Can increase your virtual memory to way higher...can it damage your computer?
Answers:
Increase the Virtual memory doesn't damage your laptop at all. All you do is tell window the amount of hard disk space it can use for swap files. Vista already does an excellent job of managing your virtual memory so there's no need for that. The 1 GB of RAM you have is PHYSICAL MEMORY, it's not virtual memory.
it won't damage your computer but it doesn't really do anything because it will probably just make you computer go slower when it is already running slower.
Depending on which Vista You have? Because Vista Homepremium can handle about 3.5GB and Vista Ultimate can handle about 128GB, However remember none of this matters if your FSB is not up to speed. Your FSB or Front Side Bus has to be able to transfer memory at a particular rate that can handle the additonal memory.
Go for 2.0 PHYSICAL memory, leave the virtual memory alone, let Windows set it! Some memory must be reserved for the operating system, and all the other programs that are running,(plus running in the background).Rule of thumb for virtual memory is 1and a half,(1.5),times the size of the physical memory. Vista requires 2GB's of memory to run at a fast clip. Your motherboard can only accept a maximum MB's that are set for it. How many Banks,(slots), are open is only part of it.
Virtual memory is space reserved on your hard drive by Windows for additional storage, when the RAM is filled.
You can increase it as large as you want, but this space is then reserved. That means it can't be used for anything else.
So you have then reduced the size of your hard drive by that amount.
No it wont damage your computer. If you mess with the settling and you place them too high, your computer will likely freeze. Let windows manage the virtual memory. If you want more memory, add the physical memory -- SDRAM or DDR. Find out which one your computer uses. It is simplet to install. Most chips only fit one way, and all you have to do is snap it in.
See links below for instructions and pictures for laptops and desktops.
Increasing virtual memory will not damage your computer. The optimal size range for virtual memory however is a topic of much debate with many computer enthusiasts.
Personally, I have a separate small hard drive which is ONLY for my page file (virtual memory) so I can make it as big as the hard disk (9.4 GB).
If this is not an option for you the next best thing is to create a separate partition dedicated to the page file. Since hard disk space is cheap these days there's no reason why you shouldn't give it a generous size, say 5GB, to accomodate your installed RAM and leave room for expansion.
By default, Windows uses the available free space on your system drive (usually C:) for the page file. This is inefficient because the hard disk has to look all over the disk platter to find available sectors to read/write data to. Also, this method can potentially result in a system warning msg: "not enough space for virtual memory" or something like that if your disk gets full from all that downloading you're doing ;-)
There is a lot of information on this online. Worth doing a bit or research! Good luck!
The paging file or (virtual memory) should be a minimum of 1.5x larger than the total RAM..
the maximum size is the minimum figure x 2
You'd be better off getting a USB flashdriveand using the Vista ready boost feature.
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