# Low Memory



## Jack Willday (Aug 1, 2007)

Dear Sirs

I have a Samsung 900X Notebook with Windows 8.

When I am using my Computer I have a problem with the Computer saying it has Low Memory, if I continue using it, it then crashes 

Could you please check my computer for problems?

Jack Willday


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## etaf (Dec 28, 2008)

Is this all the time , or only when you are running certain programs ?

i have moved to the windows 8 forum , rather than site comments

how much memory does the PC have?
How much free disk space do you have 

memory
Determining how much RAM is installed and available.

disk space
How to Check Your Hard Disk Space: 8 Steps (with Pictures)


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## Jack Willday (Aug 1, 2007)

Wayne

It has been a on and off problem for months now, but it is particularly bad now which is what prompted me to contact your team

8.00 GB of RAM (7.63 GB usable)

Local Disk (C
135 GB free of 211 GB

Jack


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## etaf (Dec 28, 2008)

may be worth running a memory test
How to run the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool in Windows 8


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi is windows Automatically manage paging file size for all drives


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## satrow (Feb 4, 2012)

(Sorry about the data overload)

I have a feeling it might be referring to virtual memory, a program has a memory leak and is constantly writing data to the paging file. I don't know an easy way to detect this on W8 as I'm not familiar with Task Manager/Resource Monitor's output when it comes to showing Commit size.

The W7 TaskMan method of showing it is here in #9, the top image - look at the bottom section, right side - *Commit(GB)*xx (RAM + virtual memory): http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f217/memory-leak-979978.html#post6214354

There are 2 (txt and html) scripts here to detect the size in W7, it might work in 8/8.1, I'm not sure, could you test them, please?


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## Jack Willday (Aug 1, 2007)

Wayne

I have run the program you suggested and it reported No Problems Found

Jack


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## Jack Willday (Aug 1, 2007)

Wayne

First let me tell you that I am now in my Seventy's, and some times find it difficult to understand and follow instructions.

Was I supposed to do what satrow recommended?

If I was I am sorry to say I was not sure what he was asking me to do.

Jack


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## etaf (Dec 28, 2008)

> Was I supposed to do what satrow recommended?


 Yes
He was not sure if it would work in windows 8.1

on windows 8 , if you do 
control key + ALT key + DEL Key
you should get up a list 
choose task manager from the list
OR 
you can use the windows key - which is bottom lefthand side of the keyboard with a picture of wndows on it 
and the X key together 

once task manager opens 
click on the performance tab
then click on Memory

you will some images of what that looks like here
10 Windows 8.1 Task Manager Features You May Not Know | Next of Windows
scroll down and you will see the memory image 
memory clicked on the lefthand side 
on the right you will see 
commited 
and under it 2 numbers 
post those here

The next step is to click on the two links, they download and you can then click onthem to run each one


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## Jack Willday (Aug 1, 2007)

Wayne

No Memory Performance Tap in Task Manager, Only IntelliMemory Service

Node	AutoReboot	Caption	DebugFilePath	DebugInfoType	Description	ExpandedDebugFilePath	ExpandedMiniDumpDirectory	KernelDumpOnly	MiniDumpDirectory	Name	OverwriteExistingDebugFile	SendAdminAlert	SettingID	WriteDebugInfo	WriteToSystemLog

SAMSUNG	TRUE.	.	%SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP.	7
.	.	C:\WINDOWS\MEMORY.DMP.	C:\WINDOWS\Minidump.	FALSE.	%SystemRoot%\Minidump.	Microsoft Windows 8.1|C:\WINDOWS|\Device\Harddisk0\Partition4.	TRUE.	FALSE.	.	TRUE.	TRUE.
1 Instances of Win32_PageFileUsage
Node	AllocatedBaseSize	Caption	CurrentUsage	Description	InstallDate	Name	PeakUsage	Status	TempPageFile

SAMSUNG	23552
.	C:\pagefile.sys.	622
.	C:\pagefile.sys.	20130924105657.618212+180.	C:\pagefile.sys.	1407
.	.	FALSE.
0 Instances of 



AutoReboot=TRUE
Caption=
DebugFilePath=%SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP
DebugInfoType=7
Description=
ExpandedDebugFilePath=C:\WINDOWS\MEMORY.DMP
ExpandedMiniDumpDirectory=C:\WINDOWS\Minidump
KernelDumpOnly=FALSE
MiniDumpDirectory=%SystemRoot%\Minidump
Name=Microsoft Windows 8.1|C:\WINDOWS|\Device\Harddisk0\Partition4
OverwriteExistingDebugFile=TRUE
SendAdminAlert=FALSE
SettingID=
WriteDebugInfo=TRUE
WriteToSystemLog=TRUE




AllocatedBaseSize=23552
Caption=C:\pagefile.sys
CurrentUsage=607
Description=C:\pagefile.sys
InstallDate=20130924105657.618212+180
Name=C:\pagefile.sys
PeakUsage=1407
Status=
TempPageFile=FALSE


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## etaf (Dec 28, 2008)

no memory performance tab 
just 
performance tab
and then down the left memory 



> as posted
> once task manager opens
> click on the performance tab
> then click on Memory


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## satrow (Feb 4, 2012)

Script outputs look fine - but you need to run them a couple of times during a longer session using your comp. as normal - we'll get a better idea of what's happening then.

