Right-click on the 'My Computer' Icon and select 'Properties'
Click on the 'Advanced' Tab
In 'Performance' click on the 'Settings' button
In the 'Performance Options' window that opens, click on the 'Advanced' Tab
Down in 'Virtual Memory' click on the 'Change' Button
Change the 'Initial Size' and 'Maximum Paging File Size' to '0' (or in Windows XP select 'No Paging File'
Click on 'Set'
Click on the D drive at the top of the window
Change the 'Initial Size' to the 'Recommended' Total Paging File Size For All Drives (or in Windows XP select 'System Managed')
Change the 'Maximum Size' to twice the 'Initial Size'
Click on 'Set'
Click on 'OK' and/or 'Yes' on all windows/prompts until you return to the Desktop.
You will be prompted to Restart the Computer.
Click on 'Yes' to Restart your Computer.

 

That's assuming he has two drives......

 

Could be a virus.

Got a virus scanner? Do a check..

 

Buy some more RAM.... its cheap as chips on Crucial.com

 

what spec is your pc?

 

64amd duel core processor 2gb DDR ram I think is there anyway to tell? Running mccafee I'll do a full virus scan tonight

 

You on XP or Vista?

Check Task manager (right click the bar at the bottom of the screen), go to "processes" tab, and sort the list by CPU, and/or "mem usage" and see if any programs are using up a lot of RAM or processing power.

Changing the virtual memory (detailed earlier) helps out with additional occaisional needs, but most of the time you should have enough power...

 

To check your RAM qty, right click on the "My Computer" icon on the desktop, and go to "properties".

have you de-fragged the PC recently?

 

That spec should not have any issues whatsoever with resources..you've got something awry thats eating it

Download 'hijackthis' and post up it's log on here!

 

what he said.

on that spec you should be perfectly fine, i have a 3.2G P4 (single core), 2.5g of ram and i have never had any message like that!

though i do remember a thread elsewhere that the new firefox can cause this issue, they reported that FF with a low number of websites/tabs open causing huge resource allocation

http://www.thedvdforums.com/forums/showthr...ghlight=firefox

 

Also go to Start menu & run. Type "msconfig" & then look under startup. This will tell you what programs are loaded on starting. Untick anything you're sure you don't need.
Things like msnmsgr for example. Should stop a lot of programs running in the background if you don't need them.

You can look on internet for the file names if unsure, there is usually something telling you what a program does.

 

I do tend to run 4-5 tabs on firefox sometimes I think it mentioned about being network related?

thanks for allthe advice i'll check when I get back home

 

I have a 3ghz P4 and 2GB of Ram on XP.

I was running torrents, Peerguardian, Firexfox, antivirus, anti spyware, messenger AND COD4 on my pc, and I only on one occassion got that warning...

Something is munching it up on your pc fella. Go to webroot.com and download spyware sweeper on the freebee section, it's an awesome programme.

 

still getting these problems, I used to run a progranm called system mechanic but the trial ran out, what's de fragging?

 

When you add programs/pictures/games/music etc, and then remove bits, you leave gaps on the hard drive. New data then gets splits up and saved in these gaps, and it takes the PC longer to open files because they are spread all over the place. "Defragging" or "defragmenting" sorts everything around so programs become whole again (and load quicker). Go to:
Program/Accessories/SystemTools/Disk Defragmenter
It will take an hour or so if the HD is full.
While you are there also do "Disk Cleanup" (same path there) and delete/compress what it reccomends. Those two tasks are a basic monthly housekeeping you should do.

In my experience it wont radically speed things up. I still reckon you need to look at Task Manager (press ctrl/alt/delete), go to "processes" and sort by "mem usage". Then tell us what the 5 biggest processes running are. They should be explorer.exe, and probably whatever AV software you use.

 

All else fails, do a full system reinstall - ie, completely reformat the C drive and write XP on again. You'll lose everything on there unless you can save the data elsewhere (like a portable HD) but you computer will be back to factory fresh and quick afterwards.

Its not as scary as it sounds, providing you prepare the drivers and programs you need are to hand afterwards. Or if you have a computer-savvy mate, get him to do it.

 

ok first of all we have firefox taking up 187,200
then Mcshield.exe 54980
svchost.exe 39532
skype, 34256
wmpnetwe.exe 27332

some other ones but there the biggest on there, not sure what half of them are though!

 

wmpnetwe.exe 27332

Is that wmpnetwk.exe ? If so, theres some savings to be made there by rightclicking on the library tab in Windows Media Player, go to "media sharing" and uncheck the box (to stop sharing media)... unless you want to of course...

 

Firefox is your problem then

And skype - you only have it running when you are actually using it dont you? Most programs (like skype, Messenger etc) have options not to boot up when the computer is switched on. Skype particularly is quite memory hungry...

 

any idea why firefox is being so hungry? i've got 4 tabs open almost every time that I use it and it's never shown up in the past

 

Have you got any extensions on Firefox? any add ons? Likely hood is you've got an extension/skin etc on it that is using FAR too much memory. Reinstall it as just the standard package and skin, and you should be fine with just the security and upgrades only.

 

Do you close firefox every so often? My girfriends leaves hers open and it slowly chews memory up. Try and close it once an hour or something.