Beware of the Thrasher

Anyone who has worked in the tech support field can tell you: all computers are not created equal.  Even the most popular PC manufacturers happily sell hopelessly under-powered computers to cost-conscious consumers who incorrectly assume that a new computer is a fast computer. Today I'd like to focus on what I call a Thrasher: a computer so poorly configured that it can't perform the simplest of tasks.

How to Identify a Thrasher

It's not hard to identify a Thrasher simply by observing a computer's behavior:

1. Can you solve world hunger in the time it takes to progress from the login screen to the point where you can actually interact with your desktop?
2. Does switching between programs seem to take forever?
3. Does it take minutes, rather than mere milliseconds, for your mouse clicks to register and make anything happen?
4. Do windows disappear slowly, or a single line of pixels at a time rather all at once as they should?
5. Do you get Out or Memory or Low Virtual Memory errors?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, then chances are you've got a Thrasher. I've coined these types of machines Thrashers after thrashing, a unique problem that arises when a computer is low on memory. Thrashing occurs when your computer has severely limited physical memory and has to rely on virtual memory (a special segment of hard drive space that works like physical memory) to run multiple programs.

Put simply, when your computer has to depend on virtual memory, it often works itself into a state in which it spends all of it's time and resources shuffling data between physical RAM and virtual memory and has nothing left to actually perform the tasks you want it to perform.

Here's a fun little exercise to try when you encounter such a computer.  When the machine seems to be thrashing, press CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up Task Manager. There's a good chance that it will take several minutes for Task Manager to appear, but after it does click the Performance tab and look at your memory utilization.  Is your computer reporting that it is consistently using more RAM that is physically installed?  This means that it is depending on Virtual Memory 100% of the time, which means you've got a Thrasher.

How to Deal With a Thrasher

If you just want the Low Virtual Memory errors to go away, you could simply increase the amount of virtual memory made available to the operating system.  But this masks a symptom and really doesn't fix the underlying problem. To truly fix thrashing the amount of physical memory available for programs to utilize must be increased.  Here are a few different methods for increasing your virtual memory:

1. Install more memory. This is by far the easiest and most effective way to increase available physical memory. Besides: memory is cheap these days, so why not find out exactly how much physical RAM your computer can handle and max it out?
2. Uninstall unused software. Many programs have components that load when windows starts and always consume a chunk of physical memory.  Eliminate programs that you no longer have any use for.
3. Disable Startup Programs. Using a utility like MSCONFIG or Windows Defender, disable or completely remove unneccessary startup programs. This is often useful if you want to keep a particular program installed, but don't want it to load when Windows starts.
4. Run anti-virus. It's not very likely that a virus is consuming all of your physical memory, but it's good to eliminate the possibility.  If your computer is so slow that you can't even open anti-virus, consider rebooting into Safe Mode to run a virus scan.
5. Run anti-spyware. Spyware can consume a lot of RAM, so it's always wise to eliminate that possibility.
6. Update your operating system and other software. Your software may have memory leaks that updates could potentially fix.