joea64
09-28-2001, 10:08 PM
I don't want to get _too_ confident, but I think I might have the 512MB-on-ECS K7VZA-and-Win98 problem resolved.
My solution involves:
1) Setting a permanent disk cache limited to 16MB (16384 KB), to prevent Windows from seizing all the physical RAM for disk caching purposes;
2) Placing a new line, ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1, in the [386enh] section of system.ini to compel Windows to use RAM before going to the swap file;
3) Setting a permanent swap file, optimized at the start of the drive, and fixed at 256MB. (Traditionally, fixed swap files were recommended to be at least 2x - 3x installed RAM, but in my case, this would have required a swap file of at least 1 GB.) I will of course rearrange the disk cache and swap file values if necessary, but they seem to be working so far. I am holding in reserve going into MSCONFIG and limiting the amount of RAM Windows can access, and also going back into BIOS and changing the DRAM timing.
As games tend to give machines the hardest workouts, I experimented just now with Hitman: Codename 47, which has hefty CPU, video and RAM requirements, while leaving Norton System Doctor up in the background (to test multitasking). The game not only ran well, it actually ran faster than it has previously. Civilization II: Test of Time, a less resource-hungry game, also ran excellently on the new setup with NSD running. The only application I've experienced a problem with thus far is PowerDVD (I don't have a hardware DVD decoder), but when I close down NSD, the controls on DVD playback work properly, so from now on I'll just close other applications when I want to watch DVD (and, truthfully, if you're watching a DVD on your machine, there's probably nothing much else you have or want to have going on at the same time anyway.)
I will continue to monitor the situation closely, but I think I have browbeaten Win98 into taking what's good for it, namely, lots of RAM.
-Joe-
My solution involves:
1) Setting a permanent disk cache limited to 16MB (16384 KB), to prevent Windows from seizing all the physical RAM for disk caching purposes;
2) Placing a new line, ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1, in the [386enh] section of system.ini to compel Windows to use RAM before going to the swap file;
3) Setting a permanent swap file, optimized at the start of the drive, and fixed at 256MB. (Traditionally, fixed swap files were recommended to be at least 2x - 3x installed RAM, but in my case, this would have required a swap file of at least 1 GB.) I will of course rearrange the disk cache and swap file values if necessary, but they seem to be working so far. I am holding in reserve going into MSCONFIG and limiting the amount of RAM Windows can access, and also going back into BIOS and changing the DRAM timing.
As games tend to give machines the hardest workouts, I experimented just now with Hitman: Codename 47, which has hefty CPU, video and RAM requirements, while leaving Norton System Doctor up in the background (to test multitasking). The game not only ran well, it actually ran faster than it has previously. Civilization II: Test of Time, a less resource-hungry game, also ran excellently on the new setup with NSD running. The only application I've experienced a problem with thus far is PowerDVD (I don't have a hardware DVD decoder), but when I close down NSD, the controls on DVD playback work properly, so from now on I'll just close other applications when I want to watch DVD (and, truthfully, if you're watching a DVD on your machine, there's probably nothing much else you have or want to have going on at the same time anyway.)
I will continue to monitor the situation closely, but I think I have browbeaten Win98 into taking what's good for it, namely, lots of RAM.
-Joe-