Reducing memory usage

[lti]

Since my computer doesn't run properly with more than 128MB of RAM, I need to reduce the memory usage of Windows. The computer came from the fatory with 32MB of RAM, but I am running out of memory with 128MB of RAM. When the computer is first booted, 50MB of RAM are free, which seems low. After running some programs, the available RAM decreases to between 2MB and 20MB. This is not enough to prevent the computer from using virtual memory when a program is running.

The computer runs a modified version of Windows 98 that supports USB storage devices. I need Windows 98 for some old software that does not run under a newer version of Windows.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Reducing memory usage

seriously?

I'll send you an athlon XP board with an 1800+, 3 256M 333 sticks, and an XP home disk, and a 40gb IDE disk. I'll throw in a CD rom too

128M ram and windows 98 is what a 80 year old irish lady dosen't use (she uses an 2000+ /w 512M 333). emachines

[Digital Technophile]

Re: Reducing memory usage

lti just curious what could be so Win98 specific?? I know it's not cheap, but VMware workstation is what I use when I have to run that old stuff. But I understand sometimes it's more convenient to utilize hardware you've already have. Just a thought. Perhaps the boards in need of cleaning?? Win98 doesn't use a lot of mem to begin with?

[Uranium-235]

Re: Reducing memory usage

lets try and be serious-I'll give you a pentium 4 old dell with rambus and XP (has 768M). WHY would anybody be using such an old computer when you can find a better one people are throwing away on the side of the street?

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Reducing memory usage

Windsor Colorado is a bit rural and I doubt the streets are loaded with old PCs.
In fact I wouldn't be surprised if a town that small lacks a PC store all together.
Pickins' probably slim.
.
Plus, if I recall correctly he's a 'starving student'.
.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Reducing memory usage

In Win98 don't let anything auto-start with Windows.
Set everything you can to manual.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Reducing memory usage

You cannot make 98 not hit the pagefile regardless on how much RAM you have. That's how it's built. In fact, the same behavior was kept until Vista came out - and then everybody complained that it uses so much memory. Fact: With XP and 2GB RAM, with more than 1.2GB free, the system was using the pagefile heavily.

You can at most use this guide: http://www.mdgx.com/

[Digital Technophile]

Re: Reducing memory usage

lets try and be serious-I'll give you a pentium 4 old dell with rambus and XP (has 768M). WHY would anybody be using such an old computer when you can find a better one people are throwing away on the side of the street?

Hey, you have to admit it's fun to keep pushing hardware to the limit. I have an old Toshiba Satellite 100cs with a 75mHz 486sx with a math coprocessor (Pentium), 32mb RAM, no optical drive, much less USB. It originally ran Win3.1, but I managed to get Win95 on 7 floppies and was able to get it to run. The backlight still shining bright, 300mb HDD still functions (wtf?), only the battery's shot. I might still yet get a new battery for it, find a damn small Linux distro for it, and maybe there's even a pcmcia wifi card in existence (got an ethernet card). May not burn up the web, but it's acceptable for word processing and other minor tasks. My Dell Mini 9 runs rinkies around it many times over, but the point is for the fun of it! With all due respect, using your logic, a '49 Ford flathead V8, points ignition, bias ply tires, 6v generator no good anymore?

SRSLY??? what kind of rambus??? I'll take either kind, but pc1066 would be da bomb!!!! Man you got some kind of gear laying around

I'm a 'starving moron'

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Reducing memory usage

I beat you with my Fujitsu. 233MMX, 32MB, 2MB Trident video, 12" screen, 2 hours battery (and that rebuilt out of crap cells!), 20GB HDD freshly installed. And it's got USB too. Runs 98SE, i use it for old games.

~4 years ago when my P4 died i used a 586 for a while. 133 oc'ed to 166, 24MB RAM, 427MB HDD... the thing would handle an old version Yahoo Messenger just fine, that is until i opened Winamp to listen to some internet radio. With Winamp running it would have no reaction for like a minute, then all the messages would start pouring.

[Wizard]

Re: Reducing memory usage

1. 486 is not a pentium. 486 operates on one cycle per instruction as opposed to pentium's 2 instructions per cycle and pentium is much efficient when MHz is above 90-100 and up.

2. There is no such as "586". This sticker was seen on junky clone boards unless you are referring to Crytrix 5x86 and other early clone of "586" processors by other makes.
AMD did not use this, only on a 5x86 which is a CPU that plugs right into late 486 socket and ran at 133MHz and they also bought out design from a company long ago for IP to make K5 and redid CPU and marketed for short time as K5 then AMD came out with K6 that we know so well.

Cheers, Wizard

[Digital Technophile]

Re: Reducing memory usage

1. 486 is not a pentium. 486 operates on one cycle per instruction as opposed to pentium's 2 instructions per cycle and pentium is much efficient when MHz is above 90-100 and up.

2. There is no such as "586". This sticker was seen on junky clone boards unless you are referring to Crytrix 5x86 and other early clone of "586" processors by other makes.
AMD did not use this, only on a 5x86 which is a CPU that plugs right into late 486 socket and ran at 133MHz and they also bought out design from a company long ago for IP to make K5 and redid CPU and marketed for short time as K5 then AMD came out with K6 that we know so well.

Cheers, Wizard

Uhhhh, you're sadly mistaken..Original Pentium, "i486"

Wrong again...586 exists. You probably aren't aware, but it's not legal to trademark numbers, so the "486s" and "586s" were amongst the last CPUs made by Intel to be referred to in this way.

