The problem here is if you have more than 512 meg of RAM installed with any
version of WIN9X. In that case it may not start up as it gives to much
memory to the cache. Therefore with over 512 meg installed on a PC you would
have a statement in like this in system.ini .
[vcache]
MaxFileCache=262144
It is explained in a knowledge base article but the relevant bits are noted
below.
"The Windows 32-bit protected-mode cache driver (Vcache) determines the
maximum cache size based on the amount of RAM that is present when Windows
starts. Vcache then reserves enough memory addresses to permit it to access
a cache of the maximum size so that it can increase the cache to that size
if needed. These addresses are allocated in a range of virtual addresses
from 0xC0000000 through 0xFFFFFFFF (3 to 4 gigabytes) known as the system
arena.
"On computers with large amounts of RAM, the maximum cache size can be large
enough that Vcache consumes all of the addresses in the system arena,
leaving no virtual memory addresses available for other functions such as
opening an MS-DOS prompt (creating a new virtual machine).
"This problem may occur more readily with Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) video
adapters because the AGP aperture is also mapped to addresses in the system
arena. For example, if Vcache is using a maximum cache size of 800MB and an
AGP video adapter has a 128MB aperture mapped, there is very little address
space remaining for the other system code and data that must occupy this
range of virtual addresses."
And here are the three suggested workarounds:
"1. Physically remove any memory in excess of 512MB [!]
"2. Use the System Configuration utility to limit the amount of memory that
Windows uses to 512MB or less.
"3. Use the MaxFileCache setting in the System.ini file to reduce the
maximum amount of memory that Vcache uses to 512MB (524,288 KB) or less."
And the unspoken fourth solution: upgrade to Windows 2000.
The above was culled from the register..
Tests on a website noted below reckon you are better with WIN 2000 when you
have 512 meg ram when using Photoshop. They were originally trying to see
whether a P4 or athlon was best for Photoshop.
Eddie
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jawed Ashraf" <Jawed@cupidity.force9.co.uk>
To: <filmscanners@halftone.co.uk>
Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2001 8:46 PM
Subject: RE: filmscanners: SS4000, Win98 and VCache settings
> I have 512MB RAM on a Win98 (not SE) Athlon 1.2GHz PC and my vcache
section
> is empty. Windows does its own thing which, with a large RAM PC, is
> probably the best thing. My cache tends to range from 24MB to 180MB.
(Use
> the SYSMON program to draw a graph of your cache size.)
>
> Jawed
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-filmscanners@halftone.co.uk
> > [mailto:owner-filmscanners@halftone.co.uk]On Behalf Of Steve Greenbank
> > Sent: 24 July 2001 04:24
> > To: filmscanners@halftone.co.uk
> > Subject: Re: filmscanners: SS4000, Win98 and VCache settings
> >
> >
> > Changing the VCache settings should not alter the result, only
> > the speed at
> > which you receive the result :- )Except where you hit the
> > Win9x/ME bug where
> > you must set a value less than 512MB if you have more physical memory
than
> > 512MB.
> >
> > As this does not apply to you it suggests you have a problem
> > elsewhere. The
> > fact that the new Vcache settings leave more physical memory
> > available might
> > mean you have a physical memory problem in an area of memory not
> > used by the
> > new setting. It may also be due to a physical memory problem
> > being moved to
> > a more critical point. eg. dodgy memory used for picture storage may
have
> > almost undetectable effect on an image but would crash most programs if
it
> > was used for program code.
> >
> > Likely sources are:
> > 1) Polarcolor insight problem (try re-installing - anyone else having
> > problems - try 5.0)
> > 2) Physical memory problem (try a decent memory tester or different
memory
> > or if you can, remove half at a time) - or try "torture test" in Prime95
(
> > ) - this thrashes cpu & memory
> > severely.
> > 3) SCSI device or driver problem (try re-installing or removing other
> > devices)
> > 4) BIOS setup issue (careful with this as you can really screw
> > your machine)
> > 5) Problem with a background process (eg.virus program) (remove all
> > non-essential background processes)
> > 6) Other device or driver problem (disable as many devices as possible -
> > physical removal is better)
> > 7) Software conflict problem (particularly related to other SCSI
devices)
> > (temporarily remove other devices)
> >
> > To check properly you will after to find a set of scan settings that
will
> > reboot your machine everytime - preferably immediately after just
booting.
> >
> > Otherwise your current setting for MaxFileCache is a bit low and will
> > probably slow your machine down. Using a value that is slightly
> > larger than
> > your typical TIFF file can make open & save work much quicker provided
you
> > don't overly restrict available RAM to the actual programs. This
> > can be seen
> > most clearly during a save operation. (eg 35mm 4000dpi is about 54MB
8bit
> > and 108MB 16bit so try around 55000/110000 depending on whether you use
a
> > lot of 16bit files).
> >
> > Steve
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Stan Schwartz" <snsok@swbell.net>
> > To: "Filmscanners (E-mail)" <filmscanners@halftone.co.uk>
> > Sent: Monday, July 23, 2001 10:06 PM
> > Subject: filmscanners: SS4000, Win98 and VCache settings
> >
> >
> > > I use an SS4000 on a SCSI connection with a Win98SE 933 PentiumIII and
> > 512MB
> > > RAM.
> > >
> > > I was having some problems with the system doing a reboot in
> > the middle of
> > > scanning a transparency, usually with Polacolor Insight. I posted that
> > here
> > > a couple of weeks ago and got some suggestions.
> > >
> > > I also use my computer for speech recognition software (not at the
same
> > > time, of course). In the process of tweaking the computer for better
> > speech
> > > recognition, I made some changes in the Vcache settings.
> > >
> > > After making those "improvements," I was unable to scan a single slide
> > > without the system suddenly rebooting. It seems there is a connection
> > > between these Vcache settings and the problems I have had.
> > >
> > > Does anyone have experience with tweaking the Vcache settings for a
SCSI
> > > slide scanner? I have used a couple of the shareware type programs
that
> > > suggest values for "power users" and "multimedia" and "low memory
> > systems".
> > >
> > > I just changed the settings in system.ini to:
> > >
> > > [vcache]
> > > MaxFileCache=16384
> > > MinFileCache=3144
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > The settings I had been using were min=0, max=131,000 (that was
> > > approximate--it was a correct multiple) with chunk size
> > specified as 4096.
> > >
> > > Now I can finish a scan, but I have no clue what the optimum setting
> > should
> > > be, or if it should be specified at all.
> > >
> > >
> > > Stan
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
