[SirAdrian]

Hi,

I have 3 Kingston 1GB DDR2-667 240pin RAM sticks, and both the BIOS and Windows XP recognizes them. However, when I actually get to around 1GB of memory in use, the system runs out of memory and things start to get ugly.

Just to clarify, the entire computer is using that 1GB - not one single program. I have the virtual memory set to 2GB right now, so there should be plenty. I know that 32bit windows can only support 3GB, but since 1 < 3 it should be OK.

Any ideas?

 

[speedster123]

You might try first steps for a log

Did you try a "msconfig" to check what is running in the backround?
Are you using Norton?

 

[SirAdrian]

It's not a spyware issue... I have quite a few things running in the background, but most are needed. I keep things clean by scanning for spyware / viruses very frequently. And yes, I am running Norton.

FYI, I am on WinXP SP2.

 

[Kalim]

Check your "Peak" and "Total" values under Performance in "Task Manager" (Ctrl+Alt+Del)

 

[SirAdrian]

Looks OK. -attached

 

[SirAdrian]

Very weird...

I just opened up a bunch of problems and hit 1.5 GB without any problems. I'm 100% sure it wasn't a single program using > 1 GB (or over 500 MB of RAM). Paint wouldn't let me open a 1024x768 image, and the task manager wasn't drawing properly, and then Photoshop just closed itself.

Here is another image.

 

[Kalim]

I can't see how its actually RAM related, as the maximum RAM you were using there was 1.625GB out of 5GB total available including VM.

The system was obviously running there, so did you encounter any other issues?

Load the computer with applications running -- a few vids, a compression, a game, photoshop and a browser playing vids should etc, to get it to highest you can near 3GB.

Check to see if it reaches and if not how far it goes with the exact error messages noted. Note the time of the error message.

On a side note, do you have all of the Windows updates installed?