Low Memory Error

[natalieseeman]

I just performed an update on my computer and now I am getting a low memory error. When the error pops up, it tells me to close all programs. After doing so, if I try to open other programs, the screen goes black and I am unable to click anything so I have to hard shut down my computer.

[mdklassen]

Your computer: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03383025   was shipped with these resources:

* 6GB DDR3 SDRAM (2 DIMM) in 2 User accessible memory slots,

* 640GB 5400RPM hard-drive;

So, the "low memory" might apply to either resource.

How full is your disk-drive? It's not likely to be "full", or anywhere close to being "full".  So, it's unlikely to be the cause of the message.

How many applications are you running at the same time -- it takes many-many-many currently-open applications to fill that 6 GB of RAM ?

Most web-browsers consume more and more memory, as you access more web-pages, and "give back" that memory, when the browser is closed.

MEASURE, MEASURE, MEASURE.

Open the Windows "Task Manager", and switch to the "Performance" tab, to see how much RAM that Windows is using.

It should be between 1.0 and 1.5 GB, before you launch any other programs.

Launch your programs, and look again, and tell us how much RAM is now allocated.

[natalieseeman]

When I open task manager and go to the Performance Tab, the left hand tab under memory says 2.6/7.9 GB.  Also, now when the error pops up my entire screen goes black and I cannot get the computer to come back and have to hard shut it down every time. 

[mdklassen]

> the left hand tab under memory says 2.6/7.9 GB.  

So, your computer has 8GB of RAM -- more than the 6GB that shipped with some models -- but only is using 2.6 GB.

> when the error pops up my entire screen goes black and I cannot get the computer to come back

What application(s), e.g,. Microsoft Word, or Adobe, or DreamWeaver, are "open" just before the error-message?

Exactly what is the wording of the error-message?

Is your disk-drive more than 80% "full" ?

[natalieseeman]

The only thing that I have open when the error message displays is VMWare which is what I use to remote into work. But even with that open, I'm nowhere near the 8.0 GB. Dropbox is sometimes open too but nothing else. 

I'm getting a few error messages but can't memorize them because quickly after they show up, my screen goes black and I can't get it back. I was able to see one that said "Close programs to prevent information loss." Your computer is low on memory. Save your files and close these programs: VMware Remote MKS. 

The last time my screen went black, I tried to move my mouse around and give it some time to see if it would come back, and it did, but my screen seemed all messed up - for example, it was zoomed in, the mouse was bigger, and my icons were all moved around my desktop. Also, there is a small colorful square now on my desktop in the middle of the screen (looks like a graphics issue). 

I looked at task manager an my disk drive is no where near 80% full. 

I performed several updates the other day to my PC. Could it be possible that my issues are related to the updates?

[mdklassen]

> Could it be possible that my issues are related to the updates?

Doubtful.  I have seen no online "chatter" about the Microsoft updates (released 3 days ago) having such effects.

Could it be the computer that you are remotely accessing be the computer that is reporting the "low memory" error-message?

Do you have a smart-phone that can record video of the screen, and then do a ultra-slow "playback" of the video, up to the point just before the "blackness" ?

> my screen seemed all messed up ...

That seems to be the "screen-resolution" going from "optimal" to "low-resolution" -- icons get better, instead of "millions" of different colours, you get 16 colours, and the background-color around the mouse-pointer being different than the colour of the surrounding "wallpaper", thus creating a "box" effect. 

[natalieseeman]

Sorry for the delay in responding, but I was able to take a video when the error happened while I was on my HP computer but remoted into my computer at work. I uploaded it to Youtube because I wasn't sure how to attach it to this. Here is the link. If it doesn't work or let you view it, let me know and I can try to change the settings. Or let me know if it's too small to see. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b35ULtrvpA&feature=youtu.be 

I start the video when I am still remoted into work and then minimize my "remote desktop" to get back to my actual HP desktop to see the error which presents with a yellow exclamation point at the bottom of my actual desktop (I knew it was there because my computer made the "error" noise). From there, you see that I click on the error and then hit cancel. I was going to then click back on VMWare to get back to my remote desktop, but before I click anything, my screen goes blank. You will then see (in the video) that I do a lot of clicking and hitting keys to get it to try and come back, but nothing happens. Around the 1:20 mark, something pops up like it's trying to show through but it never does. I tried hitting control+alt+delete a few times but nothing happened. After I ended the video, I had to hard shut my computer down. 

Thanks for you input! Sorry the video is pretty long with nothing happening for most of the time, but I wanted to see if it would do the thing where the screen pops back up, but with bigger icons and the little color box. It does that sometimes when this happens but did not this time. 

Lastly, I have been using VMWare and Dropbox for a very long time and this is now just suddenly happening. Is there any way for me to free up my memory, defrag my computer, etc to fix this?

[mdklassen]

MEASURE, MEASURE, MEASURE.

Before starting VMWARE, open the Windows "Task Manager", and switch to the "Performance" tab, to see how much RAM that Windows is using.

It should be between 1.0 and 1.5 GB.

Does it also show that you have 6 GB of RAM installed?

Launch VMWARE, but don't login to your remote system just yet.

Within Task Manager, look again, and tell us how much RAM is now allocated.

Open a command-line prompt, and type:   DIR  C:\*.SYS /A   and press ENTER.

You should see output like:

26/06/2017  08:01 AM     6,346,764,288 hiberfil.sys
26/06/2017  08:01 AM     8,462,352,384 pagefile.sys

Tell us what you see.

[natalieseeman]

1. Before starting VMWare, I opened up task manager and went to the performance tab, and it showed 2.7/7.9 GB under

"memory" (shown below).

2. Not sure if this is helpful but I also went over the the "processess" tab (still with nothing open) and it showed 100%

under "disk"

3. Then, I openned VMWare and did not remote into my work computer, and it showed 3.2/7.9 GB under "memory." The processes tab still showed 99-100% under disk when I openned VMWare.

4. Lastly, I openned a command prompt and typed in what you pasted below, but it kept giving me an error when I hit enter. Below is what I typed into the command promt:

[mdklassen]

I cannot see the images that you included -- this is "normal" -- one of the board's moderators needs to "approve" them (not wanting any 'NSFW' images to be allowed to be posted), but:

   I also went over the the "processess" tab (still with nothing open) and it showed 100% under "disk"

That is not "normal" -- way too high!

Within Task Manager, near the bottom of the "Performance" tab, click "Resource Monitor".

On that window, click its "Performance" tab.

Expand the "disk" section, to see which process is doing the most read/writes per second.

Click on a column-heading to order the rows.

What process is doing so much I/O ???