"Your System Has No Paging File, or the Paging File Is Too Small" error message in Win XP. Grrr!

[John P]

I am pulling out my hair here!!! When I boot my computer up I will either get the subject title error message.

I have tried everything in the Microsoft Knowledge base to no avail. I have reinstalled Win XP with the repair option. I have pulled all the cards out of my computer but the video card, updated all my drivers, etc.... I still have the problem. I have 8GB free on my main drive. This is driving me batty, anyone got any other ideas? When I go into control panel - performance options it says my paging file size is 0 no matter what I set it to.

 

[Nothinman]

Make sure SYSTEM has full control of the root of the system drive.

 

[Dreadogg]

did you disable the paging file in XP? Also maybe look into a virus or something, sounds kinda wierd like as if something worte itself over the exsisting pagefile, but thats just a guess!

 

[John P]

System does have control of the system drive and the paging file is not disabled. I scanned for viruses, trojans, and spyware several times. Still no go.

 

[Booter]

This is driving me batty, anyone got any other ideas?

Ok..If it's possible try adding another 512Mb ram (assuming that you have 512 right now?) and see if that helps.

Ps. let us know if it works Ds.

 

[John P]

Hmmm, I have a 256mb stick I can throw in, I'll give it a shot.

I looked again at the computer and it doesn't even have a pagefile.sys at all. Win XP is not creating it for some reason. I wonder what would happen if I copied a pagefile.sys file from one of my other computers to the one with the problem?

 

[Dreadogg]

are you hitting apply when you change the option or are you just selecting ok?

 

[mikecel79]

Do you have another drive you can try to put the paging file on? Can you actually see the page file on the root of your C drive? It's possible that the page file could be corrupted. Put a blank space where you set the page file and then reboot. Then make sure it's not there and go in and set a new one. This should force it to create a new one.

 

[Booter]

How much ram have you got total? And are you still reciveing out of mem errors?

 

[Booter]

What does Task Manager say under the Performance tab. You have PF Usage and a Page File Usage History right?

 

[John P]

I have 512mb Mushkin PC2100 RAM.

I don't see a pagefile.sys on this computer (I have the correct option set to view system files). Looking a two other of my computers I see pagefile.sys files in the C: directory.

However, when I click the performance tab on Windows Task Manager it shows about half the PF being used (224mb) and a pretty much straight line around the 40% mark in the Page File Usage History (I am currently running a Antivirus and Trojan scan). Thanks for that tip Booter, didn't know that info was there!!

I have only received an out of memory error once, but I had about a cajillion programs running.

My main problem is the error message at boot up and that when I look at the Paging File Size For All Drives" under the "Performance Options" tab in "System Properties" it says 0 bytes even though I have it set correctly to use a paging file on the C: drive.

So, how could half the pagefile be in use if there isn't one?

BTW, I also get a BSOD when I reboot or shut down sometimes that says"

"DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE"

Searching on google.com for these error message seems to make me think it's hardware related?? I've tried taking all my cards out and updating all the drivers. System Specs if it helps:

ECS K7S5A
Athlon XP 1700
512mb PC2100 Mushkin RAM
Radeon 8500LE
SB Live Value
ATI Firewire card

I'm going to try swapping out and/or adding a stick of RAM and see what that does.

 

[Booter]

I'm going to try swapping out and/or adding a stick of RAM and see what that does.

To Change the Size of the Virtual Memory Paging File try this link follow the instructions and set a "No paging file" Do this only if you got 1 gig ram meaning you will have to add 512mb BEFORE you set the no pf option.

If you still recive errors let the System manage the PF size.

So, how could half the pagefile be in use if there isn't one?

My theory is that its reserved PF space and not actually used PF meaning it dosen't actually page out. Windows XP memory manager has been designed to reserve virtual memory for each and every program/game which is running, even if they don't need to page out (with less then 1gig ram they do need to page out). The fluctuations that can occur in pf usage could be explainend by what the systems think it needs to reserve so it's not 'real' used PF usage in anycase.
BTW it's only my theory take it with a grant of salt

 

[johnlog]

JohnP.

>I looked again at the computer and it doesn't even have a pagefile.sys at all. Win XP is not creating it for some reason. I wonder what would happen if I copied a pagefile.sys file from one of my other computers to the one with the problem? <<

The pagefile.sys file is a System Hidden file.

If you know where it is located on your hard drive (partition, etc.) then you can open a DOS window and type

ATTRIB PAGEFILE.SYS

and it looks like this:

A SH H:\pagefile.sys

You can see the pagefile.sys that ATTRIB shows you but it does not show its size.

I set my pagefile to be on my H: partition. Works great.

 

[bsobel]

My theory is that its reserved PF space and not actually used PF meaning it dosen't actually page out.

Your basically right, the reserved PF is a reservation against the available virtual memory. It may or may not be current in use. Generally if the amount of pf space reserved is less than your physical memory, your not paging.

Bill

 

[John P]

Tried a different stick of RAM, still got the boot up error message.

The pagefile.sys file is a System Hidden file.

I know, I changed the options to be able to view system files, it ain't nowhere to be found. I do see it on two of my other machines so I know where to look for it.

To Change the Size of the Virtual Memory Paging File try this link follow the instructions and set a "No paging file" Do this only if you got 1 gig ram meaning you will have to add 512mb BEFORE you set the no pf option.

