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Thread ID: 10767	2001-08-11 03:29:00	More RAM is worse	Guest (0)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
16829	2001-08-11 03:29:00	I have been running an AMD 750MHz Athlon system with 128 Mb of RAM for the past 8 months with no real problems. Recently I decided to up the RAM to 512Mb, to help speed up some of the more intensive apps. I installed another 128 Mb and a 256 Mb card, with the three slots now full. Although most apps now perform much more efficiently, I have a situation where the machine seems to be 'hogging' resources, with Windows' control panel 'System' showing resoucres at only 41% free just after boot up, and when the machine is busy, it slows the mouse cursor down so much during disk activity that it 'jerks' across the screen. (Reminds me of when I used to have a 486 with 4Mb of RAM). I read a posting here about the third slot being dodgy with some mobos so I shifted the 256 Mb card to slot one and fitted the other 128s into slots 2 and 3. No difference. Any ideas?	Guest (0)
16830	2001-08-11 03:42:00	If your running windows 9x then it is knowen to have issues with large amounts of ram. When I upgraded to 128mb of ram I did notice that system resources went down faster, my only guess was somthing to do with the amount of ram being used for the disk cache. As for the mouse problem, check that DMA mode hasn't been disabled for your HDD, as windows seems to look for any excuse to turn it off. The other thing to try would be to remove some of the sticks of ram and see if the problem continues, eg leave the 3rd slot free.	Guest (0)
16831	2001-08-11 03:44:00	Tried just the 128's in the first 2 slots and nothing in the 3rd?	Guest (0)
16832	2001-08-11 08:29:00	there is a known fault with the way windows handles resorces when you have large amounts of ram. there is a doc at microsoft if u care to search for it. basicly u need to set the chunk size to 512 or smaller. for those who don't like reg editing cacheman does it nicly.(www.tweakfiles.com)	Guest (0)
16833	2001-08-11 08:53:00	oops i was a little incorrect, however i found the article- If a computer that is running any of the versions of Windows that are listed above contains more than 512 megabytes (for example, 768 megabytes) of physical memory (RAM), you may experience one or more of the following symptoms: You may be unable to open an MS-DOS session (or command prompt) while Windows is running. Attempts to do so may generate the following error message: There is not enough memory available to run this program. Quit one or more programs, and then try again. The computer may stop responding (hang) while Windows is starting, or halt and display the following error message: Insufficient memory to initialize windows. Quit one or more memory-resident programs or remove unnecessary utilities from your Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files, and restart your computer. CAUSE The Windows 32-bit protected-mode cache driver (Vcache) determines the maximum cache size based on the amount of RAM that is present when Windows starts. Vcache then reserves enough memory addresses to permit it to access a cache of the maximum size so that it can increase the cache to that size if needed. These addresses are allocated in a range of virtual addresses from 0xC0000000 through 0xFFFFFFFF (3 to 4 gigabytes) known as the system arena. On computers with large amounts of RAM, the maximum cache size can be large enough that Vcache consumes all of the addresses in the system arena, leaving no virtual memory addresses available for other functions such as opening an MS-DOS prompt (creating a new virtual machine). WORKAROUND To work around this problem, use one of the following methods: Use the MaxFileCache setting in the System.ini file to reduce the maximum amount of memory that Vcache uses to 512 megabytes (524,288 KB) or less. For additional information about how to use the MaxFileCache setting, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Q108079 32-Bit File Access Maximum Cache Size Use the System Configuration utility to limit the amount of memory that Windows uses to 512 megabytes (MB) or less. For additional information about how to use the System Configuration utility, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Q181966 System Configuration Utility Advanced Troubleshooting Settings Reduce the amount of memory that is installed in your computer to 512 MB or less. MORE INFORMATION Vcache is limited internally to a maximum cache size of 800 MB. This problem may occur more readily with Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) video adapters because the AGP aperture is also mapped to addresses in the system arena. For example, if Vcache is using a maximum cache size of 800 MB and an AGP video adapter has a 128-MB aperture mapped, there is very little address space remaining for the other system code and data that must occupy this range of virtual addresses.	Guest (0)
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