SWAP at 95%

M

moogle301

New Member
Hi

I have Rainmeter installed on my Windows PC, and it shows info on my desktop, info like CPU usage and RAM usage, which is what I got it for (I like how Mac's have this always displayed at the top). It also is displaying something I which sounded vaguely familiar but which I don't much know about called SWAP usage, and I noticed that my SWAP usage is usually really high, sometimes even 100% and usually much higher than RAM which tends to be at 65%ish. My CPU probably isn't important but is low, at under 30% right now.

I'm wondering if this SWAP is too high. Can't seem to find much info on SWAP that I understand. >.< Google searches tend to bring about info about Linux and networks and stuff.

My computer is often really slow to wake up and to run in generally. Seems to be more so since I updated from XP to W7. I only have 2GB RAM, I would buy more but I'm thinking up upgrading to 64bit if the copy I own will allow it and that will depend on how much RAM I buy. It's more expensive for my machine because it's DDR I think. Is my low RAM the issue?


Thanks.
 
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As far as I know swap space is used in Linux the same way that a page file is used in windows. It might just be reading that you have some programs that are being stored as pagefiles due to a lack of RAM.

When you boot windows without any programs open what is your RAM usage?
 
he has it right. Swap is pagefile for linux. If you do not have a LInux installed, then you should not have a swap space at all. It will be pagefile for windows, and it is not a separate partition.
 
wolfeking said:
he has it right. Swap is pagefile for linux. If you do not have a LInux installed, then you should not have a swap space at all. It will be pagefile for windows, and it is not a separate partition.
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Oh ok, that would explain why there were so many Linux comments when I googled it. The thing is though, when my computer is running really slowly, then the SWAP shows as really high so I definitely have a problem of some sort anyway, perhaps just need more RAM >.<

thanks for your reply.
 
salvage-this said:
As far as I know swap space is used in Linux the same way that a page file is used in windows. It might just be reading that you have some programs that are being stored as pagefiles due to a lack of RAM.

When you boot windows without any programs open what is your RAM usage?
Click to expand...

Hi, thanks.

I have just booted Windows and have nothing open. RAM usage says 66% and SWAP says 32%.

When I go into task manager I see that the programs using most RAM (as in those running in the background) are Sugarsync, Dropbox and Google Drive, which are each between 42,000k-54,000k. So I suppose I technically do have programs open still. When I quit these three programs my RAM is still quite high at 46% and SWAP says 23%.

Is this high considering nothing is open? I use so many tabs when browsing no wonder I have problems if half the RAM is used up before I do anything. >.<
 
moogle301 said:
Hi, thanks.

I have just booted Windows and have nothing open. RAM usage says 66% and SWAP says 32%.

When I go into task manager I see that the programs using most RAM (as in those running in the background) are Sugarsync, Dropbox and Google Drive, which are each between 42,000k-54,000k. So I suppose I technically do have programs open still. When I quit these three programs my RAM is still quite high at 46% and SWAP says 23%.

Is this high considering nothing is open? I use so many tabs when browsing no wonder I have problems if half the RAM is used up before I do anything. >.<
Click to expand...

To be honest I am not exactly sure what would be stored in the page file on boot. I would say leave it for now and try to lower your RAM usage on the system. Here is how I would do it.

Hold down the windows key + R. A run prompt will show up. Type in msconfig and hit enter.

Go to the startup tab. You will see a lot of excicutables that have check boxes next to them. Disable the programs that you do not need to run on startup. If you do not know if a program is needed, Google the process and see if it is necessary. Once you have everything cleaned up hit apply and restart. Check ram usage again to see how the changes effected performance.

*A word of warning. Do not disable anything that is necessary for your PC to run! If you can't find enough information to be sure that it is ok to disable then leave it enabled. Better to be on the safe side.*

With a system that has 2gb of RAM I would also disable Windows Aero. Personal preference really.

After all that let me know what you are getting for RAM usage.

EDIT: Even after doing all of the above I would still recommend upgrading to 4gb of RAM.
 
salvage-this said:
To be honest I am not exactly sure what would be stored in the page file on boot. I would say leave it for now and try to lower your RAM usage on the system. Here is how I would do it.

Hold down the windows key + R. A run prompt will show up. Type in msconfig and hit enter.

Go to the startup tab. You will see a lot of excicutables that have check boxes next to them. Disable the programs that you do not need to run on startup. If you do not know if a program is needed, Google the process and see if it is necessary. Once you have everything cleaned up hit apply and restart. Check ram usage again to see how the changes effected performance.

*A word of warning. Do not disable anything that is necessary for your PC to run! If you can't find enough information to be sure that it is ok to disable then leave it enabled. Better to be on the safe side.*

With a system that has 2gb of RAM I would also disable Windows Aero. Personal preference really.

After all that let me know what you are getting for RAM usage.

EDIT: Even after doing all of the above I would still recommend upgrading to 4gb of RAM.
Click to expand...

Hi, thanks, I'll try that soon.

The reason I've not yet upgraded to 4GB is because I'm on 32bit and I heard the full 4GB won't be usable? I'm not yet sure whether with the copy of Windows I own, I can switch to 64bit for free (or sure I want to since old games such as Castle of the Winds don't work and for all I know other games I love won't). I thought that if not I should just get 3GB RAM (it's more expensive for me since it's DDR1 otherwise I'd be less concerned about wastage) but you would advise me to get 4GB RAM even on 32bit when it won't be fully usable? Thanks.
 
Yeah I would still go for 4gb. a 32 bit OS can technically address exactly 4gb. In reality Windows will recognize around 3.7gb of RAM with 4gb installed. That is not much to loose when when you think about the total installed

Just a note about 32 bit applications on a 64 bit OS. It should not be a problem because Windows has two program folders Program Files (for 64 bit applications) and Program Files x86 (for 32 bit applications). As long as the games are not made for 16 bit they should play fine.

EDIT: It looks like DOS Box could also solve your problem with older games
 
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