Free up system memory

Helpline Q&A Directory

When I start up my computer the free memory is around 60 percent. After I have been surfing the internet for 10 minutes the free memory drops to between five and 10 percent and Internet Explorer eventually freezes. The same thing happens if I am using Word. Even after I shut down the program I was running the memory still reads very low. The only way to get back the memory is to reboot, but 10 minutes later it has gone again. I have installed another 64MB of RAM but this has not solved the problem.

We don't know which memory monitoring utility you are using, or what exactly it is monitoring, but a good start might be to get rid of it and save on the memory that it was using. Windows is quite capable of managing its own memory without the user needing to keep an eye on things. It's usual for computer memory to be used up as programs are run, and not freed immediately when the program has finished. Windows will release memory that has been used when a program that has a more urgent need of it wants it.

The main reason for Windows running short of memory is because the hard disk on which the swap file is located is getting full. This will prevent the swap file from expanding to the size it needs to be. The other possibility is that you have tinkered with Windows' virtual memory settings and set an arbitrary limit for the swap file.

To check whether this is the case, you need to access the virtual memory settings. Open Control Panel and double-click the System icon. Click on the Performance tab, then click the Virtual Memory button. If there is plenty of free space on your C drive then 'Let Windows manage my virtual memory settings' should be selected.

If the C drive is short of space and you have another drive with more free space on it, select 'Let me specify my own virtual memory settings'. You can then specify which drive to use.

Some experts believe there is a performance benefit in specifying a minimum size for the swap file, but we have never noticed one. Do not specify a maximum: if Windows needs to make the swap file very large you are only going to cause problems by preventing it from doing so.

The other well-known cause of diminishing memory resources is called a 'memory leak'. This occurs when memory used by a program is never released back to Windows for reuse. However, memory leaks are usually small and may not cause a significant problem for days. They are usually only found on PCs that are left running all the time and never rebooted. Faulty graphics card drivers can cause memory leaks, so if nothing seems wrong with your swap file configuration try updating your graphics drivers.