is ConservativeSwapFileUsage=1 working?

[Wuming]

i am wondering what's the average swap file size for you guys?

i have 256 mb of ram and i am letting win98 do the VM management. i have that line in system.ini as well.

lately i was monitoring the windows memory in SiSoft Sandra. i had thought that with that line added, windows will not create a swapfile if the physical memory is not used up.

however, even right now, i have 101mb of free system memory, 61 mb of free physical memory, and my swap file is 40 mb. (it grew from the initial 8 mb as i opened more IE windows)

just wondering if this is "normal" after adding that line in system.ini.

thanks!

 

[tjll11a]

It works fine for me but i was told you have to have a space after it

Example
ConservativeSwapFileUsage=1

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Where xxxx is all the weird crap in system.ini.
Give that a try

 

[BlueWeasel]

That seems a little high to me if you do have conservativeswapfileusage=1 in your system.ini.

I have the same line in my sys.ini, and I also have my swapfile set (256min, 256max) on my secondary HD. I also have my vcache's set by cacheman, and with this IE window open and my email program running also, I have 115mb of free physical memory and my swap file is most of the time zero in size. This is with 192mb of RAM.

Did you put the conservativeswapfileusage=1 line in the [386Enh] section in sys.ini?

I am running Win98SE Lite, so that may make a big difference.

 

[Wuming]

tjill11a: i was told to add that line right at the end of 386Enh. so do you mean i should add it in the middle?

BlueWeasel: yup. i added that in the 386Enh section. i am running win98se.

right now i have explorer, eudora, mirc32, icq, 5 IE windows and SiSoft Sandra open. i have hoysync manager in my taskbar and norton antivirus in the background. and i have 32 mb of physical memory free, and a swap file size of 64 mb. oh... i just realised there's one line below "Current Swap File", and it reads "Free Page File", and for that Sandra says i have 64 mb, 100%. does that mean that windows has created a 64 mb swap file but is not using it at all? the swap file size changes when i open or close programs though.

so the swap file size normal?

thanks!

 

[dave1980]

i've been told that running 'ConservativeSwapFile=1' and setting a min/max swap file is redundant. unless you're running 20 apps at one time, you don't need to set any min/max at all - especially with the amount of RAM that you have.

 

[Wuming]

i let windows manage my VM and hence i did not set a max/min swap file size.

 

[woodie1]

I added the Conser.....=1 line and had hesitations. Removed the MinFileCache/MaxFileCache and things seem faster.

 

[cool]

the best thing to do is let windows manage memory itself. i would only customize it when running Win95 which really has BAD memory management (--> vcache growing 'til it uses all available RAM etc.). and in case you don't believe take a look at this MS KB article

KB article

 

[JellyBaby]

CSFU=1 works great for me (Win 98SE, 128 MB and just today 256 MB!). I would never consider going back.

Instead of using Sandra, use the Windows System Monitor or Cacheman to check your swapfile size. Perhaps it's a reporting problem with Sandra.

 

[monotone]

Anyone know how to limit the disk-cache in win2k? It's usually uses 70-80mb, so the system is really slow to work with. BTW i have 128mb ram

 

[Dan]

monotone: If you're going to use Win2K you should really consider adding another 128MB for a total 256MB RAM. You will definitely see an improvement.

 

[BlueWeasel]

JellyBaby: You are exactly right about using Cacheman or others programs to check your free RAM. Its not like Sandra has had reporting problems before. . .

After I set CSFU=1, I saw a huge increase the amount of free RAM reported by Cacheman.

 

[tjll11a]

To be honest mine isn't at the end of my 386enhance its in the middle.

Real quick way to see whats going on with your memory just look at system moniter in windows

 

[Wuming]

thanks for all the input guys! would try them out!

 

[Wuming]

hey guys... i am sure Sandra is not reporting the swap file size wrongly, as i checked on the size of the file win386.swp, and it is indeed the size reported to Sandra. so there must be something wrong with the CSFU=1 line i added into system.ini (under 386Enh)? i shall be trying to put it in the middle of the section. i should add blank lines after it, like

blah blah blah
CSFU = 1
blank
blank
blah blah blah

right?

thanks!

 

[JellyBaby]

Wurning,

In your SYSTEM.INI file, in the [386Enh] section, add this line:
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1

It does not matter where you place it as long as it's in that section. Then restart your PC.

 

[Wuming]

yup that's what i have done.

right now, with eudora, mirc32, icq, 3 IE windows, explorer and Sandra open (and scheduler, NAV and hotsync manager in the background) i am having 260 kb of physical memory free, and 96 mb of swap file.

maybe this is a sign the line is working?