[Sudden Ram Loss]

You seem to have a lot of programs that are not needed starting up. I would try disabling those, and see if it helps at all.

Such as? I'm a little clueless here; I don't want to disable anything that my computer needs.

Yeah Photoshop is a memory hog but it's always run fine even with my 256. Well, if I get this RAM upgrade it'll run even faster, hopefully~

[Leave Computer On 24/7?]

I have mine on 24/7, unless I'm going away on vacation. I turn my monitor off when I'm not home, though; don't want my roommate getting curious if I forget to turn it off!

[Sudden Ram Loss]

Same result, robroy.

I know 256 is the optimal setup, but I haven't had any problems with it.

I'll call a friend of mine and see if he can install another stick of ram or something for me. But who knows how long that will be, or if it will even work.

[Sudden Ram Loss]

I haven't installed anything new, though. That's why it so strange that suddenly all this is happening.

[Sudden Ram Loss]

No, I wasn't running any of those programs while trying to start PS; I opened them after PS crashed.

I would spend some money to get more RAM but I'm worried that the same thing will happen again; that it will mysteriously vanish again.

[Sudden Ram Loss]

Thanks for the link handplane but PS is only a result of the problem, not the cause. :/

I have sort-of good news, though; I did some research and managed to install SP2! Yay!

[Sudden Ram Loss]

Nope. Highest CPU time is System Idle Process which 27. After that is System with 1:10.

[Sudden Ram Loss]

Haha, hi again~

Yeah, I've tried using Photoshop since. Still a no-go.

I screencapped the task manager. Nothing's really using a lot of CPU time. Then again, I'm not sure how much anything should really be using to begin with...

[Sudden Ram Loss]

Yo and hello. I was pointed this way by someone over at the A-Squared forums so here I am.

First of all, since I'm sure you'll ask, I'm running Windows XP Professional with 256MB of RAM. I'm using SP1 (explanation to follow) and I have to stress that I have had no problems whatsoever with this setup for the past three years. I always updated my computer when updates come up but have had no luck installing SP2. (I always get "Access Denied" notice, even when I am logged into the Administrator account, so I've since given up on THAT headache!)

Like I said, everything has been running smoothly ever since I got the computer until a few days ago. I went to open Photoshop, and it alerted me that it could not initiliaze; not enough RAM. This was the first time I'd ever seen the notice before, so of course I did what I normally do when something goes wrong - I panicked.

Since then, I have downloaded a program someone recommended called MemTurbo to monitor my RAM usage, and right now at this very moment it is at a scary 56MB. My computer is lagging every few minutes, and I have no idea what exactly is wrong. I have run Lavasoft Adware (latest updates), AVG Antivirus (latest updates) and Spybot S&D (latest updates) in both safe and normal mode. I've had people look at my HJT log, but nothing there really was a problem.

So yes. Me = terrified. I'm a student so I can't exactly afford a RAM upgrade, especially since this is the only time it has happened.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.