Ballooning Swap File

I have a Win98 system and the swap file has been ballooning to fill all of
the free space of the HD, so large that "low memory" warnings appear. I
tried deleting the swap file in DOS but the newly-created version still
balloons (2 GBs the last time). Is there a way to pinpoint the cause of this
problem? Normally I only run a few apps at a time, such as OE, IE and Word.
The only changes I made prior to this issue was updating DirectX from the
original version (6.1) to version 7.0a. I also updated the sound card
drivers. Any help is greatly appreciated.


System Specs
Windows 98SE
HP4535 with ...
Intel i810 chipset (w integrated video)
Celeron 400
Maxtor 10GB EIDE HD
320 MB PC100 SDRAM
8x CD-ROM
Diamond MX300 sound card
floppy drive

"Tim" wrote in
:

I have a Win98 system and the swap file has been ballooning to fill
all of the free space of the HD, so large that "low memory" warnings
appear. I tried deleting the swap file in DOS but the newly-created
version still balloons (2 GBs the last time). Is there a way to
pinpoint the cause of this problem? Normally I only run a few apps at
a time, such as OE, IE and Word. The only changes I made prior to this
issue was updating DirectX from the original version (6.1) to version
7.0a. I also updated the sound card drivers. Any help is greatly
appreciated.


System Specs
Windows 98SE
HP4535 with ...
Intel i810 chipset (w integrated video)
Celeron 400
Maxtor 10GB EIDE HD
320 MB PC100 SDRAM
8x CD-ROM
Diamond MX300 sound card
floppy drive



It seems one of your apps is leaking memory. I'm not sure if it works
with W98, maybe Process Explorer www.sysinternals.com can tell you how
much virtual memory each process uses.

See my article, "Security!" http://grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

Also, use MSCONFIG (started from the Run box) to disable all background =
apps. Be sure to physically disconnect from the internet before doing =
so, since your antivirus will likely be disabled. See my other article, =
"Clean Boot--What it is and why you need it." =
http://grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm for more detailed =
instructions.

Restart after disabling the startup items (and other background apps =
like Norton Antivirus that may not get disabled entirely.) See if the =
swap file still grows. If not, then re-enable items one by one until you =
find the culprit.

--=20
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User
=20
"Tim" wrote in message =
...
I have a Win98 system and the swap file has been ballooning to fill =
all of=20
the free space of the HD, so large that "low memory" warnings appear. =
I=20
tried deleting the swap file in DOS but the newly-created version =
still=20
balloons (2 GBs the last time). Is there a way to pinpoint the cause =
of this=20
problem? Normally I only run a few apps at a time, such as OE, IE and =
Word.=20
The only changes I made prior to this issue was updating DirectX from =
the=20
original version (6.1) to version 7.0a. I also updated the sound card =

drivers. Any help is greatly appreciated.
=20
=20
System Specs
Windows 98SE
HP4535 with ...
Intel i810 chipset (w integrated video)
Celeron 400
Maxtor 10GB EIDE HD
320 MB PC100 SDRAM
8x CD-ROM
Diamond MX300 sound card
floppy drive
=20

You speak of Win386.swp? What are your Swap File settings at "Control
Panel,System, Performance tab, Virtual Memory button"?

A very respectable name-- it was Harper, MVP (& not Martell, MVP)--
has said: Under certain circumstances, perhaps rare, there can be a
serious crash, if a maximum is set for the Swap File, and there is no
telling how big it may wish to grow. HE HAS SEEN IT, with his own eyes.
(Now, he is blind.) So, forget about the 2.5x usable RAM rule. (He now
sits at his keyboard, day & night, waiting to pounce, should anyone
suggest using it.) I didn't do it long! I couldn't bear the sight of
nearly a GB worth of Win386.swp, (although it seemed to function well).

Unless turned off, Windows is always managing VM. It manages it based on
what is shown shadowed in min & max at "R-Clk My Computer, Properties,
Performance tab, Virtual Memory button". That is OK at defaults of zero
& "No maximum". The only MVP approved alteration is to set the min
larger, based on careful observation over days. You would set it at 20%
larger than the greatest value you saw for Swap File "SIZE" (not "use"),
using System Monitor. If your observation discovers a constant &
frequent Swap File "USE" figure, THAT is when to consider additional
RAM.

WARNING: Once, I turned off VM for a zero swap file. All seemed to run
well, UNTIL I opened a Windows DOS (in a box) session. It produced an
orderly crash of the DOS box. Later, online, I did it again, just to
report the experience accurately. The crash this time was horrendous- IT
HAD A HEARTBEAT.

There is one other setting I've tried & rejected:
"ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1", in System.ini, [386.Enh] Section. This,
gave me a Win386.swp file generally 10-20 MB in size, sometimes zero.
That's with Windows in control of the size, and min=0, max=No max. It
was beautiful to watch. When the Swap file was in "use" (say, 20 MB),
the "size" went to around 100 MB. However, there was resizing going on,
even when "swap file in use" was zero (Windows tries to anticipate how
big to make it, depending on what your doing), and, again, my
sluggishness persisted.The Microsoft literature says it's less
efficient, as well. Although I generally loved seeing the small
Win386.swp sizes, I discontinued "ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1". (That
"sluggishness" is gone; it was something entirely unrelated to VM. In
fact, I was never able to pin anything on VM at all, except, I believe,
Win386.swp gets in the way of a proper Scandisk/Defrag.) This setting
might be appropriate for one who has so much RAM, as to never have a
"use" figure.

