How to Fix Virtual Memory Too Low — "Your Computer Is Low on Memory" on Windows
Getting "your computer is low on memory" warnings, pagefile.sys errors, or programs crashing due to insufficient virtual memory? Fix virtual memory settings.
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Main Troubleshooting Guide
How to Fix High CPU Usage →Complete symptoms, causes, and step-by-step solutions
Symptoms
You might be experiencing this problem if you notice:
- •"Your computer is low on memory" popup warning
- •Programs crash with "out of memory" despite having RAM available
- •"Windows created a temporary paging file" message at startup
- •System becomes extremely slow when RAM usage is high
- •Pagefile.sys taking up huge amount of disk space
- •Programs refuse to open saying "not enough memory"
Common Causes
- ⚠Pagefile (virtual memory) set too small or disabled
- ⚠Physical RAM insufficient for running applications
- ⚠Memory leak in a program consuming all available RAM
- ⚠Pagefile on a drive with no free space
- ⚠System managed pagefile on small SSD
- ⚠Multiple programs each requiring large amounts of memory
Solutions
Solution 1: Adjust Virtual Memory Settings
- 1System Properties → Advanced → Performance → Settings
- 2Advanced tab → Virtual memory → Change
- 3Uncheck "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives"
- 4Select C: drive → Custom size
- 5Initial size: 1.5x your RAM (e.g., 16GB RAM = 24576 MB)
- 6Maximum size: 3x your RAM (e.g., 16GB RAM = 49152 MB)
- 7Click Set → OK → restart PC
- 8For SSDs: smaller pagefile is fine since SSD is fast
Solution 2: Find Memory Leaks
- 1Task Manager → sort by Memory usage → identify top consumers
- 2If a program keeps growing in memory use: it has a memory leak
- 3Common offenders: Chrome/Edge (tabs), Electron apps, game launchers
- 4Resource Monitor (resmon) → Memory tab → shows detailed memory breakdown
- 5If "Commit charge" far exceeds physical RAM: pagefile is being heavily used
- 6Close or restart the offending application to free memory
- 7If it's a Windows process: restart the associated service
Solution 3: Optimize Memory Usage
- 1Close unused browser tabs (each tab = 100-500MB)
- 2Disable unnecessary startup programs: Task Manager → Startup
- 3Uninstall programs you don't use: Settings → Apps → Installed apps
- 4If consistently running out of memory: add more RAM
- 5Check: Task Manager → Performance → Memory → "Slots used"
- 6If not all slots used: you can add more RAM sticks
- 7Minimum recommended: 8GB for basic use, 16GB for multitasking, 32GB for creative/gaming
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