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Memset

4K views 47 replies 5 participants last post by  spunk.funk 
#1 ·
I ran prime95 and it said I had a fatal error saying that they expected less than .4 and it was .5. For some reason the report didn't print out Memset a good program to change your memory settings? Can someone explain to me which of the settings mean? My computer has being crashing lately so I enlargened my page file to 5200. I have 4 gigs of memory.
 
#7 ·
The thing is, applications should not be crashing. How many programs are opened at a time and what is crashing?

What is the process of setting a page file. Can I just do it up to 6000 min 12000 max? Then I won't run out of memory really ? What does the min mean and the max mean? Because when I set a minimum, it says that i have that allocated, but does the max mean I still have the potential to allocate that amount? Sorry for all the questions, I will run the memory diagnostic and report in the morning. I put it at 2048 min and 6144 max
You can only use a certain amount of your memory. You changing numbers and settings can cause crashes like this.

Read this here:

Understanding the Windows Pagefile and Why You Shouldn't Disable It
 
#6 · (Edited)
What is the process of setting a page file. Can I just do it up to 6000 min 12000 max? Then I won't run out of memory really ? What does the min mean and the max mean? Because when I set a minimum, it says that i have that allocated, but does the max mean I still have the potential to allocate that amount? Sorry for all the questions, I will run the memory diagnostic and report in the morning. I put it at 2048 min and 6144 max
 
#8 ·
No the crashes happened after I modified the page file. Frustrated, I decided to change it. I don't want to get rid of the page file. So The settings are now 2048 and 6144. I had tried 5000 and 7000 but it didn't seem to work right(it was slower and it might have created file system errors because I had to do a chkdsk)
I
don't have a lot of applications up At a time. The apps that crash are mozilla related applications. The thing is though I need seamonkey to have the mail client and I like the interface. The thing is though I can't get lightning to work for my calendar so I just use thunderbird for calendar purposes only, because once thunderbird gets loaded with emails, it crashes all the time. Firefox crashes. Internet explorer never crashes but it's so slow I hate it. Chrome crashes sometimes. I have to use seamonkey/thunderbird combo because I have gmail and can't use outlook with it.
So I am looking at memtest86 as we speak and it has already reported 7 errors. Will there be a report generated at the end? Do you think there are errors because of how I configured the page file?
Thanks
 
#11 ·
Try blowing out any dust from the motherboard's RAM slots and cleaning the gold fingers on the RAM, then make sure the sticks are firmly locked in place.

Usually when you get memtest errors it means the RAM needs to be replaced. Did you run memtest one stick at a time? Running it with 2 or more sticks installed can sometimes give false errors.

If you get any errors with just one stick, test it again using a different slot to see if the problem is with the RAM or the slot.
 
#13 ·
if memtest is showing errors you RAM is knackered and you need to replace it.


Do you know what a page file is? This is when you allocate space on your hard drive to act as RAM. This should not have caused memtest to fail.
 
#18 · (Edited)
I do know what a page file is it's virtual memory and it's where the computer allocates RAM when RAM is runnning low. Also if you minimize applications then the computer puts them in the page file and when you load them back up they come from the page file.
I am low on memory, I know that. What is the difference between putting a lower minimum to the max as opposed to just having the min and max to be the same?
I actually changed the page file to 6144 min and max and will see how it goes and then do memtest again tonight
 
#14 ·
It's better to leave Windows to handle the page file, but if you really want to do it manually, set the min and max values to the same number. Something around 4000 should be ok. After you get the memory problem fixed, reset the page file back to auto.
 
#16 ·
Yes I know what a page file is it's for distribution of ram to the hard disk to free up the ram. When a program is minimized for a while the computer moves it to ram. When the system is low on RAM it will put some of the memory on the hard drive. Since I am low on ram I want to optimize my computer so my apps don't crash
 
#19 ·
well this where mathematics come into it usually a page file maximum should be 1.5 or 2 x the amount of RAM you have i.e if you have 4GB RAM have an 8GB page file, if your system has 4GB of RAM and your peak memory usage was 5GB (including virtual memory), you should set your pagefile to at least 1GB and the maximum as 2GB to give you a buffer.
 
#21 ·
buffer = just to give you a bit of head room.

imo if you have 4GB RAM you shouldn't be needing to increase your page file unless you are running a crazy amount of things at the same time.

If you are experience apps crash it is more likely something else not anything to do with your page file. If memtest is failing your RAM then that is the issue not anything else.

You cant fix damaged RAM by messing with the page file.
 
#26 ·
I just increased it to 4975 and left it for min and max from 3375 which the system was allocating. I'm just hoping I'll have more luck with my apps. Blythe way I just did a fresh install of vista.. Should I just leave it like that for a while to see if I get better performance? Because 4975 is my memory times 1.5 and windows recommends this size. I'm confused though why would windows recommend this when the page file is actually significantly smaller?
 
#29 · (Edited)
Ok I took out the memory cards, blew on them and tested each individually in the different slots and then together over the course of this morning. There were no errors.

I am pretty sure it's the hard drive that is the issue. when i run the fresh copy of vista, the cpu spikes and it takes forever for a program to load. When I run zorin(linux) from a usb stick there are no problems. And last time I tried to load boot n nuke it said that it "stopped with non-fatal errors"

I am thinking that I got the memset errors because I was changing the paging file, right? Ok. Also when I look in process explorer when running vista it only says memory is using 1 gig, and not spiking, where the cpu is spiking all the time and just freezes.
The hard drive is 7 years old so I think it is that. I will test the hard drive onne more time.

I have tested the drive several times in the past and came up with no errors, but I think it is just too weak to handle loads any more.
BIgbearjedi told me a long time ago that I needed a new hard drive. I was stuborn, because i didn't see any of the tests fail. But I think now its pretty obvious. Is it possible that a hard drive is still bad even though it passed all the big tests? (WDD)
thanks
 
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