OT: wierd slowness in computer

[Robert Baer]

Copied Win98SE from HD1 to HD2.
Internet useage fast on HD1, slow on HD2.
Slow due to massive swapping (ie: "virtual memory").
Took 60 seconds to write this message; swapping during entry of text.
How can i find source and fix it?
Thanks.

 

[Phil Hobbs]

Copied Win98SE from HD1 to HD2.
Internet useage fast on HD1, slow on HD2.
Slow due to massive swapping (ie: "virtual memory").
Took 60 seconds to write this message; swapping during entry of text.
How can i find source and fix it?
Thanks.

Maybe a fragmented swapfile?

Try booting from the other disc, deleting PAGEFILE.SYS, defragging, and
trying again.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

 

[StickThatInYourPipeAndSmokeIt]

Copied Win98SE from HD1 to HD2.
Internet useage fast on HD1, slow on HD2.
Slow due to massive swapping (ie: "virtual memory").
Took 60 seconds to write this message; swapping during entry of text.
How can i find source and fix it?
Thanks.

You haven't said what the MOBO, CPU or OS is, nor how much of what kind
of RAM..

The MOBO matters, because it carries the I/O interface for the HDs. The
OS matters, because Billy never was consistent in his ways and means.

Constant swapping usually points to lack of RAM or so many windows/apps
open that the same result occurs.

Also, copying large single files is different than copying small files.
So if you copied an ISO image file, you will get different numbers than
copying the 98SE archive as it appears on the disc, in the form of
hundreds of small (relatively) files

To get an indicator as to whether or not it is related to your
individual system hardware constraints, you should boot a Knoppix 5.1.1
Live boot disc. That gets you into Linux (or get a newer live distro
that is similar.

Set your drives to read/write mode, and do the copy, noting the speed.

That way, you can decide whether your hardware choices, or Billy are to
blame.

 

[MooseFET]

Copied Win98SE from HD1 to HD2.
Internet useage fast on HD1, slow on HD2.
Slow due to massive swapping (ie: "virtual memory").
Took 60 seconds to write this message; swapping during entry of text.
How can i find source and fix it?
Thanks.

Go back to HD1. Make HD2 D: for example
Remove all of the files in the D:\temp, D:\windows\tmp
Remove any other files that you expect to delete soon.
Defrag D:

Then try it again.

If the disk isn't too full, Windows will make its swap file all in one
place. If it is nearly full, the swap file can be spread around.

 

[John Larkin]

Maybe a fragmented swapfile?

Try booting from the other disc, deleting PAGEFILE.SYS, defragging, and
trying again.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

Why would a pc with, say, a gigabyte of ram need a swap file?

John

 

[[email protected]]

Copied Win98SE from HD1 to HD2.
Internet useage fast on HD1, slow on HD2.
Slow due to massive swapping (ie: "virtual memory").
Took 60 seconds to write this message; swapping during entry of text.
How can i find source and fix it?
Thanks.

Are these IDE drives? Check to see what transfer mode they're in.
Could be the slow drive is in a slow PIO mode. Don't know if your
machine has a DMA setting.
What do you mean HD1 and HD2? Are they both running at the same time
on different controllers, the same? What? You're not specific.

 

[Phil Hobbs]

Why would a pc with, say, a gigabyte of ram need a swap file?

John

Because PC software is so bloated. My employer just gave me a remote
access program--a dialer and VPN setup--that requires 180 megabytes of
disc space. In the DOS days, it would have been a 15k TSR, and I would
have beefed about the amount of memory it took.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

 

[Martin Griffith]

Because PC software is so bloated. My employer just gave me a remote
access program--a dialer and VPN setup--that requires 180 megabytes of
disc space. In the DOS days, it would have been a 15k TSR, and I would
have beefed about the amount of memory it took.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

a bit like this?

martin

 

[Baron]

Copied Win98SE from HD1 to HD2.
Internet useage fast on HD1, slow on HD2.
Slow due to massive swapping (ie: "virtual memory").
Took 60 seconds to write this message; swapping during entry of
text. How can i find source and fix it?
Thanks.

I've just done a repair on a machine that decided to run slow. Turned
out to be a faulty hard drive.

 

[Jamie]

Because PC software is so bloated. My employer just gave me a remote
access program--a dialer and VPN setup--that requires 180 megabytes of
disc space. In the DOS days, it would have been a 15k TSR, and I would
have beefed about the amount of memory it took.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

From what I understand, it's a waste of memory/money to put much over
128 megs in a 9x box.
this is due to lack of HANDLE's in the system and how 9x os handles
memory.

 

[John Larkin]

Because PC software is so bloated. My employer just gave me a remote
access program--a dialer and VPN setup--that requires 180 megabytes of
disc space. In the DOS days, it would have been a 15k TSR, and I would
have beefed about the amount of memory it took.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

It's IBM's fault, you know, for inventing virtual memory. When the
360's were introduced, and core was still above $50,000 a megabyte,
IBM claimed that virtual would save gobs of memory, and predicted
paging ratios of 200:1. Turns out that users actually averaged 1.2:1.
But it became the license to bloat, and to allow the system to manage
data spaces so programmers wouldn't have to bother their pretty little
heads about it. Which is why some PDF pages take minutes to print on a
machine that has more compute power than a bargeful of 360's.

Grrrrr.

John

 

[Robert Baer]

You haven't said what the MOBO, CPU or OS is, nor how much of what kind
of RAM..

