Question Paging file size doesn’t save Vista

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turkeypets

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Sep 5, 2022
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I need help Im using Vista in Virtual Memory i foolishly entered a large amount into the Initial size and when I restarted my computer it took forever to load, then i restarted in safe mode and it took a long time too. I tried to change it to system managed size and Automatically manage but when i check it again after restarting the No paging file is ticked. I seen a box appear in the bottom right hand side of the screen that said something about a corrupted file. The box went away after a few seconds but i think it said corrupted file in System Properties. I guess meaning the page file. Im using a IPad and was reading a little and someone said go into Windows Explorer and tick show hidden operating system files and go into the C drive and delete the page file.says file then go and set the Virtual Memory and restart computer and it will set but i dont know if thats a safe thing to do or the right thing to do please help.
 
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Darkbreeze said:
What are your full hardware specs and WHY in the world are you still using Vista?
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Hi what’s the best way to give you my specs in using a iPad cause my computer is so slow? It’s a 64bit HP Pavilion m9250f, 8gb RAM, Nvidia GeForce 8600, Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6700 @ 2.66gh. 2.67gh, running Windows Vista Home Premium.

Computer is slow cant even play a video except in safe mode, but i see its finally showing a page file set on Custom at Initial size 400 and Maximum size 8000. It says only 1048 is allocated.
 
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Darkbreeze said:
Wow. That's, kinda old man. But, ok.

Do you have everything important backed up to another location already, I mean, you do right?
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Pretty much so I’m finishing it now. Looking at the task manager it shows in Processes Physical Memory being used 90%, what’s going on? All tabs are closed nothings really running.
 
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Darkbreeze said:
Wow. That's, kinda old man. But, ok.

Do you have everything important backed up to another location already, I mean, you do right?
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If i deleted the pagefile.sys file would Windows create a new one when i restarted? I read to set it to 0 so its not being used, then delete it the file and run dskchk or just delete it and restart and Windows will create a new one that isn’t corrupted.
 
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There are a variety of things you can TRY, but if the settings aren't sticking due to some kind of corruption, seems unlikely that variations on that theme are going to be successful AND, perhaps more importantly, if there is corruption with the pagefile there is likely a larger problem than just the pagefile. There is probably registry corruption as well. This COULD also be a failing drive issue especially given the age of the hardware. It would be a good idea to download and run the free version of Hard disk sentinel and check the drive(s) for problems before even trying to go forward with any sort of "fix" since it would just be a waste if the problem is actually drive related.

But performing a clean install is probably a good idea as well so long as you have the license key still which should either be on a sticker on the machine somewhere or on the CD it was installed from if you have one.

 
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Darkbreeze said:
There are a variety of things you can TRY, but if the settings aren't sticking due to some kind of corruption, seems unlikely that variations on that theme are going to be successful AND, perhaps more importantly, if there is corruption with the pagefile there is likely a larger problem than just the pagefile. There is probably registry corruption as well. This COULD also be a failing drive issue especially given the age of the hardware. It would be a good idea to download and run the free version of Hard disk sentinel and check the drive(s) for problems before even trying to go forward with any sort of "fix" since it would just be a waste if the problem is actually drive related.

But performing a clean install is probably a good idea as well so long as you have the license key still which should either be on a sticker on the machine somewhere or on the CD it was installed from if you have one.

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Thank you ill try hard disk sentinel i ran chkdsk then defrag on the C drive overnight and it seems slower than it did before. If i were to reinstall Windows Vista on it would i even be able to download all the old Microsoft updates for it that it needs like i did 10 years ago? If Windows dont support Vista anymore would my computer find those updates? The page file is finally actually showing the same every time i restart and check it. No more messages that’s it corrupt but i guess that dont mean it isn’t still corrupt. Do you think it could be the power supply?
 
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alceryes said:
Thanks. This made me lol. 😆

For the OP, is the drive that the pagefile is on full?
If you are setting a static pagefile you need to set both the min and max to the same number, otherwise, the computer will still use a dynamic range within the range that you set.
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Hi now its got about 65g free space. Thank you for the info! What number should i have them set at? I have 8gb RAM and have it set at 4000 - 4000
 
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Darkbreeze said:
There are a variety of things you can TRY, but if the settings aren't sticking due to some kind of corruption, seems unlikely that variations on that theme are going to be successful AND, perhaps more importantly, if there is corruption with the pagefile there is likely a larger problem than just the pagefile. There is probably registry corruption as well. This COULD also be a failing drive issue especially given the age of the hardware. It would be a good idea to download and run the free version of Hard disk sentinel and check the drive(s) for problems before even trying to go forward with any sort of "fix" since it would just be a waste if the problem is actually drive related.

But performing a clean install is probably a good idea as well so long as you have the license key still which should either be on a sticker on the machine somewhere or on the CD it was installed from if you have one.

