Sorry Gimpster, but this thread will not tell you how to shoot straight. What it might do however is make the game run more smoothly.

I use the following commands when running most of my Steam games.

-heapsize 524288 -novid

-heapsize [Kilobytes]: This command tells the Source Engine to allocate more RAM to the system heap, where it can be accessed by the game to improve performance by caching more game information in RAM and hence reducing loading pauses. The default heapsize varies, but can be 256MB or less. If you have 2GB of RAM you may wish to increase this to 512MB (a heapsize of 524288). You can use higher values if you wish, but I don't recommend exceeding half your physical RAM (e.g. for 2GB RAM, don't set heapsize higher than 1024000). You can't force the game to load completely into RAM, that's not what this command does.

-novid: Prevents the Valve startup movie from playing when loading up the game, speeding up startup time.

To enable these commands, right click the game in Steam, select properties, then select launch options and type the command into the box

Also, while playing TF2, I was getting a warning in the top right of my screen saying: Warning: OS paged pool memory low. If you are getting this warning try the following.

***Make sure to create a system restore point before trying this. Niether I, or any member of this forum will be held responsible for your rig going kaput when using this solution***

OK now i've scared the pants offa you, open the registry editor. That's done by going to Run, then type in "regedit."

In the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

Double click on "PagedPoolSize". Hexadecimal is listed first. Change the "Value Data" to one of these below:
Note: You ONLY need to enter EITHER the Hexadecimal or Decimal figure ( e.g.10000000 or 268435456 ). They both have the same effect.

Code:
Megabytes Hexadecimal Decimal
192Mb 0c000000 201326592
256Mb 10000000 268435456
384Mb 18000000 402653184

You do not need anything bigger than 400Mb... in most cases 300Mb is too much as well. The bigger the number, the more memory you devote to the Paged Pool.

Once you are done, make sure you reboot your computer. I used the 256mb solution and the warning has never appeared since.

not trying that fix yet- but its the kind of fiddling i like to do- tho sometimes have little clue what i'm doing.

atm I have a little memory problem with TF2 of my own. My mobo clearly states it can only run two of its 3 DDR slots at 400- and as I only have 3 sticks of 512 (various latencies) I had the dilemma of running a gig @400 or 1.5 @333.
so that was my origional dilemma- then I managed to trick my mobo by manually clocking the 2 sticks to 400, then whacking in the other stick and voila all at speed (changing it with all 3 in results in no boot, blk screen)
Prb is TF2 has now become unstable (i think only tf2- gonna try hl2 now for a while) and I get crashes and BSOD's.
when I test in ntune or whatever they are running at (slightly over) 400.. is there any voltage i should maybe tweak down as I was quite chuffed with myself for tricking the mobo.
And is the extra half gig that important? when i used to swap from 1g 400 to 1.5g 333 it only rly made a difference with some games- stalker for instance loved the extra half gig, but some other titles preffered quicker timing with less ram... any ideas? or just as muddled as me?

Hello need more info

download this little tool.
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

and post back what it says

Do you think this problem is a direct result of altering the heapsize?

Well I only made my registry alterations AFTER getting this warning and finding the solution via Google. The warning itself (Warning: OS paged pool memory low) appeared suddeny a couple of updates ago but has not returned since the reg edit.

have downloaded CPU-Z and will post results. Just to detail what happens at moment of crash a little more I should mention the following. When switching between steam and windows and coming back to TF, at the best of times, Ive always had occasional stuttering of the audio as it swaps into the game and a pause. With my 1gb configuration this is momentary and lasts a couple of seconds only- it can sometimes happen during a particularly laggy match, just for a moment and I'm pretty sure its very common- its just when I have the extra 512mb in this is the moment it will choose to crash whereas it would still happen with the gig, just pull itself together and continue working.
CPUz results up in a sec, I have too much running in bkground atm

Main question is 1gb @400mhz or 1.5@333mhz? (if i cant get my mobo trick to work)

(mobo= AsusK8N4E (i think, from memory) cpu= old 754pin,AMD64-3000@ 2010mhz, 7600 512mbSE, various ram.) i must say its the most stable pc ive built yet, just this memory issue. I will still be keeping this pc for various XP only stuff.

Khola... try the following...

Set memory voltage to 2.8v (vddr, vdimm, whatever its called in your bios). May even need 2.9. Dunno how far your board goes but don't go over 3v.
Set memory timings to Cas 2.5 / TRCD 3 / TRP 3 / TRAS 8 / everything else on auto.
Have a look for Command Rate, or CPC and make sure it's disabled.
Have a look for interleaving and if it has it start with that disabled. You can try re-enabling it later. There are options for disabled, 4 waya nd 8 way if its supported by your board.
Also make sure that all 3 sticks of memory are EITHER single sided OR double sided - you can't mix and match (meaning either 8 or 16 memory chips on each stick).
Set memory ratio to 1:1 / 100% (memory at same speed as fsb).
Set frontside bus speed to 333mhz (or 166 depending how its displayed) in the first instance. Assuming that boots ok set to 404 (or 202 depending again on how it is displayed). Setting slightly above 400 avoids latency tweaks and optimisations board manufacturers use at "default" speeds to gain an advantage in reviews while still retaining all your pci dividers and stuff.
If you have a voltage adjustment for your board (can be vAGP / Vpci / vFSB / vNB or any other number of names) nudge this up by a step or two.

Bear in mind more volts = more heat.

To be honest though mate it may be time for a board and cpu upgrade.... If you decide to do this shoot me a pm and I can hook you up trade price most of the time...

Mine looked like it was set to zero before I changed it :S...anyway....does the pagedpoolquota need to be changed as well or just the size? I get the warning in pretty much all the orange box games I play (portal, tf2 and ep2)

Mine was zero also until I used this fix. Just changing the size should do it. Worked for me. Good luck.

yep worked for me too, thanks for the tip