Computer Help

[ajames942]

He guys, I just dumped my computer and reinstalled windows on it and i have two problems. I left my laptop on all night last night to charge my ipod, i woke up and my PF usage or Page File Usage was 5.62 GB. All i had was itunes open. Usually its around 300-800 MBs. But now it just keeps climbing.

2.When i shut down my computer, it don't shut off, all the icons go off and the background is still there. The hard drive light is not blinking or anything so i have to hold the power button in to shut it off. any ideas why?
Thanks Guys

 

[godale03]

Well... if your page file is 5.62GB... then that is why your PC is not responding to anything or shutting down.

A couple of things to try....

Right click on my computer select properties, Advanced, Performance and then set your PF to a static or predermined size... usually twice the amount of RAM in your PC. If your PC is already set to a static PF select Let windows manage and reboot. If that does not work you will have to set it to not use a page file, reboot delete the page file and then set the PC back to using a static page file, or you can let windows manage it.

I hope this helps... if you have any questions just give me a shout.

Tom

 

[Amoeba]

Well... if your page file is 5.62GB... then that is why your PC is not responding to anything or shutting down.

A couple of things to try....

Right click on my computer select properties, Advanced, Performance and then set your PF to a static or predermined size... usually twice the amount of RAM in your PC. If your PC is already set to a static PF select Let windows manage and reboot. If that does not work you will have to set it to not use a page file, reboot delete the page file and then set the PC back to using a static page file, or you can let windows manage it.

I hope this helps... if you have any questions just give me a shout.

Tom

The 2xRAM for page file is only effective up to 1G of RAM, after that you get diminishing returns. That rule of thumb existed back when 1G RAM was oodles of memory. You should be just fine with 500M-1G of swap. The rest of Tom's suggestions are spot on.

If you can specify a static page file on a separate disk & bus that's even better (SATA by default, IDE on seperate IDE bus). You performance won't take a hit with I/O contention between the page file location & apps/Windows being on the same disk.

 

[Webbage]

Y' know it's funny but just today I rescued a machine at work from misery because 4 years ago I'd set a static page file of 384MB (which was 1.5x what RAM it had at the time) and now it has 2GB of RAM and it was strangling it. Let Windows manage the page file size otherwise you risk your PC just slowing down to a grind all the time.

If something has opened it up to 5.62GB then you've got a program with a memory leak. It happens from time to time. You get an app with a bug in and it;ll just keep eating more and more RAM until it fills the RAM then Windows extends the page file instead. I'd force it to power off (hold the power button for 4 secs) and reboot it from cold.

I know it sounds drastic but really it's the only way. With a 5.6GB page file ALL the RAM contents that Windows usually holds in the computer's RAM is instead held in disk and the offending App has taken over and raped the computer of all it's RAM. If you try to do anything it'll not respond because it's gotta load all the stuff it needs to RAM from the disk and also load the ever-increasing load that the memory-leaking app is imposing, and it's already run out of RAM. Ultimately it's fighting a losing battle.

The way to tell what's screwing the party up is to press Crtl-Alt-Delete (if yo are in Vista select 'Task Manager') and select the 'Processes' tab and sort by the 'Mem Usage' column. One will be HUGE, that's your rogue process. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it was iTunes- the Windows version is a true crock of... stuff you don't want.

 

[ajames942]

Ok I went in an turned the PF off. and restarted it and it started at 340 MBs and got a shower and its up too 834 and still going up. But it wont shut down.

Edit, I changed it to system Managed. But it still wont shut down, i have to hold the power button in

 

[ajames942]

Another edit- Its back up t0 2.55GB and rising. Already got a message virtual memory is low.

 

[Webbage]

Did you open the Task Manager and list the Processes by Mem Usage? If it keeps doing it you need to know what the Sam Hill is wrong with it instead of just poking the Page File settings (FWIW never totally disable the page file, in fact I don't even think Windows takes any notice if you do, it just reduces it to a minimum size). It's obviously got a something lodged in it's throat that won't let it work properly, is memory leaking like a SOB and is towing your PC down.

Once you find out what it is, if the name of the EXE is no immediately obvious then google for ideas, someone else is bound to have had the same issue.

 

[godale03]

Webbage is right... there is somthing else at work here. Have you installed any new programs lately?

If I were a betting man... this almost sounds viral... how up to date is your anti-virus software?

 

[beason]

he said he just reloaded it right?? did you put the virus software back on? it doenst take long for them to find you!! also have you dont all the windows updates? there are tons of them that close up memory leaks like this and if you just reinstalled you will not have them.

i would put antivirus on it, update and scan, do windows updates, (all of them) then see how its working.

 

[Webbage]

It's either viral or just some crappy software with a bug in. Frankly if you are running Windows and have no AV protection then you deserve all the hell you get

 

[ajames942]

Hey guys, 1 Thing i DO have AV Software. And no i don't have all the updates until this weekend. And I'm not ignoring any of your posts. I will get all the updates this weekend and let you's no how its doing.