well first of all that Norton is going to use a LOT of resources maybe too much for that system, you might consider removing it and using something like AVAST free or Microsoft Security Essentials and a stand alone firewall.

What is showing in your task manager as using the most of your resources? To see that do a control alt delete to bring up the task manager and under the processes running see which is showing a lot of usage.

What version of IE is installed? How many add ons are installed? Are a lot of tabs open in IE when you get the High Memory usage of IE pop up?

To find out what version of IE is installed, click Help in the browser in the window that opens click "About Internet Explore" that will tell you the version.

"Ideally Internet Explorer should not use a whole lot of memory, but under certain specific circumstances, you may encounter Internet Explorer excessive memory usage problems. MS hasn't done much about these even after accepting them as bugs. Here's an insight to these problems and their resolutions."

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/windows-platform/articles/53127.aspx#ixzz1I2T39oNe

"IE7 has several unique excessive memory usage problems. The most common one amongst these happens to be the IE7 memory leakage problem with the growing number of tabs. It is observed that the memory used by IE7 whenever a new tab is opened, grows, but whenever the tab is closed, the used memory doesn't get freed-up. As a result, with the increase in number of tabs, the size of the memory grows bigger and bigger and after a while IE eats up excessive memory, freezes and finally crashes."

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/windows-platform/articles/53127.aspx#ixzz1I2TEQXqe

The memory usage of IE will adjust, depending on the page under process. You need to monitor the resources utilized by IE, and in case you feel that a lot of memory is being used the very moment IE is launched (ideally memory usage grows as you open more tabs, download data, or try to attach data to emails and perform other operations such as audio or video streaming), it is probably due to the fact that IE is loading with plenty of add-ons.

When you consider the memory utilized by IE under normal circumstances, IE running without add-ons eats up 10-25 times lesser memory than it does with add-ons enabled.

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/windows-platform/articles/53127.aspx#ixzz1I2WncvA5

Raven, about 60 programs are running in my task manager. I know I had a site bookmarked on my old computer that told you what was and wasn't necessary, I will look it up on Google unless you know of one that is really good too.

Zep, I have IE8. I did have several tabs open when I saw the pop-up this time, I don't recall in the past if I had many open but that is a good point. I have closed everything but this one and haven't had a popup since I posted a few hours ago. Thanks for the articles, I will check them out.

All in all the computer is running fine, I got it at a Verizon outlet for $1 about a year ago and want to keep it running the best it can.

michelle-
I have an HP netbook which came with about the same specs, so I'm sure that it's the same machine or close to it. I was having problems with certain things running a little slow in my browser, like videos, so I decided to add more RAM. You have 1GB of RAM and you can likely replace this with a 2 GB chip for about $35. For me it made a noticeable difference, and it only takes a couple of minutes to install. Go to www.crucial.com to see what your computer can handle.

More,

The No Add-ons mode allows IE 8 and IE 9 to temporarily run without any add-ons like toolbars, ActiveX controls, etc.

The No-addons mode in Internet Explorer is rather useful when you want to trouble shoot incompatible browser add-ons or extensions, or the issue you're having.

It is also very useful when you want to troubleshoot a problem like say freezing of your IE, to identify whether it is related to any add-on.

To run your IE in the no add-ons mode:

Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Internet Explorer (No Add-ons)

Alternatively, you can simply sun the command line arguement;

iexplore.exe -extoff

This will start IE with no add-ons.

Then through Internet Options > Manage Add-ons, you can enable/disable each add-on to identify which, if any, add-on is creating problems.

Source: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/run-internet-explorer-8-in-no-add-ons-mode#ixzz1I308uxyl

If you continue to have the Memory pop up error, run IE 8 in no add ons mode to see if that temporily fixes it. all explained above.

You need to determine why IE is using to much memory first, adding more ram is a good idea, but it's not going to fix Internet Explorer issue, the error clearly shows that IE is having some memory issue, no matter how much ram you add IE will still be using to much for what ever reason, we end up masking the problem that way.

Kudzu, I will get more RAM, didn't think of that!

Zep, IE is now running with no add-ons.

Thanks for the help, I will post back if the pop-ups come back!

-Michelle

Remember running IE with no add ons is just a trouble shooting exercise not a solution. I'd let IE run that way for a while all day or longer to see if it generates the error again, if it runs ok with no Memory Error, Then activate each add on 1 at a time to try and find out what add on it is that maybe causing the problem.

I swear I need to get my glasses updated or my brain LOL
All my brain saw was high memory usage, oh well with Norton on there it is still valid info LOL just has nothing to do with IE.