Crazy man tweak

Eike · Post by **Eike** » Mon Mar 05, 2001 10:16 pm

@ Dannjr
I got the commandline from here: http://www.speedcorp.net/guides/ramdrive/

And for the memory management. Just as i said: I guess the tweak could only offer you an advantage, if you have a very small amount of mem. If you have an average amount of 256 MB or even more there won't be any swapping of drivers from memory to harddrive and back - at least not, if you don't let windooze manage your swapfile as no real tweak-nerd would ever do.

dannjr · Post by **dannjr** » Tue Mar 06, 2001 1:44 am

Eike
Actually it does swap even with a large amount I checked for that about a week ago and it was with 196 meg and here is the weird part I have been using the one for win98 on that same machine connected up to the web and completely forgot to update the vtcp.386 and it surfe and downloaded great...
It even opened the BB here with no problem and my site is known for not wanting to open at times and it got to there to...
So go figure..
The other thing to is if I can keep my Hard Drive from having to run through a couple of extra prosessessess isn't it worth not beating it up and wearing it out..

Eike · Post by **Eike** » Tue Mar 06, 2001 6:13 am

@ Dannjr
-----------------
Quote: Actually it does swap even with a large amount I checked for that about a week ago ....
-----------------

This only happens, if your system is not configuered the "right way". Here is what you have to do:
1. After defragmentation of your harddisk, create a static swapfile. For that manner you define the minimum and the maximum size of your virtual memory at exactly the same size. With your amount of memory use e.g. 128 MB min & max. You will have to reboot to take affect.

2. Back in Windows open your system.ini go to the [386Enh]-section and look for an entry "ConservativeSwapfileUsage". If there is none, create it and set it to 1.
Would be look like:
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1
Attention: For same strange and unknown reasons this tweak needs a blank line after it on some systems. Not on mine, but it is reported over and over on the tweak-boards, so just to be save do it this way:
....
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1

"next entry"
...
Now reboot

3. Your are done! Your system won't use virtuell memory any more. There won't be any swapping at all, neither of your network-drivers nor anything else!!! And for that manner no reason to create the ramdrive.
Btw: this no-swapping-tweak is not only usefull for your surfing-needs but great for your gaming-experience. ;-)

mrloc · Post by **mrloc** » Tue Mar 06, 2001 7:35 am

Thought I'd share this with you all. This did lower my ping slightly.

xmsdsk [1024] Z: [/y]

path=Z:\;%PATH%
rename c:\win98\system\ndis.vxd ndisvxd.bak
copy c:\win98\system\ndisvxd.bak z:\ndis.vxd
rename c:\win98\system\vtcp.386 vtcp386.bak
copy c:\win98\system\vtcp386.bak z:\vtcp.386
rename c:\win98\system\vudp.386 vudp386.bak
copy c:\win98\system\vudp386.bak z:\vupd.386
rename c:\win98\system\mstcp.dll mstcpdll.bak
copy c:\win98\system\mstcpdll.bak z:\mstcp.dll
rename c:\win98\system\wshtcp.vxd wshtcp.bak
copy c:\win98\system\wshtcp.bak z:\wshtcp.vxd
rename c:\win98\system\wsock.vxd wsockvxd.bak
copy c:\win98\system\wsockvxd.bak z:\wsock.vxd
rename c:\win98\system\wsock2.vxd wsock2.bak
copy c:\win98\system\wsock2.bak z:\wsock2.vxd
rename c:\win98\system\vnetsup.vxd vnetsupvxd.bak
copy c:\win98\system\vnetsupvxd.bak z:\vnetsup.vxd
rename c:\win98\system\ndis2sup.vxd ndis2supvxd.bak
copy c:\win98\system\ndis2supvxd.bak z:\ndis2sup.vxd
rename c:\win98\system\vredir.vxd vredirvxd.bak
copy c:\win98\system\vredirvxd.bak z:\vredir.vxd
rename c:\win98\system\dfs.vxd dfsvxd.bak
copy c:\win98\system\dfsvxd.bak z:\dfs.vxd
rename c:\win98\system\vnetbios.vxd vnetbiosvxd.bak
copy c:\win98\system\vnetbiosvxd.bak z:\vnetbios.vxd
rename c:\win98\system\vserver.vxd vservervxd.bak
copy c:\win98\system\vservervxd.bak z:\vserver.vxd
@pause