[lti]

Re: Reducing memory usage

I have software that does not run properly under Windows XP/Vista/7, even under Windows 95 compatibility mode.

Windsor isn't rural anymore, but people don't throw electronics away unless they are beyond repair.

Yes, I am a student.

Why would Windows use so much RAM? Every startup item that I know is not required is disabled, but I am not sure about some Aureal A3D and Iomega startup items. My sound card uses an ESS 1869 audio chip, so A3D is not supported in hardware. I have an external Zip drive connected to this computer.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Reducing memory usage

AMD did not use this, only on a 5x86 which is a CPU that plugs right into late 486 socket and ran at 133MHz

That's the one i had.

I have software that does not run properly under Windows XP/Vista/7, even under Windows 95 compatibility mode.

I know. But unless it's DOS stuff it can be patched most of the time. Maybe you should learn some reversing, so you can make the old games and programs run on newer hardware, instead of bothering with that quirky old machine.

Why would Windows use so much RAM?

Because it can. Contrary to popular belief, "unused" RAM is wasted. RAM is supposed to be used. On the other hand, the early versions of Windows had a poor RAM usage algorithm, because back in the day you were lucky if you had over 32MB.

Every startup item that I know is not required is disabled, but I am not sure about some Aureal A3D and Iomega startup items. My sound card uses an ESS 1869 audio chip, so A3D is not supported in hardware. I have an external Zip drive connected to this computer.

If you don't specifically need A3D then disable it. Also, have you read thru the guide i linked to? It is THE ultimate Win9x speedup resource, period. You should also look into the Win98 unofficial service pack if you haven't installed that already. It has an option to do performance tweaks if you got 64MB of RAM or more. But it'll do the opposite of what you think - it will use more RAM.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Reducing memory usage

Uhhhh, you're sadly mistaken..Original Pentium, "i486"

Wrong again...586 exists. You probably aren't aware, but it's not legal to trademark numbers, so the "486s" and "586s" were amongst the last CPUs made by Intel to be referred to in this way.

Actually he's pretty much got it right.
[Wizard does quite well but bear in mind his first language is not English.]
-
586 or [i586] is what Intel wanted to and was expected to call the Pentium-1 but the courts wouldn't let them trade mark it so they came up with 'Pentium'.
The name persisted even though it wasn't the official name.
-
Pentium-1 did not fit 486 boards except for some special cross-over CPUs including the mentioned Am5x86 and an early version of "Pentium Overdrive". [I don't remember if Cyrix, IBM, or Nexgen did one.]
-
Can't agree that '586' was exclusively used by junk brands though.
As I recall Asus was using it and Asus wasn't junk yet.
-
Also 'P6 architecture' [i686] did not originate with Pentium-I or Pentium-II.
That came from Pentium-Pro.
.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Reducing memory usage

I can get access to 2 512M 1066 rambus sticks, but this system is an old P4 423 1.8 /w 768M RD-600

You can always dual boot windows 98 /w xp, this thing should run XP great, and 98 amazingly, even though 98 can't take advantage of more then 512M of ram (from what I heard back in high school so i'm not sure if thats 100% true, I haven't researched that in years since I went from 98 to 2000)

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Reducing memory usage

98 will take 1GB. Not anything more though. There is a patch to remove the 512MB limitation, but the 1GB barrier has not been broken AFAIK. Something to do with disk cache.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Reducing memory usage

Even Windows 3.1 had a total memory limit of 256 or 512 MB depending on whether enhanced mode was being used.

512MB is said by many to be the limit for Win95/98... That's not true.
The limit is actually between 1 and 2 GB depending on which MS Knowledge Base article you believe.
- I'm thinking 1GB [with the bug work-arounds] is probably a realistic limit.
[I had a multi-boot setup that ran W98 ages ago and it had 1GB. W98 worked fine.]
-
Thing is over about 256Mb you really won't see much improvement anyway due to the 'diminishing returns' nature of adding RAM.
Win98 will address the extra RAM but it never really uses it.
[I refurbished a cubic butt-ton of of Win98 laptops 'back in the day' and there is no user perceivable difference between 384Mb and 512Mb. From 256Mb to 384Mb there is a difference but it's small.]

Some machines have issues with more than 512Mb and if that applies to yours then before you can install that much, you have to edit the vcache setting in the system.ini file.
http://support.microsoft.com/default...EN-US;q253912&
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304943

Also old machines typical to Win98 sometimes had chipsets with RAM limitations below what Win98 supports.
Boards that supported a max of 128 or 256 MB per slot but that only had two or three slots are a good example.
.-

[lti]

Re: Reducing memory usage

The unofficial service pack has been installed because it was required by the USB mass storage drivers I installed.

The board has two RAM slots and officially supports 256MB of RAM. However, there is a huge performance hit if more than 128MB of RAM is used. Programs will run like the CPU is running at 100MHz instead of 500MHz.

I have looked at the speedup guide, but I don't see how to prevent Windows from hogging the RAM. Shouldn't the applications be able to use the physical memory instead of being forced to run mostly from virtual memory?

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Reducing memory usage

Should isn't does.
Many W98 applications use virtual memory by design because their 'roots' go back to when 64Mb was huge.

Set your virtual memory for a min and max of 1.5x your installed RAM.
[If you leave it in auto the HDD will continually resize it and that eats resources.]

[lti]

Re: Reducing memory usage

There isn't enough physical memory available for applications that aren't designed to use virtual memory.