Able to Commit More Memory Than Is Available

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This article was previously published under Q191614

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SYMPTOMS

Applications appear to use more memory than is available (physical RAM + pagefile) and get repeated Out of Virtual Memory errors.

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CAUSE

When a user receives the following error message:

System Process - Out of Virtual Memory

Your system is running low on virtual memory. Please close some
applications. You can then start the System option in the Control
Panel and choose the Virtual Machine button to create an additional
page file or to increase the size of your current paging file.

By clicking OK, the system will continue to run and will allow applications to consume more memory. If you do not free up memory by following the instructions indicated by the error message, the system will bring up another popup error. By clicking OK button, the system will continue to run and will consume more memory until the amount of memory being used reaches what is actually available with RAM and pagefile combined. It will, however, appear to use more memory than that.

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RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows NT 4.0 or Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

152734 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/152734/EN-US/ ) How to Obtain the Latest Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack

After the service pack is applied, Windows NT does not show that it has allocated more memory than what is set with the RAM and page file. There may only be a single warning message, but if more processes are started, additional error messages may appear.

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. This problem was first corrected in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition Service Pack 4.

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