A low memory msg and a win crash on a Dell laptop

1st off this is still on the same Dell Inspiron 15-3541 laptop OS Win 10 Home 32bit.
Before I get into the latest problem. This laptop is having issues with a buzz in the sound and the USB ports are acting up, in the fact that none of the USB flash drives or the HDD in the external USB case are seen by the laptop, when the drives are plugged in after the laptop has booted and the desktop is up and running. The only way to get the laptop to see the flash drives and the HDD is to reboot the laptop with the flash drives and the HDD plugged in. Then the laptop sees the flash drives and the HDD.

Now for current problem. I don't know if the laptop is infected with something. I am getting win error reports of "low memory", "zaar.exe error message", And "close prog's, low memory". See screen capture pictures bellow. This is driving me nuts. I am about ready to pull the internal 500gb HDD and smash the laptop with a hammer and Wait until Tue and buy an other good used laptop from my friend that runs the local pawn shop. He only takes in the newest and best conduction laptop's, towers and tablets. Also sometimes Win just stop's working and freezes then put's up the blank screen with only the blue back light running, and the only thing to do is hit the power button, turn the laptop completely off and reboot. 1 other thing. Firefox just crashed and I almost lost everything that I had just typed. I had just saved all of this that I typed to a text file just before the crash. So all I had to do is past in the text and reload the pictures.

PS: Firefox just crashed again just after I hit the post button

Steve

Dell has tested drivers for
windows 7 32x
windows 7 64x
windows 10 64x

Dell provides no tested drivers for windows 10 32x.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/us...laptop/drivers

Read the manual to find the maximum usable RAM for windows 10 64x.
Drivers are on a trial and error basis.

Consider purchasing the maximum RAM and then performing a clean install to windows 64x.
Crucial System Scanner | Crucial.com
(for multiple RAM modules always use the identical SKU)

Make a backup image using Macrium and save the image to an external HD or the cloud.
Macrium Software | Your Image is Everything
Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect

Run the Dell diagnostics full test followed by component tests > post images into the thread:
https://www.dell.com/support/home/us...aptop/diagnose

Open device manager > click view > click show hidden devices > manually expand all rows > look for any row displaying a yellowy triangle with black exclamation mark or unknown device > post images into the thread

When you get a message Your system is low on memory; when you try to start any memory intensive application then you may want to consider the option to increase Page File on Windows. This batch script will change the minimum and maximum size of the Pagefile up to 1.5 times of the physical memory that your computer has.

Code:

@Echo Off & Cls

net sess>nul 2>&1||(powershell start cmd -ArgumentList """/c %~0""" -verb Runas & exit)

:: Set virtual memory size to static amount. 
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
For /f "tokens=4,5* delims=,. " %%G in ('Systeminfo  ^| Find "Total Physical Memory:"') DO Set RAM=%%G%%H
If "!RAM!"=="" Goto EOF
set /a "pageSize=ram + ram / 2"
Reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SESSION MANAGER\MEMORY MANAGEMENT" /v "PagingFiles" /t REG_MULTI_SZ /d "c:\pagefile.sys !PageSize! !PageSize!"  /f
ENDLOCAL 



Cls & Mode CON  LINES=11 COLS=51 & Color 0E & Title FreeBooter 
Echo.
Echo.
Echo THIS COMPUTER WILL REBOOT 
Echo.
Echo.
Echo PLEASE SAVE ALL WORK IN PROGRESS
Echo. 
Echo.
Echo PRESS 'ENTER' KEY TO REBOOT PC

Pause >Nul

Shutdown  -r  -t 5  -c "REBOOTING SYSTEM"

You have a good hardware for a old laptop,

The problems you are having are related to corrupted files or bad configuration on win10.
Try to do a System file check. Open a CMD window as Administrator and type:
sfc /scannow

Did you do a clean install to upgrade from win 8.x to Win 10?

There is nothing like a clean install
My suggestion is to create a disk image on an external disk and do a clean install and then restore your data from the backup.

It is important to understand that low memory warnings or errors have nothing to do with a shortage of RAM. Windows doesn't even have a message for that. This has caused considerable confusion, even among knowledgeable users. The warning is due to the commit charge approaching the commit limit. Unfortunately the commit charge is not easily explained. Most short explanations I have seen are wrong and the good ones tend to be rather long.

A good place to start would be a screenshot of Task Manager - Performance tab showing memory information. Often it is due to either no pagefile or one that is too small.

LMiller7 said:

Unfortunately the commit charge is not easily explained. Most short explanations I have seen are wrong and the good ones tend to be rather long.

For a good one (and yes, it's long) see anything from Mark Russinovich (now CTO for Microsoft Azure) such as:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/...irtual-memory/

I found the problem. The whole C: drive was infected by what I don't know. I ended up wiping the C: drive partition without saving anything. Emails, games and so on. I didn't save anything to the D: HDD in the external USB case like I normally do. I didn't want to infect the D: HDD. I already have the basic Win 10 Home 32bit reinstalled. And I got enough prog's installed from the protected backups to get online and type this post. What ever infected the C: drive got past all the virus and firewall protection.

How do you know it was infected?

I don't really know. I only know that when I wiped the C drive partition clean, then I reinstalled everything from the protected DVD's. then the laptop started working just fine.

Megahertz said:

How do you know it was infected?