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General discussion

What will happen if I disable the Virtual Memory in Win98/ME

Aug 16, 2004 4:32PM PDT

Hi,

My PC configuration is as follows

Intel P42.0Ghz With 768MB RAM,E.t.c.

My question is what is the purpose of Virtual Memory.What will happen if I disable the Virtual Memory for my system.Suggestions or warnings are most welcome

Discussion is locked

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Re: What will happen if I disable the Virtual Memory in Win9
Aug 16, 2004 9:20PM PDT

Widely discussed. I will not answer. Use Google.com to find out with these words. DISABLE VIRTUAL MEMORY.

Just FYI, setting it to as small a value as you can is noted to have the same effect.

Try it.

Bob

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Re: What will happen if I disable the Virtual Memory in Win9
Aug 16, 2004 10:53PM PDT

Don't expect to benefit from doing it, you are likely to have memory shortage problems in programs you are running. Just let Windows control your virtual memory and let it go at that.

It isn't going to improve performance.

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u can tweak things
Aug 18, 2004 5:55AM PDT

firstly if you have a large hard disk it is best to set a large min swap file size (say 200Mb) - even if u hardly ever use it - this is because it wont become defragmented - and u will always need a swop file at some point - particularly if u run any games.

depending on what operating system u r using, you can tweak it so you use RAM instead a swop file - with win98 and winME u can more or less tell it to use all available ram instead of a swop file - but with XP your are some what more restricted.

A good program which can assist you is called "cachman" it comes in two version - one is specifically for XP the other can be used for XP or others such as winme
go to this web site and down load both! after all the basic versions are free!!
http://www.outertech.com
if you need help in getting the most out of the program let me know - but u must use the "conservative swop file size" option
Peter

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Re: u can tweak things
Aug 18, 2004 11:09PM PDT

Actually a 200MB swap file is quite small, not large.

You want the starting swap file size to be a minimum of about 150% of the actual memory you have in the system. XP will show a recommended size, you should go by that as the minimum.

Everything in memory is shadowed in the swap file, so it can be quickly replaced if that memory is needed by another program.

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and i thought i was being too conservative!!
Aug 19, 2004 12:52AM PDT

firstly my indepth knowledge in this area is not good - but in my defence the user didn't specify what operating system he was using so i was trying to cover all bases - with 95, 98 and ME i found 200Mb to be more than adequate with a ram of 520Mb. In fact with using the "conservativeSwopFile" option in config.sys the swop file never got used - i gathered that all shadowing and "paging out" was given to available ram as a priority, and that only in the even that ram became low would the swop file be used. I really gave my system a thrashing and the only time my swop file was used was with one of those large kids games.
However, when it comes to windows XP (which I have only had for 6months) I am a bit lost, as this option of swopping to ram is somewhat limited (as is my knowledge of XP) - but even so, I currently have a 200Mb swop file and have tweaked things as far as XP will allow me and i still haven't gone over a 100Mb on HEAVY load.
What first prompted me to do a lot of trial and error work in this area was it just seemed strange to me that my hard disk was being used all the time (and I had a noisy hard disk at that time) when I had ample free ram which never seemed to be used.
So I think maybe windows XP's recommendation of 150% maybe trying to cover all bases as well - as i think if you have 520Mb ram this does not hold. After all we are talking about "minimum swop file size"!!!!
Would love to hear your thoughts on the matter because i am only just starting to come to grips with XP.
Peter

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Re: What will happen if I disable the Virtual Memory in Win9
Aug 18, 2004 6:18AM PDT

To add to the others, I did this once. In an attempt to limit fragmentation of the primary drive, I moved the swap file to the slave. Eventually, I moved it back. You can also create a swap partition on the same drive to accomplish the same which might be a better choice but this won't turn a VW into a Porsche.

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Re: What will happen if I disable the Virtual Memory in Win9
Oct 9, 2004 11:28AM PDT

With that much memory, you should be able to get away with it. How'd you get win98 to recognize more than 512, that's generally the max/default?