Virtual memory low, Firefox not responding

Canada
October 12, 2009 9:05pm CST
Ugh, for the past month this has been getting more and more frequent. I gave in last week and decided to upgrade my laptop memory. I've had this laptop for less than a year, but it was an off lease purchase from a local eBay store. I once had to wipe the hard drive clean due to some massive viruses, so far none have returned. But now I have the issue of low virtual memory and it drives me nuts. This happens more when I'm using Facebook and I'm using various applications. So, time for an upgrade, and now I'm just waiting for it in the mail. Hopefully when it arrives, it works and I can get back to normal with everything online.
3 people like this
11 responses
@LadyMarissa (12148)
• United States
13 Oct 09
I'm having a similar problem. I'd love to know if your upgrade helps & what all you end up upgrading. Please update after you do your upgrade & know for sure it works!!!
@LadyMarissa (12148)
• United States
13 Oct 09
I have an old desktop with XP. only 512 mb ram. I would love to upgrade to 1gig or maybe 2. I think I could add the memory myself but get confused on how to know which memory to buy. I recently cleaned my hard drive & that helped a lot at first, but I've noticed it slowing down again. I went to one of the geek sites to ask how to decide what memory I needed to buy. They replied they would tell me if I would pay them. If they had said we will answer your questions for a fee I would have still asked & paid them. However, I felt they were using deceptive practices when they offered to answer my questions & then said they couldn't unless I paid them. I didn't feel I could trust them with my credit card. If they'd lie about one thing, what else would they lie about???
• United Kingdom
14 Oct 09
Hello LadyMarissa. In terms of upgrading your memory or ram there's a very useful website that I use. The website is www.cruicial.com When you go to this website it gives you the option to scan your system and it lets you know what type of ram you have in your system and it also lets you know how much ram you can install in your system. When I carry out any memory upgrades I always use this site now. All the best. Andrew
1 person likes this
• United Kingdom
14 Oct 09
Oops, slight spelling error. The correction is www.crucial.com Andrew
1 person likes this
@hmrk12 (735)
• India
15 Oct 09
You can increase the virtual memory with the present configuration itself if you are not able to still upgrade the system hardware. The step by step procedure has been given in the following article and you may read and follow the steps to increase the VM. Both for windows XP and vista has been clearly explained.If you still not able to do that, as it is only the setting changes, you can even format the system and it should be the final option. Please follow the link: http://www.delete-computer-history.com/increase-virtual-memory.html
@gmkk1986 (471)
• India
14 Oct 09
Its really nice Idea to upgrade the physical RAM in your system. But Fact is that your physical RAM wont come to picture while you operating any application because physical RAM only works when you transfer data from on location to another. While come to real fact you can verify article from this link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826513
@voldrox (7191)
• India
14 Oct 09
Hi kris yeah many of us face the same problem, i just have 1gb of memory and i am beginning to feel how slow my laptop has been getting lately, i think at this time a 2gb ram should be optimum, yeah but if you could get some more then it would be even better for the future but i would say 2gb memory should be okay... have a nice day kris!
@haohaoge (40)
• China
14 Oct 09
Virtual memory is very important,you can set virtual memory two size than physical menory.And you can upgrade firefox software,if you have some question, please advice.Thanks.
@ample03 (403)
• India
14 Oct 09
Yes,I think it would be better to upgrade. RAM is one of the most important parts of the computer to maintain speed and good health. If you want to run a lot of applications at a time, it is absolutely necessary to have a huge amount of RAM in your system. You have taken the best decision to upgrade it. All the best
@Thoroughrob (11742)
• United States
13 Oct 09
That is so funny, I just had to order memory for my computer also. I am waiting for it to get here. It is aggarvating when thngs don't work right.
@rosdimy (3926)
• Malaysia
13 Oct 09
Have you tried increasing the size of the Virtual Memory? This can easily be done, and you may already know how to access the menu. Of course it would depend on your available hard disk space. You mentioned Firefox in the title. My default browser is one which is small in size, and the current version handles memory better than Firefox.
• India
13 Oct 09
i have a cyber cafe. i still use pantium 4. 512 mb ram for some of my pc but it had never give me a problem some times upgrade is not needed problem is something else so think before you upgrade. cause it might not be worth spending all the money. i personally use amd phenom. with all the the good feature. if u want more then just ask me.
• India
14 Oct 09
try to increase the size of your paging file. It must do it. If it still says the message you told, then it is time to increase your RAM capacity. If your laptop does not have the capacity to add another RAM, then try to uninstall some applications that eat up much of your memory. Thanks Rajah Ganesh G.S. Certified A+ N+ Professional i@mhErO!
@dekada80 (388)
• Philippines
14 Oct 09
correcting your virtual memory setting by selecting "system manage size" option in the virtual memory panel will help.