Unable to set paging file size

Topic

New Reply

Every time I boot Windows 7 I get a message saying that a temporary paging file was created due to a problem that occurred with my paging file configuration. Once I click OK it gives me the Performance Options screen. I then change the options for the paging file and it appears to accepts the changes I have made. However, when I look at the paging file size it really hasn’t changed anything. I have tried all of the options available for setting the paging file size with no results.

When I first installed Windows 7 it worked fine. It was after I installed a new hard drive that the problem started happening.

I am using Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bits. The PC is a Dell XPS 410 with 4 meg of memory.

Reply | Quote

Replies

If you click that Change button on the right image, what values are set for the paging file size?

Reply | Quote

Every time I boot Windows 7 I get a message saying that a temporary paging file was created due to a problem that occurred with my paging file configuration. Once I click OK it gives me the Performance Options screen. I then change the options for the paging file and it appears to accepts the changes I have made. However, when I look at the paging file size it really hasn’t changed anything. I have tried all of the options available for setting the paging file size with no results.

When I first installed Windows 7 it worked fine. It was after I installed a new hard drive that the problem started happening.

I am using Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bits. The PC is a Dell XPS 410 with 4 meg of memory.

Please post an image of your PC as shown in mine.

Reply | Quote

Here are the three that you asked for. Be aware that I have tried setting and resetting all of the options provided by the Virtual Memory panel without success.

Reply | Quote

Ok, what you need is to click System managed size, then click Set and then Ok. This of course, while you maintain the C drive selected, as you show in your image. You will likely be asked to reboot, accept it and it should be solved.

Reply | Quote

Clifford, I recommend clicking ‘custom’, enter 4603 in both boxes ( as seen on your page ) click ‘ set ‘ then OK till it all disappears and reboot. This method stops your PF from fragmenting.

Reply | Quote

Clifford, I recommend clicking ‘custom’, enter 4603 in both boxes ( as seen on your page ) click ‘ set ‘ then OK till it all disappears and reboot. This method stops your PF from fragmenting.

Well there are contradicting opinions on having a fixed size for the paging file. Eric Vaughan, someone who is known to provide valuable advice on Windows tweaking, seems to prefer a non fixed size file. I don’t set a size to my file and instead let Windows determine what to use.

Reply | Quote

Well there are contradicting opinions on having a fixed size for the paging file. Eric Vaughan, someone who is known to provide valuable advice on Windows tweaking, seems to prefer a non fixed size file. I don’t set a size to my file and instead let Windows determine what to use.

This:-

Pagefile

RAM is a limited resource, whereas virtual memory is, for most practical purposes, unlimited. There can be many processes, each one having its own 2 GB of private virtual address space. When the memory that is in use by all the existing processes exceeds the amount of available RAM, the operating system moves pages (4 KB pieces) of one or more virtual address spaces to the hard disk, thus freeing that RAM frame for other uses. In Windows systems, these “paged out” pages are stored in one or more files that are named pagefile.sys in the root of a partition. There can be one such file in each disk partition. The location and size of the page file is configured in Control Panel. To set these values, click System, click Advanced system settings[/b], and then click Settings under Performance[/b].

A frequently asked question is how big should I make the pagefile? There is no single answer to this question because it depends how much RAM is installed and how much virtual memory that workload requires. If there is no other information available, the typical recommendation of 1.5 times the amount of RAM that is in the computer. On server systems, a common objective is to have enough RAM so that there is never a shortage and so that the pagefile is essentially not used. On these systems, having a very large pagefile may serve no useful purpose. On the other hand, disk space is usually plentiful, so having a large pagefile (for example, 1.5 times the installed RAM) does not cause a problem and eliminates the concern about how large to make it.
–
Was found here

Reply | Quote

I have tried every option available with varying sizes and letting Windows manage the size. I click OK, reboot, and get the same error all over again. It has become extremely frustrating. The one thing I have not been able to figure out is where is the Paging File Configuration that the first error message speaks to.

Reply | Quote

I have tried every option available with varying sizes and letting Windows manage the size. I click OK, reboot, and get the same error all over again. It has become extremely frustrating. The one thing I have not been able to figure out is where is the Paging File Configuration that the first error message speaks to.

Do you click Set before clicking ok?

Reply | Quote

Do you click Set before clicking ok?

Yes, I do click set.

