Memory help

[MrGravyard]

what is total Physical memory?

What is Total Virtual memory?

My Pc has 512 total physical But only 188 available.

total virtual is 2 gig..

[MarkB]

Physical memory is...well, just what it says. It's the total amount of memory you have, physically, in your PC. If you open your PC tower, you will most likely see 2 or more sticks on the motherboard, pointing outward. This is known as RAM, or Random Access Memory. It deals with information stored on the PC temporarily for quick access and is knows as volatile memory, meaning is is cleared when your system is restared. This is why, when you have a problem with your PC, the first hint you'll get is usually to restart and see if it is still there.

Virtual memory is generally known as the pagefile and is stored on your hard disk. It can't be accessed as quickly as RAM, but is used by the system to store information when your RAM is in use, is dealing with other requests, is full or sometimes, just when the system decides to write to that instead of to RAM. It was created in the old days of Windows when systems generally didn't have enough RAM to store the amount of commonly accessed data comfortably, so it designated part of the hard disk as the pagefile so that the sytem could store data on it and have it available when needed. These days, with systems becoming more powerful, some users have decided to use large amounts of RAM, thus making the need for a pagefile negligible and disabling it to free up system space and access times. This type of storage is retained even when the PC is restarted, unless the user of the system has disabled it. It will simply be overwritten by newer data when needed.

So, in your case, you have 512MB of RAM, of which 324MB is in use by the system, and a 2GB pagefile. The standard recommended pagefile size is 1.5 times the size of your RAM, so a 2GB pagefile is slightly excessive, I'd say. If you're struggling a little for disk space, reduce it to 768MB (the aforementioned 1.5 * your RAM) and it should free up some space.

Hope that helps, and didn't just confuse you more. :)

[Don]

Wow MarkB, you are one intelligent man! Well, atleast with CPU's. :wink:

[MrGravyard]

Thank You Very Much Mark...!

[MarkB]

Happy to help. :)

[MrGravyard]

Mark Sorry to be a pain, but how do you change it?

Thanks again, its nice to know there are people who can give a answer without being a smartass.

[MarkB]

How to you change the size of the pagefile? If you're running Windows XP, press the Start key (usually on the bottom left of the keyboard with the Windows icon) and the Pause/Break key at the same time. That should bring up the System Properties window. (If it doesn't, go to Start-Control Panel and double-click on System.) From there, click Advanced, then the first Settings button in the Performance label. Now, click Advanced on the new window that opens and at the bottom will be a label named Virtual memory with your details and a Change button.

Choose what size you want from there and click Set. If you want to try the default 1.5*RAM setting, click System Managed Size and click Set, then OK to all the remaining Windows. If I remember correctly, you'll need to reboot to allow the system to release the existing allocated pagefile space on the hard disk.

No pain at all. I enjoy discussing how to change pagefile sizes a lot more than explaining to a 50-year-old how to use a power button, that's for sure. :lol: