missing pagefile.sys   

My mother's pc is a Compaq Presario, 2.4 GHz, 256 MB RAM (could be 512), 
with a 80 GB hard drive.  She is only using 11 Gigs out of the entire drive 
and the computer is 4 years old.  She uses it for game sites on the internet 
and has been hit with spyware, malware, viruses, etc. previously though none 
of these are showing on her system right now.  She has Norton Corporate 
Edition 10.0 installed and is running Spyware Doctor.  Her computer comes up 
with the message that the pagefile setting is low or is missing.  I have run 
utilities to check her RAM - it's fine and her hard drive had errors but all 
were repaired.  I checked for her privileges in the main system and she has 
administrator rights.  I tried to see if I could locate the pagefile.* on 
her system (making sure I could see hidden system files) and I could not 
find one anywhere including I386 folder.

I tried renaming her computer which name was in all caps, such as LISA, to a 
different name and tried to put it in lower case, such as "Jones" and when I 
typed it came out in all CAPS.  On restart, the first name was there though 
it was in lower case - such as "Lisa", though when I checked to see the 
Security for the computer, it showed - "Jones" - like how I wanted it. 
So...I shut the system off and tried again - this time it was "Lisa".

What I find odd is that these changes to the system are not "taking".  It's 
as if they're temp files and being cleared out on reboot.

Has anybody had a similar problem or this exact same problem?

Oh - also, I did reinstall the Windows XP Home Operating System.  When I 
did, it did not recognize that the computer had previously been registered 
so I had to call Microsoft to get a new code and I had a COM+ error during 
installation (sorry - at work so I don't have the exact error).  Could this 
COM error be the problem?

I also apologize if this is too scrambled to make sense of but am really 
hopin' and a-prayin' that someone, somewhere, has a solution.  Thanks!!

date: Fri, 12 May 2006 16:20:26 -0400   author:   Lisa K

RE: missing pagefile.sys   

Wow, thats a lot of problems. Most likely the system has not been configured 
to allow you to see the page file. If you want to increase the size of it, 
that is quie easy. I would recommend making it static (the same starting and 
full size) and setting to 768 mb. to change it rightclick on the "My Computer 
Icoon on the desktop, choose "properties" then the Advanced" tab. now click 
on the "Settings" button next to 'Performance'. click on the 'Advance' tab 
again. Toward the bottom of this window is 'Virtual Memory' Click on the 
"Change" button. There are three places you can select with a 'Dot"; Custom 
size, System managed size, and No paging file. you Mom's is probably set to 
system managed size. Click the round white spot next to 'custom size' and put 
in 768 in the first white box and 768 in the second white box, press the 
"set" button. Then click "ok", then "ok" then "ok" and then finally click 
"ok". you will need to reboot the system for the changes to take.
You should go to www.safer-networking.org and get spybot, install it and I 
bet there are some spywares still on it.

Good Luck!

"Lisa K" wrote:

> My mother's pc is a Compaq Presario, 2.4 GHz, 256 MB RAM (could be 512), 
> with a 80 GB hard drive.  She is only using 11 Gigs out of the entire drive 
> and the computer is 4 years old.  She uses it for game sites on the internet 
> and has been hit with spyware, malware, viruses, etc. previously though none 
> of these are showing on her system right now.  She has Norton Corporate 
> Edition 10.0 installed and is running Spyware Doctor.  Her computer comes up 
> with the message that the pagefile setting is low or is missing.  I have run 
> utilities to check her RAM - it's fine and her hard drive had errors but all 
> were repaired.  I checked for her privileges in the main system and she has 
> administrator rights.  I tried to see if I could locate the pagefile.* on 
> her system (making sure I could see hidden system files) and I could not 
> find one anywhere including I386 folder.
> 
> I tried renaming her computer which name was in all caps, such as LISA, to a 
> different name and tried to put it in lower case, such as "Jones" and when I 
> typed it came out in all CAPS.  On restart, the first name was there though 
> it was in lower case - such as "Lisa", though when I checked to see the 
> Security for the computer, it showed - "Jones" - like how I wanted it. 
> So...I shut the system off and tried again - this time it was "Lisa".
> 
> What I find odd is that these changes to the system are not "taking".  It's 
> as if they're temp files and being cleared out on reboot.
> 
> Has anybody had a similar problem or this exact same problem?
> 
> Oh - also, I did reinstall the Windows XP Home Operating System.  When I 
> did, it did not recognize that the computer had previously been registered 
> so I had to call Microsoft to get a new code and I had a COM+ error during 
> installation (sorry - at work so I don't have the exact error).  Could this 
> COM error be the problem?
> 
> I also apologize if this is too scrambled to make sense of but am really 
> hopin' and a-prayin' that someone, somewhere, has a solution.  Thanks!! 
> 
> 
>

date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 16:13:02 -0700   author:   John Spencer