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I am trying to remove some programs from Programs and Features and a program called Recuva wont delete it says i dont have Administraive permission so i opened Geek uninstaller as administrator and it says Error launching installer. I also tried to uninstall it with Revo Uninstaller and its not listed. Very fishy, do you know how i could uninstall it?
 
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If you logged into windows with a User account setting, you won't then have Admin privileges. Most ppl don't bother with log-out/log-in if they are the only user, only logging in the once and setting that as a permanent condition, but on those older OS, Admin was a different account. You could try logging out, then log back on as Admin.
 
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Karadjgne said:
If you logged into windows with a User account setting, you won't then have Admin privileges. Most ppl don't bother with log-out/log-in if they are the only user, only logging in the once and setting that as a permanent condition, but on those older OS, Admin was a different account. You could try logging out, then log back on as Admin.
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Thank you!
i actually saw that last night its either me or guest account and it is showing me a s administrator, the Recuva software is very shady dont download it!
 
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I just saw 611 hard faults per second im running Windows Vista64 HP Pavilion m9250f, Nvidia GeForce 8600,8gb RAM, Used Physical Memory is usually at 95% when nothings really running. I just saw it at 80%. with just a few hard faults then i opened my browser and it jumped to 611 hard faults. My computer is slow even in safe mode, its been like this all week. Im trying to find out what’s causing the faults and get the computer healthy before i run system recovery.I saw 100 hard faults when closing the browser.
 
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hard faults are when the CPU has to access page file to get the information. It only does that normally if you running low on memory.

What is ram usage like in safe mode?

what storage drives do you have? might want to test them with crystaldiskinfo or hdtune

try running anti virus scans or malwarebytes, could be an infection
 
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Colif said:
hard faults are when the CPU has to access page file to get the information. It only does that normally if you running low on memory.

What is ram usage like in safe mode?

what storage drives do you have? might want to test them with crystaldiskinfo or hdtune

try running anti virus scans or malwarebytes, could be an infection
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hi thank you. All the things i mentioned were when in safe mode. This all started when i put a very high number in Initial Size for the page file i entered 11000 and when the computer restarted it was very slow, i check ed virtual memory page file size and it said no page file. I tried since resetting it after many times and got a error that the page file.sys is corrupt. I kept trying to reset it and got it to set at Initial 4000 and Max 4000. What could have happened from me setting it so high? Im running 8gb RAM what size should my page file be set at?
And if i delete the page file.sys file will Windows create another one when it restarts?
 
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turkeypets said:
Thank you!
i actually saw that last night its either me or guest account and it is showing me a s administrator, the Recuva software is very shady dont download it!
Click to expand...
Recuva isn't shady at all. It's part of the Piriform software suite (same makers as CCleaner). It was just installed by someone logged in as the computer administrator and so needs to be removed by the administrator (or by an administrative user with elevated privileges). This is just standard operating procedure.
 
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turkeypets said:
Hi now its got about 65g free space. Thank you for the info! What number should i have them set at? I have 8gb RAM and have it set at 4000 - 4000
Click to expand...
Really depends on what you're doing. Microsoft would say to leave it on auto and this is a good answer for usage across the board, however, you may be able to get a tiny bit more drive performance during heavy I/Os by setting a static pagefile. For 99.99% of cases, setting a pagefile equal to the size of your RAM + 257MBs is the correct answer. If you don't care about diagnosing issues with memory dumps just set it to your RAM size. If you have 8GBs of memory, setting it to 8192 (both min and max) would be the correct answer.

This is as long as you're not running database, media, scientific, or other specific-use programs meant to use as much pagefile as needed regardless of how much RAM you have. (and I don't mean your basic photo viewer or editor. I'm referring to professional softwares only)
 
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alceryes said:
Recuva isn't shady at all. It's part of the Piriform software suite (same makers as CCleaner). It was just installed by someone logged in as the computer administrator and so needs to be removed by the administrator (or by an administrative user with elevated privileges). This is just standard operating procedure.
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I thought Piriform sounded familiar. But i am the one that installed it and i was and am the administrator.
 
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turkeypets said:
I thought Piriform sounded familiar. But i am the one that installed it and i was and am the administrator.
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It is certainly possible that Recuva was installed when installing another app like CCleaner or Speccy. I have seen them bundled, requiring an active de-selection to prevent their installation. Adobe has done this with their own and other (like McAfee) products as well.
 
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And actually Windows XP and Windows Vista were NOT especially good at managing the pagefile and virtual memory configuration. And Windows 7 was mediocre. It wasn't until Windows 8.1 and 10 that it got fairly good at it.

For Windows Vista and XP I'd just set the minimum to 2048 and maximum to 2048 and forget about it. The only thing you REALLY need it for unless you have very little memory installed is giving the system the ability to use it for crash dumps, but if you have less than 6GB of RAM you might need it for actual operations if you run low on memory.
 
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he made another post about hard faults today, I merged it into this as I think its the same sort of problem.
Page file usage and hard faults are the same thing. All a hard fault is, is the CPU accessing page file as the info it needs isn't in ram.

Probably fixing one fix other.
 
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