PC refuses to assign Virtual Memory

Question

Hello!

It started a few days ago. Every time I start the PC, it opens the "Performance Options" window(the one that leads to assigning virtual memory) automatically. In the "Virtual Memory" window, the "No Swap File" line is marked and at the bottom it says "Currently allocated: 0 MB". When it try to change it and assign some values, it prompts a pop up that tells me pagefile.sys already exists, do I want to replace it with this swap file. If I click OK, it asks for a reboot. When I do the reboot, I'm right where I started.

Sometimes, I get another pop-up that basically says it's creating a temp swap file because of some configuration problem(and something about a restart), the total size of the swap file for all discs(like, hard disc) is possibly bigger than assigned. Something along those lines.(In German: Es wurde eine temporäre Auslagerungsdatei erstellt, weil ein Problem bei der Konfiguration der Auslagerungsdatei für den Neustart aufgetreten ist. Die Gesamtgrösse der Auslagerungsdatei für alle Laufwerke ist mödlicherweise grösser als vorgegeben.)

Any...ideas?

Thanks in advance, Maggie

PS: Sorry for the clunky names, my Windows is in German and I'm translating as best I can.

Answer 1

I would do this:

1. Tap F8 at boot time to boot the machine into Windows Repair Mode.
2. Open a Command Prompt (Befehlseingabe).
3. Use these commands to find the System drive. It cannot be drive X:.

*dir  c:\win*dir  d:\win*dir  e:\win*etc.*The first one to respond is your system drive. I shall call it Q:. 4. Type these commands:

attrib  -s -h -r  Q:\Pagefile.sysThis will delete the paging file.

chkdisk  Q:  /R

This will run the CheckDisk command. 5. Reboot and Tap F8 to boot the machine into Safe Mode. 6. Use the Disk Manager (diskmgmt.msc) to defrag the System drive. 7. Reboot normally and set your virtual memory settings.