SG Broadband Community

explorer doesn't take up that much space, but i guess it's overkill . But we're tweakers here and we need every last bit of performance!

OpticFlare:
Just need to put rem behind all files that start with a w for both rename and copy. After that you can just execute the restore file. Then you can restart and it sould work.

Help! I tried doing this tweak step by step with both the MS and other ramdisk that cablenut first provided, but whenever the script goes to load tcpip.sys i get something like:

Stop: 0x0000000A (0x00000000, 0x000000FF, 0x00000001, 0x8040063D)
Address 8040063D base at 80400000, Datestamp 384d9b17
-ntoskrnl.exe

then the other generic crap below it.. any ideas? I'd like to at least *try* to get this one working.

-Derek

Opticflare
Show us your scripts can't tell you very much by that..If I can't get back here right away then maybe someone that has it running well can give you a Idea of where its wrong...

neo86
Because this is newer to what most people see, could you post how you have your script. it would be easier for everyone if they saw it..
ya know the old copy and paste thing...(there may not be as many BSOD's then) If you did post it and I missed point this old dog in the right direction...Or send me copies please

Last but not least Iv been looking close at memory usage with Windoh's
esp win9x with memory managed, with 64 meg of ram even with this using a very small amount may put you over the top my suggestion is that you should have no less than 96meg...
With 64meg running with memory in upper blocks and a couple of apps running your already down to 8 to 3% of your capabilitys.. At 96meg your around 17% optimal, would be to have 22 to 26% free at 128(131)meg

On another note; been so busy that Iv hardly had time to get back in here maybe this weekend I can mess up a few machines with this I also hope to load a win95b with this over the weekend..

WinME; I cant tell you how many times Iv blown it up with differnt things including trying second party stuff.. It will be interesting to say the least to get this OS right but I never said winME was right...

ramdrive.sys has to be after the last physical drive letter. In other words not after the CD but just after the harddrive for it to work properly according to the DOS books I have here, and a couple that I was able to barrow..

Just as a reminder because I know how people love to jump to the ends of topics.. Himem.sys has to be the first line in the config.sys no matter what.. Back up your registry.. Do a file search to see if you have the spesific files JonG has listed..

Thanks
Dan

this is the script im using:

@echo on

Echo Starting TCP/IP Services

copy c:\winnt\System32\DRIVERS\netbt.sys z:\
copy c:\winnt\System32\DRIVERS\tcpip.sys z:\
copy c:\winnt\System32\DRIVERS\afd.sys z:\
net start afd
net start netbt
net start tcpip

-Derek

Had some fun with this I wanted to find a way to get it to work better with a under powered win9x machine..

Sample; The way to keep the memory up. This was tested this morning on of all things a p166mmx laptop with 48meg of ram the way the config.sys is written gave me 19% or left me with 9meg free with 7 apps running and antivirus up and running for a total of 13 apps
You'll notice I didn't run the winsock in the ramdrive well thats the nature of this laptop and the way this PCMCIA card handles things. Time was a factor to

autoexec.bat
PATH=D:\;%PATH%
rename c:\windows\system\ndis.vxd ndisvxd.bak
copy c:\windows\system\ndisvxd.bak D:\ndis.vxd
rename c:\windows\system\vtcp.386 vtcp386.bak
copy c:\windows\system\vtcp386.bak D:\vtcp.386
rename c:\windows\system\mstcp.dll mstcpdll.bak
copy c:\windows\system\mstcpdll.bak D:\mstcp.dll


config.sys
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\RAMDRIVE.SYS 700 /E
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\emm386.exe noems
files=120
dos=high,umb
devicehigh=c:\windows\setver.exe

Also you'll notice the lack of Caps in the commands in the config.sys it really dosn't matter a D or d is still a D in DOS

Opticflare
Most people are running DHCP where you don't assign a IP address to your settings back on page 4 or 5 of this thread there was a short mention of starting DHCP and that if you didn't you would get BSOD's I also beleve this is the order you want it in.. If anyone else has some input please fill in any blanks..

