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Old January 17th 11, 12:14 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain
Paul
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Posts: 18,275
Default Using my extra RAM for other things in an old, updated 32-bitXP Pro. SP3.

Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
On Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:35:27 -0500, Patok
wrote:

Paul wrote:
I'm using
mine as a Page File, as a test :-)

This is actually the most sensible usage for the Ramdisk in XP32, come to
think of it. That way, you effectively use the entire memory for... memory! Heh.
Please report back if there are any problems with such usage. From the
description of how Ramdisk works (in the PDF manual), it should be fine, but who
knows.



Actually, it makes no sense to use a RAM disk as a page file. Using
RAM as a page file takes RAM away from Windows use. Windows having
less RAM means that it will use the page file more. So you take the
RAM away from RAM with one hand and give it back with the other. It's
like borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. You achieve nothing, but you
incur the extra overhead of the RAM disk.


Ken, if I'd loaded the ramdisk, with memory from below 4GB, it
would be dumb. But this is memory, which according to accepted
rules, can't be accessed. The developer of that program,
figured out how to do it (somehow). So to take advantage of 2GB of
RAM which normally would not be functional at all in WinXP,
using that Ramdisk program makes more of the 6GB usable (one way or another).
It means the 2GB in no-mans-land, is now adding to the page file.

This is a guess as to how my system is set up. There is 6GB of
RAM installed, and the Memory Remap feature in the BIOS, lifts
the fourth gigabyte of RAM, above the 4GB mark. That splits the
RAM into two 3GB chunks, with a 1GB space for hardware in between.
Total address range is 7GB, 6GB for RAM, 1GB for hardware.

X \
X \__ Ramdisk using memory up here. 2GB of 3GB available up here, is usable.
X /
X I/O space for video and system busses
X \
X \___ WinXP SP3 x32, normally reports "3071MB free"
X / This is the conventional memory

For some reason, the Ramdisk program thinks that only 2GB is available
above the 4GB mark, so I have to go back into the BIOS in a moment
and verify again that I have remapping turned on.

I plan to run my other benchmark case, which is to try to run 16
copies of SuperPI 1.5 running 32M, and see whether WinXP continues
to crash out the programs or not. I was having problems with
that in some testing a couple days ago. Now that I have a
decent pagefile, I'll have a chance to re-test. Win2K was passing
my test case, and WinXP was failing, and now that I have a better
page file, it'll be interesting to see if that helps or not.

*******

Oh, another thing. My first dumb move with the new setup, was
to select "hibernate" when I shut down a few hours ago, to go out
for some exercise. When I came back, the system fell on its face
because the new pagefile was gone :-) It came back up on the second
try.

Paul
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