Usually my computer is used with the following applications open: Mozilla mail and browser (with about 8 browser tabs open), Norton Utilities, and Leprechaun Virusbuster. There is an Epson Stylus 830U USB connected as the default printer and a HP5200 scanner USB connected. I also have Epson PhotoQuicker open. If I attempt to open a word processing program or another application, the following error message appears: ‘C:Program Files………………………..exe. Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service’. Would doubling the RAM to 1 GB help? The computer is an ASUS Pentium 4 with a 40 GB hard disk (22 GB free) and 512 MB RAM running Windows XP Home.

While you do have quite a few applications open, the computer should be able to handle all of these programs since you seem to have quite a fast computer with a good amount of RAM. Possibly a program on your computer has a bug which is causing a memory leak. Memory leaks occur when a program allocates resources but does not release the resource (i.e., memory) back to Windows once it has completed. To check this theory, you will need to do some trial and error testing. On your computer you seem to have quite a few applications open. Open the programs until the problem occurs. Once the problem occurs, close the last program you opened and check whether the problem goes away by trying to reopen the application which previously would not open. If the error message still appears, do CTRL-ALT-DEL and click the ‘Processes’ tab. Look through the list and make sure that the program you just quit actually has terminated, rather than just closed it’s window. If the program has not been terminated, click the process and then ‘End Task’. On the other hand, if the program has been terminated, try closing another open program to see whether that is the problem application. Continue this until you have narrowed down the problem to a particular application, or all programs on the computer are closed (including programs running in the system tray, or hidden processes running in the background which you need to close by using CTRL-ALT-DEL and clicking the ‘Processes’ tab).

The problem is likely to be caused by some program or process on your computer. Having narrowed down the problem to a particular application, you should try to get an updated version of the program. However, if all programs are closed and the problem still persists, I am starting to think there may be a problem with Windows. In this extreme, it may be worthwhile to backup important data, format the hard drive, and reinstall Windows. Upgrading to 1 GB RAM is unlikely to solve the problem. In fact, you may not see a great performance increase if you upgrade your machine to 1 GB RAM as there is a point of diminishing returns. A good explanation of this can be found at www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/expertzone/columns/dunn/03august11_ram.asp.