I have a question about Stop Windows from Wildly Accessing your Hard Disk:

The place I bought my computer placed an extra Ram chip for me. I now have 240 Megs. But this is what's happening since they placed the chip: 1. I can no longer run my programs as I did before without running out of RAM. Run out of resources all the time. I'm monitoring with Norton and this is what I see. The virtial memory now has over 1685 MGs of memory. None of it is being used, the needle stays constant. I checked in properties and the computer is handling VM which I will change according to your guidelines. I have Windows98SE (20Gigs) All I have opened at the moment is the internet, Norton Utilites, Webshot. (I used to have open Illustrator, photoshop and Kazaa before all of this with no problems) My readings at the moment are: GDI 38%, RAM 60 (out of 240!) free resources 65%. When I open vcache nothing shows up (is it hidden? I can to it to add your guidelines of min and max as in the article) My swap files reads 126,976KB Is there anything else that would be causing the lack of resources? Regretfully my hardrive is not partitioned. Can I still do this without uninstalling Windows? I appreciate this website immensely. I have recommended to all of my friends. Thanks a bunch. Rachel51

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

EXCEPTION No. 1: For systems with more than 128 MB of RAM, setting a VCache maximum of about 70% of your total RAM is recommended as prophylaxis against run-away VCache growth in rare, specialized situations. (A tip of the hat to MS-MVPs Ron Martell, Ovidiu Popa, and Alex Nichol for months of experimentation and documentation of these details and recommendations.) EXCEPTION No. 2: VCache increasing above 512 MB can create serious memory handling problems. If you have more than 512 MB of RAM, a VCache maximum of 524,288 KB (or a little less) is recommended. This is obtained by adding a MaxFileCache=x entry in the [vcache] section of SYSTEM.INI, where x is the maximum value you wish to set. VCache is limited internally to a maximum cache size of 800 MB. The problem is that, on computers with large amounts of RAM, the maximum VCache size can be large enough that it consumes all of the available addresses in the system arena, leaving no virtual memory addresses available for other functions such as opening an MS-DOS prompt. This problem may occur more easily if you have an AGP video adapter: The AGP aperture is also mapped to addresses in the system arena, and if VCache is using its entire 800 MB allowance and an AGP video adapter has a 128 MB aperture mapped, there will be very little address space remaining for other system code and data that must occupy the available range of virtual addresses. EXCEPTION No. 3: For systems with more than 1 GB of RAM, the defaults in Windows 98 or ME can cause continuous rebooting of the computer, or to hangs or serial reboots during the Windows upgrade process. To resolve this problem, add a MaxPhysPage=40000 entry in the [386enh] section of SYSTEM.INI. This effectively limits the amount of RAM Windows can access to 1 GB. (Microsoft limits ths recommendation to systems having more than 1.5 GB of RAM, but the solution is to roll it back to 1 GB. See MSKB Q304943.) Microsoft has now flatly stated that, “Windows Me and Windows 98 are not designed to handle more than 1 GB or RAM. More than 1 GB can lead to potential system instability.”


On Wednesday, June 19, 2002 at 10:47 am, Rachel51 wrote:
>I have a question about Stop
>Windows from Wildly Accessing your Hard Disk:

>
>The place I bought my computer placed an extra Ram chip for me. I now
>have 240 Megs. But this is what's happening since they placed the
>chip:
>
>1. I can no longer run my programs as I did before without running out
> of RAM. Run out of resources all the time.
>
>I'm monitoring with Norton and this is what I see. The virtial
> memory now has over 1685 MGs of memory. None of it is being used,
> the needle stays constant. I checked in properties and the computer
> is handling VM which I will change according to your guidelines.
>
>I have Windows98SE (20Gigs)
>
>All I have opened at the moment is the internet, Norton Utilites,
>Webshot. (I used to have open Illustrator, photoshop and Kazaa before
> all of this with no problems)
>My readings at the moment are: GDI 38%, RAM 60 (out of 240!) free
> resources 65%.
>
>When I open vcache nothing shows up (is it hidden? I can to it to add
>your guidelines of min and max as in the article) My swap files reads 126,976KB
>
>Is there anything else that would be causing the lack of resources?
> Regretfully my hardrive is not partitioned. Can I still do this without
>uninstalling Windows?
>
>I appreciate this website immensely. I have recommended to all of
>my friends.
>
>Thanks a bunch.
>Rachel51
>
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hi Fatal,

Well before I read your message I changed the VM (under Properties) to 25% of my 
RAM (240) so put in 600 MGs
but it did not make any difference in the way stuff is happening. This is what I 
did after loading new VM number:

I  ran Norton antivirus on Windows and Kazaa folder to see if I picked up a virus 
which is effecting
the memory. No viruses were found. Cannot run full scan  at the moment for lack of 
resources. But the fact that this 
all occurred right after the installation of the memory chip does seem 
to lie with the fault of the computer shop. 

This is what is still happening:

1. The computer opens at 139RAM, then within seconds down to 120 (probably files 
resizing)
GDI is at 99% at this point. VM is at 549 (from 600)

When I opened Norton AntiVirus it shot down to 116Ram  VM to 537

Trying to run full scan shot Ram down to 2%; cancelling full scan Ram only shot back 
up to 20Mg instead of the 116 it was at before I ran the scan;
  and VM 558, GDI at 98%

_ I rebooted to get back more memory. Now I run antivirus on Windows
 only. At end of this scan Ram is down 12Mgs, and VM 510M (from 600)
 GDI is at 85%. Now only Norton Utilities is running in background and webshots.
When I connect to the  internet Ram shoots to 0 RAM, VM 495Mg. 
GDI at 52%.

