Task Manager figures

[Vic]

Was looking at task managers
PERFORMANCE - Physical Memory (K) figures and noticed something
peculiar. It states the 'total' (PC) memory as correct 392756 (384meg),
but then I see:

'Available' = 180236
'System Cache' = 226764

Wait a minute, 180236 + 226764 = 407000, not 384 meg (total PC memory)

Figured some of the system cache must be in a page file. Is that
assumption correct?
If so, how can I get all system cache to load in memory and stay there?
My PC has a LOT of page faults for explorer so I know the page file is
being hit a lot. BTW, I do very little work with applications requiring
a lot of free memory so for this 'low end' system I'd rather have best
performance!

Went to
SYSTEM PROPERTIES - Performance Options - Advanced:
best performance for PROGRAMS is checked (don't want background services
hindering performance in focus window) and best performance for system
cache is checked. I have two static page files, one on boot drive
(cause' MS says to, 40 meg) and a 500meg on different HD.

How can I make XP load all system cache into memory so explorer isn't
hitting the pagefile so often?

Using XP2 Home

Thanks in advance for helping
Vic

 

[Curt Christianson]

Hi Vic,

Maybe these two MS articles can shed some light on things for you:

Things to consider before you enable System cache mode in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/895932

How to set performance options in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308417

HTH,
--
Curt

http://dundats.mvps.org/
http://www.aumha.org/


| Was looking at task managers
| PERFORMANCE - Physical Memory (K) figures and noticed something
| peculiar. It states the 'total' (PC) memory as correct 392756 (384meg),
| but then I see:
|
| 'Available' = 180236
| 'System Cache' = 226764
|
| Wait a minute, 180236 + 226764 = 407000, not 384 meg (total PC memory)
|
| Figured some of the system cache must be in a page file. Is that
| assumption correct?
| If so, how can I get all system cache to load in memory and stay there?
| My PC has a LOT of page faults for explorer so I know the page file is
| being hit a lot. BTW, I do very little work with applications requiring
| a lot of free memory so for this 'low end' system I'd rather have best
| performance!
|
| Went to
| SYSTEM PROPERTIES - Performance Options - Advanced:
| best performance for PROGRAMS is checked (don't want background services
| hindering performance in focus window) and best performance for system
| cache is checked. I have two static page files, one on boot drive
| (cause' MS says to, 40 meg) and a 500meg on different HD.
|
| How can I make XP load all system cache into memory so explorer isn't
| hitting the pagefile so often?
|
| Using XP2 Home
|
| Thanks in advance for helping
| Vic
|
|

 

[SingaporeWebDesign]

Hello,

Disabling page file will load everything to memory. (somebody correct me if
I am wrong)

I would recommend at *least* 1GB before disabling the page file, or your
system will start giving windows memory errors if memory usage exceeds.
However I have personally done this on a 256MB RAM file sharing system and
its been stable as only XP runs on it.

Start > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Settings (Performance) >
Advanced > Change > Set C: to "No paging file" > Set

 

[John John]

The "Standby List" is counted twice, it's included in the System Cache
but it's also included in the Available list, and having it counted in
both locations represents accurate figures for both values, that is why
the added totals exceeds the physical RAM. Not much you can do other
than adding more RAM to the box, any less than 512 MB for XP is pretty
flimsy, even Windows 2000 may start paging with 384 MB RAM, and it is
way less greedy on memory than XP. In essence the RAM in your box is
being used and taxed to the maximum, if you can't add more RAM turn off
ALL the "eye candy" as well as unnecessary processes.

John