The MOBO matters, because it carries the I/O interface for the HDs. The
OS matters, because Billy never was consistent in his ways and means.

Constant swapping usually points to lack of RAM or so many windows/apps
open that the same result occurs.

Also, copying large single files is different than copying small files.
So if you copied an ISO image file, you will get different numbers than
copying the 98SE archive as it appears on the disc, in the form of
hundreds of small (relatively) files

To get an indicator as to whether or not it is related to your
individual system hardware constraints, you should boot a Knoppix 5.1.1
Live boot disc. That gets you into Linux (or get a newer live distro
that is similar.

Set your drives to read/write mode, and do the copy, noting the speed.

That way, you can decide whether your hardware choices, or Billy are to
blame.

Well if you used your eyes and some regognition, you would have seen
that the OS was Win98SE.
The motherboard, RAM (1 Gbyte), etc was all the same, i think i
indicated that all i changed was the HD and that the copy (HD2) was the
slow, virtual memory, swapping one.
I *never* use "image" files, and never use "arhives"; this was done
using a program that supposedly does exact copies.

 

[Robert Baer]

Go back to HD1. Make HD2 D: for example
Remove all of the files in the D:\temp, D:\windows\tmp
Remove any other files that you expect to delete soon.
Defrag D:

Then try it again.

If the disk isn't too full, Windows will make its swap file all in one
place. If it is nearly full, the swap file can be spread around.

Tried that to no avail.
Will try Mr. Hobbs scheme.

 

[Robert Baer]

Why would a pc with, say, a gigabyte of ram need a swap file?

John

True, but one never knows what billy boy did behind the scene on
these older OSes.
For example, M$ has a number of lies concerning Win98SE: (1) cannot
support over 512Mbytes, and (2) cannot support over 1024Mbytes.
Well, it will support 2Gbytes of RAM, *provided* you are willing to
work with the minimum color resolution and minimum number of colors.

 

[Robert Baer]

Are these IDE drives? Check to see what transfer mode they're in.
Could be the slow drive is in a slow PIO mode. Don't know if your
machine has a DMA setting.
What do you mean HD1 and HD2? Are they both running at the same time
on different controllers, the same? What? You're not specific.

HD1 was running fine as Primary Master, and after the *copy* to HD2,
then HD2 was put in as a replacement, so it was Primary Master.
PIO and DMA modes were identical.
Besides, those modes would not change the apparent memory the OS is
seeing - so are not relevant to the problem.

 

[Robert Baer]

Because PC software is so bloated. My employer just gave me a remote
access program--a dialer and VPN setup--that requires 180 megabytes of
disc space. In the DOS days, it would have been a 15k TSR, and I would
have beefed about the amount of memory it took.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

Don't remind me.
64K total RAM: after CP/M loaded 56K TPA or after MPM loaded, 46K TPA.
Could run Wordstar editing megs of text on the fly, could run dBASE
with megs of data, could run a spreadsheet program with megs of data and
multiple (seperate) groups and combine them for overall as well as
seperate reports.
And we now need an absolute minimum of 1Gbyte just to run an OS (no
programs)?

 

[Robert Baer]

Robert Baer wrote:




I've just done a repair on a machine that decided to run slow. Turned
out to be a faulty hard drive.

How could a faulty HD cause virtual memory swapping?

 

[Robert Baer]

From what I understand, it's a waste of memory/money to put much over
128 megs in a 9x box.
this is due to lack of HANDLE's in the system and how 9x os handles
memory.

Maybe, maybe not.
I installed 2Mbytes for the fun of it, and was able to use almost all
of that RAM; allocated and de-allocated small, medium and large-sized
blocks with zero problems, using those blocks for an involved FFT
program (that was also in memory).

 

[Robert Baer]

It's IBM's fault, you know, for inventing virtual memory. When the
360's were introduced, and core was still above $50,000 a megabyte,
IBM claimed that virtual would save gobs of memory, and predicted
paging ratios of 200:1. Turns out that users actually averaged 1.2:1.
But it became the license to bloat, and to allow the system to manage
data spaces so programmers wouldn't have to bother their pretty little
heads about it. Which is why some PDF pages take minutes to print on a
machine that has more compute power than a bargeful of 360's.

Grrrrr.

John

Check.
Wrote FFT type programs that needed more space than available RAM if
one were to demand all workspace to be in RAM.
Easy to manage RAM space using ALLOCATE and DEALLOCATE, just takes
some planning so that there is no un-recoverable gaps (named, i think as
"memory leak").
It is easy to lose use of RAM space if you do not plan properly, and
very difficult to regain "lost" areas.

 

[StickThatInYourPipeAndSmokeIt]

Well if you used your eyes and some regognition, you would have seen
that the OS was Win98SE.

No. You stated that you were copying win98se, that in no way means
that what you are running under was any particular OS.

The motherboard, RAM (1 Gbyte), etc was all the same, i think i
indicated that all i changed was the HD and that the copy (HD2) was the
slow, virtual memory, swapping one.
I *never* use "image" files, and never use "arhives"; this was done
using a program that supposedly does exact copies.

IDIOT!. The "win98se" is an archive which is commonly referred to on
the net everywhere. It can be in the form of an ISO image file for
burning to CD or it can be a directory with the "archive" of files
within.

You really need to educate yourself to the fact that words do not only
have a single meaning.