 Could the guys who installed the chiphave done something to
the motherboard when placing the chip? The computer does pick up
 I have 240 Ram. Chip runs at 1 Gig. Before I bring my computer back to the shop 
I will need
to put things back as they were so they don't think I messed with it (ahem).

Thanks. Rachel51






On Wednesday, June 19, 2002 at 4:25 pm, FatalException wrote:
>EXCEPTION No. 1: For systems with more than 128 MB of RAM, setting a VCache maximum 
>of about 70% of your total RAM is recommended as prophylaxis against run-away VCache 
>growth in rare, specialized situations. (A tip of the hat to MS-MVPs Ron Martell, 
>Ovidiu Popa, and Alex Nichol for months of experimentation and documentation of 
these 
>details and recommendations.)
>
>EXCEPTION No. 2: VCache increasing above 512 MB can create serious memory handling 
>problems. If you have more than 512 MB of RAM, a VCache maximum of 524,288 KB (or 
>a little less) is recommended. This is obtained by adding a MaxFileCache=x entry 
>in the [vcache] section of SYSTEM.INI, where x is the maximum value you wish to 
set. 
>VCache is limited internally to a maximum cache size of 800 MB. The problem is that, 
>on computers with large amounts of RAM, the maximum VCache size can be large enough 
>that it consumes all of the available addresses in the system arena, leaving no 
virtual 
>memory addresses available for other functions such as opening an MS-DOS prompt. 
>This problem may occur more easily if you have an AGP video adapter: The AGP aperture 
>is also mapped to addresses in the system arena, and if VCache is using its entire 
>800 MB allowance and an AGP video adapter has a 128 MB aperture mapped, there will 
>be very little address space remaining for other system code and data that must 
occupy 
>the available range of virtual addresses.
>
>EXCEPTION No. 3: For systems with more than 1 GB of RAM, the defaults in Windows 
>98 or ME can cause continuous rebooting of the computer, or to hangs or serial reboots 
>during the Windows upgrade process. To resolve this problem, add a MaxPhysPage=40000 
>entry in the [386enh] section of SYSTEM.INI. This effectively limits the amount 
of 
>RAM Windows can access to 1 GB. (Microsoft limits ths recommendation to systems 
having 
>more than 1.5 GB of RAM, but the solution is to roll it back to 1 GB. See MSKB Q304943.) 
>Microsoft has now flatly stated that, “Windows Me and Windows 98 are not designed 
>to handle more than 1 GB or RAM. More than 1 GB can lead to potential system instability.”
>
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Curious... My vcache is blank in my Systen.ini file and I have a Toshiba Laptop with 512 MB running Win98SE. Could this be the reason my machine seldom has more than 70% resources available and often leaks down to 40 to 50 %... Thanks, Charlie


On Wednesday, June 19, 2002 at 4:25 pm, FatalException wrote:
>EXCEPTION No. 1: For systems with more than 128 MB of RAM, setting a VCache maximum
>of about 70% of your total RAM is recommended as prophylaxis against run-away VCache
>growth in rare, specialized situations. (A tip of the hat to MS-MVPs Ron Martell,
>Ovidiu Popa, and Alex Nichol for months of experimentation and documentation of these
>details and recommendations.)
>
>EXCEPTION No. 2: VCache increasing above 512 MB can create serious memory handling
>problems. If you have more than 512 MB of RAM, a VCache maximum of 524,288 KB (or
>a little less) is recommended. This is obtained by adding a MaxFileCache=x entry
>in the [vcache] section of SYSTEM.INI, where x is the maximum value you wish to set.
>VCache is limited internally to a maximum cache size of 800 MB. The problem is that,
>on computers with large amounts of RAM, the maximum VCache size can be large enough
>that it consumes all of the available addresses in the system arena, leaving no virtual
>memory addresses available for other functions such as opening an MS-DOS prompt.
>This problem may occur more easily if you have an AGP video adapter: The AGP aperture
>is also mapped to addresses in the system arena, and if VCache is using its entire
>800 MB allowance and an AGP video adapter has a 128 MB aperture mapped, there will
>be very little address space remaining for other system code and data that must occupy
>the available range of virtual addresses.
>
>EXCEPTION No. 3: For systems with more than 1 GB of RAM, the defaults in Windows
>98 or ME can cause continuous rebooting of the computer, or to hangs or serial reboots
>during the Windows upgrade process. To resolve this problem, add a MaxPhysPage=40000
>entry in the [386enh] section of SYSTEM.INI. This effectively limits the amount of
>RAM Windows can access to 1 GB. (Microsoft limits ths recommendation to systems having
>more than 1.5 GB of RAM, but the solution is to roll it back to 1 GB. See MSKB Q304943.)
>Microsoft has now flatly stated that, “Windows Me and Windows 98 are not designed
>to handle more than 1 GB or RAM. More than 1 GB can lead to potential system instability.”
>
>
>
>

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