Strange computer problem

I turned on my XP computer to stream a movie to my TV. When the desktop came up, there was a dialogue box with this message..."Your system is low on virtual memory. Windows is increasing the size of your virtual memory paging file. During this process, memory requests for some applications may be denied. For more information, see Help."

I waited several minutes while the hard drive was busy. I finally could get rid of the box and clicked on a Netflix shortcut. Nothing happened for a while, so I tried bringing up Task Manager. That took several minutes. When it showed up, there were nearly 200 Firefox entries and more showing up. I had to do a hard shutdown. Then when restarted, it shut down very quickly. The hard drive was scanned with Kapersky, but nothing showed up.

Maybe it is a hardware problem. I don't understand why that message about virtual memory would display on the desktop. No programs were running yet. I know this is not much information, but if anyone has any idea of what might be going on, I would appreciate hearing from you.

Pokey,

I don't know that this will help you much but I put that entire quote in Duckduckgo's search engine and came up with a page from Microsoft that addresses that exact issue .

Gil.

I found that link too... do you have Office, Pokey?

I saw that too. I don't have Office on this computer. I hadn't tried to run any program. That is why the message makes no sense to me. There are strange things going on. Tried to remove everything from startup and couldn't get that to work. The computer just shuts down. Checked the bios and got a flashing box and warnings. The set values may have changed. My husband is thinking we will have to replace the motherboard and the memory. I hope not.

Pokey, if this is an older XP computer, you do know that Microsoft is ceasing to support it in just another week or so? It will no longer be wise to use it on the internet. I would hesitate to spend any money on it.

It sure does sound like you have some kind of imminent hardware failure. I would back up anything important right away if you don't do regular backups.

In Task Manager you can sort the items in descending sequence by clicking the column headers - From VIEW, Select Columns and add Virtual Memory Size. Click the column header (Descending, from largest to smallest) and monitor the usage to find the largest consumers.

How much physical memory do you have? You can see the amount in Control Panel, System...

There are some tips ** Here ** for Firefox.

Your computer would need extra virtual memory if something went wrong with your system RAM (memory) -- or alternatively if something was going wrong with the motherboard so it wasn't detecting the memory properly. A change in the amount of detected RAM could also produce the "set values may have changed" message in the BIOS.

RAM is easy to change.
A motherboard is not.

Unless you have spare "known good" RAM hanging around the house that fits this computer, you won't be able to switch out the RAM to see if the motherboard is the problem. A repair shop could do this. It may be time to consider whether you want to keep the computer and pay for repairs or invest in a new one.

I couldn't get into control panel, but checked the memory sticks and there is 2 gig total. When we turn on the computer, the dialogue box saying that you made changes in the startup comes up and I can't get rid of it without the computer shutting down. Clicking anywhere on the desktop shuts it down. We checked the memory by switching it in and out. It seems fine and the processor is too. We switched it with a compatible one. Switched in a different hard disk to no avail. Removed some PCI cards, set the CMOS to fail safe and then to optimal. No change. Flashed the bios, no change.

I turned it on this morning and was able to get the MSCONFIG box off. I was surprised to get control panel and Windows Explorer working. I don't know what happened, but it seemed to be working again. The motherboard has a dual bios and we are wondering if maybe that kicked in. We had tried a lot of things that didn't work, but suddenly it is working again. I hope it lasts. I have no idea where the low virtual memory message came from. Thanks so much for your input.

We have Windows 7 on a second hard disk in this computer and I plan to move my media stuff to it and not use XP.

Over the years, I've found it's best to sometime not try to figure out the "whys" of computers suddenly starting working again. Your brain might fry if you do! Hope it keeps working for you!

Follow the old adage, If it ain't broke, don't fix it

You stated in a prev post that you were getting a lot of junk mail and now you stated that you had 200 Firefox entries. It is possible that your computer has a malware or virus infection.

Donald, we scanned my computer for virus or malware infection and and found none. I believe the junk mail was either from the hacking of a site that had my address or perhaps a commercial site sold a collection of addresses. It ended after two weeks. This problem was another computer used mainly for media, streaming movies or accessing satellite channels.