Reply | Quote

Run a “sfc /scannow” and see if that will repair whatever has broken your ability to manipulate the PF.

NOTE: When SFC runs, it logs it’s actions to the C:WINDOWSLOGSCBSCBS.LOG. This will show you how to see only the specific SFC entries with the [SR] tags in the CBS.log. This can be helpful to show you what files SFC could not fix automatically if you wanted to try and manually replace them.

findstr /c:”[SR]” %windir%logscbscbs.log >%userprofile%Desktopsfcdetails.txt
Type the above in elevated command prompt for details from the CBS.LOG

.

Reply | Quote

Run a “sfc /scannow” and see if that will repair whatever has broken your ability to manipulate the PF.

.

I am running SFC at this time. I’ll let you know what I find out.

Reply | Quote

Run a “sfc /scannow” and see if that will repair whatever has broken your ability to manipulate the PF.

.

After running SCF I no longer get the message saying that a temporary paging file has been created. However, I am still getting the Virtual Memory screen indicating “No paging file”.

I still need to analyze the CBS Log file to determine if it will give me a clue as to what is happening.

Reply | Quote

Hi RR,

That doesn’t change anything really. In latest versions of Microsoft’s operating systems (Windows 7 and Server 2k8 R2), the default paging file size is about the amount of RAM you have (not 1,5 x RAM) – see here, which was linked on the page I linked before.

If you read this article from Mark Russinovitch, clearly one of the foremost expert on Windows internals, you will find this on page file sizes:

How Big Should I Make the Paging File?
Perhaps one of the most commonly asked questions related to virtual memory is, how big should I make the paging file? There’s no end of ridiculous advice out on the web and in the newsstand magazines that cover Windows, and even Microsoft has published misleading recommendations. Almost all the suggestions are based on multiplying RAM size by some factor, with common values being 1.2, 1.5 and 2. Now that you understand the role that the paging file plays in defining a system’s commit limit and how processes contribute to the commit charge, you’re well positioned to see how useless such formulas truly are.

Since the commit limit sets an upper bound on how much private and pagefile-backed virtual memory can be allocated concurrently by running processes, the only way to reasonably size the paging file is to know the maximum total commit charge for the programs you like to have running at the same time. If the commit limit is smaller than that number, your programs won’t be able to allocate the virtual memory they want and will fail to run properly.

So how do you know how much commit charge your workloads require? You might have noticed in the screenshots that Windows tracks that number and Process Explorer shows it: Peak Commit Charge. To optimally size your paging file you should start all the applications you run at the same time, load typical data sets, and then note the commit charge peak (or look at this value after a period of time where you know maximum load was attained). Set the paging file minimum to be that value minus the amount of RAM in your system (if the value is negative, pick a minimum size to permit the kind of crash dump you are configured for). If you want to have some breathing room for potentially large commit demands, set the maximum to double that number.

Some feel having no paging file results in better performance, but in general, having a paging file means Windows can write pages on the modified list (which represent pages that aren’t being accessed actively but have not been saved to disk) out to the paging file, thus making that memory available for more useful purposes (processes or file cache). So while there may be some workloads that perform better with no paging file, in general having one will mean more usable memory being available to the system (never mind that Windows won’t be able to write kernel crash dumps without a paging file sized large enough to hold them).

You will see that in the shown images, the page file size is set to be managed by the system. Is it a coincidence? I don’t think so.
If you take time to read what he wrote, you will see that the Peak Commit Charge is really what matters in terms of paging file sizing and the needs will vary with Peak Commit Charge, which will vary depending on what programs you run and their memory needs.

So I choose to let Windows choose the size it needs, just to accommodate even the very rare occasions when it may need more than the size that is used as default (and which is about the same amount of your RAM). The more RAM you have, the more likely that this default size will suit you, but that depends on what you do with your system.

Reply | Quote

Now set @

Reply | Quote

Ok :).

I was just trying to explain why I posted that advice on this thread. I will admit that for most users with a bit of RAM and a normal use of their pcs (as opposed to heavy use of system memory), there will be no relevant practical differences between the choices we have been discussing :).

Regards

Rui

Reply | Quote

Ok :).
I was just trying to explain why I posted that advice on this thread. I will admit that for most users with a bit of RAM and a normal use of their pcs (as opposed to heavy use of system memory), there will be no relevant practical differences between the choices we have been discussing :).
Regards
Rui

Thats true Rui, then why does a recommended number get displayed.