dmsmed · Post by **dmsmed** » Tue Mar 06, 2001 10:22 am

Eike,

I'm running W2K and I have 128megs of RAM (I intend on adding another 256megs soon) and my swap file size is set to 192megs.

I know very little about swap files. I have some questions.

1.) I'm not sure but I think they (swap files) are a file on the hard drive which is allocated as a type of psuedo additional RAM in the event the existing RAM is exceeded?

2.) Windows 2000 uses virtual memory which causes it to go to the hard drive before my 128m is exceeded?

3.) If I use your tweak, my hard drive will not run (unless I save something)?

4.) If I do something memory intensive (like scan a high resolution picture) and exceed the 128meg will my machine lock up or will everything be written to the hard drive and the scanning will continue?

P.S.
Eventually I intend on running 768megs.

Eike · Post by **Eike** » Tue Mar 06, 2001 11:05 am

Hi dmsmed,
sorry to disappointed you, but this tweak is only intended for win98 and win98se.
For win95 conservativeswapfileusage is already default, all you need at this OS is a static swap-file.

But do not use this tweak for W2k - i don't run this OS, but i am sure, that the management of W2k's virtuell memory is way different from that of win98 because of the NT-Kernel W2k own!

@ all
On win98-systems at default the virtuell-memory aka swapping at the hdd starts way before your physical ram comes to an end.
That is why somebody who does not tweak his OS may see some slight decrease of latency with the ram-drive-tweak this thread is about: at default win98 may swap the ndis.vxd and the other driver to the harddrive and back to memory when needed.
But with the conservativswapfileuse-tweak and a static swap-file (min = max of virtuell memory) there is no swapping at all, neither drivers nor anything else - your hdd will never been touched by something already loaded in memory - until your physical ram come to an end - something that rarely happens with 256 MB or more RAM unless you are doing some serious picture-editing with photo-shop etc.
But with ordinary use of office-programms, surfing, e-mailing, online-gaming you won't use virtuell memory ever. That is why the ramdrive-tweak is a nice idea, but not needed, if you set your OS correct. Further more the conservativswapfileusagetweak does everything that the ramdrive-tweak can do AND has way more advantages for overall performance of your system.

dmsmed · Post by **dmsmed** » Tue Mar 06, 2001 5:44 pm

Eike,

What is the solution for W2K, should I simply slap in more memory and the OS will do the rest?

dannjr · Post by **dannjr** » Tue Mar 06, 2001 9:46 pm

dmsmed
Your fine just the way you are when you add the 256 meg then up the swap amount in win2k...
128meg is all you need with win2k to run.. I have a K6 2 500 with 96meg in it and it never has to be rebooted unless I'm testing with it...
Remember the ramdisk only uses 1 meg unless you make it bigger...
My main win2k machine and my server both have 512meg of memory in them, and a maximum swap size of 2048meg Thats just how I need it right now...
Besides win2k manages memory a whole bunch better than win98 or winME

Discover
The fact that you went back to win98 is probably better anyway at least you can mess with it more than winme, its to bad that you had to go through all that...
As far as the Temp folder your gonna Im looking into it more now.. I saw something different than the norm for running the temp folder up there, and it required more memory...

mrloc
Cool lookin script I wish I had time to add it right now...
Anyone reading it look close it defaults to a directory called win98 so if you add a line to it you need to change that to read c:\windows instead of c:\win98
But cool maybe I'll get some time tomarrow..

