system rsources dwindling

[extremnod]

first time user ...hope I get this right.....I am a big cnc game player..Love my Tiberian Sun......I have noticed the last 3 months that my computer is lagging more....I go back to the desktop and in to MY COMPUTER and see what my resources are.....When I first load up I am at 88%...I have gone to msconfig and virtually removed all my start ups....((which might be the cause of my problems))) ,,,anyways I play for an hour and my system reso\ources go down to 65%....1/2 hour later maybe 55%....Once it drops it drops quickly......It never use to do this and I find I have to reeboot every 1 1/2 hours to play at a decent speed and not get booted and kicked off the internet....A year ago this never happened....I have a atlon 1000mhz with 312MB ram so the power is there.....do not know if I need to put himen386.exe in or what.... someone said at googlre.com there is a file I can download that I can control and will add system resources back automaticly and quickly.without rebooting....ANy help would be appreciative.....Have checked for all kinds of bugs in hard drives and memopry files and scans have come up zero....thanks
EXTREMNOD

[Murf]

Howdy and welcome to the Forum,

Forget old Himem he's too old and won't help ya, besides Windowz loads him up automatically anyway, and with 312 memory isn't the problem.

When was the last time you defragged your hard drive? If it's been too long, then could be the problem. Also clean out your Temp Internet folder, some files in there could be hogging resources...

How much empty Hard Drive space is there?

Do a good thorough cleaning and see if that helps before trying anything else.

Scandisk
Defrag
Get rid of all TEMP files

Registry clean

[extremnod]

thanks Murf.....but I defrag every two weeks religiously....I go to MY COMP then left click ,go to c drive and right click ,,then to tools,,, error check status and defrag.....I have 20 GB hard drive and have 3.7 used......have plenty of room....on internet explorer I go to tools and clean out cookies and files at least once a day and every night I am in explorer .....also disc cleanup in tools in c drive....I am perplexed at this and hate to have to send it to the ole comp shop.....thx again and if there are any more suggestiond\s let me know

[Buffalo]

Go back into Msconfig and check Selective Startup under the General tab and then go into the Startup tab and uncheck everything. Reboot and then do a ctrl-alt-del and see what programs are running and copy them down. Now try your game and see what happens. If it is OK, then one of the programs you shut down is the problem.
Try running AdAware to see if you have spyware that is using your resources.
Try a Registry cleaner.
Do an up-to-date virus check.
You may even try reinstalling the game.
When your finished, go back into Msconfig and recheck the programs you want (especially ScanRegistry).
That's all that I can think of at this time.

[Train]

OK, This needs to be done anyway as it will help your computer.
Lets see if we can free up some resources.
Do Start > Run > MSCONFIG > Start up tab
This will list all of the programs being started at boot time. The icons in the bottom right of the screen.
Leave
ScanRegistry
SysTray
Your Antivirus
Your firewall if you run one.
Unselect all of the rest, reboot
As well, if you are unsure of what they are, post back the items in the list, maybe someone will know.

Step by Step with Snapshots on how to do this

What some of those words mean
Some more of what those words mean
Some other good links on resources.
And some more


PC 911

Windows Help

PC Forrest


Free online av scans
Nortons

Housecall

Panda

Ad Aware is good advice also. Those tattletails are something else!

[Techtips]

Start
Settings
Control Panel
System
Performance
File System

Change Role of this computer to network Server.

It will handle the memory better

Then go back to the performance Tab and click the

Virtual Memory button see if Windows handles your virtual memory.

You can opt to untick this and select a static amount for Min and Max settings this will reduce processor cycles.

