Why Does My Pagefile Usage Keep Increasing on Windows XP?

[ehrenfest]

I've recently noticed that the pagefile usage on my Latitude D620 with the Windows XP operating system keeps increasing the longer I leave my computer on. Eventually it gets so large like to 1.3 gigabytes so that things run significantly slower. It increases gradually even though I close applications after I used them, so the problem is not just that I have too many applications open.

Of course, I can always restart my computer and the pagefile usage returns to 0.4 gigabytes or so. But restarting my computer is kind of annoying when I am the middle of something. So, I wanted to know whether there is a way to keep the pagefile usage low. I don't see any reason why there shouldn't be. I mean I don't see any reason why the pagefile usage needs to keep growing the longer you leave your computer on. It just seems like the operating system isn't garbage collecting or something.

 

[computerex]

Well page file is just virtual memory, so getting more RAM should help. It seems there is some program that might be running in the background that has a memory leak or something of this nature. Take the standard debugging approach, disable then enable your start up programs one by one to find out which program is causing the problem.

 

[ehrenfest]

Thanks. Getting more RAM isn't really an option. The second approach would probably work but it would take SOOO much time since I have tons of processes running in the background (79 right now). I know I don't need most of them.

It would be nice if I could download some software that would tell me which process is consuming the most memory. Well, actually the Window's Task Manager does say how much memory each process is using. So, I will let my computer run for a while and see if there is one process using a disproportionate amount of memory. Anything that uses page file should show up in the processes tab of Window's Task Manager, right?

 

[russ_watters]

"Ever increasing" = memory leak.

Hit ctl+alt+del and check the memory usage of your programs to find the culprit.

And run virus and adware scans. Sometimes they do things like that.

 

[rootX]

Do you play youtube videos?
I recently discovered that if I let flash/youtube/imeem/radio play for more than one hour everything starts getting slow. I recently updated something ... (Abode or flash software .. )

Just try to find what you updated recently.

 

[ehrenfest]

I have never explicitly added anything to the list of start-up processes but there are definitely some things on that list that were not on it when I bought this computer. Is there a way to prevent programs from automatically adding themselves to my startup list?