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I recently discovered that the page file usage for my computer is at least 140mb all the time, even when I have no programs open, and I've turned off all of the "startup tasks" in the System Configuration Utility, to ensure that no programs are running in the background at startup. The processes listed in the Windows Task Manager only amount to about 30mb of memory usage, so what could be using all of that virtual memory when, to my knowledge, there are no programs running, and the CPU usage is close to zero.
I recently got DSL, and while installing it, I had to turn off my firewall for about 6 hours due to various problem. There were approx. 12 different viruses on my computer when I scanned it after turning the firewall back on, and when I deleted one of them, the page file usage dropped 100 megs (from 238 to 140). Could there be another virus on my computer that's using memory while I'm not running any programs, and if so, any suggestions on how I could get it off, since Norton Antivirus obviously isn't finding it?
I have my page file set to a minimum of 1500mb and maximum of 1500mb.
What do you have your Virtual Memory (page file) set at?
go to control panel-system-advanced-under performance click on Settings- advanced- under virtual memory, click on Change.
It should show you how much you your virtual memory is set at.
Tosh Hida
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By the way, I did what you did and closed all of my start up programs. I checked Task Manager-performance, and the "PF Usage" was at 140 mb, just like yours. It's probably what's neccessary to run Windows.
I doubt that you have any viruses left on your computer.
Bottom line, ignore it and get on with your life.
Good luck
Tosh Hida
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My page file usage is set at 192mb. Since I installed the DSL and began having problems, Windows has been giving me error messages telling me that it must increase the amount of virtual memory, and I have always allowed it to do so. I'm not sure what the page file usage was before Windows first increased it.
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I would think that 140 megs was necessary to run Windows, but my computer seems to be running slower than normal, and I don't recall the page file usage being that high in the past.
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That's because you only have 128mb of RAM. XP needs all of 128mb just to run, let alone run anything else.
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I agree with Bryan, if you want your system to run smoothly, you should have at least 512.
Tosh Hida
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I used TrendMicro Houscall to scan my computer and so far it has found 5 infected files that are non cleanable, and only 1 infected file that was cleanable. What do you do about infected files that aren't cleanable?
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You can try a different software, go to this page, it performs a scan online:
http://www.pcpitstop.com/antivirus/default.asp
Tosh Hida
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Unless you're trying to run a ton of other programs simultaneously, Windows XP will run just fine with 128MB. No, it won't be especially quick, but you shouldn't have any major problems with it, either.
As for the paging file, since you only have 128MB of RAM, let Windows manage its size. You have nothing to gain by manually setting the minimum/maximum parameters.
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When the TrendMicro virus scan finished, it had found 26 infected files. When I read the description of each virus, I found one that said that it loads into the process space of explorer.exe so that it becomes invisible to task manager. This is probably what was causing my problem.
Thanks, everyone, for all your help!
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