"Virtual Memory Low" error message on IBM Thinkpad T30

Right-click on "My Computer", goto "Properties".

Click the "Advanced" tab, and click the "Settings" button under Performance.

You will see Virtual Memory under there. Click the "Change" button, and switch to "Custom size".

Initial size: 500
Maximum size: 2096

Click the "Set" button, close everything out and restart the computer. You should notice a difference. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment! Please don't forget to vote! Happy Thanksgiving!

Imagine working with a lot of books on a desk; eventually, the desk gets covered by books, and you have to "pause" your work, for 8-10 seconds, to move some books off the desk, to make room for new books, or for the surface of the desk to be enlarged, to hold more books.

A similar thing is happening on your computer.
Each program that you run is allocated some "virtual" memory.

So, if you are running Outlook, and Internet Explorer, and MS Excel, the total of "used" virtual memory could be large.

Open the Windows "Task Manager", and click the "Performance" tab.
You'll see the amount of virtual memory used by each application and by each process (your anti-virus software is a "process" that always runs, usually quietly).

Now, given the total of "used" virtual memory, Windows tries to "map" as much of that memory to the *REAL* amount of memory installed on your ThinkPad.

The warning-message is telling you a few things:
* add more "real" memory (another stick of RAM) to your hardware;
* close some applications, to reduce the amount of "used" virtual memory;
* add more "real" memory (another stick of RAM) to your hardware;
* allocate more disk-space to hold the "overflow";
* add more "real" memory (another stick of RAM) to your hardware.

The disk-space is used when the RAM is "full", and there still is a need to put some of the "virtual" memory somewhere.

Your computer runs "slowly" because retrieving some of the virtual memory from your disk-space is _much_ slower than accessing the virtual memory that currently is "mapped" to the "real" memory.

To allocate more disk-space:
Click Start
Right-mouse click My Computer
Click Properties
Click Advanced
Below Performance, click Settings
Click Advanced
Under Virtual Memory, click Change
Click Custom Size, and enter a larger value.
Click OK (a bunch of times).

Still, the best solution is more RAM, or fewer concurrent programs.

Sometimes, just closing Internet Explorer, and then reopening it,
will cause a significant decrease in the amount of virtual memory being used.