@echo on

Echo Starting TCP/IP Services

copy c:\winnt\System32\DRIVERS\netbt.sys z:\
copy c:\winnt\System32\DRIVERS\tcpip.sys z:\
copy c:\winnt\System32\DRIVERS\afd.sys z:\
net start afd
net start netbt
net start tcpip
net start dhcp

Let us know if your running a IP address you may need to look at the way you edited the registry just double check that.....

I have a manual sitting next to me which documents all versions of ramdrive.sys up to DOS 6.0's version, and it didn't say what argument to use to specify your own drive letter. I was going to look it up further on the net but didn't have time. Sorry!

You cannot assign a drive letter when using ramdrive.sys; but, as I'm following this thread since the beginning, I've found a (french)freeware that would do the job. I can send it to whom is interested (the redme is inenglish BTW)

Well, hope this first post from France will safely arrive the other side of the Ocean

i at least quadruple checked the registry.. its fine. Here's the thing, frusterated, i copied everything by hand (via typing in a dosbox in win2k), all 3 files, and then i typed up net start afd. Worked. Ok, so now i typed net start netbt.. that worked too. Then the second i would type in net start tcpip i would BSOD and have to restart. I think i tried not running the scripts at all, and when i tried just net start tcpip without afd dhcp or netbt i still got a BSOD. It just seems like whenever it loads TCPIP it crashes. Also, i have a static IP so i dont see what DHCP would fix... since I dont use it. Any more suggestions?

-Derek

Originally posted by J-F:
I have a manual sitting next to me which documents all versions of ramdrive.sys up to DOS 6.0's version, and it didn't say what argument to use to specify your own drive letter. I was going to look it up further on the net but didn't have time. Sorry!

You cannot assign a drive letter when using ramdrive.sys; but, as I'm following this thread since the beginning, I've found a (french)freeware that would do the job. I can send it to whom is interested (the redme is inenglish BTW)

Well, hope this first post from France will safely arrive the other side of the Ocean

inenglish I like that version anyway I sent you a email in hope to get that thanks
Dan

Opticflare
What else do you have starting up with tcpip like other apps that use tcpip or proxies that fire up with the machine there has to be something starting with it that is comming in to soon on tcpip..

If you can't identifie whats starting in the registry try installing and then un-install cablenut 3.65 or 3.5 to clean out the registry and put it to windows default see if this can do it..
Do you run Norton antivirus with the firewall this is a IP type of software that can do it in...
Anyone else got an opinion

J-F
Thank you for the files and if you want them there free for the taking I'll be posting them on my site later with with the authors best wish's in mind but for now you can grab a set here http://humlog.homestead.com/nicksconsulting/files/xermdk.zip
Make sure you read through the readme.txt file closely this has only been tested up to win95 according to the author so be careful. The files are freeware and can be distributed among friends acording to the txt file so have fun...
I just started looking at it so don't expect
a mirical...
but according to the .txt file and as J-F pointed out you can assign a drive letter to it and sizing is supposed to be no problem..
If you have good luck with it let us know
Dan

I'd like a copy of that french freeware program if you don't mind. Send it to me at this french freeware program.

email: quedeo@fwi.com

Originally posted by JonG:
I'd like a copy of that french freeware program if you don't mind. Send it to me at this french freeware program.

email: quedeo@fwi.com

JonG see the link above on the last post its there for the grabbing...
aim is down for some stupid reason

here do it this way http://humlog.homestead.com/nicksconsulting/files/xermdk.zip

[ 02-16-2001: Message edited by: dannjr ]

Dan:

I have a program like DUMeter that tries to access the net, but then crashes because it notices that it cant (well its a graceful crash.. it says it cant find INETMIB.DLL, which is fixed when tcpip is running). Like i said, it happens RIGHT when I type net start tcpip. I dont think that a program trying to access the tcpip stack while its loading would have any negative impact either... :/


Please get back.. im going to tinker around with it more to see if i can fix it :O
-Derek

Hey Dannjr,

I am running on Windows98SE and am going to implement this patch tonight. Should I use the settings you posted above or should I use the settings you posted above with the winsock entries too? I guess I can try both. I am also running on a cable modem. Thanks for the help.

