First Attempts At Solving The Problem

This was a truly bizarre behaviour. To correct it, I tried resetting the paging file by selecting the No paging file option and clicking on Set before setting the paging file to 512MB minimum and 768MB maximum.

But after rebooting, I found that the paging file was STILL 1536MB in size? A check of System Properties revealed the same situation. What's going on??

So I tried turning off the paging file by selecting the No paging file option and rebooting. Phew! The 1536MB paging file disappeared! That's something.

Then I recreated the 512MB-768MB semi-permanent paging file and rebooted the computer. Guess what I found - a 1536MB paging file!! I was really stumped.

Only The First Partition

After discussing this problem in the forums, I tried shifting the paging file to the second partition. Surprisingly, the paging file remained at the fixed size of 512MB! Hmm...

So, this problem only involves the paging file in the first partition. If I switch it to the second partition, the paging file size remained as set. But no matter what I did, I could not get the paging file on the first partition to remain at any size. Windows XP stubbornly deleted the paging file and created a new 1536MB paging file.

Was Service Pack 2 The Culprit?

Stumped, I was forced to conclude that the problem was due to Windows XP Service Pack 2. After all, this problem only started manifesting after upgrading to Service Pack 2.

I tried uninstalling Service Pack 2 but somehow, that didn't work either. The paging file refused to budge from its size of 1536MB. Now, I was thinking - perhaps it was one of the updates I installed AFTER I installed Service Pack 2.

So, I recreated the first partition and installed a new copy of Windows XP SP1. Phew.. The paging file remained at the size I set. I installed all my regular software and even after several reboots, the paging file stayed obediently at the size I set.

Then, curiosity got better of me. I tried upgrading to Service Pack 2 again. Yeah, stupid, right? Guess what. The paging file went insane after the upgrade and now set itself to 1535MB!

Please note that this new paging file size is 1MB smaller than the one we saw earlier. When I checked the Virtual Memory properties page, this was what I saw.

Looks like the rebellious paging file always ensures that it is 1MB larger than the recommended size. When Windows XP recommended a paging file size of 1535MB, it created a 1536MB paging file.

But now, Windows XP, for some inexplicable reason, has recommended only a paging file size of 1534MB. So, it created a 1535MB paging file. How droll...

So, is this problem due to Service Pack 2? As you will see, the answer has both good and bad ramifications.

At this point in time, I asked Ken if he experienced the same problem. To my surprise, he too faced this peculiar problem! Looks like I was not alone. But guess what - he was only using Windows XP SP1!

So, this means Service Pack 2 is NOT the culprit. It may have precipitated the problem in my case but it was certainly not the cause in Ken's case. In other words, this problem is due to something else. This makes it very hard to figure out!