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Page file not being fully utilized

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by cfletcher

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I get low virtual memory errors running an application but if I run performance monitor, it shows that I'm only using just over 1G of a 4G page file. I've run this test on several machines with several OS's and different page file sizes and I run into the same problem on all systems. It always run out of memory before the page file is fully utilized. How come?

2 replies

by thechas

I assume from your question that you have set a fixed size page file.
If so, I would first try changing the page file from fixed to dynamic. The application may not be able to deal with the fixed size page file.
Also, Windows may be "reserving" some of the fixed file for other processes to use.

If you are not using a fixed page file, then 2 things come to mind.

First, Windows will not use all of the available drive space for the page file. I don't know the exact formula, but it only uses a percentage of the available drive space.

Second, the application may need a specific mix of real and virtual memory, and the error code is set up wrong.

by cfletcher

I've used both fixed and Windows determined page files with the same results either way. I have 256 MB of memory and about 12 GB of disk space free.

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