Windows Resources = Screwed Up????

[Muad'Dib]

When I was posting something for another thread and I went into system info and I noticed that my resources were 56% free. I have 196 megs of ram and all I have open is I.E. and the sys. info. windows. Something is terribly wrong here, right? I know Win98 does some screwy stuff when you pass 128, but isn't that a little absurd? Someone please help. Thanks

[mj12]

Welcome to w98 and the integration of ie into the OS.

[mj12]

Using 196megs of ram on 98 is a waste of ram. If you haven't already done it, make sure you have "typical role of this machine" set to "network server" under Control Panel - System - Performance - File System. And while you are in system properties - under the perf. tab chang Virtual memory to "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings" and set the min. and max. to the same size usually around the amount of ram, but in your case 125-175 should be sufficient. Also, how many programs do you have lurking in the background? Do you have the findfast or mso from msoffice running at startup? Also, goto http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/cleanup/ and clean up your system, btw I wouldn't recommend using CleanReg. My friend rendered his system almost unusable using it and I had to fix his associations.

[Muad'Dib]

Ok, I set my system to a "Network Server." I hope there's no problem with me doing that and UCLA (although I don't imagine there would be right?). I'm currently downloading/running the stuff you mentioned. Thanks for your help mj12.

[daniele]

To mj12:
I apologize for intruding.

I have 256 Mb and since I installed the 2nd 128 mb module I got the feeling my system slowed down (I thought I was crazy).

Just out of curiosity, could you please explain me how Windows 98 (se) is supposed to modify itself when I set “typical role of machine” to network server?

And, when I fix the dimension (200 Mb should be fine, right?) of swap file (generally speaking, how many swap file MB are used by a game or an application?) , which is the measurement unity? I mean, if I choose dimension to 200, it is intended I am writing 200 Megabytes (not Kb or else).

Lastly, could these settings cause irreversible troubles to Win 98?


Thanks in advance for the little lesson you might give.


Regards,

Daniele.


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PIII 450 Mhz@450
Mobo: MS6163 PRO
RAM:256 Mb
HD: QUANTUM KA 7200 rpm 13 Gb
DVD SAMSUNG SD-606F
SBLive! (Value)
G400 Max 32Mb DH
Monitor Flatron LG FT795 plus

[Muad'Dib]

BTW, do you suggest not using any Reg cleaners, or just the one specifically entitled "CleanReg?"

[Trilce]

Try this:

edit system.ini and in the [vcache] section type:

MinFileCache=49152
MaxFileCache=49152

i set it to that even tho i have 256 mb of ram...the typical formula is ram/4

this will help you save on system resources, increase performance, and save your ram

also, if you ahve more than one hard drive, put your swap on that drive, and keep it a fixed size, 200 is good

swap resize = bad

also, get a good defrag program that can move the swap file, and move it to the beginning of the drive.

just some tips

[Muad'Dib]

Will the standard win98 defrag work to do the swap file first? That's the only one I have/know of. I've set the swap file to 200 on my D drive. What would happen if I set it to something huge, like 5 gigs... ?

Ummm.... I think I may have a problem. I tried to edit my system.ini and there is no place for me to edit the [vcache] in. It has the label, yet there is nothing inside it and the next section. Is that bad?

[This message has been edited by Muad'Dib (edited 07 December 1999).]

[Homer]

I beleive it is best not to adjust the size of vcache in w98. It is a much improved disk cache vxd over w95's. The vcache driver can grow and shrink as needed. It no longer caches files that are already handled by vmm and vice-versa. If I have 256mb of ram I might as well be putting it to use as much as possible. Some app I installed sometime or other set the vcache to only 16mb in system.ini, and that made a tremendous slowdown in hdd performance.
That has been my experience.

[mj12]

Okay, the setting of typical role of this machine to "network server" is suppose to have the effect of creating larger cache burst's which inturn will use RAM more effectively and won't waste part of it. As for making pagefile same size max. and min. It is so windows doesn't have to resize your pagefile. I've never had a problem with MS regclean only seen probs with the product called CleanReg. And a precautionary anytime doing anything to your registry. Back it up first. Start - run - regedit, Registry - export file - all. The link I gave above takes about this and also has a link to a great program that will search all your dll's and get rid of any that are no longer being referenced by any programs. And yes daniele you can change your machine back to its typical role and have windows manage the pagefile. As for the vchache settings, I use to use this in 95 but I a major hardware site(can't remeber right now who it was) ran benchmarks at every concievable setting and concluded their were no perf. gains significant enough to warrant changing this. And the w98 disk defrag does a good job at defragging.

[MartinS]

From some info I picked up on the 3D Studio Newsgroup Win98 addresses memory in 64k chunks and can only address a maximum of 128meg - full stop, any memory above that in 98 is just wasted as the VMM cannot address it properly. Someone also mention increased number of GPF's with >128 in 95B, again probably due to the VMM being lost when managing paging.

Be carefull putting a max value on your swap file if you use programs which consume a large amount of virtual memory - 3D Studio for example - when rendering I expect to use 126m (out of 128) physical and in excess of 600m paged.

You could also try using some resource management utility to track memory usage.
Out of interrest you could boot 98 check free resources then use CTRL+ALT=DEL to see what is actually running - then maybe sysinfo or another resource tool to track it down.
As another thought check what is being started when windows boots using msconfig (just hit start/run and type msconfig). I had two instances of a virus checker which seemed to have a memory leak when both were loaded.

[Wombat]

Resources aren't based on things like the amount of your RAM. I forget what it is exactly, but it's something that all PC's have a fixed amount of. 53% is kind of low, but not unreasonable if you have a lot of things running. But, resources that keep going lower are sometimes a sign of virus.

[Muad'Dib]

ok guys, HELP!!! I did all the stuff that was suggested and nothing happened. Resources go down quick but they stay around 48% for a very long time. I have 8 I.E. browsers open a word document, winamp, sys.info., two windows explorers, napster ... and it's still at 48% (although it got there after 3 browsers or something like that). Now here's the problem. I can't check my email anymore or do anything like that. My browsers work fine, ICQ messaging works fine, but I can't send files, my comp is off the network neighborhood, and I can't check my email. My properties are all correct and I have all the right protocols. What the hell??? Someone please help me quickly. Thanks

[jasonk]

I don't know that I can help with the network problem, but as far as resources go, have you checked what your computer loads at startup? Not just in the startup file, but in the .ini files? Run msconfig if you haven't already, and uncheck the items you don't want loading every time you boot up. (I like doing it this way whenever possible, as editing the registry and ini files sucks. hehe.) Also, have you checked for viruses lately?

[Muad'Dib]

H------E--------L----------P !!!!