Windows 8.1 memory/pagefile issue

so i have windows 8.1 and as of late i get this out of memory error and checked to see if i actually was and i wasnt still had like 2.5 gbs left so i did some digging and apparently this is a pagefile issue. so what i tried was making it huge cause i have tons of room drives and so on, that was more of a band-aid than a solution. it stopped the issue for about a day then the problem resurfaced. so i tried to just go without a pagefile and that had a similar effect to increasing its size except instead of warning me that i was low it just closed whatever it saw fit. restarting my machine has the identical effect of increasing the pagefiles size, goes away for 6hrs- a day. gettin really tired of League crashing and other games crashing on startup. not sure what to do next really don't want to re-install windows so any and all help is appreciated

How much stuff to you have active in your start up? When was the last time your system was thoroughly scanned for malware viruses?

To get the best performance it is best to create a paging file on a different partition than the boot partition (the drive that contains that operating system, which is usually the C drive) and to also create it on a separate hard drive. In this way, Windows can handle more I/O requests because the paging file will not have to compete with the system folder that needs to be constantly accessed as Windows runs.

The only problem with completely moving the paging file off the boot partition is that Windows uses the page file to write out debug info in case your computer crashes with blue screen of death STOP error. This is important for machines that have critical data, but for the average user, this is not a big deal. If you get the blue screen of death, it’s not an easy process at all to get to read the file and even if you can, it can be quite complex. But if you have enough space, then you can leave the paging file there.

So the best solution is to create on paging file on the boot partition that will take care in case of a crash and create another paging file on a separate partition on a DIFFERENT hard drive preferably. If you only have one hard drive on your computer, then just create another paging file on a different partition. Windows automatically uses the paging file that is on the less accessed partition using an internal algorithm.

Even more ideal would be if you could put the paging file in it’s own partition with no other data. This ensures that the paging file will never become fragmented and hence performance will be better. If it’s on a drive that has other data and the paging file must be expanded and if there is other data current stored, the file will become fragmented.

Another way to reduce fragmentation of the paging file is to set the initial and maximum sizes to the same number. What this does is ensure that the file does not grow or shrink and therefore will not fragment. However, you should defragment the hard drive before doing this to ensure the paging file is altogether on the hard drive.


You can also grab Defraggler, and use that to defrag the pagefile with a boot time defrag if you're not running on an SSD. Also, my general rule of thumb for sizing the pagefile is the following: min = RAM + 350MB max = RAM x 2.5.

yes u rescanned yesterday

but isnt this abnormal for windows to just fill 20 gbs of pagefile in a 6 hrs to a day

You can always reduce the size of the pagefile to something more reasonable as long as you have enough RAM to operate without it. The way that the pagefile works is that when you start to run low on system memory, it moves less used "pages" of data to the file, in order to free up actual RAM for active processes. If you have plenty of RAM you can reduce the size down a shitload and it won't make a bit of difference in the performance of your machine.

System managed works well for the most part.

i did that about 3 days ago and the problem persisted, i'm more concerned why windows is doing this in the first place and i feel like that will help solve the problem at its core because just giving this thing short of my extra hard drive would seem to not work. also i had it system managed when the problem started and have retried it a few times and that definitely does not work for me.
and no i haven't actually allocated a whole drive as thats sole purpose

Have you ran a memory test diagnostic as well? How much memory do you have? Have you tried putting in a new hard drive and placing the paging file there as some have suggested?

yes i have changed the file to different hard drives and yes my ram is fine as for size i have 8 gb

i have an ass whack of ram, so i turned my page file off

that made windows just start closing shit that it felt necessary after a few hours

Unfortunately, if all hardware diagnostics pass, then you are left with the conclusion that you have a configuration issue or a corrupted operating system. Can you post a screenshot of your disk manager? The best solution is to back your data up and reinstall windows, and then follow best practices in configuring the page file.