Originally posted by Opticflare:
Dan:

I have a program like DUMeter that tries to access the net, but then crashes because it notices that it cant (well its a graceful crash.. it says it cant find INETMIB.DLL, which is fixed when tcpip is running). Like i said, it happens RIGHT when I type net start tcpip. I dont think that a program trying to access the tcpip stack while its loading would have any negative impact either... :/


Please get back.. im going to tinker around with it more to see if i can fix it :O
-Derek

Try removing DU meter it will attach itself before during and after at least from my experience.
Its got a .DLL it loads with it

[ 02-16-2001: Message edited by: dannjr ]

Originally posted by dray_heinz:
Hey Dannjr,

I am running on Windows98SE and am going to implement this patch tonight. Should I use the settings you posted above or should I use the settings you posted above with the winsock entries too? I guess I can try both. I am also running on a cable modem. Thanks for the help.

Make it easy on yourself try it the way I did it first with Laptop then you can always add to it later....

Windows 9x
Ok you want to set a drive letter to the ramdrive you need to use the download I listed on page 9 compliments of J-F

You will need to copy the "xmsdsk.exe" to "C:\" or the "root" of the harddrive.
Next copy the example below or add the additional lines that JonG gave you.. Everything still applys as with the way a ramdrive works. The difference is that the ramdrive is loaded from the autoexec.bat instead of the config.sys.. So remember to remove the ramdrive.sys statement from the config...

autoexec.bat

xmsdsk [2048] F: [/y]

PATH=F:\;%PATH%
rename c:\windows\system\ndis.vxd ndisvxd.bak
copy c:\windows\system\ndisvxd.bak F:\ndis.vxd
rename c:\windows\system\vtcp.386 vtcp386.bak
copy c:\windows\system\vtcp386.bak F:\vtcp.386
rename c:\windows\system\mstcp.dll mstcpdll.bak
copy c:\windows\system\mstcpdll.bak F:\mstcp.dll

config.sys

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\emm386.exe noems
files=120
dos=high,umb
devicehigh=c:\windows\setver.exe

Notes: this ramdrive uses compatibility mode so while normally you would not want this it didn't seem to make a difference in the memory usage for me I did go a little over board with the size I didn't have to make it a 2 meg drive it could have been 300K for the amount of space it needed..
The rest of the entries left in the config.sys keeps conventional memory free I still had 626K open on the bottem end which will help in the long run...
With a total of 19% of all the whole 48meg in this machine free.
I used F: for the drive letter I could have used anything but what the heck you figure it out I did this on a under powered Laptop Z: would have worked with this...
Well have fun with it there are added instructions, and in them instructions is why I used it in the autoexec.. with the downloaded add on...

Well maybe JonG or Cablenut will have more to add to this or if someone else has a suggestion please lets see it..

Dan

[ 02-17-2001: Message edited by: dannjr ]

Originally posted by dannjr:

autoexec.bat

xmsdsk [2048] F: [/y]

PATH=F:\;%PATH%
rename c:\windows\system\ndis.vxd ndisvxd.bak
copy c:\windows\system\ndisvxd.bak F:\ndis.vxd
rename c:\windows\system\vtcp.386 vtcp386.bak
copy c:\windows\system\vtcp386.bak F:\vtcp.386
rename c:\windows\system\mstcp.dll mstcpdll.bak
copy c:\windows\system\mstcpdll.bak F:\mstcp.dll
[ 02-17-2001: Message edited by: dannjr ][/B]

Dannjr,

It can't work as is. The nexr time you reboot, the system won't find the 3 files as they've been renamed with a bak extension (I just experienced a system halt.)When shuting Win9x down, those files have to be renamed with their original extension.

