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13 Posts
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2497
February 9th, 2004 20:00
system resources low / defrag
Here are two questions I have. It's a Dimensoin 4300, with 128 MB RAM, Windows ME, and about the biggest program on it is MS Word. So it's not loaded down with a ton of stuff and I don't have lots of things running out of the tray (How, BTW, do you remove things which have automatically put themselves there?). However, lately it's been locking up temporarily (the mouse cursor will move, but I cannot type or click) and giving a "WARNING System Resources Low" message. This is odd, because it's happened with only, for example, a single IE window open, though I will often open two or three IE windows at the same time. I've resolved this by shutting off the computer and rebooting, but that is annoying. So, is there any trick to this? System resources meter says, even with only this window open, nothing else, that I've got 63% system resources free. Seems kinda low.
The other issue is defragging the C: drive. It just won't...it'll got along for a bit, then pause and start over again. I was wondering if the two are related.
I hope this is an acceptable forum to post these questions in. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
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Dan Manley
1.4K Posts
0
February 10th, 2004 01:00
Try a little "generic" fix for many MS Word problems. Do a search for the file, "normal.dot" (without quotes). When found, delete the file...if multiple entries are found, delete them all. Re-open Word to see if the issue is resolved.
If this fails, run a full system scan with fully up-to-date virus signature files...some virii can also produce this error.
You can find excellent instructions for the Defrag problem here:
http://www.djdenham.com/Basic_Windows.htm
T Morris
74 Posts
0
February 10th, 2004 09:00
Yoslick: DeFrag in Safe Mode. This will solve your DeFrag Proglems.
yarabnatasha
66 Posts
0
February 12th, 2004 06:00
Also, disable the startup applications using the MSConfig and delete the temporary files on the hard drive. Perform the steps below.
1. Click Start.
2. Click Run.
3. Type MSCONFIG.
4. Click System.ini tab.
under vcache input the following (keeping the same format):
Chunksize=512
MinFileCache=16384
MaxFileCache=16384
Under the 386Enh section add the following:
PageBuffers=32
Changing this setting from the 4k default up to 32k will boost your performance by increasing the page buffers used to store read and write information.
MinTimeSlice=40
This setting changes the time in milliseconds that Windows allows a Virtual Machine to run before another will begin to run. Originally 20.
MaxBPs=65530
This setting is used to adjust and set the size of "break points" that Windows uses for its VMM (Virtual Memory Manager.) This setting is in bytes.
DMABufferSize=64
This setting assigns out the size of the 16bit DMA buffer for all DMA devices. The maximum size is 64 and the default size is 16.
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1
This has to be one of the most valuable option to be set in the system.ini file, this option disables the "PageFile_Call_Async_Manager", which allows Windows to write out the swap during an idle in the Vfat. In other words, Windows will attempt to use your physical RAM as much as possible, and only write to the swapfile when the hard drive isn't busy.
Open up regedit and do the steps given below:
1. Click Start.
2. Click Run.
3. Type Regedit.
4. Navingate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem].
From there you should see a setting that says ReadAheadThreshold. To create it manually, right click in the key window and select new binary value. Type in ReadAheadThreshold (Case sensitive). Now, right click on that setting and select "modify". You should see a dialogue box similar to the below picture, except empty. Now just add 00 00 20 00 into it and click OK.
Also try Open up Notepad (Start, Run, "notepad" (OK)). Depending on how much memory you have, put the value in...
Mystring = (80000000)
Save it as "Memory.vbe" (including the quotes!). Close as many programs as you can, then run (double-click) this handy little script to free your memory whenever your computer is feeling sluggish.
The following helps with system start up times.
In the MSDOS.SYS file, add the following lines:
Doublebuffer=1
Dblspace=0
Drvspace=0
Logo=0
Bootdelay=0
You may need to remove the write-protect attribute of this file to save. To do so, simply go into the file's properties and remove it. Make sure you put it back on when you are done though.
In the CONFIG.SYS file, add the following line:
Stacks=0,0