[charmerci]

I have inexpensive laptop I think with 4gb RAM and about 50 gb hd. It's worked fine until.... For a long time, MS has told me that I didn't have enough memory (oops, undated to mean...) storage space to update W10. For a long time, I simply ignored it. Then I went a removed enough programs for space. I still get the message. When I look at how much space I have, it says that I'm using about *23gb out of 49gb* - (oops, this too is wrong.) However, the graph is in completely in red from end to end like it's filled up. But the real problem is that I can't open too many tabs and sometimes when I'm on the web even just one tab, usually YouTube, it will suddenly just shut down, no rhyme or reason why.

What's going on and what can I do?

[Mag]

   I had a similar thing happen on my i7 computer, getting warnings that my drive was full. I deleted some stuff but maybe not enough. Not long after the hard drive failed. But I can't say it was from that, I stupidly put a porn video to play and I think that's what did it. Anyway had to install new hard drive and Windows 10 as I could not boot up the computer with the installed windows on previous drive.

With my laptop, which was working, just slow with Windows 7 OS, only 4 gigs of Ram. I could not upgrade the Ram because the connection circuit is the old type and new Ram cards are slightly different and don't fit. So I ended up putting the laptop in the closet and bought a MSI Trident 3 i5. A small gaming computer which I really like and am getting good audio through my headphones. The newer Trident's I believe are i7.

[charmerci]

Mag, mine has such little space, I hardly have anything on it. I use an external HD and everything's double/triple backed up so.... okay, maybe the HD will fail.

[nlitworld]

If MS is telling you that you are low on memory, they aren't talking about hard drive storage space, they're talking about RAM memory sticks. And 4GB of RAM is super low anymore. Look and see if you can access these sticks (yes, take apart your laptop to look) and if so bump that to at least 8gb or really 16gb for better results. Then things will not get bogged down near as much.

[charmerci]

If MS is telling you that you are low on memory, they aren't talking about hard drive storage space, they're talking about RAM memory sticks. And 4GB of RAM is super low anymore. Look and see if you can access these sticks (yes, take apart your laptop to look) and if so bump that to at least 8gb or really 16gb for better results. Then things will not get bogged down near as much.

I kinda doubt it as it was a super cheap 11.6" laptop ($130). It's served me well up until recently. It's more of a sporadic inconvenience more than anything else.

[FullRangeMan]

Too bad you updated to W10, this is a big OS and open a door to many MS pgms heavy to run as IE, Edge, Word etc YT also use heavy software due HD images.

If you can connect bigger RAM cards and a 500Gb HD you could use this small screen portable more a few years, what STM not worth the expense and the work, unless you need walk around outdoor with it.

[charmerci]

Too bad you updated to W10, this is a big OS and open a door to many MS pgms heavy to run as IE, Edge, Word etc YT also use heavy software due HD images.

It came with W10.

[FullRangeMan]

Ata OK, I have made a cleaning some months ago and it removed many softwares that came along W10 that I though was important, none of these softwares are missing now, maybe you could do a similar cleaning.
See here:
https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=178315.0

[Doublej]

What brand and model machine do you have? If you run msinfo you'll get detailed information on the computer.

The answer might be, there is a whole bunch of stuff that unbeknownst to you is running in the background on your computer. Because of the small amount of RAM in the machine W10 spends all of its trying to swap what is in RAM to and from the disk so that each program can get a slice of CPU time to run.

If you have a spinning disk hard drive as opposed to a solid state hard drive, the problem is exacerbated as the hard drive will be a big bottleneck when the machine wants to swap RAM to disk.

The potential fixes are possible easy or difficult depending on your knowledge and interest with computers. Use the Windows Task Manager and a Startup Manager Utility (in CCleaner or Glary Utilities for example) to identify non-essential programs that are running and remove them. Programs like update utilities for printers, the computer, and software programs. FullRangeMan's link shows examples of the programs that you might be able to get rid of.

If possible upgrade to at least 8GB RAM and a Sold State Hard Drive (SSD). More RAM will reduce the swapping to disk and an SSD will increase the speed of swapping.

Run the computer manufacturer's driver/firmware update utility to get all of the latest drivers for your machine.

Run the computer manufacturer's hardware diagnostics and Window hard drive diagnostics to see if you are experiencing disk issues.

Easiest would be to get a new machine for $300-$400 but where's the fun in that?

[charmerci]

Double J, I've done some of that already but will try some of the others after work today.


Thanks to all for the suggestions so far. Excuse me if my responses are slow, it's a stupid busy time for me now.

[WGH]

4 GB of memory is more than enough for Windows 10, if the error message says there in not enough memory to update then too much is running in the background.

Open Settings -> Apps and uninstall any pre-installed programs you don't use. One reason the computer was so cheap was all the adware/spyware pre-installed and running in the background.

Security Suites like Norton are notorious memory hogs, temporarily turn it all off before upgrading.

Turn off Windows Animations and other eye candy - Google "Windows 10 performance options", this should free up some memory.

Type "msconfig" into the search bar, this will get you into System Configuration. Click the "Startup" tab to open the "Task Manager". There are plenty of programs and services to turn off between these two windows.

If the laptop has an old spinning hard drive then time to defrag, especially if you just removed a lot of stuff. Solid State Drives are not defraged.
Select the search bar on the taskbar and enter defrag.
Select Defragment and Optimize Drives.

Finally, if the laptop was running fine and is now having troubles it is time for a new laptop. You may be able to squeak by for a while but the writing is on the wall.