J-F
Uhm I just did it this way on another machine without that problem
It was a Athlon 700 slot with 128meg clean install

autoexec.bat

xmsdsk [2048] F: [/y]

PATH=F:\;%PATH%
rename c:\windows\system\ndis.vxd ndisvxd.bak
copy c:\windows\system\ndisvxd.bak F:\ndis.vxd
rename c:\windows\system\vtcp.386 vtcp386.bak
copy c:\windows\system\vtcp386.bak F:\vtcp.386
rename c:\windows\system\mstcp.dll mstcpdll.bak
copy c:\windows\system\mstcpdll.bak F:\mstcp.dll

Are you saying to make the script more like this

xmsdsk [2048] F: [/y]

PATH=F:\;%PATH%
rename c:\windows\system\ndis.vxd ndisvxd.vxd
copy c:\windows\system\ndisvxd.bak F:\ndis.vxd
rename c:\windows\system\vtcp.386 vtcp386.386
copy c:\windows\system\vtcp386.bak F:\vtcp.386
rename c:\windows\system\mstcp.dll mstcpdll.dll
copy c:\windows\system\mstcpdll.bak F:\mstcp.dll

If thats the case then that would work too

I guess because I haven't experienced that problem, I need to see if I can duplicate it.
Do you have anything else running in the autoexec.bat or the config.sys
if so can you post what the files look like..
The 9x athlon I did this on was a very clean install with nothing else on it except for this new ramdrive.. ANd Windoh's updates
Let me know either way...
There was also something about putting the files to a sub directory in the ramdrive. From the help file..


Dan

hmmm...I still get the blue screen and some ntoskernel.exe error.
It doesn't matter if I try to run the adf first or the tcpip, after a couple minutes waiting I just get the blue screen.

What could be the cause of this?

I just reeinstalled win2k SP1 so there shouldn't be any problems with win2k.(And with just I mean, the only thing that is insalled at this point is my videocard drives )

Hmm seems like me and Opticflare has the same strange problem it can't be the SP1 that is doing it?...I am on a static ip as well...The only diffrence between us is that I managed to get the error with afd as well.

[ 02-17-2001: Message edited by: acidelito ]

Originally posted by dannjr:
J-F
Uhm I just did it this way on another machine without that problem
It was a Athlon 700 slot with 128meg clean install
Dan

I'm a stupid boy
I already have a F partition and since I copied / pasted your autoexec.bat .. I let you imagine what happened

nullUhm I just did it this way on another machine without that problem

I searched through Microsoft's website (real fun let me tell you) and found an article detailing the parameters that ramdrive.sys uses. A link is here: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q135/4/85.asp
You cannot assign the desired drive letter to a ramdrive under windows 95/98, so oh well. I do know that ramdrive.sys assigns its drive letter to letter which corresponds to the letter which your next physical drive would use. For example, if you have 2 hard drives, C: and D:, RAMDrive would use E:, then your network drives (and CD-ROMs) would then follow. For more information about this, follow this link: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q51/9/78.ASP
Also, I don't recommend the least bit using windows in protected-mode because of an MS-DOS program, this would most likely affect the gamers and anyone else who does more than surf the internet.
Has anyone else tried out my setup with any success on a win95/98 machine, for which it would only work? Does anyone else know of any other files to add to the ramdrive that windows is using for TCP/IP? I'm interested, as the files I first listed were ones I thought affected TCP/IP performance in win95/98. Suggestions are welcome!

[ 02-17-2001: Message edited by: JonG ]

ah Microsoft's website is always fun to search through (not!). Them and their "issues" <-- BUGS!

Hello Group,

By way of introduction I just joined the group a few days ago and have been looking forward to this weekend so I can try out the ramdisk on my Win98 se. I used to use ramdisk back in 1986. I was running a very math intensive economics program on the newest fastest compaq 386 machines at the time. Running the 200 cases thru the prgm from the hard disk took about 14 hours. So we would start the run as we left work in the evening and usually it would be doen by the time we got back the next morning. Then we discovered ramdisk! Cut the run time down to under 2 hours!!! ~85% increase in speed!

So when happened onto this site last weekend my eye caught the word ramdisk...

Just wanted let you know I have tried your script Dan and it works great on my new system...

Netscape initially loads quicker! I timed the loadingof a URL that is always slow loading http://www.amdmb.com/index.html. It took 11 seconds to load before and 7 second after making the ramdisk changes.

Thanks for the fun!
Ned

Now I'll have to see if I can get explorer loaded up into the virtual memory...

What all do you guys load into ramdisk?
Ned

Originally posted by Discover:
Now I'll have to see if I can get explorer loaded up into the virtual memory...

