How to Fix Low Virtual Memory on Computer
If you notice the performance of your computer going down considerably or if your system freezes completely, your virtual memory may be running low. It is best to troubleshoot this problem immediately as low virtual memory does not only make the system slow or cause it to freeze, but can also cause it to crash, corrupt files or make you lose important data.
Instructions
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1
The first thing that you need to do is to make sure that your drive is not running low on free space. The amount of free space should at least be 10 percent of the total space on the drive. To confirm the amount of free space on the drive, click “Start” and then click “My Computer.” Once there, right-click the drive and click “Properties.” If you find the free space lower than 10 percent, use the Disk Cleanup utility to remove unnecessary files and programmes from the drive, thus freeing up space.
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If you computer continues to display a balloon on the bottom right-hand corner of your screen, alerting you about low virtual memory, the issue may lie in the system’s virtual memory settings. To modify these settings, click “My Computer” and then click “Properties.”
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After you reach the “Properties,” click “Advanced System Settings” located on the left pane. You may be asked to confirm your authority to access the advanced system settings at this point by providing your administrative credentials.
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In the “Advanced System Settings,” locate and click the “Settings” button. You will find it under the “Performance” field.
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Click “Advanced” in “Settings” and then click “Change” located under the “Virtual Memory” field.
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Locate the check box labelled “Automatically Manage Paging File Size for all Drives” and click to check it. Toggling this option will make the system apply the necessary amount of virtual memory to all the drives. If you only want to enable this option for one drive, leave the box unchecked and only highlight the drive that you wish to add more memory to.
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Click “OK” three times to get through the warnings and complete the process.
