Not enough system resources error

JM,

I am having the exact same problem with my XPS 4 system running 1gig of ram.  About 2 weeks ago I started getting that error message.  It usually comes up when I am trying to run more than one program.  After the error occurs the whole windows environment starts messing up.  Doing a reboot starts me back up again and I can do one task at a time.  Before 2 weeks ago I could be running 10 different programs without much loss of performance.  Now if I have any program running and something as simple as a screen saver that uses directx comes on I get the error message.  I can't even send two files to my usb printer at the same time.  3 weeks ago I uninstalled norton internet sec and installed TrendMicro p-cillin.  At that time the computer was functioning normal.  I've run a complete system scan with P-cillin and it comes out clean. 

I just ordered 4 - 1 gig sticks of memory and will put that in when it comes in.  Maybe there is a problem with one of my current 1/2 gig sticks?  Or my XP OS has become corrupt?  Or a virus that TrendMicro is not picking up on?  Could it be my hard drive is going?  If you find a solution let me know.

Pharkas:

Thanks for your reply.....it is at least good to know someone else may be having a similar issue...I dont think that it has anything to do with either stick of memory or your OS because this is happening to us across several dozen computers.  We run Trend Micro PCillin enterprise in our school system as well and it has found nothing.  I have scanned these systems with every virus scanner invented to no avail.  The funny thing is that yesterday, I reimaged a system, joined it to the domain, loaded the school attendance software, basically setting it up just like I would out in a school.  I tried everything I could to jack that system up and make it give me that error message and it never would give a system resource error.  I increased the page pool size to 384 and still nothing.  I had like 15 IE pages up, the school software running in the background (it takes a good bit of memory to run) and other things and it worked just fine.  However, last week, I took the same model machine with EXACTLY the same stuff on it, delivered it to a teacher, hooked it up in her room, and within five minutes I was getting that error.  Very strange stuff. 

JM,

Wake309 is posting a similar error a few posts up.  I wonder if it has to do with the TrendMicro P-Cillin since we are both running it and I didn't have any problems with my system before I installed it.  Did you try running the Malware program that Dell.com has a link for?  I'm at work all day today but I will be trying to resolve this problem all day tomorrow.  My new 4x1gig mem sticks came in today so we'll see if that stops my error since 1gig doesn't give ample resources to run two IE windows!!!

Pharkas,

I havent run the malware program that Dell suggests, but I have run several others with no luck.  Also, I dont think the issue is with Trend because we have been running Trend on all of our PCs for a couple of years now and we had no problem until recently.....Im sure since Trend is a pretty big program that it would probably help to not have it running but that kind of defeats the purpose of having it and paying for it....as I stated before, the only thing that has worked for me is adding memory to the machine....that to me says that there is some program that has been added that made a difference here....we run a program called Compass Learning in our schools that requires several plugins.....a couple of them have been running for other applications but the two that were added recently were something called Microsoft Agent and Print O Matic plugin for Active X.  We also had to update Java but not sure if that has anything to do with it....other than this nothing has changed.......I am going to continue to work on this as I have time but this one has, at least to this point, really stumped me.....jm

jmranchman,

 

In your original post, you stated that nothing has changed in 3 years.  Now, in your last post, you have corrected that statement to identify at least 3 known changes.  So there have been changes; yes?  In my opinion, your hardware config has always been marginal with only 128mb and now these new "subtle changes" are taking it to the limit of erroring as you described.  Also, I wouldn't hang my hat on a virus problem if you know you can fix the problem by adding more RAM.

 

My untechnical suggestion is to just upgrade the RAM and be done with it.  I know this may involve having to convince the admin. to shell out a few bucks but I'll bet it will be cheaper in the long run because I'm guessing your problems will just compound over time with additional subtle changes. 

 

However, if you insist, my technical suggestion would be to use task manager to troubleshoot this problem.  First, take a machine that doesn't exhibit errors and boot into XP without any network connections.  Now, document the running processes and their associated memory usage.  Also, monitor your pagefile usage as well.  Next, go to one of the classrooms that definitely has this problem and compare that machine's task manager stats to the one that is not having the problem.  The differences found will most likely identify the process that has maxed out your resources.

 

Anyway, good luck!

 

NJGroundHog

 

 

Groundhog,

I am well aware of everything that you said in your post.....I realize what I said in my original post....I did not mean to contradict what I was saying originally......I am well aware that changes were made recently....you will recall in my other post that I also stated that upgrading the RAM did fix the problem......you will also recall that I said that I reimaged a machine Friday with the same things on it as the ones that are giving the error.....I ran all programs that would be running on the machine and could never get the error......as for monitoring memory usage, I have done that as well.......nothing looks any different and to go along with that, it still says it has enough memory to operate.......I assure you that I have been working on this for a couple of months....I have been doing this for a very long time....I do learn new things as I go along as well......I didnt post this after seeing it without troubleshooting the issue......RAM very well may be the fix, however, I thought I would ask for some other advice......I also said that it SEEMED like a possible virus......I was never completely sold on this idea however....I do agree that a RAM upgrade is going to be needed regardless.....problem is, somebody has to pay for it and convincing them of that is tough.....however, if they insist on using these programs in the schools, they will have to......thanks for your reply though......as I said, adding memory may very well be all that can be done.......thanks again.....

jm