Laptop low memory warning

marco79

marco79

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I have a Dell laptop which I bought about 3 years ago. I haven't used it for the last few months. Now I'm getting error messages like "memory low, please close some applications". This pops up as soon as I have 2 applications running.

The specs of the laptop is: i3, 320Gb HDD, 3Gb Ram

How do I fix this? Could this be a virus? Should I defrag?

Any free programme I could download to do a system check of fix the problem?
 
Look at the size of your pagefile. It's space on the hard disk when the amount of memory required exceeds the amount of your physical ram.

Also download glary utilities or any startup manager. Should go a long way in helping.
 
Increase your pagefile size first. Then use the startup manager and block apps from starting up and restart the computer to see if it benefits. Uninstall apps that you don't use, as well e.g. Norton is a memory hog.
 
Are you sure the pagefile has not been manually set. Try set it to automatic which is the windows default.

Should be something like
Control Panel-System-Advanced system settings-Performance-Advanced-Performance-Settings-Advanced-Virtual Memory -Click to automatic manage checkbox

Restart
 
skimread said:
Are you sure the pagefile has not been manually set. Try set it to automatic which is the windows default.

Should be something like
Control Panel-System-Advanced system settings-Performance-Advanced-Performance-Settings-Advanced-Virtual Memory -Click to automatic manage checkbox

Restart
Click to expand...

This. Let Windows manage it.

What I also do is set the visual effects to best performance. Not really memory related but it does help.
 
I would recommend you do the following:

Go to Start Menu, then type in "System" in the search bar then click the Control Panel listing that says "System"

Then on the top left click "Advanced System Options" then under the "Advanced" tab click the "Settings..." button under "Performance" then click the "Advanced" tab then under "Virtual Memory" click "Change" then make sure the "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives" option is ticked, if it isn't tick it then click "Ok" and close everything else.

You might have to restart your laptop after doing this. You can refer to this for more help: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preventing-low-memory-problems#1TC=windows-7


If you are still having problems you can check if you have a virus on your laptop by downloading and running the following programs:

1. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
2. SuperAntiSpyware
3. HitmanPro

First update them before running full scans of your system.


The following is not related to your problem but can help clean and speed up your operating system.

Download:
1. CCleaner - Will help you clean up your system.
2. Defraggler - Will help defragment your system.
3. Startup Lite - This program wil help detect and disable any unnecessary startup programs you may have running, before opening this program, right click it and click "Run as Administrator"
 
NomNom said:
I would recommend you do the following:

The following is not related to your problem but can help clean and speed up your operating system.

Download:
1. CCleaner - Will help you clean up your system.
2. Defraggler - Will help defragment your system.
3. Startup Lite - This program wil help detect and disable any unnecessary startup programs you may have running, before opening this program, right click it and click "Run as Administrator"
Click to expand...

If you use options 1 & 3 you are probably going to really break your machine. Stay away from registry cleaners/modifiers unless you know what you are doing.
 
bekdik said:
If you use options 1 & 3 you are probably going to really break your machine. Stay away from registry cleaners/modifiers unless you know what you are doing.
Click to expand...

I just recommend the cleaner part of CCleaner, not the registry cleaner, also Startup lite is just your basic msconfig but with a definition list of useless startup programs.

You would of picked that up if you had seen what the program does instead of assuming it was a registry modifier.

You can also use CCleaner to disable startup programs but then you got to know which ones.
 
Last edited:
genetic said:
3GB of RAM is VERY little though. You need more RAM.
Click to expand...

3GB is fine for a machine like that, we have a couple of devs in the office using those exact spec machines with no hassles.
It more than likely just needs a reinstall.
 
Rocket-Boy said:
3GB is fine for a machine like that, we have a couple of devs in the office using those exact spec machines with no hassles.
It more than likely just needs a reinstall.
Click to expand...

I agree - a fresh install will help a lot, but if Windows is telling you it is out of RAM, don't you think it has a point? ;)
 
Rocket-Boy said:
3GB is fine for a machine like that, we have a couple of devs in the office using those exact spec machines with no hassles.
It more than likely just needs a reinstall.
Click to expand...

To add to that, my cellphone has 3GB of RAM. I'm sure good old clunky Windows with a few running apps will eat into that amount within no time!

Developers don't need a lot of RAM in any case, but the rest of us do.

I have 32GB of RAM, and Windows is always using at least 3-10GB with moderate usage.
 
genetic said:
To add to that, my cellphone has 3GB of RAM. I'm sure good old clunky Windows with a few running apps will eat into that amount within no time!

Developers don't need a lot of RAM in any case, but the rest of us do.

I have 32GB of RAM, and Windows is always using at least 3-10GB with moderate usage.
Click to expand...

Modern OSes use RAM for caching purposes. For example my rMBP 15 right now has 1.75GB free (total of 8GB). It's FireFox and Chrome running.
My LaVie Z with Win 8, is running at 2GB free with just FireFox running with two tabs open. (Total of 4GB).

If something important should need that RAM, the OS will free it up instantaneously.
 
Space_Chief said:
Modern OSes use RAM for caching purposes. For example my rMBP 15 right now has 1.75GB free (total of 8GB). It's FireFox and Chrome running.
My LaVie Z with Win 8, is running at 2GB free with just FireFox running with two tabs open. (Total of 4GB).

If something important should need that RAM, the OS will free it up instantaneously.
Click to expand...

So why does his machine say it does not have enough RAM? Is the OS lying? Everyone is forgetting the core basics here. RAM is dirt cheap. Doesn't cost an arm and a leg to even add just 1GB more RAM as a minimum.
 
genetic said:
So why does his machine say it does not have enough RAM? Is the OS lying? Everyone is forgetting the core basics here. RAM is dirt cheap. Doesn't cost an arm and a leg to even add just 1GB more RAM as a minimum.
Click to expand...

I also have a Win 7, 1GB Atom machine running Adobe Acrobat Pro or Office 2010 and it doesn't say that it does not have enough RAM. It swaps a lot on its SSD but it doesn't throw out error messages. My guess is that there is something wrong with the machine or Windows; OR he is seriously running too many apps. 3GB for basic use is more than enough. I have 1GB and 2GB machines which work great for basic use with Win 7 and 8.
 
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