Pagefile Problems....

[Sasha]

Windows managed page file on my Thinkpad was 1534 MB, which I considered to be excessive. Fiddled around and tried to reset the pagefile. Wasn't able to ...researched a bit on the web and found that Norton Antivirus Auto-protect feature needs to be disabled. Did that and reset the pagefile to 0 bytes.....recoverd disk space, defragged and was quite happy!!!

Found that my Thinkpad was still committing between 300 - 400 MB as pagefile. Did some further research and found that disabling pagefile doesn't mean that Windows stops paging..... M$

Defragged my hard disk, went to the System Properties and reset the pagefile again to MIN = 300 MB and MAX = 400 MB. Clicked on the "Set" button, OKed my way out and restarted my machine.....

Here's the problem...... After rebooting, the pagefile set in System Properties 300-400 MB, but the size of the pagefile as reported in Windows Explorer is 1534 MB. What gives?? I had defragged the HD b4 creating the new file...so from where is Windows picking up the command to set the pagefile to 1534MB?????

How do I make sure that my pagefile is not more than 400 MB? I did not undertake the trouble of fresh installing Win XPP on my machine to grant M$ 1GB of my hard earned disk space !!

Help appreciated..TIA...

[ibmuser]

Virtual memory is always in operation and cannot be turned off - despite what options Windows gives you. In fact, Windows is inclined to give you a rather large page file if you say you want no page file at all. Generally you don't want a page file smaller that the amount of ram you have. Try different settings again, but I suggest keeping the pagefile from becoming fragmented - keep it static and keep max/min size the same. You might also want to try:

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freew ... frag.shtml

If you use Windows XP and Fast User Switching, there are special considerations: When a user is not active, there will need to be space available in the page file to ‘roll out’ his or her work: therefore, the page file will need to be larger than you might be tempted to assign.

[jdhurst]

There is a known issue with Symantec Client Security and the Page file. I don't know if it extends to other Norton products but it might. In Client Security, in the Anti-Virus advanced options, you set the Startup Option for Symantec Start rather than System Start. That allows the Page file to remain at the size you set it. Try looking at:
http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?lo ... 163&var2=3
about "The Stubborn Paging File"
... JD Hurst

[Sasha]

Hmmm.....

Gave up the fight!!! Looks like there's no way you can fight Big Brother......

What M$ wants, M$ gets......

Reset the pagefile to the system defaults, only this time following the advice, set MIN = MAX = 1.5xRAM.....

Confirmed that pagefile changes do not take place unless the Auto-Protect feature in Norton Anti-virus is disabled.....

Thnx guys......

[Sasha]

Solved the problem...it wasn't M$ that was the culprit. Rather it was NAV 2004

For those who want to set the size of their pagefile to something other than the system-determined one, the process is as follows:

1) Open NAV 2004
2) Navigate to Options > Auto-Protect > Advanced
3) Uncheck the box under "How to increase Windows start up protection" "Load Auto-Protect during system boot (recommended)"
4) Reboot system
5) Reset pagefile size to whatever you want it to be
6) You are SET!!!!!

[selvan777]

Just one more thing... don't forget to turn Auto-Protect back on.

[Sasha]

Nope...you do that and the pagefile is set back to the old size, 1534 MB in my case!!

[jdhurst]

I think that is the same solution I posted with link back in mid-February. I have 2003, 2005 and Symantec Client security but I thought it might work for 2004. Glad to see you got it fixed. ... JD Hurst

[selvan777]

Doing without NAV Auto-Protect feature is quite a price to pay and I certainly would not consider it a solution.

I have Norton SystemWorks (EDIT: Pro) 2004 (NAV v10.0.1.13 within it) and was able to change my actual pagefile size after reboots from 479MB to no pagefile at all to 479MB to 1.49GB and back to 479MB. All without turning Auto-Protect off.

I haven't read any previous threads regarding this issue but have you tried to completely uninstall Norton, reboot, set your pagefile size confirming that Windows prompts for a reboot in doing so, reboot, verify the size and then reinstall Norton?

[jdhurst]

I was assuming that NAV was being enabled another way. If not, then I agree with selvan777 that it may not be a good solution.

I don't have a page file problem with Norton AV 2003 or Norton Internet Security 2003. I don't recall a problem with Version 2005. And the fix for Symantec Client Security changed the order of starting up but did not disable it. ... JD Hurst

[sagara]

I haven't had any problems adjusting my pagefile size - in fact I've just adjusted again after reading these posts just to make sure! I have XP SP2 and Norton Systemworks 2004 Prof.

Robert