Paging File, Size Limit

[System Administrator]

Have 10 machines, virtually all identical, with Windows XP Pro SP3 and
updates as of 31 Oct 09 each with 4GB RAM and 80GB hard drive.

Two machines have had their paging file set to 8192 (min and max
values). I just tried setting another to 8192 and am receiving an
error stating that I can only set it to a max of 4096. After checking
via Google, this seems to be a hard limit without setting /PAE in the
boot.ini. /PAE does not exist on the machines with 8192 set. Anybody
have any ideas? I want to set 8192 on the current machine but am
reluctant to add /PAE as the other two do not have this set. Thanks.

 

[db]

there more ram you have the
less virtual memory you need.

virtual memory is really to help
low memory systems.

there are a number of programs
that can measure the amount of
ram and the amount of virtual
memory is actually being use.

you will likely find that not of the
resources are being used to the
max.

--
db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- @Hotmail.com
- nntp Postologist
~ "share the nirvana" - dbZen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[System Administrator]

Thanks for your response, db. However, I would still like to find out
why I can set the page file on two machines to 8192 and not on the
third. The purpose of doing so was to improve performance of Autdesk
Revit Architecture 2010. I found that I had to add /3GB and
/userva=2900 to those two machines AND change their pagefile to 8192
to get them to perform renderings. I just installed Revit 2010 on the
third machine, changed the boot.ini, and tried to change the pagefile
setting but found I could not. The other two machines do not have
/PAE in their boot.ini.

Again, all machines are vitually identical and each has 4GB of
physical RAM and 80GB HDD.

 

[System Administrator]

Further to my previous. I just checked the two machines that have
paging file set to 8192. They both are displaying "Physical Address
Extension" in System Properties. However, neither of these machines
have /PAE in their boot.ini files. Is there another way to invoke
this boot parameter?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Have 10 machines, virtually all identical, with Windows XP Pro SP3
and updates as of 31 Oct 09 each with 4GB RAM and 80GB hard drive.

Two machines have had their paging file set to 8192 (min and max
values). I just tried setting another to 8192 and am receiving an
error stating that I can only set it to a max of 4096. After
checking via Google, this seems to be a hard limit without setting
/PAE in the boot.ini. /PAE does not exist on the machines with
8192 set. Anybody have any ideas? I want to set 8192 on the
current machine but am reluctant to add /PAE as the other two do
not have this set.

Please clarify the phrase, "virtually identical". The differences in
hardware can effect how 32-bit Windows will treat memory above about
2.75GB - no matter what switches you have thrown in, etc.

I'm guessing - giving other parts of this conversation - you are essentially
basing this off of:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?siteID=123112&id=8018966&linkID=9243099

 

[System Administrator]

Thank you for your response, Shenan. You are correct, I did implement
the /3GB switch in the first two machines per that article. These
were the only two machines running Revit 2010. One of the two had
been attempting to run renderings and not succeeding. After adding
the /3GB and /userva=2900 boot.ini switches and increasing the paging
file size to 8192, the user was able to run renderings. A third user
is now in need of running Revit 2010 and part of my install was to
implement the /3GB et al changes on his machine. That's when I
discovered I could not set his paging file to 8192. I have now been
successful in doing so by adding the /PAE switch to his boot.ini file.

By virtually the same I mean all 10 (actually 14 but 4 don't run ACAD)
machines were purchased from the same source, using the same system
requirements specification, over a period of about one year. There
are 3 different motherboards in use but all have Intel chip sets. The
CPU is a 3GHz Intel P4 in all machines. All machines have 4GB of RAM
and 80GB SATA HDD. All are updated manually once per month, thus each
has the same Windows updates.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Have 10 machines, virtually all identical, with Windows XP Pro SP3
and updates as of 31 Oct 09 each with 4GB RAM and 80GB hard drive.

Two machines have had their paging file set to 8192 (min and max
values). I just tried setting another to 8192 and am receiving an
error stating that I can only set it to a max of 4096. After
checking via Google, this seems to be a hard limit without setting
/PAE in the boot.ini. /PAE does not exist on the machines with
8192 set. Anybody have any ideas? I want to set 8192 on the
current machine but am reluctant to add /PAE as the other two do
not have this set.