[Doublej]

A couple more thoughts.

For under $10 you can get a USB drive and use it to augment your RAM. This help with your stability issue:

https://www.zoopy.com/how-to-readyboost/

You can also use a USB drive to increase your drive space for patching:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/free-up-space-for-windows-updates-429b12ba-f514-be0b-4924-ca6d16fa1d65

Don't forget about the Windows Disk Cleanup Utility. It is much narrower in scope than a third party cleaner such as CCleaner which deletes browser caches and more but if you are concerned about running a third party tool doing things that are not blessed by Microsoft.

[charmerci]

OOPS! I apologize. I misinformed you. It's a 30gb SSD HD. It IS short of space on the HD. (Only 2GB of RAM too.)
20.3GB is taken up in the Windows sub folder, Addins, Favicon, Gobalization, LiveKernalReports, etc. There is only 425MB left on the HD.
I'm sorry for all the efforts that you made without the proper information. 

Though I still don't understand why Chrome has starting to shut down recently with no reason as I've added no programs.

[FullRangeMan]

What Chrome say in error report file?
https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/142063?hl=en-GB&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop
FF or Edge also abend ?

[charmerci]

What Chrome say in error report file?
https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/142063?hl=en-GB&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop
FF or Edge also abend ?

Chrome just simply closes. When I open it again, it simply asks if I want to restore shutdown tabs.


I guess I just need to delete some of those programs you mentioned.


The other thing that I forgot to mention is that it was shutting down with the computer hooked to a Vizio Smart TV via HDMI. I haven't used the computer without it yet since it's been shutting down.

[FullRangeMan]

The Chrome report crash will guide you.

[WGH]

There is only 425MB left on the HD.

Are you sure the error message said not enough memory? You have confused memory and storage in the past.

425 MB is probably not enough space to download and make a backup of the update.

All new versions require some capacity on the hard drive (or SSD), the 20H2 update needs at least 4.9GB free probably more to make a windows.old file too.
How to update Windows 10 when low on space
https://www.techadvisor.com/how-to/windows/update-windows-10-low-on-space-3803847/

The "Windows.old" folder is automatically created as a backup of your older Windows installation when a major Windows update takes place.

You don’t have to worry about deleting this folder in most cases—Windows will automatically remove it a month after an upgrade takes place. If you want to remove it sooner to regain the space faster, however, you can.

How to Delete Backup Files in Windows 10 has a few options to explore to free up hard drive space.
https://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-10/how-to-delete-backup-files-in-windows-10/

If no Windows.old folder then you need to find a way to free up 10 GB disk space.

Or Windows is right too and you don't have enough memory (now you have 2 problems). Click on the "Show Hidden Icons" ^ at bottom right of screen. Right click on each icon and then "Quit". That will free up ram. Maybe the combination of more disk space and free ram will work.

Chrome is probably crashing because the SSD is full, the Virtual Memory (Page File) is out of room. The Page File in Windows 10 is a hidden system file with the .SYS extension that is stored on your computer’s system drive (usually C:\). The Pagefile allows the computer to perform smoothly by reducing the workload of the physical memory, or RAM.

Windows manages the page file perfectly, no need to manually change it like in the old days. But with a full SSD and a full 2Gb of memory there is nowhere to put temporary memory files so it throws them out and Chrome crashes. Make more room on the SSD and the crashing will stop.

[JerryM]

[charmerci]

Are you sure the error message said not enough memory? You have confused memory and storage in the past.

425 MB is probably not enough space to download and make a backup of the update.

All new versions require some capacity on the hard drive (or SSD), the 20H2 update needs at least 4.9GB free probably more to make a windows.old file too.
How to update Windows 10 when low on space
https://www.techadvisor.com/how-to/windows/update-windows-10-low-on-space-3803847/

The "Windows.old" folder is automatically created as a backup of your older Windows installation when a major Windows update takes place.

You don’t have to worry about deleting this folder in most cases—Windows will automatically remove it a month after an upgrade takes place. If you want to remove it sooner to regain the space faster, however, you can.

How to Delete Backup Files in Windows 10 has a few options to explore to free up hard drive space.
https://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-10/how-to-delete-backup-files-in-windows-10/

If no Windows.old folder then you need to find a way to free up 10 GB disk space.

Or Windows is right too and you don't have enough memory (now you have 2 problems). Click on the "Show Hidden Icons" ^ at bottom right of screen. Right click on each icon and then "Quit". That will free up ram. Maybe the combination of more disk space and free ram will work.

Chrome is probably crashing because the SSD is full, the Virtual Memory (Page File) is out of room. The Page File in Windows 10 is a hidden system file with the .SYS extension that is stored on your computer’s system drive (usually C:\). The Pagefile allows the computer to perform smoothly by reducing the workload of the physical memory, or RAM.

Windows manages the page file perfectly, no need to manually change it like in the old days. But with a full SSD and a full 2Gb of memory there is nowhere to put temporary memory files so it throws them out and Chrome crashes. Make more room on the SSD and the crashing will stop.

I quit the only hidden icon I could. I freed up some HD space, I now have 1+GB free on the HD. I've played YT for a while and it hasn't shut down.
But for now I need to shut down.

Good grief is right! I'm actually in the middle of moving out of my office by tomorrow night. I've got to get a couple of hours of work done before bed. Why I didn't ask you guys last week about this.....

[charmerci]

Well, a couple hours later and so far so good. 980MB free now but it just seems as if I just needed more HD space. Let's hope as it's only been a few hours. I hope this thread though, is helpful to others.