Optimum amount should be about 2.5x the amount of ram so say u have 256 MB then Vitual memory is best set around 640 MB max this the Minimum AND Maximum

[Techtips]

http://www.systweak.com/memzip/memzip.htm

[extremnod]

Buffalo and Train.......already did the msconfig thing......said that in the first one..aoltray and explorer is all I have....not even systray....PS I have aol.........oh,,,anti virus is e safe...at start up I am at 92%.......hardly anything in back ground in msconfig....or control alt delete....cannot find any bugs either,,,,at least not yet downloaded maxmemory at utilitygeek.com for better memory utilities...cajunman had low resources and I read some of your replies there....hope that works
thanks again

[extremnod]

ok going to my computer rite click then properties then performance then file systems and chage fom desktop to network sevor......ok I am at work and did it to my computer and it has C:\--------MB FREE then minimum and maxi......what do I set these at?????????? ps I am at work and my C:\ here says 13911 FREE...I will try this at home tonite when I get there...When I change it at work and press apply it says computer may not restart....so I changed it......if it says that at home I will not change it and make another reply.....
thanks again

[Murf]

I will disagree somewhat, I don't think you should set a Maximum for memory. With 312MB windows may not even use VM. I would let windows manage it. But if you want to manage your own, then set a min and not a max or set the max to 312MB.

Use the resource program that comes with "98" and monitor your memory usuage then gauge what to set from it.

[Techtips]

If he sets the Min and Max to the same it saves CPU and disk heads from having to adjust each time Windows uses it. The swap file become fragmented and therefore multiple movements are require from the disk heads if its set to one size this is reduced.

You are mistaken about Windows, it uses the virual memory most of the the time. the Memory gets full more often than your would think and on those occasions the swap file comes into play.

If you think Im wrong then switch yours off if you think its not needed.

[Buffalo]

I wasn't sure what you unchecked in your original reply. I would go to Msconfig and uncheck (temp) 'Process autoexec.bat and config.sys' for trying to eliminate possible programs that are causing the problem.
You could also insert this line in your System.ini file under [vcache]
MaxFileCache=218000 which is aprox 70% of your Ram.
If it doesn't help you can either delete it or just add a ; in front of it to disable it.
As far as setting a fixed cache size, most will recommend setting a min, but no maximum. You can run system monitor and record it while playing your Tiberian Sun and see how much 'swap file in use' you are actually using, then use that amt plus aother 50MB or so to set your Min for your virtual memory size.( If you are using no Swap, then I would set the min size to 100MB)
The more Ram you have, the smaller the amt of Virtual Memory used. The advice about 2.5 X your physical ram was OK when you had only 16MB or so, but by following that now with 1GB of ram would mean that you should set your Virtual Memory to 2.5GB.

If you want to try yet another approach for manipulating your Ram, add this line to the [386enh] section in System.ini .

ConservativeSwapFileUsage=1 .

This basically forces Windows to use your Physical Ram first, before using your Swap. Some say that it really helps while gaming on the Internet, while others see no benefit while gaming.
Others say it hurts overall performance. This is easy to try and will do no harm. It is also very easy to undo.

Train's links are good reading.

Beside all that, System Resources is different than Ram, meaning that even if you doubled your Ram, the System Resources would remain about the same.

When you think you have the minimal amt of programs running, go to System Information,Software Environment,Running Task to see all that is running.
Have you tried reinstalling the game yet?
Have you installed new Video Drivers, Sound Card Drivers, etc.?
Did you install anything just previous to the problem?


PS: Windows always give you that message when you don't let it handle it. Disregard it.

[extremnod]

OK techtips,,,,,,if I reset it what would you suggest for settings on my minimum and maximum

[Techtips]

While you are in the [386enh] section of your system.ini file add these lines

EMMExclude=C000-CFFF,C000-CFFF
LocalLoadHigh=1
PageBuffers=32
DMABufferSize=64
32BitDiskAccess=on
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1
PagingDrive=C:
MinPagingFileSize=65535
MaxPagingFileSize=65535


Using this in conjunction with Conservativeswap file and 256mb Ram means you wont need a large Virtual memory setting

After doing this and re booting I would them go into Virtual memory through CTRL panel/System/performans and then set Minimum and Maximum to 64MB

What said above is generally correct taking into account all the other parameters.

[Buffalo]

What are System Resources? Check these links.

http://aumha.org/a/resource.htm
http://www.onlinehelp.bc.ca/tips.htm#resources
http://www.forrestandassociates.co.u...resources.html
http://www2.whidbey.com/djdenham/Window_memory.htm

Like I previously suggested, it may not be a Ram problem.