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Gallstaff - Nov 2, 2003

		Gallstaff	Nov 2, 2003
		sigh I find that windows is hanging a great deal lateley. Most notibly when I open up add/remove programs or even when I open up my documents. It'll hang for an ungodly amount of time. Do you guys know why opening up these particular things would cause this?

		Tagrineth	Nov 2, 2003
		Try limiting your page file to around 448MB (general tip). Also, you probably need to defrag.

		Gallstaff	Nov 2, 2003
		How do i do the page file fo shizzle?

		racketboy	Nov 2, 2003
		I had my page file set a 2GB. I just lowered it to 700MB last week. Maybe it's a coincidence, but my system seems slower now

		Resident_Lurker	Nov 2, 2003
		You're having all kinds of problems aren't you? First Winamp explodes, then Windows is screwed, computer won't even turn on. Good luck with ALL that....

		Gallstaff	Nov 2, 2003
		hah and new ones just keep comin. I need third party drivers for my live 5.1, these are shit. anyone know any?

		Scared0o0Rabbit	Nov 2, 2003
		the general rule is your page file should be roughly 2x the amount of ram you have. You need to set your page file to a constant amount htough, because it changing the size of your PF seems to slow down the pc a lot.

		gameboy900	Nov 2, 2003
		Another thing that REALLY helps (and something I do) is to setup a dedicated partition on a SEPERATE hard drive from the one Windows is installed on. I have a 2GB partition for it. Setup the page file to max out at the 2GB (hasn't grown past 1GB so far). Also for this partition since it's only going to hold one file make the file system FAT (not FAT32 or NTFS). This will ensure the fastest non fragmented access to the virtual memory file for Windows. As for how to set the size. Go into the system properties (by right clicking on My Computer and selecting Properties), then go to the Advanced tab and click the Settings buttons under Performance. In the new window go to the Advanced tab and click the button under virtual memory. From there setup a large swap file and DON'T let windows manage it. Set the custom max size to a large number and the initial size to about half that (2GB and 1GB in my case). With a initial size you won't many cases where Windows will run out of space in it before it has to increase the file size.

		Gallstaff	Nov 2, 2003
		Uh I dont have options quite like that, i'm in 2k

		racketboy	Nov 3, 2003
		yeah I have mine on a separate partition

mal

Nov 3, 2003

Originally posted by gameboy900@Nov 3, 2003 @ 04:11 PM

Also for this partition since it's only going to hold one file make the file system FAT (not FAT32 or NTFS). This will ensure the fastest non fragmented access to the virtual memory file for Windows.

What's the reasoning behind that? I'm just wondering what makes FAT "faster".

		dnguyen800	Nov 3, 2003
		Hey, can anyone recommend a free defragmenting program? I've used the Microsoft one four times and it still says my partition needs to be defragmented. Now when I click on a file in file explorer, my HD loads like crazy.

Alexvrb

Nov 3, 2003

Originally posted by Gallstaff@Nov 3, 2003 @ 03:59 AM

hah and new ones just keep comin. I need third party drivers for my live 5.1, these are shit.

anyone know any?

Yes... but it'd involve you breaking the Live 5.1 over your knee and replacing it with a different card. But then you could use non-Creative drivers without a hitch.

		Taelon	Nov 3, 2003
		Actually, Microsoft's defrag is a lite version of Diskeeper these days. A good one I use is VoptXP from www.goldenbow.com... . As for why your computer keeps telling you the HD needs to be defragged, could it be that it's nearly full? In that case it's near impossible to really rearrange files, especially large ones like, say, DivX movies. Likely reasons for general slowdowns in XP (as observed by me personally) - cannot speak for 2K here: * not enough RAM. Even 256MB is rather on the low end, so I quickly upped mine to 512MB. * Indexing service is enabled. Stop and disable it through Services Manager. Then rightclick each HD partition in Explorer and uncheck "Allow file indexing", apply to all files and folders when asked. * Service Pack 1 introduces a bug that would slow WinXP down. There is a post-SP1 hotfix for this. * System Restore can cause the HD to fill up rapidly. Delete all but the most recent restore points. Often, restore points will be set automatically by at least Windows Update and by setups using Windows Installer (.msi packages), possibly other apps as well. On a side note, it might be a good idea to turn System Restore OFF on all partitions except the system partition, since there really is no point in maintaining restore points on storage, backup or pagefile partitions. I have an SBLive! 5.1 by the way. Its drivers have never given me any trouble. I avoid downloading them from Creative, though, instead I use the ones provided with Windows. Since I bought my new PC this summer, there's actually been one driver update for SBLive cards on Windows Update which I installed. Not a single problem with sound here.

		dnguyen800	Nov 3, 2003
		My HD is pretty full, so I guess thats the reason.

gameboy900

Nov 3, 2003

Originally posted by mal+Nov 3, 2003 @ 02:00 AM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mal @ Nov 3, 2003 @ 02:00 AM)</div><div class='quotemain'> <!--QuoteBegin-gameboy900@Nov 3, 2003 @ 04:11 PM

Also for this partition since it's only going to hold one file make the file system FAT (not FAT32 or NTFS). This will ensure the fastest non fragmented access to the virtual memory file for Windows.

What's the reasoning behind that? I'm just wondering what makes FAT "faster". [/b][/quote]

Basically you're getting rid of the overhead associated with FAT32 and NTFS. FAT is the simplest of the three Windows file system types. FAT32 adds extra things to enable it to deal with more files and NTFS has all that security stuff added to it. Basically things that a partition with a single file doesn't need to have.

You're basically removing allot of overhead for a frequently used file.

		racketboy	Nov 3, 2003
		so should I bump my page file back up to 2GB for better performance. I have 1GB of RAM. I can switch it over to FAT too. A little OT: what about a Photoshop page file?

		slinga	Nov 3, 2003
		I guess I'll had to this windows swap file discussion... I always heard you should keep your max and min equal. This way, it will always (?) avoid fragmentation.

racketboy

Nov 3, 2003

Originally posted by slinga@Nov 3, 2003 @ 09:12 PM

I guess I'll had to this windows swap file discussion...

I always heard you should keep your max and min equal. This way, it will always (?) avoid fragmentation.

yeah I do that too

		Scared0o0Rabbit	Nov 3, 2003
		so wait, you can't change your pagefile size in 2k? Funny cause I remember doing it back in windows 95 and stuff, and I doubt they'd remove it specifically for 2k.... you might not be looking in the right place.