Tried setting all drives to "No paging file" with 768mb RAM and didn't get the bootup error message. Now to mess with it some more to see what happens if I change it back.

Thanks for everyone's help, keep the ideas coming. I think I may try and copy a pagefile.sys file from another machine over to this one and see what happens.

Another thing to add, this machine is not shutting down properly either. If it doesn't go to the "DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE" BSOD it hangs at the blue "Windows is shutting down..." screen. I wonder if that has anything to do with it?

 

[John P]

"Quote

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So, how could half the pagefile be in use if there isn't one?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


My theory is that its reserved PF space and not actually used PF meaning it dosen't actually page out. Windows XP memory manager has been designed to reserve virtual memory for each and every program/game which is running, even if they don't need to page out (with less then 1gig ram they do need to page out). The fluctuations that can occur in pf usage could be explainend by what the systems think it needs to reserve so it's not 'real' used PF usage in anycase.
BTW it's only my theory take it with a grant of salt "

I think I see what's happening here(maybe?) When I go to change the PF settings a gray box comes up that says "Windows created a temporary paging file on your computer because of a problem that occurred with your paging file configuration when you started your computer. The total paging file size for all disk drives may be somewhat larger that the size you specified". So that would explain the use of a paging file even though there isn't one where it's supposed to be. I wonder where it puts the temporary one?

 

[Booter]

Your basically right, the reserved PF is a reservation against the available virtual memory. It may or may not be current in use. Generally if the amount of pf space reserved is less than your physical memory, your not paging.

That makes sense, Thanks bsobel!

 

[Booter]

John P
Are you running xp with sp1?
Anyway the problem might have to do with bad hardware/corrupted drivers....have you tryed to reinstall xp and have you installed service pack1 for xp?

 

[John P]

Booter,
I had all the updates for Win XP. I did try a reinstall of XP yesterday and downloaded SP1 right away. I did another search on google and saw a suggestion to try and remove IDE drivers and let them reinstall. I tried that and now the machine won't even boot into Safe Mode.


OK, I'm sick of messing with this ECS board when I have an NForce2 Epox 8RDA+ sitting in my "play (overclocking)" machine upstairs. I'm gonna transfer my hard drives from my main machine to the 8RDA+ machine, do a Windows XP repair and hope for the best..... I have way too much stuff loaded to do a fresh install.


Stay tuned.....

 

[elkinm]

There is a problem that I noticed with more Ram. Windows wastes a lot of ram a the system cache in such a way that the cache easily takes up most of the ram but programs get sent to the pagefile anyway. The more cache you have, the longer it would take to write it cack to disk if it is write cache. If it is read cache then it should be fast and could be reset insantly to allow programs to run right. For some reason that does not happen, I don't know what page replacement algorithm is used to free up ram from cache but on my 512 mb system I always have 300-400 mb cache, and that leaves little room for programs. Theoreticaly, loading a program whould take over the ram, but instead it goes directly to the pagefile making all the programs very slow, and with more paging and more cache in ram XP becomes even more pagefile hungry and keeps wanting to enlarge the pagefile size. None of this ever happened with 256 mb or ram. I could run all the programs I do now, the cache was much smaller and I never experienced slowdowns with high disk activity with multiple programs and I almost never saw the "your system is running low on virtual memory" prompt.
What I am trying to say is that if you get the pagefile to work, set the pagefile and use only as much ram as you need. As for some reason more memry only leads to more wasted memory and pagefile space unless you have something to truly utilize it. With 512 I expected to run twice as many programs at the same time as with 256 but I can only run about the same ammount and only get more slowdowns and more cache waste which doesn't go away.

 

[elkinm]

Just encountered the Virtual Memory is running low message aggain. System cahce is at 370 MB, PF usage is at 370MB and free Ram registers at 330 MB. All I got running is one window of explorer, one OE, two IE, one WMP9, Kazaa and the usual norton antivirus and some samall full time programs. Pagefile at obout half usage and XP wants more? And this is with very fiew running programs that should easily be able to fit in RAM. Same programs ran with 256 without a proglem. So unless you realy need the ram or someone knows how to fix this, I have reccomend going with the minimum amount of ram you actualy need.

 

[John P]

Uh oh, not looking good so far.....

Already got a "DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE" BSOD and the paging file error with the new MB. Still got lots of driver updates to do though...........

 

[Booter]

i dont think that your particular problem is directly related to the PF at all.

Its bad drivers. If the driver updates dosen't help you have to find out and isolate the device driver or software that is causing the problem.

 

[johnlog]

Get rid of Kazaa as it has spy-ware built into it. Even if you uninstall Kazaa it leaves its spyware on your hard drive. Nice that you let Kazaa know everything you do on your computer. Not everyone is that friendly towards Kazaa's spyware.

 

[John P]

The computer is doing the same thing with the new hardware. It's ok because I wanted to switch my main machine over to this new mb anyway.

Speaking of spyware...

This all started after I uninstalled an occurrence of C-Dilla that was installed from The Elder Scrolls:Morrowind. I was reading a bunch about C-Dilla because of Turbotax 2002 (I bought but never installed). Doing that research I found that Morrowind also loads C-Dilla and after looking at my running processes I saw that it was indeed running on my machine. I used the uninstaller on the Intuit web site to get rid of it (I figured it would work with mine also?). It seemed to get rid of the C-Dilla, but then these problems started. I thought there was no way that could be the cause of my problem but now I'm beginning to wonder.....