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What are hard faults?

Author

Olivia House

Published Feb 18, 2026

What are hard faults?

A hard fault occurs when Windows has to access the swap file--reserved hard disk space used when RAM runs out. Despite their name, hard faults are not errors. But if your system is experiencing hundreds of hard faults per second, either you need a RAM upgrade or a process is hogging resources.

Also, what are hard faults memory?

Hard faults are a normal part of how modern computers are currently processing memory information. A hard fault occurs when a memory block had to be retrieved from the Page File (Virtual Memory) instead of the physical memory (RAM).

Also Know, what causes hard page faults? A hard fault happens when the address in memory of part of a program is no longer in main memory, but has been instead swapped out to the paging file, making the system go looking for it on the hard disk. When this happens a lot, it causes slowdowns and increased hard disk activity.

Herein, how many hard faults per second is normal?

Counters Explained: Memory: Pages/sec – measures the number of pages per second that are paged out of RAM to Virtual Memory (HDD)or 'hard faults' OR the reading of memory-mapping for cached memory or 'soft faults' (systems with a lot of memory). Average of 20 or under is normal.

How do you fix a hard page fault?

A hard page fault is when the memory manager finds that the block of memory its needs is not in RAM. That memory has been swapped out to disk, and your system slows down because it takes more time to get it from there. Add more memory to your system to reduce the number of page faults and improve performance.

What causes memory page faults?

A page fault occurs when a program attempts to access a block of memory that is not stored in the physical memory, or RAM. The fault notifies the operating system that it must locate the data in virtual memory, then transfer it from the storage device, such as an HDD or SSD, to the system RAM.

What is the memory compression process?

Virtual memory compression (also referred to as RAM compression and memory compression) is a memory management technique that utilizes data compression to reduce the size or number of paging requests to and from the auxiliary storage.

How big should pagefile sys be?

Your paging file size should be 1.5 times your physical memory at a minimum and up to 4 times the physical memory at most to ensure system stability. Your minimum paging file size can be calculated by 8 GB x 1.5, and your maximum paging file size by 8 GB x 4.

What is standby memory?

Standby Memory is a special type of random-access memory (RAM) management on Windows 10 that often causes the computer to slow down, especially 64bit versions. This is often due to bugs affecting the operating system. This means that they write a series of frequently used information in this memory area.

How do I check my RAM on Windows 10?

To launch the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool, open the Start menu, type “Windows Memory Diagnostic”, and press Enter. You can also press Windows Key + R, type “mdsched.exe” into the Run dialog that appears, and press Enter. You'll need to reboot your computer to perform the test.

What is virtual memory and its use?

Virtual memory is a memory management capability of an operating system (OS) -- which uses hardware and software to allow a computer to compensate for physical memory shortages, by temporarily transferring data from random access memory (RAM) to disk storage.

Why is MsMpEng exe using so much memory?

MsMpEng.exe is the core process of Windows Defender service. If you witness that MsMpEng.exe is consuming too much CPU power of your device, don't worry. MsMpEng.exe is consuming huge amount of resources mainly because it might be searching its own directory or some old corrupted registry files are causing the problem.

How do I open Windows activity monitor?

Press the Ctrl+Alt+Del keys at the same time and select Start Task Manager on the screen that appears. In the Task Manager, click on the Performance tab, then click the Resource Monitor button or Open Resource Monitor link, depending on your version of Windows.

What does hard faults per second mean?

A hard fault occurs when Windows has to access the swap file--reserved hard disk space used when RAM runs out. Despite their name, hard faults are not errors. But if your system is experiencing hundreds of hard faults per second, either you need a RAM upgrade or a process is hogging resources.

What is hard drive thrashing?

With a computer, thrashing or disk thrashing describes when a hard drive is being overworked by moving information between the system memory and virtual memory excessively. When thrashing occurs, you will notice the computer hard drive always working, and a decrease in system performance.

