"ideal" paging file size

  • Thread starter Thread starter David Candy
  • Start date Start date
Hi,

Thanks again for all the help.

Just like to report back what is happening now:

(1) Everything is working fine and I have incorporated some tips but
remained the paging file size as Windows managed although it is a bit of too
big for me (1279 MB)

(2) I will keep monitoring the use of paging file and see if needed further
adjustment.

(3) I increased the memory allocation for Photoshop CE2 (just learned it for
how to do this) and see what I initially wanted - faster performance even
during opening up the application.

(4) Unfortunately, I can't take out the old 333MHZ 256MB module (maybe it's
a good thing for me to still have it). It seems to me that the motherboard
(Dell I8600 notebook) cannot support 400MHZ. Prior to purchase the new RAM
module, I did do some homework and it is 333MHZ that Dell recommended.
However, the vendor told me that he could not find any 333MHz now and only
got 400MHz, so I got it.

In any case, I did try to leave only the 400MHz module but it turned out to
have several problems. Windows can boot and I could log onto the account,
but I had several "explorer" error messages, and at one point, I also got a
blue screen with an error message like the following (based on my poor
memory): Paging fault in none paging file area....

When I put back the old 333MHz module, everything works fine.

So I dare not to remove the old 333MHz module and guess I'd have to use it
to "force" both modules to run on 333MHz. I will check Dell if this is true
for the motherboard cannot support 400MHz.

Finally, thanks all for your kind tips and I have learned so much from you.

Merry Christmas!
 
So if someone has 64MB of RAM (the official minimum for Windows XP),
he
should have 96MB of page file? If your page file is that small, the
computer
will hardly be able to run any applications at all. Or even with
128MB of
RAM, you think that a 192MB pagefile is adequate?

Nonsense! Formulas like these are always wrong.
Click to expand...

Whatever. I just said it's an ok formula. It's a safe one
for someone who is just beginning to mess with this stuff.

Actually, I believe there is a recommendation of Ram+12Mb or so.
(Something like that). Actually, I get by on one of my computers with
1Gb/ram and a 384Mb swapfile. It's used for just certain things.

Dragunov
 
So if someone has 64MB of RAM (the official minimum for Windows XP)
he
should have 96MB of page file? If your page file is that small, th
computer
will hardly be able to run any applications at all. Or even wit
128MB of
RAM, you think that a 192MB pagefile is adequate?

Nonsense! Formulas like these are always wrong.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, my mistake, Should have been 768 TIMES one and a hal
(1152Mb)That's what I meant. It's an "ok" formula, not a great one, bu
it's safe


-
Draguno
 
Note OS. INFO: The Windows 98 PageFile_Call_Async_Manager Service

Q223294


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:

a.. Microsoft Windows 98
b.. Microsoft Windows 98 Driver Development Kit (DDK)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


SUMMARY
Windows 98 added a new feature, PageFile_Call_Async_Manager, that allows the Memory Manager to asynchronously write out page file (swap file) buffers during periods of time when VFAT file system activity is not busy.

This feature can affect the behavior of VxDs that monitor and/or otherwise intercept PageFile VxD functions. This article is applicable to you if your VxD hooks PageFile_Read_Or_Write, and you discover that you are not seeing all the page file traffic when using Windows 98.



MORE INFORMATION
You can disable this feature, causing the system to behave as Windows 95 does, at some cost in overall system performance. Add the following entry to the System.ini file, in its [386Enh] section:


[386Enh]
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 When the above Boolean is set to TRUE as shown, PageFile_Call_Async_Manager is never called. If this entry is absent from System.ini, the default setting for ConservativeSwapfileUsage is 1 for Windows 95, and 0 (zero) for Windows 98.

When Windows 98 performs asynchronous writes to the swapfile, this activity is not captured by hooking PageFile_Read_Or_Write(). The PageFile_Set_Async_Manager service is called by VFAT to notify PageFile that VFAT is the manager of Async swap file activity; in fact, this makes the PageFile_Call_Async_Manager service become handled by a routine inside VFAT.

Memory Manager calls PageFile_Call_Async_Manager, supplying the service with a pointer to a Filesystem Idle routine mmFsIdle (in the Memory Manager). VFAT later calls this function when VFAT is completely idle (all pending VFAT writes have been written), so Memory Manager can execute asynchronous writes:

ULONG INTERNAL mmFsIdle(void); In return, PageFile_Call_Async_Manager returns a pointer to a function that Memory Manager uses to perform the (async) writes to the pagefile:


extern int (CDECL *pfnAsyncPageOut)(PVOID pvBuffer, ULONG bFileOffset); This function is actually inside VFAT (WriteAsyncSwapPage), which copies one page into its cache buffer and writes it. mmFsIdle uses an algorithm that generates pfnAsyncPageOut calls (that are actually calls to the internal VFAT routine).

Following is how the Memory Manager registers itself with VFAT:

mov eax, offset32 _mmFsIdle@0 ; Our idle callback.
VxDCall PageFile_Call_Async_Manager ; NOTE: the manager is VFAT.
jc DICDoneP ; Failed.
mov _pfnAsyncPageOut, eax
Additional query words:

Keywords : kbDDK kbKMode kbOSWin98
Issue type : kbinfo
Technology : kbAudDeveloper kbWin98search kbWinDDKSearch kbWin98DDKSearch kbWin98 kbWin98DDK


Last Reviewed: October 21, 2000
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