Close Programs to Prevent Information Loss!!!

[quornroast]

I'm suddenly getting this Windows warning 'close programs to prevent information loss' appearing every 5 minutes, also the warning 'Your computer is low on memory'. Even when I have shut down all unecessary processes in the task manager and I am only running Firefox with one tab open on Gmail.

I am using a Sony Vaio laptop VGN-AR51M 17", 140GB HD, NVidia GeForce 8400MT, Intel Core Duo CPU T7250 2GHZ 2001MHZ, with 2GB RAM and running Windows Vista Home Premium.

Up until yesterday, it was running fine with only about 4 or 5 GB space free on the HD. Then I did a restart (to be able to use Skype) and accidentally shut it down while it was running ChkDsk during restart. I restarted again and it seemed fine, but over the day I began to have these memory issues.

I cleared 15GB free space on my HD, and I tried restarting to run Chkdsk properly, but now it won't run chkdsk whatever I do. And now all I can run is one program at a time and still I get these warning messages. And Firefox is constantly closing down - even with just one window and tab open.

I know that some of you might advise getting more RAM, or freeing more space, and you might be right in general - but this is a sudden change in my computer's behaviour so I am inclined to think it has been triggered by an error or some kind. I just don't know how to find it.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Warning messages:

Microsoft Windows!

close programs to prevent information loss

Your computer is low on memory. Save your files and close these programs:

Firefox
Skype

Windows will only close enough programs to restore needed memory.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft Windows!

Your computer is low on memory

To restore enough memory for programs to work correctly, save your files and then close or restart all open programs.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

[dmdougie]

From Task Manager, does it look like your Page File is peaking? Could be that chkdsk process is jammed and taking up unneeded RAM.

Do you get any errors when you try to run chkdsk, or does it just not run? Have you tried running it from safe mode?

[quornroast]

Dammit - just as I was replying Firefox crashed for the 100th time today. So I have to write fast.

Thanks for your reply dmdougie. By running the Sony hd checker I was able to get chkdsk to run at restart. It all went fine, some repairs were done, but the computer is still having the same problem.

As for the pagefile, I don't know what to look for. I checked control panel - system - advanced - advanced - page file...

this is strange - I have set this to 'system managed size' 3 or 4 times now ( I assume that is right) but I just looked at it again and it says:
"total paging file size for all drives 70mb" !
And when I click the change button it is set to "no paging file"

Perhaps you can confirm what the settings should be here. I assumed it should be set to system managed and I have done so 3 or 4 times but it seems to default back to none.

[cheesepuff]

70MB is small for a page file system. do you have a lot of programs running all the time?

[quornroast]

70MB is small for a page file system. do you have a lot of programs running all the time?

Yes, that seems quite clear - but what I was saying was that this appears to be a default setting for some reason. Because I have reset it about 3-4 times but each time I restart and go back to it, it has reset to these settings again.

I understand that it is too small, but was asking what the proper settings should be since my adjustments keep getting overridden.

[cheesepuff]

so the settings never stay at what you set them to? hmm...sound as if windows is detecting an error and is trying to correct itself or something.

[dmdougie]

OK, Page File should be about 1.5 times the amount of RAM available. I never used System Managed and always set it myself.

Go back to the Page File settings

Right click My Computer > Properties > Advanced System Settings > From the Advanced tab, select Settings under the Performance header > Change to the Advanced tab again and select change under the Virtual Memory header.

From here, untick the auto settings check box. Click on 'Custom Size'. Set the mimimum to the amount of RAM you have, and maximum as 1.5 times the amount you have.

Example.
If you have 1 GB RAM then the min would be 1GB and the max would be 1.5 GB.

Restart,and check it's taken affect.