Memory issue

[Davey7549]

Recently I discovered two problems. Before the problems let me preface in saying whenever they occur resources are at 82%, RAM memory available is 387MB out of 512 and available disk space is 17GB. I have also tried allowing windows to control the virtual memory. The only item I think may of affected this is converting the unit to a power PC.
Anyway when using Microsoft photo draw I am able to save a 3.5 MB file with no problem. After save I continue working with the item and attempt another save and get a not enough memory to perform save popup. Also HP photo print which has worked in the past is now displaying not enough memory to perform this operation which is opening a pic. This pic does not have to be of any large size to create this message since a 2K gif creates it.
Already tried uninstalling and reinstalling photo print and have upgraded the HP photosmart printer drivers to current.
The settings I used for the power PC were the ones given In first post by V V in Virtual doctors thread Click Here
If anyone one has any ideas to try I would appreciate it.
Dave

 

[rkselby98]

First what are the resources after you do this. How much have they dropped.

I have the same problem and the only way I can get around it is to reboot. The programs do not release the resources. If you check you will see that if you try to delete the pic after you have worked with it most likely you can't because the program still is holding on to them.

I work with a lot of pic in word 2000 and when I am finished and go to delete the pic file from my pictures folder it won't let me delete it The only way I can do it is to close out word 2000 and then I can delete it.

Try closing the program and restarting it or do as I do a lot of the time reboot and get the resources back.

 

[DoyceJ]

I dont know what your settings are but this is what I would suggest.

vcache- MinFileCache 2048
MaxFileCache 32768

swap file- set a minimum of 300 megs and no max. It should give you the benefits without the risks.

 

[rkselby98]

Let's keep in mind these settings will be according to the size of the hard drive. If someone only has a 2 gig hard drive these settings will not work.

 

[DoyceJ]

Both are for his 512 megs of ram.

 

[Davey7549]

Good morning Guys
Was up till 5:00AM trying to pinpoint this.
Rick you are correct if I close the program and reenter it allow me to save onetime the 3MB file after one set of changes. This is a new occurance since I was able to do many saves before. The resources are at 65% when this happens. I was suspecting a bad RAM chip but at 5:00 in the morning anything solution looks good!

JR
As soon as I wake up enough I will check out the Vcache and swap settings.

Dave

 

[Rollin' Rog]

First of all, it would be interesting to see if you have that problem with 256mb of ram. I think some people have encountered "too much ram" related memory errors even at the 512mb mark which MS indicates should be "OK" without vcache mod's. But I think some motherboards may be a factor (agp aperature=128) in how it's handled as well.

Anyway, I would try that or try modifiying the [vcache] section of system.ini

MaxFileCache=262144

 

[Davey7549]

Rog
This problem is relatively recent. I've been running with 512 for better than 9 months now. The change in virtual has been about a month whenever you gave the lead to VDoctor. I will try the change however.
Here is another observation. WinME go into control panel system virtual memory set the min max as told. Reboot go to C:\windows\system.ini notepad and found there was no settings under vcache. Went back to control panel set virtual to leave windows handle it rebooted and went to system.ini notepad and manually put in settings rebooted and went to control panel and settings showed what I changed them to in the system.ini file.
Wouldn't you think changing them in control panel\system would add entries to the system.ini notepad.
Tried photo draw 2000 again with that 3.3MB file saved once and came up with not enough memory the second time again.
Reviewed my system.ini file to an older copy and found this setting different let me know if it could be affecting it.
MinpagingFileSize = 2097152
older version = 523724

Another thing that happens periodically and randomly is a spool32.exe has caused error an error in unknown. Isn't spool32
printer related? Just as I retried using the photodraw program
it opened correctly and when I clicked on file to open a pic the above spool32 error occured. I repeated this process several times and received same error. rebooted and tried same process and spool32 error did not occur.
Dave

Have not got to setting swap file size yet.
Dave

 

[Rollin' Rog]

Davey, are we confusing two different things? Vcache settings do not affect "virtual memory" settings for the swap file. Vcache is "real" memory specially allocated to hold and execute often used code faster than if it were swapped from virtual memory. So if you assign a minimum setting in the Virtual Memory page of the Control Panel, vcache is still handled the same. No entries are placed in system.ini for either of those functions by Windows. But system.ini can be used to manually assign values for both.

