Page File\Virtual memory problem

Well, here's my problem. After my comp has been on for a few hours it starts giving me the message about "Windows is low on virtual memory. Windows is now increasing the size of your virtual memory...." Then my computer is all choppy, I cant log on or off after this happens, it basically just freezes the computer. Earlier today my virtual memory was using 1.68GB...which seems extremely high to me....

What could be causing this? any ideas??
I'm using Win XP Pro and my page files size is Min -- 500MB Max -- 1000MB

Here's a screenshot of right now...

have you used ad aware lately and got rid of all the spyware on your computer? that seems like a lot of memory bein used but even for xp

i just ran ad aware before posting, thinking that's what the problem was, but it still happens. This is what it's at now: (it took almost 2 minutes for paint to open up!)

When you click on Processes does anything there have an abnormal amount of memory ?

all the memory sizes look fine....nothing abnormal


after watching my page file climb to 2 gigs and having my computer stop responding, I restarted and watched the task manager. Every 15 or 20 seconds, the cpu usage would spike and the page file would increase.....so i then watched the processes screen, and found that the spike was caused by kernal32.exe So i ended that process (i though i needed it?) and check out the picture. Should I stop allowing this procees to run, as it seems to be causing my problem, or do i need it for my system to run?

I think the "kernal32.exe" file is a virus (I just checked my XP system for that file, and it's not in my root directory)...I would definitely suggest running a virus scan.

thanks for the update, im scanning now!

Well, that was the problem all right, and not only was that a virus, it was one of 7 viruses found on my computer....

looks like i'll be keeping Norton installed this time!

Thanks for the help