Since theres a question about it
Here you go, not that this is on topic, For win9x only...
http://www.speedguide.net/Windows/win_perform.shtml

Plus another one thats been up for months...
http://www.student.ipfw.edu/~gottjl01/tweak.htm
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 on this page...

I put the links above because I feel they will help lesson confusion... Peace

[ 03-06-2001: Message edited by: dannjr ]

Discover · Post by **Discover** » Wed Mar 07, 2001 12:19 am

Micro,
Thanks for offering to email the files. I never received them tho... I went ahead and reinstalled the OS's. I was able to get Me installed without losing Microsoft Office this time. On my other computer I just started all over and went back to Win 98. Boy it sure runs smoother than Me! Boots faster too! When I have the time I may put 98 on the HP machine and get rid of all Me!

Thanks agaimn for the help.
Ramdisk on one machine running fairly well!

Discover · Post by **Discover** » Wed Mar 07, 2001 12:24 am

To fellow Ramdisk users,

I have been running the Ramdisk tweak for myu Netscape browser and it has worked well for a few weeks now.

I do have a problem trying to set my Temp files to the Ramdisk tho.

Download Accelerator hangs up when setting the temp files. Anyone had this problem?

Currently I have rem the set script in Autoexec as follows:

rem SET TMP=F:\TEMP
rem SET TEMP=F:\TEMP

I had followed the tweak here and had tried to incorporate the tweek at speedguide http://www.speedcorp.net/guides/ramdrive/

which shows how to put your IE cache and Explorer cache on the ramdisk.

I haven't gotton those last 2 items to work yet..Also I am running netscape.

Anybody running the explorer in cache?

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Thu Mar 15, 2001 2:26 am

Whenever I edit the registry keys for the RamDiskNT application, such as the sharewarekey value, it always changes back after a reboot. Is there something i'm doing wrong here?

dannjr · Post by **dannjr** » Thu Mar 15, 2001 2:54 am

Originally posted by Defiant:
Whenever I edit the registry keys for the RamDiskNT application, such as the sharewarekey value, it always changes back after a reboot. Is there something i'm doing wrong here?

What OS(Operat.. system) are you using....
If this is win2k go to page 3 where it was changed over to the Microsoft Ramdisk it works so much better...
If this is win98 go to page 7 of this thread. The changed prosssessss is so much better and more stable.. At least to me with windows than using the RamDiskNT with less problems..

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Thu Mar 15, 2001 3:01 am

Thanks for the reply, I'm running Windows 2000 pro...i tried downloading ramdisk, but the link seems to be down for me, do you have another link to that file?

dannjr · Post by **dannjr** » Thu Mar 15, 2001 3:16 am

Originally posted by Defiant:
Thanks for the reply, I'm running Windows 2000 pro...i tried downloading ramdisk, but the link seems to be down for me, do you have another link to that file?

I'll see if I can dig it up

lookin..

dannjr · Post by **dannjr** » Thu Mar 15, 2001 3:18 am

http://download.microsoft.com/download/win2000ddk/sample01/1/NT5/EN-US/Ramdisk.exe its a live download link from MS not a page hope it works for you it worked for me

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Thu Mar 15, 2001 3:24 am

I tried the link, when I click it a blank page pops up, and when I right click to save target as, it says that the file could not be found. I guess it doesn't work for me...

if there aren't any other links could someone please e-mail it to me? My e-mail address is swu2@socal.rr.com. Thanks.

dannjr · Post by **dannjr** » Thu Mar 15, 2001 3:35 am

Originally posted by Defiant:
I tried the link, when I click it a blank page pops up, and when I right click to save target as, it says that the file could not be found. I guess it doesn't work for me...
if there aren't any other links could someone please e-mail it to me? My e-mail address is swu2@socal.rr.com. Thanks.

Its sent and you should be getting it right now....
Make sure you read through a few pages after the start of the Microsoft Ramdisk there was a couple of problems that got worked out along the way you might want to check out.. Works good....

