what does this mean?

Former Member

My boyfriends computer crashed with an error message saying his computer is dangerously low on resources or something? We've never heard of anything like this. Can anyone help?

Former Member

If it's windows 95/98/Me it has a small space reserved for loading certain resources like fonts and piddley things. It also might need a larger swap file (virtual memory). It's been a while since I've had such things
It's not a critical fault or anything, closing a few applications down or rebooting might be enough. There's a few things can 'leak' and not free up memory correctly over time until reboot.

Former Member

Thank u!

Former Member

If it keeps happening, you might want to try and free up some hard drive space so that the swap file has more space to play with. Could be time to uninstall a few old progs you don't use?

Another possibility is that you were running low on memory. Memory is still fairly cheap so you could always throw a bit more into your PC.

Former Member

Couple of other things you might want to try: Run disk cleanup (Start-menu-->accessories-->system tools), defragment the hard disk if hasn't been done already (if Windows is using a large swap file a fragmented disk won't help matters), and failing that, pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete together will give you a menu to end resource hungry programs.

If you really want to make it easy, just by some more RAM - it really is cheap at the moment. Go to http://www.dabs.com

Former Member

I've had exactly the same problem as you described on about 2 occasions. All I did was reboot the system.....then defrag and hdd cleanup and it was working again...:D wonder for how long :impissed:

Former Member

Originally posted by The Philosopher
Couple of other things you might want to try: Run disk cleanup (Start-menu-->accessories-->system tools), defragment the hard disk if hasn't been done already (if Windows is using a large swap file a fragmented disk won't help matters), and failing that, pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete together will give you a menu to end resource hungry programs.

If you really want to make it easy, just by some more RAM - it really is cheap at the moment. Go to http://www.dabs.com

can you tell me wat u mean by defragment... U see i have windows xp.. but it is sooo slow i only bough my computer in November.. and i dunno what the hell is wrong wit it

Former Member

It could be that your PC isn't fast enough or doesn't have enough RAM to run XP properly. Windows XP requires at least 128Mb to run and probably twice as much to have other programs running.

Firstly I would suggest pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete at the simultaneously to see what programs are running in the background. It may be that you have a lot of programs running in the background that use up all the resources (check the bottom right of the screen).

If that fails, buy some more RAM and things are almost guaranteed to run more smoothly, regardless of what processor you have.

Former Member

I'm guessing it wasn't XP. It's not restricted by the Win9x problems of resources for the GDI and fonts and crap. When the page file is full it tells you it's enlarging it automatically.

XP will run well in 256, but if you're having loads of stuff open at once, scanning lots of images in and doing serious heavy work, 512 is an ideal amount.

Former Member

Unfortunatly this is a key problem with the Windows 9x/ME architecture due to the way they handle a small area of memory called 'System Resources' and understanding just what this is can help you to reduce crashes and stop being stuck with all those 'Low' messages you get.

Everytime you run a program it loads all of its visual components such as windows, menus, text boxes, buttons etc. into memory. Windows keeps track of the visual components of all the applications so that, for example, when you drag a window across the screen, it knows what was behind the window and is able to redraw it. These visual components are stored in System Resources. Regardless of the amount of physical memory installed in your computer and regardless of the number of open windows, the amount of memory allotted to System Resources never increases. What’s more, not all of the System Resources an application uses are released when the application is closed. So, you could open and close an application several times and actually run out of System Resources. That’s why Windows may complain that you’re out of memory, even when you have only two or three applications open.

The symptoms of low System Resources include slow performance, error messages when starting programs, application windows not updating properly, applications hanging, and the entire system crashing. Unfortunatly, the simplest fix is to restart Windows. When Windows is restarted, the System Resources are cleared, and everything returns to normal.

The long-term solution is to upgrade to a version of Windows that doesn't have this problem. Both Windows 2000 and Windows XP are based on the Windows NT architecture, which has a much more sophisticated method of dealing with system resources. Both of these products will fix any "Out of memory" or "System Resources" problems you might be experiencing with Windows 95, 98, or Me.

Former Member

k thanks for the advise... i'll try it.. when i bought my computer i bought it with xp already so surely there is enouch space, but i have loaded on a lot more packages sinces... Macropay(payroll), BOI, Cubasis vst, frontpage, i have installed new sound cards... could this have slowed things down???

Former Member

Dont forget to empty the "temp" folder and "temp internet" folder too, a lot of rubbish can build up in those two foldersand clog up the machine!