Virtual memory minmum too low

[alexknight]

I have an odd problem that has just occured in the last couple of days.

 

It statred with the machines in just one particular room runing very slowly and coming up with the message, 'virtual memory minmum is too low' .

 

Your system is low on virtual memory. Each machine was workng ok just a coule of days ago and no new software has been loaded.

 

I have checked the virtual memory alocation and it is 384MB, but I have increased this to say 500 and even set it to run automatically.

 

When I loo at the memory usuage it comes up as say 956 mb but there are not a lot of processes going on?

 

I have run four virus chekers, MS Antivirus, Adaware, Ewido and the schools/counties own comperter asociated anti virus. Most of them came up with the usual 40 or so virus/cookies but Ewido is coming up with 1500 to 5000 items of cookies/malware.

 

With these run through the machine I reboot, but it still asks for more virtual memory, even though i am not runing any applications and the task manager process page shows no pieces of software taking up lots of memory usgae. All the workstations are DELL

 

I am now scratching m head??

[tarquel]

How old are the PC's in question Alex?

 

The only time I've seen that repeatedly occur is when the motherboard was failing - sorry to day.

 

Could also be the RAM modules themselves but not always.

 

Nath

[MkII]

Is that generally alex or with software? - it's ringing bells and Publisher is coming to mind [again!]

[alexknight]

It is isolated to one room all are dell comuters that are no more than nine months old. We have say 18 that are nine months old and 10 that are one month old.

 

It just seems to be so slow once they have booted up and gone into the operating system.

 

All the programs takes ages to load and run like slugs.

 

I aM RUNNNG A VIRUS CHECKER ONCE MORE AND WILL THEN REBOT THE pc'S. iT WOULD BE VERY STRANGE THAT ALL THE MOHERBOARDS OR raM CHIPS FAIL TOGETHER. Sorry for CAPS just presed the wrong button.

 

Alex

[witch]

I had a similar problem on my XP machines (all 6!!) and was told that

the page file has become corrupt, possibly at a bad shutdown. In the Virtual Memory settings, set to “No page file,” then exit System Properties, shut down the machine, and reboot. Delete PAGEFILE.SYS (on each drive, if more than just C:), set the page file up again and reboot to bring it into use.

Pagefile.sys. is regenerated at each boot — there is no need to include it in a backup. To see it you need to have Folder Options | View set to ‘Show Hidden and System files’, and not to ‘Hide Protected mode System files’.

You dont say what the county antivirus is - apparently Norton can cause problems with virtual memory

You may have fixed your problem by now - hope so!

 

Don't know if this will help

[alexknight]

Hi Still no luck with the computers.

 

They still are runnng like slugs and I have run the virus software and looked for the PAGEFILE.SYS, and done a restore point to when the workstations were working fine.

 

I have set up a new workstation which we got from the Tesco vouchers for computers scheme. This has literally only been aded to the network a few days a go.

 

That is now saying virtual memeory low.

 

At the moment I am just re imaging some of the new dell computers to see if that fixes it.

 

Apart from that I am at a loss to se what the problem is.

 

Would it be anything to do with the servers and profles when users log on to the network??

 

It is really strange.

 

Help.

 

Alex

[alan-d]

Have a look at this - it may point at something you have not looked at.

 

http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

 

or this http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;EN-US;Q315351

 

failing that - it does sound like a virus type problem - have you tried speaking to your AV provider to see if they are aware of any recent viruses that may cause this?

[alexknight]

Hi Still no luck with the computers.

 

They still are runnng like slugs and I have run the virus software and looked for the PAGEFILE.SYS, and done a restore point to when the workstations were working fine.

 

I have set up a new workstation which we got from the Tesco vouchers for computers scheme. This has literally only been aded to the network a few days a go.

 

That is now saying virtual memeory low.

 

At the moment I am just re imaging some of the new dell computers to see if that fixes it.

 

Apart from that I am at a loss to se what the problem is.

 

Would it be anything to do with the servers and profles when users log on to the network??

 

It is really strange.

 

Help.

 

Alex

[alexknight]

Hi

 

I may have found the answer which I will put below. Does this sound like it could be the problem?

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Your problems appear to be the same as problems that are occurring at Frome, Oakfield.

 

Somerset have changed the engine that the CA Anti-Virus uses from ‘Inoculate IT’ to ‘Vet’. The Vet engine scans files deeper that the Inoculate engine. The Somerset scripts kick off a full system scan the first time a user logs on after a machine boots. This means that the Anti-Virus is deep scanning any programs that run at startup and causing the extremely slow logon etc. This is particularly noticeable on lower spec machines.

 

We are in discussion with Somerset to see if we can find a solution.

 

As a work around, Oakfield are starting all their machines in the morning and logging on as a student. The system scan takes about half an hour to complete. When the scan has finished the machines are logged off and not shut down until the end of the day.

 

I will keep you updated as soon as I have any further information