I have a Dell OptiPlex GX1P I bought the computer from a high school it worked great for over a year then all of a sudden I got a pop up saying running out of memory I looked through the files for junk files and programs no longer on my computer and got rid of those. It worked for a while then  the pop up came again and now the computer will just shut itself off and reboot no matter what i'm doing. I like the computer I hope I can get this fixed any suggestions? Have you cleaned the computer? Inside the case and in the OS?

To clean in the case get some canned air and a few q-tips. Unplug everything and take the case outside. Open the case, keeping your hand on the bare metal to discharge any static. Use a q-tip to hold the cooling fans and blow the case out.

To clean the OS I use CCleaner, EasyClean, CleanUp4.5.

Use EasyCleaner only if you are comfortable working inside the OS itself, IE Windows.

You can set CleanUp4.5 in options to Thorough or check all the boxes and do a CUSTOM clean. It will tell you what you are removing and how much space you are getting back. On one computer I reclaimed 82GB of space that was full of garbage, dead files and registry keys.

CCleaner is very good for cleaning as well, it CLEANS the crap files and you can also clean the registry using the same program.

Get memtest and check out your RAM, you could have a bad RAM stick.I cleaned the inside and installed a new fan to cool it off better I haven't got the problem pop up again yet but i'm still leary to log on to it because it just shuts down when it wants to. How would I go about buying more memory and installing it? Computer specs please?

Also, can you take a screenshot of the popup?  Press ALT+PrintScreen and paste to Microsoft Word, Paint, or another such program.

Save the resulting screenshot and attach it to your next reply.Okay i'm on the Dell now I dunno how to add the pic I took so here is the info on my system.....
System:
Microsoft Windows XP
Professional
Version 2002
Service Pack 2

Computer:
Intel Pentium III Processor
497 MHz
398 MB RAM
 
Is that the info you needed? Hard drive size/free space, please.Total size 19.06 GB
Free space 14.78GB
Free Space 77%You don't have much of RAM. Processor rather slow....
What kind of programs give you "out of memory" error?

As for shutting down...

1. Disable "Restart on error" feature...

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Advanced tab (Vista: click Advanced system settings).
3. Under Startup and Recovery, click Settings to open the Startup and Recovery dialog box.
4. Clear the Automatically restart check box, and click OK the necessary number of times.
5. Restart your computer for the settings to take effect.

You may see some error message. If so, post back what it SAYS.

2. Download, and install SpeedFan: http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php
Post your computer temperatures:



When I get a hand-me-down computer the first thing I do is wipe it out.

Do you have the operating system disk and/or the product key?To see about adding more ram to your system you can follow the below link and install / run the SCANNER and it should tell you how much and what kind of ram is currently in your system. Then it will tell you the max you can use and give you some prices.

http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/

Keep in mind that you don't have to buy the ram from crucial you can always write down the info and see if you can find it cheaper elswhere.I went to crucial cause that's what I have now is crucial 128 I wanna upgrade to 256 but they don't service this pc anymore. I found a site that has memory in stock but I don't know what to get they got a list that says memory speed PC100 or PC133 how do I know which one is mine? Here is the site

 http://www.memory-up.com/Memory/DellOptiPlex11030.html?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=cpc&OVRAW=dell%20optiplex%20gx1p%20memory%20256&OVKEY=dell%20optiplex%20gx1p%20memory&OVMTC=advanced&OVADID=16538044511&OVKWID=127035755011

Any ideas how to find out what I need?Since it is a Dell it should have a Service Tag on it some where. If you find this you can enter it on Dell's website and should be able to get all the original details of that comp. So as long as the hardware is still original you should have all the info you need on your ram.Crucial should have been able to give you the proper RAM specs...you don't have to buy theirs but it will tell you what type to buy...