What is paging file in Windows?

The page file, also known as the swap file, pagefile, or paging file, is a file on your hard drive. Your computer stores files, programs, and other data you're using in your RAM (random access memory) because it's much faster to read from RAM than it is to read from a hard drive.

How do I use Resource Monitor?

How to Use the Resource Monitor in Windows 7

Choose Start→All Programs→Accessories→System Tools→Resource Monitor.
To see which programs are hogging the CPU, click the Average CPU column heading.
Click the Memory tab to see how your computer's memory is being used.
When you're done, click the X Close button to close the Resource Monitor.

What is memory compression in Resource Monitor?

The compressed memory feature in Windows 10 is designed to improve the performance (responsiveness) of the system due to storing part of the memory pages in RAM in a compressed form. It helps to reduce the number of read / write requests to the memory pages in the slow (compared to RAM) paging file on a hard drive.

How do I use Resource Monitor in Windows 10?

How to start Resource Monitor

Use Windows-R to open the run box.
Use Windows-R to open the run box.
On Windows 10, select Start > All Apps > Windows Administrative Tools > Resource Monitor.
On previous versions of Windows, select Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Resource Monitor.

What is Resource Monitor in Task Manager?

If you need a better understanding of the way Windows and its apps use the resources of your computer, Resource Monitor (resmon.exe) is the right tool for the task. The information is concise and real-time with graphs and grouping by resources. You can monitor the use of the CPU, memory, disk, and network.

How do you reduce hard faults per second?

In general, the more RAM you have, the fewer hard faults per second you should see. Some users have reportedly been able to reduce the hard faults per second count by disabling and re-enabling the pagefile. sys file. If you want to give it a go, please follow our in-depth article (disable pagefile).

What do page faults indicate?

Page Fault. A page fault occurs when a program attempts to access a block of memory that is not stored in the physical memory, or RAM. The fault notifies the operating system that it must locate the data in virtual memory, then transfer it from the storage device, such as an HDD or SSD, to the system RAM.

What is high page faults per second?

The rate at which the system is paging memory to and/or from disk is too high. Pages/sec is the rate at which pages are read from or written to disk to resolve hard page faults.

Are hard faults bad?

A hard fault occurs when Windows has to access the swap file--reserved hard disk space used when RAM runs out. Despite their name, hard faults are not errors. But if your system is experiencing hundreds of hard faults per second, either you need a RAM upgrade or a process is hogging resources.

What are page faults per second?

Page Faults/sec: Page Faults/sec is the rate at which page faults by the threads executing in this process are occurring. A page fault occurs when a thread refers to a virtual memory page that is not in its working set in main memory.

What is a cache fault?

Cache faults are a type of page fault that occur when a program references a section of an open file that is not currently resident in physical memory. Cache faults are resolved by reading the appropriate file data from disk, or in the case of a remotely stored file – accessing it across the network.

How do you prevent page faults?

The process of moving pages into physical memory incurs page faults. In order to avoid page faults, we use VirtualLock to lock all allocated memory into physical memory immediately after allocating it.

What are page faults in Task Manager?

A page fault (sometimes called #PF, PF or hard fault) is a type of exception raised by computer hardware when a running program accesses a memory page that is not currently mapped by the memory management unit (MMU) into the virtual address space of a process.

What is hard page fault and soft page fault?

Page faults are generated when an application tries to use memory that is part of its working set, but can't find it. Page faults can be either hard or soft: Hard page faults occur when the page is found in the page file on the hard disk. Soft page faults happen when the page is found somewhere else in memory.

How do I fix page fault in non paged area?

Fixing the Page Fault in Nonpaged Area Right after Booting your Computer

On the lock screen, click the Power button.
Press and hold the shift key and then click Restart.
After a few seconds, you will be taken to a new window.
Troubleshoot ->Advanced Options ->Startup Settings.
This command should restart your computer.

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