What all do you guys load into ramdisk?
Ned

Welcome to speedguide

Well basically what you see is what you got If you have suggestions with some sort of script to show it would be great.. Nice to see someone else admit to using the DOS enviroment
Give everyone a hint I know how to load punch cards and read them...
No I don't go back to ENIAC but back far enough.

By the way I added the winsock to the laptop today in win9x and to say the least I'm very happy I did....
Now its time to see what else can be done to it.
Like JonG said it needs input

Ok, I have a basic question about this tweak. Why arent these system files saved in the disk cache after they are accessed for the first time? I was under the impression that anything loaded from the hard drive is then saved in the disk cache for quick access later on. Shouldnt all of these tcp/ip dll's and vxd's be cached after the first web page is loaded? Please enlighten me if I am missing something.

henmaster

henmaster
Its not being cached on the harddrive its being cached on the physical memory..
Think about it for a sec. instead of running it from the hard drive and wearing it out. Now its taking 1 to 2 megs up on upper memory. Which is a whole lot faster than your harddrive would ever be...

Now lets see what you can add to it..

Nice to see someone else admit to using the DOS enviroment

Dan,

Card readers... that brings back memories of Fortran and doubly nested do loops getting caught in the print outs... System operator hated that!

About DOS.. Wasn't there some DOS code that could be put into the AUTOEXEC that is not activated until shutting down?? Seemed like we used that once....

I would like to copy my netscape cache up into the virtual mem (ramdisk) and then when closing netscape or shutting down computer would like to copy cache back to hard drive.

BTW, Been experimenting with the ispeed and speed guide tweeks. I was getting 120 - 140 kbytes/sec then without any changes I am now getting 40 - 50.... What's up with that? Roadrunner cable go on night sleep speed or???

I mean the disk cache in the RAM, which windows knows as vcache. I believe recently accessed files from the hard drive are stored in it so they can be accessed without reading the HDD again.

Anyway, I have been trying to get the tweak for Win 98 to work. First, I dont see why it is necessary to rename the system files in autoexec. Cant they just be renamed once, instead of every time the machine boots? But the altered names must be copied each boot to the ram drive.

Also I am suspecting that windows may not be using my ram drive at all, it may be using the files on the HDD with the new names. When a file is renamed windows still knows what it is based on its file size. If a file is missing windows will look for a "match" based on filesize and a few other things. If you rename the target of a shortcut on your desktop, for example, you can still run the shortcut because windows will figure out what file it refers to even if it has a different name. So is there any way for me to know for sure that windows is reading from my ramdrive? thanks for the assistance.

henmaster

Say you wanna start a EXE from your ram drive and you need to "PATH" the source of the EXE... (But the source has like 150 subs in it) And it would take forever to path them all.... How could you do this?

-sLob

To make it short... how do u path a full DIR with sub DIR's under it?

[ 02-18-2001: Message edited by: Adam Y ]

I have succesfully installed the ram drives on two 98se cpu's and one w2k cpu. My 98 cpu's are working flawless.

I have ran into one problem thou on my w2k system. It boots up and connects to the internet fine etc.. However when I go into network neighborhood I can not see any of the local cpu's attached to the same hub. They would show up before I installed the ramdrive tweak. I was wondering if I need to start the ms networking client in my login script?

thanks in advance.

-Piggyson-

Anyway, I have been trying to get the tweak for Win 98 to work. First, I dont see why it is necessary to rename the system files in autoexec. Cant they just be renamed once, instead of every time the machine boots?

You are correct, they need to be renamed only once, I just included all that into the autoexec.bat so the users could see what all needed to be done, and the simple fact that the OS can't find the files that you want renamed after the first reboot doesn't slow it down that much.

Also I am suspecting that windows may not be using my ram drive at all, it may be using the files on the HDD with the new names.

I'll give this theory of yours a try in a moment. I throw the renamed files into a directory other than the one specified by the PATH statement OR the windir environment variables. Another way I found out it is finding the files is when I tried to move the infamous wsock32.dll file. When I "moved" it there, TCP/IP was disabled (non-working is a better term) but when I tried to rename or delete the file while it was on the ramdrive, it gave me an error saying the file was in use by Windows. When I copied it there with the original wsock32.dll file still in the windows system folder, I could do whatever (because it DID find it in the system folder) and regarded the wsock32.dll on the ramdrive as just another file.

