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Difficulty: Very hardTroubleshooting Windows Performance and Application Crashes

A Windows 11 workstation used for 3D rendering experiences severe system latency and frequent application crashes during heavy rendering tasks. Diagnostics show that the Paging File % Usage routinely reaches 98%, Task Manager displays high Hard Faults/sec rates, and Event Viewer logs Event ID 2004 (Resource-Exhaustion-Detector) indicating that virtual memory is depleted. Further inspection reveals that the system drive hosting pagefile.sys has less than 500 MB of remaining free space, preventing the paging file from expanding further. Which of the following initial actions should the technician take to resolve the virtual memory bottleneck and stabilize system performance?

  1. Modify Virtual Memory settings in System Properties to relocate the paging file to a non-system volume with ample free storage space.Answer
  2. B
    Execute chkdsk /f /r in an elevated command prompt to clear corrupt memory address allocations inside pagefile.sys.
  3. C
    Use Event Viewer to configure a Performance Counter Alert that automatically clears physical RAM whenever Event ID 2004 is logged.
  4. D
    Access Indexing Options in Control Panel and rebuild the Windows Search index to reduce paging file read and write operations.

Answer

Modify Virtual Memory settings in System Properties to relocate the paging file to a non-system volume with ample free storage space.
When a Windows system experiences high Hard Faults/sec and Event ID 2004 (Resource-Exhaustion-Detector), the operating system's virtual memory capacity is depleted. Since the drive hosting pagefile.sys has less than 500 MB of free space, the paging file cannot grow to meet system demand. Moving the paging file to a drive volume with sufficient space via System Properties restores proper virtual memory functionality and stops application crashes caused by memory allocation failures.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze diagnostic indicators
Event ID 2004, high hard fault rate, and 98% paging file usage point to virtual memory exhaustion caused by low disk space on the drive hosting the pagefile.
Windows uses pagefile.sys on the hard drive to supplement physical RAM; when the underlying disk runs out of free space, virtual memory cannot expand, leading to app crashes and thrashing.
2
Determine the appropriate administrative configuration utility
Virtual memory settings are adjusted via Advanced System Settings (System Properties) under the Performance options.
Relocating the paging file to a secondary drive with adequate free space allows Windows to expand virtual memory as needed without running out of disk space.
3
Execute the remediation action
The paging file is successfully moved to a secondary volume with adequate space, resolving memory allocation failures.
Providing a volume with ample storage space eliminates the virtual memory starvation causing high hard fault rates and application crashes.

Key Concept

Troubleshooting Windows Virtual Memory Exhaustion and Pagefile Bottlenecks
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Topics

Troubleshooting Windows Performance and Application Crashes

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