Xzaver · Post by **Xzaver** » Fri Mar 16, 2001 11:09 am

dannjr , Good work man

~X~

dannjr · Post by **dannjr** » Sat Mar 17, 2001 2:10 am

Originally posted by Xzaver:
dannjr , Good work man

~X~

Thanks but it wasn't just me its been
Philip, Cablenut, JonG, and a few others that have mde this work...

Thanks again
Dan

frugin · Post by **frugin** » Sun Mar 18, 2001 10:06 pm

thanks for the tweak, i am currently using it and everything is a little bit faster, but i do not notice extreme speeds, just a little. but the loading when you startup is a pain in the ass.

tafkact · Post by **tafkact** » Thu Mar 22, 2001 11:56 pm

Ok, I'm a bit confused here....

15 (!) pages of replies, and yes, I read through them, but I still am not sure what's the right thing(s) to do.

Is there anyway someone who has done this successfully could start a new thread with the specifics?

In particular, notes for Zone Alarm, and running behind a Linksys router (which is sometimes hooked up and sometimes not).

tia,

ct

BrNz · Post by **BrNz** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 2:17 am

I just wanted to thank cablenut for this smokin' tweak! Very rarely do you actually find a tweak that truly does what people says it does. It take a lil' bit of work (took me 3 mins) but it is well worth it!

Pages are loading as if their cached!! This is one awesome tweak if your on Win2k.

O ya... I regged JUST to thank ya

cablenut · Post by **cablenut** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 3:16 am

dannjr · Post by **dannjr** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 9:43 pm

Originally posted by tafkact:
Ok, I'm a bit confused here....

ct

If you go about 11 post back in this thread it tells you what pages to use..
Also with Zone Alarm I got it to work fine with it.. But never heard anything more on it..
As far as compiling info into one easy to follow page it is being worked on.. Just in spare time..

How files get corrupt

dvblsd · Post by **dvblsd** » Fri Mar 23, 2001 10:01 pm

OK, I've done it for Win98SE and Cable. Here's how....
First, in autoexec.bat:
XMSDSK 2048 H: /y
PATH=H:\;%PATH%
Copy C:\Backup\Net H:\
I am using XMSdisk RAMDisk utility from the Axcel website because I can assign a drive letter to the Ramdrive. I made the drive 2 Megs.
Next, I assigned an alternate path command for the missing files that I will put on the Ramdrive.
The third line is the present location of the driver files. This way, I have them in a place where if all else fails, I can easily restore them to the Windows\System folder, and in this backup folder, they are no longer in my path.
Now, to find the required files, I went to System Properties\Device Manager\Network Adapters\my NIC card\PropertiesDriver\Driver Details\

Next, I cut and pasted all the vxd and 386 files from my Windows\System folder to my Backup\Net folder.

[img]http://members.home.net\dvblsd\dvblsd\Driver%20Files.jpg[/img]

Finally, I restarted and so far everything works OK. As for speed increase, well I am still colatting, but looks like an increase of about 20%.

The following is a direct download link for xmsdsk.exe:
http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stories/info/0,,000AZ4,.html

[ 03-25-2001: Message edited by: dvblsd ]

Steve12345 · Post by **Steve12345** » Sun Mar 25, 2001 12:16 am

Originally posted by cablenut:
In Windows 2000 what controls all TCP/IP functions is a service called TCPIP now that service is the file tcpip.sys I have made a ramdisk with a bootable image file with the tcpip.sys file on it and have edited my registry to reflect where that tcpip.sys drive is. Since RAM has very much lower latencies then hard disks this speeds up the net cause it can access the protcol driver very fast.

How would you do that on windows me?

dannjr · Post by **dannjr** » Sun Mar 25, 2001 4:08 am

Originally posted by Steve12345:
How would you do that on windows me?

Around page 11 of this thread I said it couldnt be done then said it could. Dont do this to your WinME... Just a friendly warning no one has been able to get it to work as of yet in that OS without problems..

