Quote:
Originally Posted by
JustinThyme
I've been running multiple systems for a very long time with no page file. I actually often do the opposite and use ram cache. No I'll effects. If you have sufficient ram you don't need it and this problem won't exist
Some programs and games require a Page File regardless of how much memory is installed. Windows still uses it as well (again, regardless of how much memory is installed). Therefore, disabling it or setting it too small can result in problems, such as the problems that Higgins909 is experiencing.
It's extremely bad advice to tell someone to disable their Page File
without also telling them that they could run into these problems - or worse, telling them that they
won't run into any problems. The best advice teaches the user everything they may need to know so that they can decide for themselves what they do with their Page File. Knowing what I know now, I see absolutely no good reason to disable the Page File or even reduce its size - especially considering the average size of hard drives and solid state drives being purchased today. It's absolutely false that the Page File is harmful to solid state drives. See this:
http://techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-theyre-all-dead
For the record, I used to have my Page File disabled. I don't remember when I disabled it, but it was probably in 2009 because that's when I bought my first solid state drive. I disabled it because I was given the bad advice of disabling it for the false reason that it's harmful to solid state drives. I re-enabled it roughly a couple of years ago because I finally ran into low memory problems and learned by asking here on Overclock.net that it was due to having my Page File disabled. I was taught very accurately that some programs and games require it. I came very close to buying 16 GB of memory, but I decided to ask here first and I'm glad I did. After reading a couple of expertly-written articles on this subject, I set my Page File to 1024 MB for both the initial and max size just to start with and the problems went away and so that's what it's been set to ever since. If I end up with any more problems due to having too small of a Page File, then I'll add another 500 MB to start with and go from there.
Now sure, I could easily just let Windows handle the Page File automatically, but that gives me a 12 GB Page File and I am running very low on drive space and I don't have enough money to buy anything like a new solid state drive or a hard drive. Even ~$50 would be a bit of an unwise purchase for me right now. I just don't have much money these days.
Even so, there was a time recently when I had to allow Windows to set the 12 GB Page File because there's a new game that's being developed called "
Overload" that ran into a huge memory leak a few months ago that was fixed thanks to what I'm about to tell you. The game would always quit suddenly (like pressing Alt+F4) at about the same time every time I played it. It happened even faster when I left Firefox open in the background, so I asked on the official Overload forum if others were experiencing it and I also asked how much memory they had, and I also asked them to tell me how they had their Page File set. Everyone said that they weren't experiencing this problem (including the devs), and each one of them said they had their Page File set to let Windows handle it automatically. The amount of memory installed per user varied from 2 GB to 32 GB, so the solution became clear to me: I had to increase the size of my Page File.
So while discussing the issue, we discovered that anyone could cause the game to crash exactly like it crashing for me by simply disabling their Page File (a few experimented with a 1 GB Page File to match my settings and they had the same results). Windows was also very inconsistent on telling us that it was running low on memory. Instead, the game would simply quit. The only way to fix this was by letting Windows manage the Page File automatically. Of course, the devs fixed the memory leak and now I can play again with a 1024 MB Page File.
Therefore, I will never allow anyone here on Overclock.net to advise anyone to disable or shrink their Page File without making sure the user is fully informed of what the risks are and how to handle any problems that may surface after disabling or shrinking their Page File. After all, you are responsible for any advice you give.