Author Topic: Resource problem; switching between processes (Read 879 times)

-ammo- · « **on:** November 17, 2001, 11:47:00 PM »

I got a problem, not a big one but it bugs me. I like to surf the web on climbouts (in a P47, these are generally long). Well my old P3 500 I never had a problem. But with my new machine, when I alt-tab from AH to IE5.5, and then return to AH, AH does not run great. It seems like its running low on memory or something. I get the slideshow effect and the game is just jittery. FPS doesn't suffer however. This isnt permanent thougfh, a few minutes later AH runs fine again, but if I alt-tab again, same thing.

Now, when i put this machine together, there is a jumper on my MB that lets you opt from a 100 mh or 133mh FSB. I chose the 133, and when i booted up the machine and wen't through the Bios I set my rdram clock to 133 mh, and another setting the same way. The bios had 100 mh as default and I had to manually set it at 133.

Was this a mistake? Do you think this could cause the problem i am having? And lastly, what do you think could be the problem causer and what can I do to fix it?

Thx all

V/R

Lephturn · « **Reply #1 on:** November 18, 2001, 07:02:00 AM »

What is your virtual memory set to? You should set it to the same min and max size, say about 300 Megs. Oh, make sure you defrag twice in a row before you make a change to the swap file.

I don't think your FSB speed has anything to do with this. I think your setup is designed to run at that speed, so there should be no problem.

Since you are using Win2k, try using this to launch the game: http://www.gameroffice.com/d-launcher.htm

You can use it to bump the priority of AH up higher than the other apps, maybe that will help.

If that doesn't work I'd start to look at video drivers and settings. For starters try setting your desktop resolution and color depth to the same as you run AH... that may make the switching easier.

-ammo- · « **Reply #2 on:** November 18, 2001, 08:27:00 AM »

Thx leph for responding.

Here is how my memory is listed in system info--

Total Physical Memory   523,764 KB
Available Physical Memory   375,308 KB
Total Virtual Memory   1,799,228 KB
Available Virtual Memory   1,536,252 KB
Page File Space   1,275,464 KB
Page File   C:\pagefile.sys

Now does this look OK to you? And you said I should make adjustments to the page swap file, and defrag twice first. How do I do that?

As for as setting the priority that AH runs, I can use task manager to do the same (and that fixes AH, however the rest of my system becomes unstable in that I cant run any other app's.

Video res is set to the same in game as the machine is.

Thx for your help!

Lephturn · « **Reply #3 on:** November 19, 2001, 08:30:00 AM »

Woah, that swap file is WAY too big. Right-click my computer and choose properties, then select the Advanced tab on the far right, and press the Performance Options button. In the Virtual Memory section, press the Change button. Now if you have more than one physical disk, it's a good idea to put your swap file on a different physical drive than your system files. If not, just adjust your Min and Max sizes to both be say 350.

It won't actually make the changes until you reboot, so if you haven't done it yet, now is the time to defrag your drives twice in a row. Be warned, this will take a long time.

Now, I still think you should use the Win2k Launcher. Try launching AH with the priority set to 4. This will be slightly higher than the regular apps, but not so much as to cause stability problems. This works fine for me with things like Diablo II. Try it, I think it may be the best answer for what you are trying to do.

aztec · « **Reply #4 on:** November 20, 2001, 02:23:00 PM »

I've got a rather opposite problem..last few times in I noticed my frame rates were lower than normal...alt tabbed out and back in and gained 15 fps. This has happened twice now.

qts · « **Reply #5 on:** November 21, 2001, 02:52:00 AM »

There's nothing wrong with that swapfile size at all - he's running W2000, not W98.

Just a thought, but is IE5 kicking off the indexer service or something?

straffo · « **Reply #6 on:** November 21, 2001, 04:09:00 AM »

If you compare your P3-500 with AH1.07 to your current Pc with AH1.08 it's normal I think .
I've the same behaviour since V1.08 and nothing as changed in my PC since the change to v 1.08

-ammo- · « **Reply #7 on:** November 28, 2001, 07:00:00 AM »

Update

First, thx to gunthr and straffo for their help in solving this problem for me.

In a word borrowed from straffo...creative labs software junk has got to go

I have the SBlive 5.1 platinum with all the crap. I just dumped all the creative software and then installed drivers only..and walla problem gone. I am convinced of it even though I took several other steps to solve it. I also went from using the 21.85 driver for my MX 400 card to the 7.58 driver. (while it a very stable setup, I lost 10 frames per second and my benchmark score lost 200 points).

But at least I can browse the web now on climbouts in my jug

Thx again fellas!