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| Memory Management | COM Ports | W31 and WFWG Updates |
| AUTOEXEC.BAT | WIN.INI | SYSTEM.INI |
| 32bit HD Access | SOUND | TAME |
| Using W9x Drivers INTERESTING? I have been using the SMARTDRV.EXE, EMM386.EXE, HIMEM.SYS, and IFSHLP.SYS from a W98SE version of MSDOS with my v6.22 MSDOS/W31 setup here on a Pentium 5 60mhz Compaq machine and it seems faster than with the original v6.22 drivers of the same name? Your mileage may vary. Note: Mike Ross has pointed out that versions of MSDOS prior to v6.22 are not compatible with the W98SE version of smartdrv. I can't belive it!!! Somehow I managed to completely forget to mention TAME (105k archive). I've used TAME since my DOS and Desqview days to improve the multitasking of both DOS Desqview multitasking and Windows v3.x - this is a must have utility! I doubt I could've survived multitasking on legacy hardware without using TAME! NOTE: Many systems were shipped with proprietary software that compliments the early Windows 16 bit versions. DO NOT reformat legacy hardware systems that are new to you without taking a look at the setup first! If at all possible make at least one backup if W31 is already installed. Compaq, for instance, includes utilities needed to setup CMOS and other diagnostic utilities. The software from Compaq, including the application software, was quite good when used on their hardware but many of the W31 versions are not available anywhere for downloading including from the Compaq website.  When you are satisfied that you have DOS and your hard drive working as efficiently as they can on your hardware then it is time to tweak Windows. There is quite a bit of useful information for tweaking W31 on these pages that are, or were, being translated from the original German. The syshook.drv is being used here on my system and does seem to have helped stop W31 crashing as often as it used to. The fix1mb also mentioned on the above German website is similar but I haven't tried it. Both attempt to control W31's use of the first meg of memory. I have recently installed MEMVALET from Microsoft and it does seem to have stablized a few of the remaining 'quirks'. Memory Management - 386 or better Volumes are written about SMARTDRV and the VM swap file depends on it's use for efficient transfer to/from the swap file. There really aren't many variables for the user to be concerned about. Newer versions are better than older versions and a wide range of settings will ALL work. The FILES and BUFFERS settings of CONFIG.SYS can affect cache efficiency if set too low. I use BUFFERS=53 and FILES=80 after using test software to determine the best sizes for my hardware. See my commented AUTOEXEC.BAT file in plain text format accessed from the top menu on this page to view my settings for SMARTDRV. SMARTDRV Tuneup: The free download of SPEEDCHK.BAT is designed to exercise your HD/RD and caching software to optimize cache size, lookahead and assist in determing the correct number of buffers for your config.sys file. A total of 228 files with different names and lengths ranging from 3 bytes to 526Kb are created which will make *temporary* use of about 1.8Mb of 4k cluster disk space and typically take about 1 minute per run on a HARD disk. Documentation is written into the batch file as comments at the top. Users will typically cut hard drive access times by one half after using this to test their setup, I know I did. Remember to make backups of your SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI files that are located in the C:\WINDOWS directory before attempting to match what I have used on my hardware. These settings should work for you but it's good to be safe rather than sorry. W31 is very dependent on a proper configuration of DOS memory. If you do not create the best possible DOS configuration for your system the Virtual Memory Swap File cannot function properly. Virutal memory swap files should be made permanent and as large as possible. W31 will recommend 4 x's your installed memory size or one half the free space on the specified partition. W31 will not use more than one half of the partition size even if you type in larger numbers - this is an internal fail-safe you cannot defeat. This multiplier (default of 4) can be reset if you have the drive space. This setting can be found in the online commented INI files from the menu at the top of this page.
Click on Control Panel, find the icon for 386 Enhanced (as displayed), click on that icon. If this icon is not displayed in Control Panel you have loaded W31 in standard mode and must exit windows to the DOS command line. Restart in enhanced mode by typing "WIN.COM /3" and pressing the enter key.
Scheduling of foreground as 150 and background as 50 has allowed me to download as many as four files simultaneously while continuing to browse the web even when I was using an 80386 at 33 mhz. I would recommend using these values. Never check the Exclusive in Foreground setting. This stops all but the topmost windowed application stone dead. You don't want that. Minimum Timeslice - This is the absolute minimum time a task has to complete before windows will move to the next task. Your modem needs time to speak to the browser or terminal application. Never use a value less than 10 or you will get lockups and have to turn off the machine to reboot (a bad thing to do normally). Click on the Virtual Memory button once the other setting are at the proper values for your hardware. |
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| Current settings for the Virtual Memory Swap File are located at the top of this display. My current system with 16 meg of memory installed uses a reserved 100 meg partition G: for the swap file. 50 meg for the actual swap file and 50 meg for an image file of the C: drive. No other files are ever written to this partition or deleted from this partition to avoid fragmentation of the VM swap file.
W31 would recommend a maximum size of 64 meg (4 x 16 meg) of hard drive space but I goofed and only allowed 100 meg for the partition when I did not know about the internal failsafe. Remember W31 will only use one half of the total size of a partition. NOTE: W31 will try to reset to the C: drive constantly. If you do not want this you must check before exiting this screen! Permanent VM swap files are faster and safer to use. I only use a temporary VM swap file when I think the permanent VM swap has become corrupt and needs a rewrite. 32 Bit Disk Access will not work with drives larger than 528 meg without additional drivers referred to as "fastdisk" drivers. My present hardware is using the OnTrack FastDisk driver. If you can use 32 bit use it, it is faster access for the VM swap file. If you reset any of these values and click on the CHANGE button Windows will inform you that your new settings require a reboot of Windows. You can defer this reboot and the next time you execute Windows the new settings will be implemented for you or you can do an automated restart wherein Windows shuts down and immediately restarts without intervention.
NEVER attempt to defrag a permanent swap file using a DOS DEFRAG program. Newer W9x can do this but W31 will react as though you stabbed a sharp object into it's forehead. Reset to a temporary swap file, restart W31 to complete the process and then exit to DOS. Temporary VM swap files are deleted by windows when W31 exits to DOS. Defrag the partition you intend to use for the VM swap file, reboot W31 and reset to the permanent swap file size and partition you require. Click on CHANGE, then select restart and your permanent swap file is rewritten to the newly cleaned up partition. Optimum conditions for the VM swap file would be a second physically separate hard drive. Preferably the fastest drive you have. This allows two mechanisms (hard drive heads) to be working to retrieve read/write files rather than one mechanism doing everything. It also protects other files from damage or fragmentation caused by having to move past the swap file and back again. Second best seems to be to arrange to put the VM swap file on drive C: as the first file after the BIOS files and keep it there. DOS defrag software will not always cooperate with this arrangement. The C: drive or as close as possible to the C: drive are the faster partitions. (Yes, I know, I goofed on that one too.) These are not major differences but every percentage improvement begins to add up if you can find enough of them?
Memory Use Limitations in Microsoft Windows SUMMARY NOTE: How much 'more' than 16 meg and under what conditions is debateable. ISA Network cards will not address more than 16 meg and I suspect there are other caveats to this 'more'? CPA Memory Valet: (10k FREE download written at Microsoft!) How Memory Valet Works:
   Obviously, MemValet has improved memory usage. The above is with Netscape v4.08 loaded and running. Checking Help>About> from within the Program Manager shows an increase of 200K of memory! Low memory on this computer is actually 200K more than displayed here by MemValet, I have SYSHOOK installed with a 200K reserve as a 'crash barrier'.
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| © Charles Angelich 2001 |