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XP Pro virtual memory error

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by johnawilson 1 view

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I am having a problem with the virtual memory (pagefile.sys) settings on my desktop. I am running a PC clone (OS: XP Pro) with an AMD Athlon 2.0G chip, with 512MB of RAM that I built about 3 months ago. This unit has performed flawlessly until about a week ago when I began experiencing this error at boot up:

LIMITED VIRTUAL MEMORY
Your system has no paging file or the paging file is too small. To fix this problem, go to My Computer, Performance, Advanced, etc??.. to adjust the size of the swapfile.

At the Virtual Memory settings window, the default setting for this machine is ?System managed size? which allows XP to manage settings. At the bottom of the window, however, total paging size for all drives indicates 0 MB (probably why I?m getting the error).

Entering Custom size values doesn?t help. In this case I should have 1.5x the amount of RAM (768 MB minimum) if I am going to configure a manual swapfile. I can select Custom size values and ?set? them per the drive window at the top of the screen, but I still show ?total paging size for all drives? at 0 MB. It appears that the settings don?t take, but I have checked in the registry to see if the custom values have been recorded, and they are equal to my inputted custom values.

The only way I can remove the error is to disable the swapfile entirely. If you?re thinking I don?t need Virtual memory with 512MB of RAM, consider that I do a lot of audio engineering with this computer and the swapfile is definitely being used.

I have multiple drives with plenty of free space to relocate the swapfile, but I have tried this option without success. In addition, there is nothing in the MS knowledge base or any of my other resources pertaining to this issue.

Can anyone out there shed some light?

TIA - FriscoSam

6 replies

by jschein

I have had a few pc's with this problem. Sorry to say only 3 fixes...

Boot to dos or use a linux boot disk (depending if fat32 or ntfs file system) and delete pagefile.sys . Reboot machine and it should re-create a new pagefile that works.

If that does not work, you can try a repair from the installation cd. (Hardly ever works and lose settings anyway)

Wipe out the machine and start anew is the last step.

Good luck.

by wasselh

Since your running XP, before you blow away the whole OS, try using "System Restore" and go back to the day before the problem started.

by johnawilson

Thanks for the ideas guys. Unfortunately no success yet. I had already tried the CD repair and system restore options and was hoping to avoid a new install. The pagefile.sys file was not present on my system the day the problem started. I even tried creating a new one and rebooting; to no avail.

It's probaly time to cut my losses and reload.
FSam

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