Windows XP Pro page filing issue

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

I recently built a new PC:

mobile barton@2.45
DFI lanparty
512megs of geil ram for the time being
37gig raptor
3x160gig WD 8meg specials

different hardware settings don't correct it,even when running everything to spec,its software related.

ever since i built this PC i've had problems with windows not using the page filing properly. it will use up to 200megs of it,then just stop. so instead my ram will get flooded and the whole PC falls on its face. i have the raptor set for 720ish megs initial and up to 1500megs peak, same settings also for one of the 160gig drives. even with these settings it REFUSES to use more than 200megs and my computer just flat out crashes often because of it.

any suggestions?

 

[AEnigmaWI]

sounds like your install is hosed to me...

did you do an upgrade or a clean install ? Did you import any registry settings from a pvs install? It sounds like there are conflicting settings for the size of the page file, either that or for some reason your disks are reporting as full when they aren't...

Are you sure this is a page file problem? What kind of crashes are you getting?

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

its a completely fresh install, and the disks all have at least 30gigs free. it doesn't actually crash, i just run out of ram, goes straight down to zero physical memory and the page filing doesn't budge, as a result i get non-stop hard drive usage and the computer just freezes up because it doesn't have anything to work with however it still works,just horribly slowly(15 seconds from the time i click the start menu for it to appear). it never recovers, i have to mash the power button.

 

[AEnigmaWI]

does it do this while it's just sitting around, or when gaming, etc.. ?

do you have the system setup optimized for "programs" or for "backround services" ?

if you look at task manager, what is your peak commit charge value?

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

it stutters more than it should here and there when i'm doing stuff thats memory intensive. the major problem i've been having is when trying to install unreal 2004. it just flat out dies. all the page filing settings are just peachy, and my commit charge is 383megs currently, with a limit of 2,066megs.

 

[AEnigmaWI]

what's the commit peak tho.. there is total, peak, and current.. peak shows the max amount of system and virtual your PC has tried to allocate..

when running UT 2k4 on my and my roomate's pc's, we peak between 600-875k bytes depending on detail level selected..

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

currently 382 megs total
2,066megs limit
390meg peak

this is when trying to install UT2004, i can't even get to playing it yet.

 

[AEnigmaWI]

hmm.. interesting that your peak is so low. This to me indicates that your machine isn't even getting around to using the pagefile at all... if it were, it would show an amount above the total amount of system RAM you have..

this is assuming you have had this problem since the last restart.. if not, try doing whatever it is that makes your system bog down, then check the task manager and note the peak commit charge.. it should be above your total system memory amount.

 

[AEnigmaWI]

if your commit charge peaks above system memory total, but tops out under your page file max settings, then there is a pagefile problem.. if it isn't peaking above your system memory amount, itis possible that there is some other issue..

any anti-virus software or similar installed? Anything like third party restore software or similar?

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

i have two of the drives both set to have an inital size of 768megs and a max size of 1536megs. that commit charge never budges when doing intensive tasks. think i should delete all the temp virtual memory files?

 

[AEnigmaWI]

if your commit charge peak (not the total or limit) never goes higher than your system RAM, then you aren't running out of memory.. it would indicate that there is some other issue that's causing your system to thrash..

The initial size of your page files should be reflected in the "limit" section of the commit charge.. so if you have several of them set to initial of 700 megs or so, your limit should be ~~768+768+512

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

ok,the commit charge limit is just find then,however,when i DO run out of memory,the whole problem, the peak and total commit charge never changes....

 

[AEnigmaWI]

ok.. if peak and total are not rising than your system is not running out of memory..

there is some other culprit at work here. Do you have any software installed that starts on boot? You can run msconfig at the run menu prompt, click the startup tab, and it will list things that are running on startup.

Also, do you have antivirus software installed? some clients get a little aggressive with the background scanning..

 

[AEnigmaWI]

if your system were running out of memory, the peak and / or total commit charge would be above your total system RAM.

 

[AEnigmaWI]

if you are mainly having problems when installing software or doing other hard drive intensive tasks, make sure you aren't running any software that would have reason to catalog newly installed files, scan written / read files, log disk activity, etc..

If problems are more general, as in whenever you open a few apps the system starts to thrash, but your memory usage isn't hitting the top, then it's much weirder.. it might be worthwhile at that point to check out what services you have running and make sure there isn't some weirdo thing going on in the background.

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

i'm definatly running out of memory, my startup programs are lean, i clean it on a regular basis, i have norton running however its always disabled because i hate the auto scan,it bogs down the system. heres a screen shot,full res, of exactly whats going on:
link

 

[AEnigmaWI]

there is something on your desktop that shows memory usage.. but it does not agree with the windows task manager. That makes me go hmm..

take a look at the memory part of the task manager.. it says system cache at 390 something, total 512 something, with 1k available, yet your commit charge is only indicating part of that usage.. something is using system memory that isn't playing nice with windows memory management, or the commit charge total would indicate 500 +..

are you using a skinning program? Some of those can do some really odd things..

 

[AEnigmaWI]

can you snap a shot of your processes tab for me?

 

[AEnigmaWI]

should be able to tell on processes tab what is taking up so much memory.. something odd is definitely going down.. if you sort the list by mem usage (click the header) it will be easier to screenshot

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

i'm running samurize for the desktop info,it only updates every second so its just lagging. i had to take the screen shot fast before the computer took a sh*t. i'm begining to think more and more its just the unreal installer hating my pc.

the skinner is styleXP,never had a problem with it,its like installing a normal windows theme,it doesn't use much of any resources and i can watch it in the task manager. its not really a problem. whatevers eating my ram doesn't show up anywhere other than the overall stats,which is maddening. i really dunno what to do.

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

processes running

 

[AEnigmaWI]

yah, nothing odd in the processes tab..

if you keep it open during the install, can you see any task jump in and grab tons of memory? The system cache should size down accordingly when you need RAM for programs..

you do for sure have the performance thing (under system in control panel) set to programs and not background right?

 

[AEnigmaWI]

next thing I would try is disabling every single program that you are running that isn't an integral part of windows and then trying the install. It is possible something has a memory leak or isn't releasing resources correctly, although usually XP kills such things before they have chance to really mess with you.

 

[AEnigmaWI]

do the above right after a fresh boot too.. reboot, try not to run anything at all, except windows + unreal installer (norton AV disabled)