Please clarify the phrase, "virtually identical". The differences
in hardware can effect how 32-bit Windows will treat memory above
about
2.75GB - no matter what switches you have thrown in, etc.

I'm guessing - giving other parts of this conversation - you are
essentially basing this off of:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?siteID=123112&id=8018966&linkID=9243099

Thank you for your response, Shenan. You are correct, I did
implement the /3GB switch in the first two machines per that
article. These were the only two machines running Revit 2010. One
of the two had been attempting to run renderings and not
succeeding. After adding the /3GB and /userva=2900 boot.ini
switches and increasing the paging file size to 8192, the user was
able to run renderings. A third user is now in need of running
Revit 2010 and part of my install was to implement the /3GB et al
changes on his machine. That's when I discovered I could not set
his paging file to 8192. I have now been successful in doing so by
adding the /PAE switch to his boot.ini file.

By virtually the same I mean all 10 (actually 14 but 4 don't run
ACAD) machines were purchased from the same source, using the same
system requirements specification, over a period of about one year.
There are 3 different motherboards in use but all have Intel chip
sets. The CPU is a 3GHz Intel P4 in all machines. All machines
have 4GB of RAM and 80GB SATA HDD. All are updated manually once
per month, thus each has the same Windows updates.

What about the video devices in the machines?

I'm guessing with higher-end machines (which these are probably up there)
these would not be on-board or shared-memory video devices... But how much
memory they have, etc could change how the memory is utilized in Windows.

 

[System Administrator]

All 14 machines have a FireGL v3400 or v3600, each with 128MB.

 

[Twayne]

In

Thanks for your response, db. However, I would still like to find out
why I can set the page file on two machines to 8192 and not on the
third. The purpose of doing so was to improve performance of Autdesk
Revit Architecture 2010. I found that I had to add /3GB and
/userva=2900 to those two machines AND change their pagefile to 8192
to get them to perform renderings. I just installed Revit 2010 on the
third machine, changed the boot.ini, and tried to change the pagefile
setting but found I could not. The other two machines do not have
/PAE in their boot.ini.

Again, all machines are vitually identical and each has 4GB of
physical RAM and 80GB HDD.

Why not just mod the boot.ini to be the same? If they're all nearly
identical machines, you can be pretty sure it's not going to cause any
problems. Besides, I'd expect any problems, if it did cause any, to show up
right away, but I doubt you'll have a problem. BTW, that's NOT enough hard
drive space; you need more and be sure anything new is 7200 rpm or even
better, 10k rpm; they're actuall affordable now.

HTH,

Twayne`

 

[dennis]

Two machines have had their paging file set to 8192 (min and max
values). I just tried setting another to 8192 and am receiving an
error stating that I can only set it to a max of 4096. After checking
via Google, this seems to be a hard limit without setting /PAE in the
boot.ini. /PAE does not exist on the machines with 8192 set. Anybody
have any ideas? I want to set 8192 on the current machine but am
reluctant to add /PAE as the other two do not have this set. Thanks.

You are correct, PAE is required to have paging files larger than 4GB.
Machines that have DEP enabled also have PAE enabled (even without the
PAE-switch).

 

[John John - MVP]

Have 10 machines, virtually all identical, with Windows XP Pro SP3 and
updates as of 31 Oct 09 each with 4GB RAM and 80GB hard drive.

Two machines have had their paging file set to 8192 (min and max
values). I just tried setting another to 8192 and am receiving an
error stating that I can only set it to a max of 4096. After checking
via Google, this seems to be a hard limit without setting /PAE in the
boot.ini. /PAE does not exist on the machines with 8192 set. Anybody
have any ideas? I want to set 8192 on the current machine but am
reluctant to add /PAE as the other two do not have this set. Thanks.

As stated by another poster, PAE is automatically enabled with the use
of Data Execution Prevention (DEP). The use of the /noexecute switch
enables DEP.

John

 

[System Administrator]

Interestingly, the /noexecute switch is in the boot.ini of all three
machines. However, on the third machine (the one which prompted the
initial post), PAE apparently did not become active. I had to
physically add the /PAE switch to the boot.ini to invoke it.