In the case of MinpagingFileSize = 2097152, that is a setting for the minimum value of the swap file, which I believe would override the Windows managed setting and sometimes is used as an alternative to assigning the value through the Control Panel (I don't know why). That's a pretty big figure (~ 2gig ?), since it's in kb, and I don't think it would cause a problem (just completely unnecessary with all that ram), but if you want a Windows managed swap file you don't want it there at all.

Here's a little info on vcache and its history:

http://www.onlinehelp.bc.ca/tips.htm#vcache

About spool32, as far as I know it is only used for printing. But that doesn't mean that you actually have to print something to have it called and running in the background. Some programs which "anticipate" a possible printing command will run it. In my case I always find in the background when I open a Corel worperfect file even when I don't print from it. It remains in the background unless I kill it manually.

 

[Davey7549]

Rog
Yes apparently I am getting confused because of the effect of adding the vcache lines to system.ini which in turn automatically listed the setting in control panel.
Now I am unable to set anything for the swap file. However since you stated the swap file is being set to the minpagingfilesize setting.
Well Removed all three ram chips and inserted and tested through norton one at a time also ran the system to see if the save problem returned. All three boards tested ok and along every step the save problem occurred. This is what I feel is happening The virtual and swap settings have no effect on the problem thus are not the problem.
The spool32.exe error I believe is the cause. This is why. The system can be restarted with or without the printer on or connected and upon entry to photodraw 2000 click file the message error will appear. Reboot system follow same sequence error does not occur and pics can be saved many times over.
Reboot system and same sequence error will occur, next reboot
it will not.
Rog
You mentioned that some programs start spool32. Apparently photoDraw 2000 is one of them. Why spool32 randomly errors I am not sure. Maybe there is a startup conflict between the two programs at times.
Any Ideas anyone.
Dave

 

[Rollin' Rog]

So this problem only occurs with PhotoDraw?

Does it matter what format the file is saved in -- .gif, tiff, jpeg?

 

[Davey7549]

Rog
No the problem occurs with others which also must call for spool32.exe. And no it does not matter what file type it is.
You know I was thinking I read somewhere that spool32.exe
should start upon startup of system. I looked but could not find the reference. If spool32.exe were to run at startup wouldn't that fix the problem of conflict?
Dave

 

[Rollin' Rog]

It doesn't run by default at startup. As far as I know it has to be called by a specific application.

You can't end-task it from the Close Programs window because it doesn't show up there. But if you have a program like Taskinfo2000 or Process Viewer, you can try killing it and see how that affects things.

http://www.teamcti.com/pview/prcview.htm

 

[Davey7549]

Rog
Will give the process viewer a try tomorrow. Maybe it will shed some light on what is going on.
I found the text file I had squirreled away mentioning spool32.exe at startup. Unfortunatly I only have part of it and did not save the link. Wish I would of saved the link.


Part of website for spool 32.
It may not have any merit but that is what I remembered reading.

There may be a terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) or other program that prevents Spool32.exe from being run when Windows 95/98 starts. To work around this issue, use one of the following methods:
- Create a shortcut to the <windows>\system\spool32.exe file in the StartUp folder, where <windows> is the folder in which Windows 95/98 is installed. For information about how to do so, click Start, click Help, click the Index tab, type "shortcuts"
(without quotation marks), and then double-click the "Creating" topic.
- Using a text editor (such as Notepad), add the following line to the Load= or Run= line in the [Windows] section of the Win.ini file

<drive>:\<windows>\system\spool32.exe
where <drive> is the drive on which Windows 95/98 is installed, and <windows> is the folder in which Windows 95/98 is installed.

Dave

 

[WhitPhil]

Dave:
Spool32 is started (supposedly) by the following registry setting.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers

If StartOnBoot is a 1, Spool32 will be initiated.

You could try selecting StartOnBoot, right mouse, modify, and change the 1 to a 0.