Page File Size?????

[Tim]

Once I reinstalled XP and had no programs installed it was
very quick. After loading about 5 programs and peripheral
drivers it runs alot slower. Programs installed include
(Easy CD Creator 5, Kaaza, WinMX, Office XP) and drivers
for my printer and scanner were installed. Now when the
PC starts up the hard drive consistently works for about 5
minutes or so. I have disabled everything at start up via
(MSCONFIG) and it still loads up slowly. I must wait
minutes before opening a program.

I am using a PIII 933 processor on 650 MB SDRAM so
hardware shouldn't be an issue. What could the problem
be. Should I increase my page file size? I assume it is
XP standard size now. Also I have 2 physical hard disks.
C drive (30GB) for Windows and D drive (120GB) for music
etc. Any info on this would be greatly appreciated. I
also did a virus check with nothing detected.

 

[Guest]

have you downloaded all xp updates? from what iv'e seen, the 30 gig hds don't seem to cooperate with xp. i changed 5 30 gig hard drives \3 hp pcs. now they run great. i upgraded 4 to 40 and 1 to an 80. i think i would make the 120 a main and the 30 a music holder. kazaa might be the problem also.

 

[siljaline]

Once I reinstalled XP and had no programs installed it was
very quick. After loading about 5 programs and peripheral
drivers it runs alot slower. Programs installed include
(Easy CD Creator 5, Kaaza, WinMX, Office XP) and drivers
for my printer and scanner were installed. Now when the
PC starts up the hard drive consistently works for about 5
minutes or so. I have disabled everything at start up via
(MSCONFIG) and it still loads up slowly. I must wait
minutes before opening a program.

I am using a PIII 933 processor on 650 MB SDRAM so
hardware shouldn't be an issue. What could the problem
be. Should I increase my page file size? I assume it is
XP standard size now. Also I have 2 physical hard disks.
C drive (30GB) for Windows and D drive (120GB) for music
etc. Any info on this would be greatly appreciated. I
also did a virus check with nothing detected.

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/kazaabegone.zip
Read the FAQ *before* use. http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm

HTH
~Silj

--
siljaline

MS MVP - Windows (IE/OE)
________________________
Anti-Parasite Definition Updates
http://forum.aumha.org/viewforum.php?f=31

(Reply to group, as return address
is invalid - that we may all benefit)

 

[Charlie]

Depending on installed ram and your typical operating scenario it is
entirely possible to turn off the page file completely within XP. IMHO that
is the ultimate "swap file tweak" My PC with 512M and my wife's with 768M
both have the pagefile turned off and so far so good for over 6 months. Our
usage includes games like FS2004 and MM2 as well as graphics apps like PSP 8
and audio apps like Adobe Audition, Sony Sound Forge and Calkwalk Guitar
Tracks Pro 3.

Needless to say running everything in ram beats the pants off any kind of
page file settings....

--

- Charlie
Looking for blues harp player in Mississippi for guitar/harp duo
(e-mail address removed)

..

 

[Bill]

Depending on installed ram and your typical operating scenario it is
entirely possible to turn off the page file completely within XP. IMHO that
is the ultimate "swap file tweak" My PC with 512M and my wife's with 768M
both have the pagefile turned off and so far so good for over 6 months. Our
usage includes games like FS2004 and MM2 as well as graphics apps like PSP 8
and audio apps like Adobe Audition, Sony Sound Forge and Calkwalk Guitar
Tracks Pro 3.

It's a good idea to have a pagefile, even if it's a very small one. Many
programs written today expect to have virtual memory available, even if
they don't need to use it most of the time.

And with the low cost of large drives these days, there is no reason to
penny-pinch disk space.

Needless to say running everything in ram beats the pants off any kind of
page file settings....

Yup...that's why I have lots of RAM. But I still run with a large fixed
pagefile to give me breathing room when opening lots of apps or large
data files.

As for real world speed, running with a pagefile has a negligible effect
on performance.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Once I reinstalled XP and had no programs installed it was
very quick. After loading about 5 programs and peripheral
drivers it runs alot slower. Programs installed include
(Easy CD Creator 5, Kaaza, WinMX, Office XP) and drivers
for my printer and scanner were installed. Now when the
PC starts up the hard drive consistently works for about 5
minutes or so. I have disabled everything at start up via
(MSCONFIG) and it still loads up slowly. I must wait
minutes before opening a program.

I am using a PIII 933 processor on 650 MB SDRAM so
hardware shouldn't be an issue. What could the problem
be. Should I increase my page file size?

It is unlikely to be anything to do with page file size. I am not quite
sure how you achieve 650MB RAM - if it is a mistype of 640, or 512 plus
128 it may be that you have badly matched RAM modules - try removing the
odd 128. But most likely is some parasitic software got onto the
machine, and especia\lly all the nasties that come along with Kazaa -
consult
http://www.aumha.org/a/parasite.htm

 

[Alex Nichol]

Depending on installed ram and your typical operating scenario it is
entirely possible to turn off the page file completely within XP. IMHO that
is the ultimate "swap file tweak" My PC with 512M

Don't. Firstly there are some programs that insist on having some page
file; second it is wasteful of RAM as the space potentially available in
the file gets used to assign pages allocated by programs but never used.
If there is not potential file space these have to be assigned to real
RAM and lock that much out - and it may easily be hundreds of MB. If
there is a small initial size but a high max, the file will not grow
beyond the initial size and there will be no actual traffic on it. Read
in more detail at my page www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

 

[Al Dykes]

Once I reinstalled XP and had no programs installed it was
very quick. After loading about 5 programs and peripheral
drivers it runs alot slower. Programs installed include
(Easy CD Creator 5, Kaaza, WinMX, Office XP) and drivers
for my printer and scanner were installed. Now when the
PC starts up the hard drive consistently works for about 5
minutes or so. I have disabled everything at start up via
(MSCONFIG) and it still loads up slowly. I must wait
minutes before opening a program.

I am using a PIII 933 processor on 650 MB SDRAM so
hardware shouldn't be an issue. What could the problem
be. Should I increase my page file size? I assume it is
XP standard size now. Also I have 2 physical hard disks.
C drive (30GB) for Windows and D drive (120GB) for music
etc. Any info on this would be greatly appreciated. I
also did a virus check with nothing detected.

Task Manager will tell you how much memory you're using, and lots of
other stuff. Load up all the programs you normally use and see what
it says.

(Right mouse click on the task bar to get to task manager)