What the H*** is my hard drive doing.......

Hopefully someone's seen this before: I'm running N4 on my admittedly low end system (P2 400, Geforce2 MX, 128 meg), and while I'm waiting for the dream system, I'm running 8 cars to keep the framerate up. I'm using End it all, which leaves no TSRs except for the Systray and Explorer. About every 20 minutes while I'm running N4, the hard drive spins up and flashes intermittently for 30-45 seconds. The framerates drop to 8-12 during this time so I throw it into "pause" until it stops. My question is, does anyone know what is happening during this time? Thanks Dave Garage Logician and 3 fan

You don't say how much memory you have on board or what your swap file settings are...but I'll go out on a limb and say you are filling up the system memory and windows is either accessing the swap file or resizing it. In either case, the hard drive cannot keep pace with regular ram so you get greatly reduced frame rates. You have two options. 1. Buy more memory 2. Buy more memory and set your swap file to a fixed amount of about 2.5 to 3 times your physical memory. so if you have 64 megs of memory, your running out...get AT LEAST 128. and set your swap file to 128 x 2.5 which = about 320 megs. Go to start/settings/ control panel/system/device manager. Then choose the performance tab and finally click on the virtual memory button. set the minimum and the maximun to 320. don't worry when windows tries to talk you out of it. dave henrie "Blackman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:g__n6.174$[email hidden]... > Hopefully someone's seen this before: > > I'm running N4 on my admittedly low end system (P2 400, Geforce2 MX, 128 > meg), and while I'm waiting for the dream system, I'm running 8 cars tokeep > the framerate up. I'm using End it all, which leaves no TSRs except forthe > Systray and Explorer. About every 20 minutes while I'm running N4, thehard > drive spins up and flashes intermittently for 30-45 seconds. Theframerates > drop to 8-12 during this time so I throw it into "pause" until it stops.My

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> question is, does anyone know what is happening during this time? > > Thanks > > Dave > > Garage Logician and 3 fan > >

You don't say what OS you are using but on my ME system I found that it was the system Restore that was doing it. It doesn't show with EndItAll. To turn it off: 1. Right click My Computer. 2. Click Properties. 3. Click Performance tab. 4. Click File System button. 6. Click Troubleshooting. 7. Click Disable System restore. Hope this helps. Lee In article <g__n6.174$[email hidden]>, Blackman <[email hidden]> writes

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>Hopefully someone's seen this before: > >I'm running N4 on my admittedly low end system (P2 400, Geforce2 MX, 128 >meg), and while I'm waiting for the dream system, I'm running 8 cars to keep >the framerate up. I'm using End it all, which leaves no TSRs except for the >Systray and Explorer. About every 20 minutes while I'm running N4, the hard >drive spins up and flashes intermittently for 30-45 seconds. The framerates >drop to 8-12 during this time so I throw it into "pause" until it stops. My >question is, does anyone know what is happening during this time? > >Thanks > >Dave > >Garage Logician and 3 fan > >

-- Lee Ward E-mail: [email hidden]

