Unusual Low Virtual memory error: Hows that possible?

Guys I got Win 10 Enterprise edition. Patched to the latest.



My system has only 1.2GB of Virtual memory assigned (As have 18gb Physical ram so never felt the need to have a proper virtual memory allocated) Google /forums etc. as well suggested the same.

Yesterday I was browsing heavily in Firefox with 2 physical tabs opened which again had multiple tabs inside them opened (almost 25)

While all was going smooth suddenly system froze and went unresponsive.

So somehow managed to capture the monitor with my cellphone and here is the result:



As one can see out of 18gb Ram only 47% was utilized.

I rebooted the system & peeked into Event logs only to find this unusual:








Now in spite of having 18gb of system memory and off that only 47% being utilized why did the system froze due to Low virtual memory condition?

As per my bets knowledge, Virtual memory is necessary only for system having smaller amounts of physical ram (4/6 gb). Correct me though as google as well says the same.

Needlessly out of fear I now have allocated a Virtual memory of 8gb.

Also, the last screenshot point to some Hypervisor I think this isn't related to my core issue. Correct me though.

Please advise regarding the Virtual memory issue.

The standard setting for vm is the same as system memory

There is no issue. Applications may use virtual memory depending on how the application was designed. Does not matter how much RAM you have installed.

In general less virtual memory is used if you have more RAM installed.

Just set it to system managed size, no need to mess about with manual settings, unless you have some specialised application.

Helmut said:

There is no issue. Applications may use virtual memory depending on how the application was designed. Does not matter how much RAM you have installed.
In general less virtual memory is used if you have more RAM installed.
Just set it to system managed size, no need to mess about with manual settings, unless you have some specialised application.

So you mean even if we got 32 gigs of physical ram installed we still need to allocate sufficient amount of paging file?

On many forums it says we dont require paging file/virtual memory once we got huge ram.

So much confusion...

You can turn off virtual memory if you like if there is problem you can set virtual memory to let Windows manage it.

Here we go again ... misinformation about virtual memory.

The so-called "virtual memory" here is not virtual memory. It's paging space. Referring to paging as virtual memory was a mid-1990s lie?/cheat?/mislead?/marketing trick? ... perhaps because the term "paging" has no sex appeal. But "virtual memory"! That's a zinger. (But they only zing in the lay/public media. In their more scholarly print publications they get it right.)

The trouble is that the two are entirely different things. A generation of people has come to claim expertise in a falsehood.

1. You cannot turn off virtual memory in Windows.
2. You cannot adjust the size of virtual memory. It's dictated by the architecture.

margrave55 said:

Here we go again ... misinformation about virtual memory.

The so-called "virtual memory" here is not virtual memory. It's paging space. Referring to paging as virtual memory was a mid-1990s lie?/cheat?/mislead?/marketing trick? ... perhaps because the term "paging" has no sex appeal. But "virtual memory"! That's a zinger. (But they only zing in the lay/public media. In their more scholarly print publications they get it right.)

The trouble is that the two are entirely different things. A generation of people has come to claim expertise in a falsehood.

1. You cannot turn off virtual memory in Windows.
2. You cannot adjust the size of virtual memory. It's dictated by the architecture.

Virtual memory are mapped to physical memory (RAM) while other parts are paged to disk.

margrave55 said:

Here we go again ... misinformation about virtual memory.

The so-called "virtual memory" here is not virtual memory. It's paging space. Referring to paging as virtual memory was a mid-1990s lie?/cheat?/mislead?/marketing trick? ... perhaps because the term "paging" has no sex appeal. But "virtual memory"! That's a zinger. (But they only zing in the lay/public media. In their more scholarly print publications they get it right.)

The trouble is that the two are entirely different things. A generation of people has come to claim expertise in a falsehood.

1. You cannot turn off virtual memory in Windows.
2. You cannot adjust the size of virtual memory. It's dictated by the architecture.

Ok EXpert!!!

Get the facts rights here..

How To Manage Virtual Memory (Pagefile) In Windows 10

Is Your Virtual Memory Too Low? Here's How to Fix It!

The problem is ... those referred articles (and scads more just like them) are wrong! The popular view is just wrong!

Your article, Brink, is titled "How to Manage Virtual Memory Pagefile in Windows 10".
That's a contradiction because the pagefile is not virtual memory.

Also, at one of those other links above the usual claim is made:
Well, if you use all the RAM available to your system, it will utilize virtual memory—also known as a swap or paging file—to provide a temporary expansion.

The first part of that is wrong. You don't use virtual memory when you've used up all the available RAM.
You use virtual memory ALL THE TIME. No exceptions. Every running process runs in a virtual space. Even if you have turned off paging.

The second part is "sort of" correct. Taken literally, it says that virtual memory is "also known as" swap or paging.
Turn that around and you might say that swap/paging is also known as virtual memory.

But that phrase "also known" simply caters a falsehood perpetuated by Microsoft beginning in the 1990s.
The control panel dialog that lets you adjust virtual memory is really adjusting page space management.
It does nothing to adjust virtual memory. In these systems virtual memory is NOT adjustable.
Yet MS has persisted in calling that "virtual memory" for over twenty years!

Swap/paging IS NOT virtual memory. It simply is not.
Virtual memory (VM) is a mapping of virtual space to physical space.
Swap/paging is not virtual. It's physical.

You can have paging without VM. Indeed, that was common until the 1990s.
You can also have VM without paging ... but that would be silly and I've never seen the like.

But a whole generation of street-educated computer pundits persist in the notion that paging is virtual memory.
CS educated experts know better.
Even Microsoft knows better. They've published books on the NT architecture for nearly a quarter century, and in those pubs they get it right.
So do all the scholarly texts. But "the street" seems bent on perpetuating the nonsense.

I read it on the web. It must be true. (Nope.)