Win2K Machine "Eating Itself Alive"

I've just run across this newsgroup, and hope there's a solution to a newly developed problem I'm having with a Win2K box.

The machine has been running flawlessly for about 3 years. It is a dedicated audio workstation, and is never connected to the Internet. It's only purpose is to record, edit, and process audio files that I produce in my recording business.

It is a PIII, 1Ghz, 512Mb, Intel 815 mobo. WD hard drives, Plextor CD drive. Nothing out of the ordinary. It has been the most stable machine I've had of the six running in my office/studio.

Just a couple days ago, it was working perfectly. I've got a multi-track project to mix and edit, and yesterday decided to work on it.

Turned it on normally, and got error messages that I was running low on virtual memory. Okay, says I, figuring I'd just go in and fix it. It was strange, though, as nothing has been changed since a few days ago when it ran just fine.

As I commenced to do the work I needed to do, every program I tried to run quit with a "the program has generated errors and will shut down" error. Even Control Panel programs. Just before I reached the point I'm at now, no executable would run - nothing. All came back with the error.

At this point, all I get is "low virtual memory" or "out of memory" errors. Windows will not even start. Not even in safe mode. Right this very minute I running virus scanning and cleaning (McAfee) from a floppy. Quite a few files were reported as having been "infected" with a "like W32/Parvo" something or other.

If I could get into safe mode or even the command prompt, I might be able to figure this out myself. But it just seems to be getting worse and worse every time I shut it down and start it up again.

I'd appreciate any pointers. I've looked on-line and just can't seem to find anything (maybe I'm just using the right search words...)

Thanks in advance.


T. Maki
Riverside, CA
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: cannot open office 2007
    ... Database Developer ... On the virtual memory tab, the custom size button is checked. ... To clarify your recommendation, you want me to set the initial to 2, from ... starting word in safe mode. ...
    (microsoft.public.office.misc)
  • Re: cannot open office 2007
    ... to the range windows provided ... Database Developer ... On the virtual memory tab, the custom size button is checked. ... starting word in safe mode. ...
    (microsoft.public.office.misc)
  • Re: Page File size wont change
    ... That article is totally misleading. ... computers that have two or more physical hard drives installed. ... How can I optimize the Windows 2000/XP virtual memory? ... physical RAM. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain)
  • Re: Problems opening applications
    ... Let's see how much RAM memory this system has, and how much virtual memory is available. ... I might suggest you reboot the system into Safe mode, ... Another suggestion I'd offer to test in normal mode of Windows: ... Is one of the applications Internet Explorer? ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: how to delete a corrupted page file on an ntfs partition?
    ... I recommend you study Alex Nichol's article on Virtual Memory. ... </end quote> ... do these tweaks while in Safe Mode of XP. ... Recovery Console is a specialized mode of XP intended for limited tasks, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)