You heard wrong on your SwapFile. Of course there are the sites that say 1.5x, 2.5x, 3.0x and almost any multiplier you can pull out of thin air. Which is where most of these multipliers come from. The only setting that has a historical basis on anything is 2.5x and that's the initial starting point for tuning a multi-user Unix system. 98/Me is *not* Unix and has a completely different set of algorithms for management virtual memory. To show graphically the fatal flaw behind any of these multipliers, consider the following using 2x. 2x32M = 64M swapfile 2x128M = 256M swapfile 2x256M = 512M swapfile 2x512M = 1G swapfile. Does it make any sense to you that a system with 32M of memory requires a smaller swapfile to run than a system with 512M of memory? Never set a maximum on the size of the swap file unless you enjoy sluggish performance and playing Russian roulette with your data.You can set a minimum by using System Monitor to watch "Swapfile Size" for a while, and at least once load your system up and run several programs at once to simulate your system's highest stress level. Then take the largest "Swapfile Size" you've seen, add a little more to it, then set this as your minimum swapfile size.A minimum is a reasonably good idea. It'll help keep files from getting fragmented if they're on the same drive as the swapfile. It may help performance slightly. You can read more and get a good understanding of how Windows **truly** handles memory here. http://www.aumha.org/a/memmgmt.htm -- Nas1 "Dave Henrie" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:7v%n6.498104$[email hidden]... > You don't say how much memory you have on board or what your > swap file settings are...but I'll go out on a limb and say you are filling > up > the system memory and windows is either accessing the swap file or > resizing it. In either case, the hard drive cannot keep pace with regular > ram so you get greatly reduced frame rates. You have two options. > 1. Buy more memory > 2. Buy more memory and set your swap file to a fixed amount of about > 2.5 to 3 times your physical memory. > so if you have 64 megs of memory, your running out...get AT LEAST 128. > and set your swap file to 128 x 2.5 which = about 320 megs. Go to > start/settings/ > control panel/system/device manager. Then choose the performance tab and > finally > click on the virtual memory button. set the minimum and the maximun to 320. > don't worry when windows tries to talk you out of it. > dave henrie SNIP............................. -----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =----- http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! -----== Over 80,000 Newsgroups - 16 Different Servers! =-----

"Nas1" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...> You can read more and get a good understanding of how Windows **truly** > handles memory here. > http://www.aumha.org/a/memmgmt.htm > > -- > Nas1 Hey now...no fair trumping Urban Legends Guerrilla computing with facts... dave henrie

"Dave Henrie" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:7v%n6.498104$[email hidden]... > You don't say how much memory you have on board or what your > swap file settings are... actually, if you read what he wrote, he says he has 128MB of RAM.... from his post: >>admittedly low end system (P2 400, Geforce2 MX, 128 > > meg), presumably the "128meg" part referrs to system memory, which should really be enough to run N4 if there are no other programs running. if he's using ME, he should disable all the fancy system restoring functions and stuff (that solved a similar problem for me), and/or modify cache settings (although i don't claim to know anything about this). but I'll go out on a limb and say you are filling

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> up > the system memory and windows is either accessing the swap file or > resizing it. In either case, the hard drive cannot keep pace with regular > ram so you get greatly reduced frame rates. You have two options. > 1. Buy more memory > 2. Buy more memory and set your swap file to a fixed amount of about > 2.5 to 3 times your physical memory. > so if you have 64 megs of memory, your running out...get AT LEAST 128. > and set your swap file to 128 x 2.5 which = about 320 megs. Go to > start/settings/ > control panel/system/device manager. Then choose the performance tab and > finally > click on the virtual memory button. set the minimum and the maximun to

320.

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> don't worry when windows tries to talk you out of it. > dave henrie > "Blackman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:g__n6.174$[email hidden]... > > Hopefully someone's seen this before: > > > > I'm running N4 on my admittedly low end system (P2 400, Geforce2 MX, 128 > > meg), and while I'm waiting for the dream system, I'm running 8 cars to > keep > > the framerate up. I'm using End it all, which leaves no TSRs except for > the > > Systray and Explorer. About every 20 minutes while I'm running N4, the > hard > > drive spins up and flashes intermittently for 30-45 seconds. The > framerates > > drop to 8-12 during this time so I throw it into "pause" until it stops. > My > > question is, does anyone know what is happening during this time? > > > > Thanks > > > > Dave > > > > Garage Logician and 3 fan > > > > > >

"Mark Stahl" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:97rbq5$hmt$[email hidden]...