Reply | Quote

Thats true Rui, then why does a recommended number get displayed.

From the Windows Performance Team blog (bolds are my responsability):

Therefore, on a 32-bit system with 512MB of RAM, the page file size would range from 768MB to 1536MB. On a 32-bit system with 2GB of RAM, the page file size would range from 2GB to 4GB (remember that 4GB is the maximum size of a page file on 32-bit operating systems). However, now consider a system managed page file on a 64-bit server with 32GB of RAM. The page file size would range from 32GB to 96GB! This is why understanding the performance of your server is so important. Although there are general recommendations about page file sizing that are based on the amount of physical RAM in a system, this is not 100% valid. If you think about it, the more memory you have, the less likely you are to need to page data out.

I have given you the relevant and up to date info I use to make my own decision. You choose whatever fits your needs. I just don’t believe in repeating whatever everyone else is saying without understanding why.

Reply | Quote

Do you run any security app that may be preventing the registry from being updated?

Reply | Quote

Do you run any security app that may be preventing the registry from being updated?

I use Microsoft Security Essentials.

Reply | Quote

I use Microsoft Security Essentials.

I use MSE on my desktop too so I don’t think MSE is responsible for this.

I suppose you didn’t have success solving your issue. If you feel daring, you can try and change the registry directly, to see if it will help you get a paging file.

Reply | Quote

Clifford, read this http://www.tomstricks.com/how-to-rebuild-the-paging-file-to-optimize-windows-vista-performance/ it should work in W7 unless something else is interfering.

Reply | Quote

Thanks for the idea. My paging size is set to 256-512mg

Reply | Quote

Have you tried this: “sc config afs start= disabled” (From elevated command prompt)
From here

Reply | Quote

Have you tried this: “sc config afs start= disabled” (From elevated command prompt)
From here

Nice find .

Reply | Quote

Have you tried this: “sc config afs start= disabled” (From elevated command prompt)
From here

SUCCESS AT LAST!! After running the above the system rebooted with no errors and the Virtual Memory screen showed a System Managed Size of 3069. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your efforts to assist me. The man-hours I have put into this problem is unbelievable. Thanks again, Cliff

Reply | Quote

Are there any entries in the Event Viewer that relate to this problem?
Jerry

Reply | Quote

Are there any entries in the Event Viewer that relate to this problem?
Jerry

Not that I have been able to find. However, there are a lot of events that are very vague.

Reply | Quote

Hi Clifford, I’m not sure if they would, if they are occurring on your PC they could. Another method is Reliability Monitor, type ‘reli’ in start menu search box.

Reply | Quote

Hi Clifford, I’m not sure if they would, if they are occurring on your PC they could. Another method is Reliability Monitor, type ‘reli’ in start menu search box.

The RM does not even acknowledge that there was a problem with the Paging File.

Reply | Quote

Every time I boot Windows 7 I get a message saying that a temporary paging file was created due to a problem that occurred with my paging file configuration. Once I click OK it gives me the Performance Options screen. I then change the options for the paging file and it appears to accepts the changes I have made. However, when I look at the paging file size it really hasn’t changed anything. I have tried all of the options available for setting the paging file size with no results.

When I first installed Windows 7 it worked fine. It was after I installed a new hard drive that the problem started happening.

I am using Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bits. The PC is a Dell XPS 410 with 4 meg of memory.

I am having same problem here, I m using win7 x 86. I tried all solution but they wont work so i am trying my thing lets c if it helps some one.

first take ownership and change permissons of keys below (i presume u know how to do this)
I will add snap of one for example

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMControlSet001ControlSession ManagerMemory Management

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMControlSet002ControlSession ManagerMemory Management

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory Management

1.Changed PagingFiles to C:Pagefile.sys 758 1536
2. ClearPageFileAtShutdown to 1
3.TempPageFile to 0

in

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMControlSet001ControlSession ManagerMemory Management

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMControlSet002ControlSession ManagerMemory Management

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory Management

37711-1
and then restart.

Shutting down will take time as pagefile is getting clear DO NOT TURN PC OFF BY OTHER MEANS (LIKE PUSHING POWER BUTTON OR SHUTTING POWER OFF) let it to restart itself

Note after restart do remember to change ClearPageFileAtShutdown to 0

Reply | Quote