I have 16GB of Ram. still getting "System low on memory error."

[rs2k]

I get this message when I still have 6+ GB of RAM available. I notice the Free RAM gets low in the task manager though. It seems like the RAM being used for cache isn't freeing itself. Any ideas on what I can do? I really doubt adding more RAM will fix the problem since the cache will eat it up as well.

 

[DarkSable]

What OS do you have?

If you have a 32 bit operating system, it won't be able to use more than 4GB of RAM no matter how much you have.

 

[rs2k]

Windows 7 64 bit.

 

[JustLurking]

Assuming you're running 64bit Windows, have you checked the Task Manager to see if any apps are leaking memory?

(In Task Manager, go to View -> Select Columns, and check off the ones that say "Memory [blah]" if you haven't already).

Windows is good about caching and freeing as apps need it. I rarely see more than a few hundred megs free, most of the rest is cached, and I've never seen that error message.

 

[rs2k]

Assuming you're running 64bit Windows, have you checked the Task Manager to see if any apps are leaking memory?

(In Task Manager, go to View -> Select Columns, and check off the ones that say "Memory [blah]" if you haven't already).

Windows is good about caching and freeing as apps need it. I rarely see more than a few hundred megs free, most of the rest is cached, and I've never seen that error message.

I just did that. Which column will tell me if an app is leaking memory?

What's the difference between Working Set and Private Working Set?

Physical Memory usually is around 60% when I get the message.

 

[barto]

Just curious, what CPU do you have and what is the usage of the CPU during the message?

 

[rs2k]

Core I5 3570K clocked to 4.4 GHz. It usually happens when I have a game playing that's taking up most of two cores, but I've had it happen with less than 10% usage and no game playing. I usually always have very large spreadsheets and a LOT of chrome windows open. Those are the two biggest memory hogs, but I should still have PLENTY of RAM available... That's why I got 16 GB and not 8 GB.

Another program that will often cause the problem is Oracle VM. When I give an Ubuntu VM 2 cores and 2 GB of RAM the message is much more likely to occur.

 

[JustLurking]

Here's how Microsoft describes the memory columns in Task Manager:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-my/windows-vista/what-do-the-task-manager-memory-columns-mean

And here's some more (very technical) info from Stackoverflow:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1170654/how-to-interpret-windows-task-manager

Here's a clip from that SO page, attributed/credit to "gordon-carpenter-thompson":

The private working set is the amount of memory used by a process that cannot be shared among other processes, while working set includes the memory shared by other processes.

 

[PC DOC Niagara]

I'm Having the same issue and i have an i7 8 cores with 16 gig of ram 10 gig free and 21 gig page file free 30 gig of virtual memory set and this only happens when I'm playing a game also have 4 gig nvidia card, I installed advanced optimizer pro which has a memory defrag and optimizer this solved the issue but with certain games i still get it there must be a system safety se somewhere in windows 8 that wants to keep more memory free I am still researching this.[/b]

Here's how Microsoft describes the memory columns in Task Manager:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-my/windows-vista/what-do-the-task-manager-memory-columns-mean

And here's some more (very technical) info from Stackoverflow:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1170654/how-to-interpret-windows-task-manager

Here's a clip from that SO page, attributed/credit to "gordon-carpenter-thompson":

The private working set is the amount of memory used by a process that cannot be shared among other processes, while working set includes the memory shared by other processes.

 

[Hawkeye22]

32 bit applications are still restricted to 2 gig of memory (even in a 64 bit windows OS) unless they are large address aware in which case they get 4 gig of ram. A memory leak in a 32 bit application can easily toss a low on memory error.