The mysteries of pagefiles

[Magnum]

I have 785K of RAM.

With no programs running and 0 % CPU usage, there is still 105 Mb of pagefile usage.

Available memory is 520K.

It SEEMS like most of the available memory would be used before using any pagefile.

[dedndave]

the page file is a file on the drive - not in RAM

you can set the starting and max page file size
i find that making it too small slows the system down, though

System Properties (or My Computer - Properties)
Advanced tab
Performance Settings button
Advanced tab
Virtual Memory - paging file size - Change button

i usually set my Maximum size to 3072 MB
but, anything over 2560 usually works ok

i have 1 Gb total RAM and plenty of hard drive space

another thing that can speed the system up a little is to locate the page file on a different physical drive
it makes only slight improvement if it is different partition on the same drive as the boot drive

[Tedd]

There can be pages in the pagefile which are also in memory at the same time - there's no need to remove them from the pagefile unless the space is required for other pages, so they stay there. And it saves having to re-write them to the pagefile in the future.
But the pagefile is created at minimum size even when it's 'empty' to ensure the space will be available in the future; so whether those sectors are full of junk or meaningful data, it still takes the same space.



(520K of memory? I'm surprised you can even boot  :lol)

[Twister]

What OS are you using Magnum? I'm just wondering because you have a very small amount of memory. 785 kB is the smallest amount I have heard of.

Code Select Expand


MemTotal:        3357224 kB
MemFree:         2555288 kB
Buffers:           31224 kB
Cached:           366120 kB
SwapCached:            0 kB
SwapTotal:       5439484 kB
SwapFree:        5439484 kB

It depends on how many applications are running and how much memory they use. Since you have a very limited amount of memory, it's going to give applications and services a little memory just so they can run, but stick data into a paging system (swap).

[jj2007]

(520K of memory? I'm surprised you can even boot  :lol)

Tedd, Horton,

You guys are on the bright side of life. I have a 6 year old Dell Inspiron that boots XP and runs comfortably with 512k of RAM. Not to mention that my old Atari ST had no problem to do word processing including graphics with 1 (one) MB of RAM :green2

[Magnum]

What OS are you using Magnum? I'm just wondering because you have a very small amount of memory. 785 kB is the smallest amount I have heard of.

Code Select Expand


MemTotal:        3357224 kB
MemFree:         2555288 kB
Buffers:           31224 kB
Cached:           366120 kB
SwapCached:            0 kB
SwapTotal:       5439484 kB
SwapFree:        5439484 kB

It depends on how many applications are running and how much memory they use. Since you have a very limited amount of memory, it's going to give applications and services a little memory just so they can run, but stick data into a paging system (swap).

I never run more than 2 apps at a time, so not that much memory is used except when they start.

I used to have only 512 Megs of RAM. :-)

I use a fixed 200 Mb swapfile on a second faster drive.
That causes less fragmentation.

[Magnum]

There can be pages in the pagefile which are also in memory at the same time - there's no need to remove them from the pagefile unless the space is required for other pages, so they stay there. And it saves having to re-write them to the pagefile in the future.
But the pagefile is created at minimum size even when it's 'empty' to ensure the space will be available in the future; so whether those sectors are full of junk or meaningful data, it still takes the same space.



(520K of memory? I'm surprised you can even boot  :lol)

Tedd,

I still have a .386 Optiplex GX 110 that runs XP Pro semi - fine with even less memory.

I plan on selling it at an upcoming garage sale.

[Tedd]

I assumed it was just a typo (k instead M) but I'm now wondering..

You really only have 785kB (not 785MB) of RAM?
And Windows XP actually still boots? (I wouldn't expect it to work with less than 16MB; definitely not less than 1MB)

[Magnum]

My mistake, it's Mb.

[dedndave]

i didn't think you could run XP on a 386   :P

[Magnum]

Apparently it will run on any Pentium.

Experimental setup 1:

Gateway 2000 socket 5 mainboard

Pentium 75 MHz overclocked to 100 MHz

64 MB RAM, later > 32 MB

SCSI Harddisk and CD-ROM

Winner 1000 graphicscard (ISA)


The setup worked without any problems, you only had to spend more time. Windows found a Pentium, but it does not matter if it is a Pentium I, II, III or IV. The 64 MB of RAM are at the setup MINIMUM, if you have less at this point you get a error and the setup will be ended before it really started. The installation or starting of XP on a 486-system is NOT possible. We tried it (see below).

[Twister]

You meet the System Requiments for Windows XP. You fall just a bit short on the clocks though. :lol

How fast does the system boot up for you?

[Magnum]

That isn't my system, just an example of one that does work.