on your hard drive used by Windows and other applications for additional memory. “Paging” is a memory management system that your PC uses to store and retrieve data and when the paging file setting is too low, errors start cropping up. To increase the paging file size, all you need is a few simple steps:

1. Right-click on My Computer and open Properties.

2. Click Advanced within the System Properties box

3. Click Change in the Virtual Memory window

4. After changing the initial and maximum settings click Set and then OK

5. Restart your computer as prompted

Low Drive Space

A low virtual memory error could also be a symptom of low drive space on your hard drive. To find out if this is causing your PC’s error, right click on the hard drive icon and select Properties. Anything under 10 percent is a problem so you’ll want to free up some disk space. Next to your free space indicator is a Disk Cleanup button that you can use or you can manually uninstall programs and delete temporary Internet files.

Not Enough RAM (Physical Memory)

When your PC doesn’t have enough RAM (Random Access Memory), it will start to store temporary data and files on your hard drive, which is significantly slower at accessing data. There's no software fix for having too-little RAM. That being said, new RAM modules aren't that expensive and the prices for a lot of space can be quite reasonable. If RAM is the problem, you can purchase additional RAM modules to increase your PC’s memory and speed.