Reducing memory usage

DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\CPQIDECD.SYS /D:IDECD001

Thats a real mode cdrom driver. Not that it will make much difference

Make the line read
Rem DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\CPQIDECD.SYS /D:IDECD001
Reboot & test your cdrom drive to make sure that it still works.
If it doesnt remove rem and reboot.

In all honesty Iti, there is not much more than you can do that you already haven't done.
You did a good job!

I just wanted to remove some background processes so less memory will be used when idle. I have some programs that use a lot of RAM, and I want as much free memory as possible. I don't want to disable processes related to drivers.

This computer came from the factory with 32MB of RAM. I have 128MB of RAM and am running out of memory. I don't remember the computer being very slow from the factory, but it must have been running on virtual memory most of the time.

Windows 95 or better does not need real mode drivers for a cdrom device.

As I said, I don't know if you can tweak it any more than you already have done.

You might be more specific about the programs that you have that use a lot of ram.
What exactly are they?

You only have 128 megs on the system.
What do you expect?

Even if you tweak himem.sys and emm386 it is not going to matter.

I don't think I could do much more either.

I am not sure why the CD-ROM driver is installed, but something must require it if it came preinstalled.

I was running some games under MAME when the computer ran out of RAM. There was no available physical memory, according to System Monitor. The computer was using virtual memory.

I wasn't expecting the decrease in RAM to have an effect on performance. I was surprised to see that all programs ran better than they did before, even though they took longer to load.

Just to suggest a few things to consider:

Seems to me that the loading times and the application performance/memory usage are probably two separate issues, although there might be some overlap in cause.

Slow loading and very long defrag times might indicate the hard drive has become very slow. I had this happen with a number of older Fujitsu drives, there were no data errors but on a benchmark they just had a very low throughput (one belonging to a friend was only about twice as fast as a floppy drive...).

On motherboards like this where cache can only address 128MB of physical memory, Windows will run slowly if more memory than this is fitted, because Windows loads its operating code at the top of physical memory above cached addresses. However if your typical system usage requires virtual memory with 128MB fitted, but doesn't when 256MB is present, overall it can be best to use the 256MB, because it will still be much faster than virtual memory from the page file.

I'm assuming you've set the correct jumpers to adjust core voltage and clock multiplier as you've swapped CPUs - if not, the K6's cache could have suffered some damage. Either way, if the BIOS offers settings to enable and disable 1st & 2nd level cache, you can turn them on and off to confirm correct operation. If you disabled 1st level cache and the performance stayed the same for example, that would mean the cache is faulty.

With 256MB of RAM, programs do load faster, but they run very slowly. The computer was unusable with 256MB of RAM.

The jumpers are set correctly. I don't think there is any way to disable the cache. I am looking at replacing the motherboard or finding a way to remove chips from another motherboard and transfer them to this board. The clock generator chip and the L2 cache chip might have failed.

I agree that with the difficulty you've been having and the measures you've already implemented, there looks to be some hardware issue happening. Have you tried a benchmark on the hard drive to see if its transfer rate is acceptable?

What program should I use to test the hard drive performance?

"I was running some games under MAME when the computer ran out of RAM"

Could you please explain that to us old folks?

MAME is an emulator. The entire program that is running under the emulator must be loaded into RAM. The game I was running required about 85MB of RAM. The unused physical memory chart in System Monitor actually hit zero and stayed there.

What program should I use to test the hard drive performance?

Not sure what current benchmarks still support Win98, but HDTach would be one of the standards from the time:

http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/Content/Pages/Products/Benchmarks/HdTach.html

Those links don't work, but I have a CD with SiSoftware Sandra 2002 and PassMark PerformanceTest 4.0. Would either of these work?

Frankly, I thing you are pushing the boundaries of what the system can actually do.

Sandra was another standard recommendation. If either gives a low figure for hard drive performance, it would point to a possible cause.

Frankly, I thing you are pushing the boundaries of what the system can actually do.

I agree with Eyesee. There are always limits upon what a Computer can do.

With 256MB of RAM, programs do load faster, but they run very slowly. The computer was unusable with 256MB of RAM.

So it looks like you are limited to 128MB of RAM? Yet you want to do this?

The game I was running required about 85MB of RAM.

Sorry, that is Mission Impossible on older Computers to use up that perchentage of RAM you are trying to do and still leave enough for the OS to run, besides other things. You are trying to use 66.4% of your available RAM, when I guess you may have aomething less than 50% available.

Ray.