The first thing you have to do is hack out the registry and the boot kernal so that the new info in the autoexec.bat doesn't get erased.
Then you have to get past the memory managment of ME thats a pain..
Now if you hae the patients and know how to get past the first part then have fun...
I don't suggest it..

Just my opinion...

dannjr · Post by **dannjr** » Sun Mar 25, 2001 4:11 am

dvblsd
I wish I had some time to try that right now its a great looking concept... Maybe toward the end of the week I can get to play..

Thanks
Dan

Steve12345 · Post by **Steve12345** » Sun Mar 25, 2001 11:00 am

Will you fill up your ram if you use that instead of the hard disc?

tafkact · Post by **tafkact** » Sun Mar 25, 2001 3:56 pm

from what i can tell, no - you won't

just he 2mb or so, whatever you've set aside for it in the ramdisk and registry

but i still dunno it all about this "tweak"

gonna play w/it on my next install of win2k later this week (this one's FRIED and there's really no fix)

Piggyson · Post by **Piggyson** » Sun Mar 25, 2001 5:07 pm

Has anyone experienced any problems with running the tweak in Windows 2000 and having computers on your network not showing up in 'Network neighborhood?'
I can connect to the internet fine, just can't see other cpu's in my network, and file sharing through ICQ is a Pain

Any Solutions/ideas would be appreciated.

thanks in advance.

-Piggyson-

dvblsd · Post by **dvblsd** » Sun Mar 25, 2001 6:17 pm

Piggyson
I found that not all vxd files will work this way. AS well, inf's will cause problems and some dll's. If you have a problem,replace one file, reboot, and try again.

[ 03-25-2001: Message edited by: dvblsd ]

dmsmed · Post by **dmsmed** » Mon Mar 26, 2001 7:50 am

Has anyone tried this RAMDisk program?
http://www.jlajoie.com/

dannjr · Post by **dannjr** » Mon Mar 26, 2001 3:45 pm

Originally posted by Steve12345:
Will you fill up your ram if you use that instead of the hard disc?

No in fact it will help the RAM in that your only using 1 to 2 meg and not swaping back and forth its saving on the harddisk, and not having to peak to the top of the memory everytime its swaped out off the hard drive.
It acually freed up memory read the tread back where I tested this on a old laptop with minimul resoureces...
My memory usage went down from about 11% free to 23% free or more

dannjr · Post by **dannjr** » Mon Mar 26, 2001 3:53 pm

Piggyson
Are you using file sharing in win2k with TCP/IP only if you are then try implimenting NETBEUI for file sharing on the LAN this works well esp. If your runing a layered network like I do it keeps the network seperate
Also if you did a search for the the missing machine in you network it should show up..
With that in mind you could run the path to that machine to have it connect everytime it boots if your running a file server locally..

dannjr · Post by **dannjr** » Mon Mar 26, 2001 6:33 pm

Originally posted by dmsmed:
Has anyone tried this RAMDisk program?
http://www.jlajoie.com/

Its just a new updated version of the original used with win2k on the first pages of this thread

The object was to get the ramdisk to run. Then the object turned to do it for free. Using MS software or an equivilent of free ware. If you want to use that its fine you will also tye up more memory than you need to

bglspeed · Post by **bglspeed** » Mon Mar 26, 2001 6:49 pm

Better later than never:
REMEMBER BATCH 101, course titled: EFFICIENCY ?

BEFORE
===========================================
xmsdsk [1024] Z: [/y]