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> > "Dave Henrie" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:7v%n6.498104$[email hidden]... > > You don't say how much memory you have on board or what your > > swap file settings are... > > actually, if you read what he wrote, he says he has 128MB of RAM.... > from his post: > >>admittedly low end system (P2 400, Geforce2 MX, 128 > > > meg),

<<doh! hanging head in shame.....>> First I'm challenged with actual facts, and now with reading comprehension..... what's a guy gotta do to get a little RESPECT around here??? pay attention? dangnabbit!(sorry just had to say that) I'm still not convinced about letting widows manage the swap file. Cuz ANY time the OS takes away to adjust the size has got to impact a running program. Am I that far off base? dave henrie

What OS are you running? If you are running WinMe, disable the system restore option in the control panel. If you're using Win98 or WinMe, add a line to your SYSTEM.INI file under the [386enh] section as follows: [386enh] ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 That will force Win98 or WinMe to use your RAM before your swapfile. Believe it or not, that is NOT the default. I discovered this tip when I upgraded to 256 MB and my swapfile was using 20MB with NO programs loaded. Another thing is use a fixed size swapfile. You should be fine setting it to 96 or 128MB. That way Windows won't spend time shrinking and enlarging your swapfile. Good Luck, Michael M P.S. Another tip is run MSCONFIG and disable any useless programs in the startup section. TASKMON is the most useless of all. "Blackman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:g__n6.174$[email hidden]... > Hopefully someone's seen this before: > > I'm running N4 on my admittedly low end system (P2 400, Geforce2 MX, 128 > meg), and while I'm waiting for the dream system, I'm running 8 cars tokeep > the framerate up. I'm using End it all, which leaves no TSRs except forthe > Systray and Explorer. About every 20 minutes while I'm running N4, thehard > drive spins up and flashes intermittently for 30-45 seconds. Theframerates > drop to 8-12 during this time so I throw it into "pause" until it stops.My

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> question is, does anyone know what is happening during this time? > > Thanks > > Dave > > Garage Logician and 3 fan > >

Another possibility that I've encountered is after the computer goes into stand-by mode. After restoring from standy mode, my secondary hard drive (ibm 7200rpm 30.0GB) will seek for about 10 sec every few minutes. This may be the same problem that you're experiencing. To solve it I just went into power management and set "system standby" to never as well as "turn off hard disks" and this has seemed to solve it for me. hope you get your problem solved Jah_Warrior86 -- "It's not who you are, it's who you're living for" (P.O.D.)

More RAM is not the solution, unfortunately. Your operating system will always dump unused blocks of RAM into the hard-drive in preparation for more RAM usage. More RAM will help, but not solve the problem. The only solution is to either a) write your own operating system (not worth attempting if you still want to play the same games) b) get a faster hard-drive (assuming you are not already using a UATA-66) or free up more disk space thus reducing access time c) sell your computer and buy a go-kart Chris -- -------------------------------------------------- http://www.the.saints.btinternet.co.uk Dave Henrie <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:7v%n6.498104$[email hidden]... | You don't say how much memory you have on board or what your | swap file settings are...but I'll go out on a limb and say you are filling | up | the system memory and windows is either accessing the swap file or | resizing it. In either case, the hard drive cannot keep pace with regular | ram so you get greatly reduced frame rates. You have two options. | 1. Buy more memory | 2. Buy more memory and set your swap file to a fixed amount of about | 2.5 to 3 times your physical memory. | so if you have 64 megs of memory, your running out...get AT LEAST 128. | and set your swap file to 128 x 2.5 which = about 320 megs. Go to | start/settings/ | control panel/system/device manager. Then choose the performance tab and | finally | click on the virtual memory button. set the minimum and the maximun to 320. | don't worry when windows tries to talk you out of it. | dave henrie | "Blackman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message | news:g__n6.174$[email hidden]... | > Hopefully someone's seen this before: | > | > I'm running N4 on my admittedly low end system (P2 400, Geforce2 MX, 128 | > meg), and while I'm waiting for the dream system, I'm running 8 cars to | keep | > the framerate up. I'm using End it all, which leaves no TSRs except for | the | > Systray and Explorer. About every 20 minutes while I'm running N4, the | hard | > drive spins up and flashes intermittently for 30-45 seconds. The | framerates | > drop to 8-12 during this time so I throw it into "pause" until it stops. | My | > question is, does anyone know what is happening during this time? | > | > Thanks | > | > Dave | > | > Garage Logician and 3 fan | > | > | |