Upgrade from 512MB to 1GB had little effects

[Nathan]

I'm running Windows XP with a number of memory hungry apps, such as
Firefox, iTunes, Thunderbird, Photoshop, Matlab, Open Office, and Java
apps. I was noticing a lot of hard drive activity when switching from
one app to another. The computer would stall for 5-10 seconds and do
something on the hard drive. I had 512MB RAM and my paging file usage
was about 500MB, so I thought I probably just need more RAM.

So I bought an extra 512MB and expected to see more RAM usage and less
pagefile usage. But little has changed. Now, I still often experience
slow application switching. The paging file usage has stayed the same
and the amount of available physical memory is usually over 500MB.

Why is Windows not using more of the RAM and less of the page file?

Does it try to keep the RAM free in case I suddenly need it?

Can I tell it to keep more apps in RAM and use the page file less?

Thanks!

Nathan

 

[Jerry]

http://www.x-setup.net/ Go here and get X-Setup Pro (free). It has an option
to tell Windows to use all the RAM before the swap file. (It's a registry
change but I don't know what it is exactly.)

Also, others have mentioned the swap file should be between 1.5 and 2.5
times the total RAM. (Do a Google search on swap file for stuff to read.)

And, if you have two physical drives the swap file should not be on the same
drive as Windows.

 

[Nathan]

Thanks - I'll give it a try. I've already got the swap file on a second
drive, and it's 3GB. Is it possible to make it too big??? (for example
if Windows has a brain-dead algorithm that says - duude he's got a big
swap file - let's use that rather than RAM)...

Nathan

 

[MAP]

Thanks - I'll give it a try. I've already got the swap file on a
second drive, and it's 3GB. Is it possible to make it too big??? (for
example if Windows has a brain-dead algorithm that says - duude he's
got a big swap file - let's use that rather than RAM)...

Nathan

Their should be no limit to the max size of your pagefile,if its not needed
then it won't be used.

 

[Guest]

And, if you have two physical drives the swap file should not be on the same

drive as Windows.

That is a common myth.

XP does not gain any benefit from moving the swap file. Only the server
based OSs will and ONLY with SCSI disks (except server 2003).

The reason is that XP reads the volumes in a serial manner. In other words,
only one at a time.