path=Z:\;%PATH%
rename c:\win98\system\ndis.vxd ndisvxd.bak
copy c:\win98\system\ndisvxd.bak z:\ndis.vxd
rename c:\win98\system\vtcp.386 vtcp386.bak
copy c:\win98\system\vtcp386.bak z:\vtcp.386
rename c:\win98\system\vudp.386 vudp386.bak
copy c:\win98\system\vudp386.bak z:\vupd.386
rename c:\win98\system\mstcp.dll mstcpdll.bak
copy c:\win98\system\mstcpdll.bak z:\mstcp.dll
rename c:\win98\system\wshtcp.vxd wshtcp.bak
copy c:\win98\system\wshtcp.bak z:\wshtcp.vxd
rename c:\win98\system\wsock.vxd wsockvxd.bak
copy c:\win98\system\wsockvxd.bak z:\wsock.vxd
rename c:\win98\system\wsock2.vxd wsock2.bak
copy c:\win98\system\wsock2.bak z:\wsock2.vxd
rename c:\win98\system\vnetsup.vxd vnetsupvxd.bak
copy c:\win98\system\vnetsupvxd.bak z:\vnetsup.vxd
rename c:\win98\system\ndis2sup.vxd ndis2supvxd.bak
copy c:\win98\system\ndis2supvxd.bak z:\ndis2sup.vxd
rename c:\win98\system\vredir.vxd vredirvxd.bak
copy c:\win98\system\vredirvxd.bak z:\vredir.vxd
rename c:\win98\system\dfs.vxd dfsvxd.bak
copy c:\win98\system\dfsvxd.bak z:\dfs.vxd
rename c:\win98\system\vnetbios.vxd vnetbiosvxd.bak
copy c:\win98\system\vnetbiosvxd.bak z:\vnetbios.vxd
rename c:\win98\system\vserver.vxd vservervxd.bak
copy c:\win98\system\vservervxd.bak z:\vserver.vxd
@pause
===========================================

AFTER
===========================================
xmsdsk [1024] Z: [/y]

path=Z:\;%PATH%
IF NOT EXIST []\ndis.vxd GOTO NEXT
CD []
MOVE /Y ndis.vxd,vtcp.386,vudp.386,mstcp.dll,wshtcp.vxd,
wsock.vxd,wsock2.vxd,vnetsup.vxd,ndis2sup.vxd,
vredir.vxd,dfs.vxd,vnetbios.vxd,vserver.vxd \TCPTWEAK
:NEXT
XCOPY32 C:\TCPTWEAK\*.* Z:\
@pause
===========================================

Just replace [] with your actual path where the files resides. To restore your system to it's previous state, just:
XCOPY32 C:\TCPTWEAK\*.* []

Next,
for those who wants to move their C:\TEMP to Z:\ (ramdrive), I strongly advise against it in the beautifull BSOD WINDOWS WORLD because if this happens (BSOD), you will lose very precious temp files that are usefull to restore some previous states when you reboot. Don't forget that a ramdrive content is lost on reboot.

[ 03-26-2001: Message edited by: BGL ]

PrestonConnors · Post by **PrestonConnors** » Tue Mar 27, 2001 3:10 am

Running Windows2000 Professional Build 2195 Service Pack 1

I get the following error when trying to copy any file to the 16mb (I also tried making it 1mb also) RAMDISK:

The volume does not contain a recognized file system.
Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the v
olume is not corrupted.

The logical drive appears in explorere but with no information, just a Z: drive...

The Logical Disk Manager does report it as a RAMDRIVE but I can't access it or copy files to it...

If I uninstall the sample driver then re-install it will work, but when I reboot it goes back into the un-useable state.

How can I fix this?

[ 03-27-2001: Message edited by: Preston Connors ]

chinaboy00 · Post by **chinaboy00** » Wed Mar 28, 2001 5:35 am

for those who cant connect using win98se, try leaving the winsock files in the windows\system\ directory that worked for me

DiGiTaL_PuLsE · Post by **DiGiTaL_PuLsE** » Wed Mar 28, 2001 9:39 am

Hi guys im a newbie to this tweak....... But i tried many other tweaks like Rwin and MaxMtu changes nothing seem to really work. I see that this Ram disk change improve many people's internet performance. I kinda understand what to do but i dont want to kill my windows. Can someone please explain the whole thing to me from beginning to the end, what to do. Please, ill really appreciate it. I have 128mb ram,
Win98 SE
Thanx