Low Virtual Memory Startup Error and Lockup

I am facing a major performance issue with Windows XP. I am not able to find why this thing suddenly appeared. I am using Windows XP Pro here. It is giving me a low virtual memory error on my screen. Windows automatically adjust the same and I thought this will be fixed automatically. But somehow it is not working well. Applications are getting slower here. When I double click on word application from desktop it does nothing. There is nothing on the screen. After restarting the pc there is a bluescreen. But suddenly it starts working normally if I keep it off for some hours.

It looks like there is some kind of malicious software in your system which is eating up your system ram. It is necessary that you scan your system under safe mode. I hope you are using a good antivirus here. In safe mode minimum applications works. And if you scan your system properly the threat will be wiped out. There are tons of anti-malware software available on the web that works really well for this kind of issue.

When your system boots up properly hit Ctrl + Alt + Del to launch Task Manager. In that check out for the list of processes. You can find out which applications or services is eating too much processor. You can terminate the same instantly. Mostly this is a virus problem. Go in Event Viewer and there check for logs. Copy the entire log here. On that basis it will be much more easier to assist you.

I got this issue when my hard drive was almost full. A part of your hard drive is used as page file by windows. It is just a temporary memory. But if there is no space some resource intensive application in the background can cause system failure. While bluescreen on the other hand is a hardware problem. It can be some kind of major hardware or software bug. Whenever blue screen comes on your screen there is a error. You must note down the error and post the same here.

What you can find in event viewer. According to me the time has come to format your system. Take backup of your data as early as you can. Because once formatted you will face problem with recovering the same. Backup your system and then install windows xp from scratch. Once installation is done run windows update to collect latest security patches. Install a good antivirus and keep in updated.

You can increase the virtual memory size. Your system needs more ram. I think this is a performance issue. You have to add more page file and then check back. For that simply right click on My Computer > click on Properties > Advanced > Performance Advanced tab > Virtual Memory. Click on change and choose System managed size. That's all. Now Windows will except the size of memory on basis of it requirement.

Try to clean your drive and make some space free for the page file. It looks your drive is completely occupied. The most you can do is format your system and that will surely improve the performance. You are already facing a blue screen problem here. It is essential that you update your system properly and use the most recent antivirus in your system. Or else this kind of issue will keep on appearing.

Add some more ram in your system. That will be good for performance. Also run disk cleanup. This will wipe out some unwanted files from the hard drive and improve the performance. Disk Defragmentation will also help you more in fixing a number of issue. Increasing page file will not help much. And above all you had not mentioned the complete error code that you got in bluescreen. It is essential to mention the same here.

Hey guys, I literally joined the forums here after finding this topic as I have been experiencing a very similar problem.

On Saturday I was just browsing and I clicked on a link to what I thought was a legitimately safe video but when I noticed the odd IP address in the address bar I quickly closed the tab. I thought everything was fine until about a minute later when Firefox just closed and brought up the "Send Error Report" box, I sent the report along with the usual info. Then I tried reopening Firefox when nothing responded, the system didn't even try to load it, and it wouldn't load any other programs. So I decided to restart the computer to see if it would solve it, it got past the XP loading screen, but like TS, the mouse pointer was fine, but all I got was a black screen with the message about low virtual memory.

The laptop is 2 years old, it is a Dell Inspiron 1300 with 1gig RAM, 80 gig hard drive with a 60/20gig partition with 6.5gigs free space on the primary drive. I had recently run CCleaner and I had the latest version of AVG which I'm surprised didn't pick up on the hazardous link. Running Firefox 3 of course and very little else in the backround, CachemanXP was also running in the backround which failed shortly after Firefox.

I had just recently backed up my music collection, but I have alot of other files I didn't get a chance to backup that I want to get at so I want to avoid formating the drive, but if it comes to it I will reinstall XP just to avoid the stress of not having my own computer.

This seems like a relatively new problem, does anyone have a solution??

I too have just experienced this very same issue with a customer's laptop running XP Home - Low virtual memory warning message on a black screen on both Normal and Safe Mode boot.
I have been trying all sorts of things to get past it but in the end I ended up backing everything up and formatting, reinstalling etc because the customer couldn't wait.
I just know that more of the same problem is going to keep coming into the shop and I can't believe that I can't figure out what's going on...

Here's what I have tried, experienced and discovered so far:

1. There are quite a few posts on the same subject round the net and they were ALL started this December (a Windows update or some other software update maybe?)

2. Deleting pagefile.sys doesn't work

3. The HDD was removed and scanned with Kaspersky on my test rig - clean

4. Hardware tests were performed and it passed everything

5. This message even comes up when you try to do a 'Repair Install' of XP so that's not an option.

6. None of the user hives cause this and I know because when I do an XP format-reinstall I back up everything in the Documents and Settings folders (minus the temp files) and overwrite all the newly created profiles when I restore the data and settings. (Don't try this in Vista :) )

7. The affected machine was running Avast! Antivirus


Hope this helps someone who is trying to get to the bottom of this mystery...

There is a malware in your system. Due to which you are getting that problem. It is common to get bluescreen in case of virus. Because some important system files are modified here due to which the OS become unstable. You have to change your antivirus. On the web you can find some free to use bootable antivirus scanner. I am sure that is more better and capable of cleaning your system. Try that and if nothing works then only re-install windows.