To make it short... how do u path a full DIR with sub DIR's under it?

You can't do this in any easy way. You'll have to do it manually. Hope you have a lot of time

Hi all.
I'm new to this site, and it has really helped me out with my cable speed.
But I must say this tweak has made me feel like a simpleton lol.I have tried to peice together one post with the others but its rather confusing.Could one of you pros maybe repost this tweak in a more step by step process if its not to much trouble.Would just like to see the whole process on one post.I have cable,Windows 98,and btw have you guys seen a great inprovement or are there to many bugs still.I see some that were sucsessful and some failures.Thx

JonG,

I just verified that my ramdrive is working as well. I booted up with the ramdrive empty, and with the path of z:\ set in autoexec. I then copied the files you listed to the ramdrive. Next I moved the files from the windows\system directory to a floppy and removed the floppy. TCP/IP still worked, so it must have been reading the required files from the ramdrive.

I did not notice any speed difference from this process, however. My pings and web site loading were the same. I think it might just be a matter of finding the right files to use, there may be more that you missed when you looked in the system directory initially. Keep up the good work everyone.

henmaster

Hello Group,

I have been running the xmsdsk.exe pgm to make the ram drive. It ahs wiorked well until I try to make the drive size large or try and copy several Mbytes into it. I have had to disable my norton Utilities for the drive. It seems that windows wants to put a recycle bin into the drive. Accessing this recycle bin causes a system errors:

Fatal exception 00 @ 0028: D52D5D7A in VXD
NPROTECT(01) + 00002BEA

closing this screen leads to:

0D @ 1697:015F75B6 and closing this leads to:

0E @ 17F: BFF9DFFF and closing this leads to:

Explorer general protection fault in Module KRNL386.exe @ 0001:000075a2 closing this freezes up computer.

Questions
1) Anybody know what these statements mean? Where can I learn about what these codes mean? Anywhere on the net?

2)Does the this ram disk being in compatibility mode affect this?

3)Perhaps the RAMDRIVE.SYS command would work better??

Thanks
Ned

Discover
I only put the other one up if others wanted to try it esp. when I saw it could assign a drive letter both ways worked good for me. But I even switched back to the MSramdrive on the laptop I was using it on...
One benifit that hasn't been brought up, is this old laptop with win98SE used to go to sleep and never wake up.. since putting the ramdrive on it goes to sleep but wakes without a hard boot....

WinME
Next issue been trying for a while to get a ramdrive to run in winME, well the OS ***k's

Its not supposed to be able to be done..
heres some links to back what I wrote up..
http://support.micro soft.com/support/kb/articles/Q278/6/20.ASP?LN=EN-US&SD=gn&FR=0&qry=%26quot%3Bramdrive%26quot%3B&rnk=3&src=DHCS_MSPSS_gn_SRCH&SPR=WINME
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q269/5/24.ASP

hack comming to a board near you

[ 02-20-2001: Message edited by: dannjr ]

Windoh's ME
Yesterday I gave up on getting a ramdrive up and running on WinME especially ms-ramdrive.sys.
Well someone else didn't like that I gave up on it so easy.
So I received a neat little package that gave me the missing link to putting up a ramdrive on WinME...
Its running and I might add was a bear to finnish hacking out....
Maybe I'll have it typed out tonight and the files needed to make it run....

This question has been asked twice before but I didn't see a proper answer. When the drivers are loaded on bootup, it is loaded into RAM (memory) anyway, so what speed-ups are we talking about when we ... hmmm.. let me see - take the drivers from memory and move it to RamDrive which is MEMORY anyway ? Am I missing something ?
Can somebody please explain this to me how we can speed increases ?

gana2k
hmmm.. let me see (in your words) move them from the harddrive to memory... move them from VM to the memory.... It not just increasing speed but it clears up the memory from having it page back and forth on the harddrive.... so the bottem line maybe your drive will live longer to...
I have a ramdrive or ramdisk on all my machines now and not one has failed yet...
thats allot of machines not including the ones I don't have here that I'm running it on...

I hope this is a little better answer anyone else have a better answer....