Follow Wayne's info on the performance tab data, you can then check it live.


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## Jack Willday (Aug 1, 2007)

Wayne

Sorry I think I have followed you instructions correctly this time

In us 2.2 GB Available 5.4 GB

Committed 3.2/30.6 GB Cached 3.8 GB

Paged Pool 330 MB Non Paged Pool 560 MB


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## mochica (Apr 21, 2015)

This may help to troubleshoot your problem. 
I use Win 8.1 on a Dell 9020. Fresh installed on Dec 20 2014. After many updates, this low memory warning started to pop up by April 2nd. The only program installed before this date is VMware, which I run full screen sometimes. Out of 8 Gb, memory in use was never more than 35% when I loaded every program I normally use at the same time. No virus involved with this Win 8.1 "feature" . Page Memory was 4Gb-20Gb.
So, today I disabled the Virtual memory (no PageFile.sys on root folder) and I loaded the memory (8Gb) with two Virtual Machines (VM) and other programs until free memory was less than 1GB. 

Only at this point, Windows showed the Low Memory warning. I'd deduce that there's a problem with the Virtual Memory Management. I'm keeping it this way until further notice from MS ("Upgrade to the latest/greatest Win 10")
------
Update, 3 days so far and no warning messages (04/20/15) :dance:


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## satrow (Feb 4, 2012)

Welcome mochica,

A couple of points for you:
1) Windows can silently create a temp paging file if needed (if it does, it might show up using the WMIC check #34 here).
2) Once you approach ~92% of memory used without any page file backing it, the next program to call for more memory is very likely to disappear without a trace.


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## LMiller7 (Jun 21, 2010)

The commit charge is a difficult concept to understand and it doesn't help that many Internet articles get it wrong.

When an application allocates from it's virtual address space it is reasonable that it may wish to use it. In reality most applications do not use everything they allocate but Windows must be prepared just in case running applications do use the space they allocated and Windows promised would be available. Windows must have somewhere to store the data to meet this promise. This can be in RAM or the pagefile. The commit charge is the total space needed to keep it's promises and the commit limit is the maximum space it has available for this purpose. Note that the commit charge has nothing to do with how much RAM is currently in use, just the total of potential usage.

When the commit limit is reached bad things are likely to happen. Some applications deal with this problem gracefully but many simply fail with unpredictable results. Note that this can happen even if there is considerable RAM available or even free.

The Low Memory warning usually means this limit is about to be reached. It has nothing to do with RAM usage. 

The commit limit is pagefile size plus RAM size minus some small overhead. With default configuration the commit limit is only a soft limit. Window can increase the pagefile size to raise the limit as needed. With no pagefile this becomes a hard limit of a little less than RAM size.

@Jack Willday
A screenshot of Task manager - Performance tab showing memory details would be very useful.


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## Jack Willday (Aug 1, 2007)

Dear Sirs

I have been following your comments, and I am sorry but as a normal older member of the general public, I do not understand what you have been disusing.

I have slowly come to the conclusion that my Free Anti Virus program from AVG Netherlands B. V. has something to do with my Low Memory Problem, I have a feeling but no proof that they are trying to persuade me to purchase there AVG PC TuneUP program.

My problem started at the beginning of last year, and it was an intermittent problem, may once a month or 6 weeks, since I started this thread my computer has given me one Low Memory warning, but before I could react the computer closed down and rebooted its self, with all normal programs running, but the programs I was running in an incognito window did not reboot.

I have also had a problem with data going missing.

One of my passions is photographing the wild Orchids, and other wild flowers here on the Island, one day I spent a very long time sorting, classifying and renaming hundreds of photos of the Orchids, then storing them in a folder of their own, away from my photos or the other flower I had photographed.

This folder is no longer on my computer

I am also a philatelist collector of Postage Stamps, and I have fallen into the habit of using the incognito window for my purchases so that she who must be obeyed does not know what I am spending.

I have been storing this data on a UBS stick or Secondary hard disk, but have had to stop doing this, as every time I access a file on the UBS stick or Secondary hard disk, the data has disappeared, this I believe is a problem created by the Windows 8 incognito program.

Jack Willday


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

If you think the Antivirus is a problem, remove it and use Microsoft's own one. http://www.avg.com/gb-en/utilities
Windows Defender - Turn On or Off in Windows 8 You can always put it back later if you wish.


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