Do you have "System Monitor" in START... System Tools? If not, get it
from "START, Settings, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Windows Setup
tab, D-Clk System Tools, check System Monitor, OK, Apply, OK". May as
well take "Resource Meter", too. Now, go through the menus and at least
have it display

(a) Swap file in use.
(b) Swap file size.
(c) Swappable memory.
(d) Unused physical memory.
(e) Allocated memory.
(f) Disk cache size.
(g) Locked memory
(h) Other memory
(i) Kernel Processor Usage
(j) Kernel Threads

Hopefully, by the time you have it set up and commence to asking
questions, someone will be around who can answer them.


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"Tim" wrote in message
...
| I have a Win98 system and the swap file has been ballooning to fill
all of
| the free space of the HD, so large that "low memory" warnings appear.
I
| tried deleting the swap file in DOS but the newly-created version
still
| balloons (2 GBs the last time). Is there a way to pinpoint the cause
of this
| problem? Normally I only run a few apps at a time, such as OE, IE and
Word.
| The only changes I made prior to this issue was updating DirectX from
the
| original version (6.1) to version 7.0a. I also updated the sound card
| drivers. Any help is greatly appreciated.
|
|
| System Specs
| Windows 98SE
| HP4535 with ...
| Intel i810 chipset (w integrated video)
| Celeron 400
| Maxtor 10GB EIDE HD
| 320 MB PC100 SDRAM
| 8x CD-ROM
| Diamond MX300 sound card
| floppy drive
|
|

Don't you use by chance any of the so-called "memory optimizing"
programs (like FreeMem etc.)?
--
Mikhail Zhilin
http://www.aha.ru/~mwz
Sorry, no technical support by e-mail.
Please reply to the newsgroups only.
======
On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 00:12:47 -0500, "Tim" wrote:

I have a Win98 system and the swap file has been ballooning to fill all of
the free space of the HD, so large that "low memory" warnings appear. I
tried deleting the swap file in DOS but the newly-created version still
balloons (2 GBs the last time). Is there a way to pinpoint the cause of this
problem? Normally I only run a few apps at a time, such as OE, IE and Word.
The only changes I made prior to this issue was updating DirectX from the
original version (6.1) to version 7.0a. I also updated the sound card
drivers. Any help is greatly appreciated.


System Specs
Windows 98SE
HP4535 with ...
Intel i810 chipset (w integrated video)
Celeron 400
Maxtor 10GB EIDE HD
320 MB PC100 SDRAM
8x CD-ROM
Diamond MX300 sound card
floppy drive

I always heard that those freeware memory programs did not make much of a
difference. Am I wrong in thinking this, Mikhail?

"Mikhail Zhilin" wrote in message
...
Don't you use by chance any of the so-called "memory optimizing"
programs (like FreeMem etc.)?
--
Mikhail Zhilin
http://www.aha.ru/~mwz
Sorry, no technical support by e-mail.
Please reply to the newsgroups only.
======
On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 00:12:47 -0500, "Tim" wrote:

I have a Win98 system and the swap file has been ballooning to fill all
of
the free space of the HD, so large that "low memory" warnings appear. I
tried deleting the swap file in DOS but the newly-created version still
balloons (2 GBs the last time). Is there a way to pinpoint the cause of
this
problem? Normally I only run a few apps at a time, such as OE, IE and
Word.
The only changes I made prior to this issue was updating DirectX from the
original version (6.1) to version 7.0a. I also updated the sound card
drivers. Any help is greatly appreciated.


System Specs
Windows 98SE
HP4535 with ...
Intel i810 chipset (w integrated video)
Celeron 400
Maxtor 10GB EIDE HD
320 MB PC100 SDRAM
8x CD-ROM
Diamond MX300 sound card
floppy drive

"Dan" wrote in
:

I always heard that those freeware memory programs did not make much
of a difference. Am I wrong in thinking this, Mikhail?


http://www.winnetmag.com/windows/article/articleid/41095/41095.html

On Sat, 8 Jan 2005 06:59:16 -0700, "Dan" wrote:

I always heard that those freeware memory programs did not make much of a
difference. Am I wrong in thinking this, Mikhail?

These programs make things worse: so, they swap to HDD those portions of
RAM, which wouldn't be swapped were Windows works by its own.

Thus, both system slows down in average (because of the superfluous HDD
operations, which are much more slow than RAM operations), and swap file
becomes inflating with no need.

See, for example, Jim Eshelman's (MS MVP) article
"Windows 98 & WinME Memory Management",
http://aumha.org/win4/a/memmgmt.htm
--
Mikhail Zhilin
http://www.aha.ru/~mwz
Sorry, no technical support by e-mail.
Please reply to the newsgroups only.
======
"Mikhail Zhilin" wrote in message
.. .
Don't you use by chance any of the so-called "memory optimizing"
programs (like FreeMem etc.)?
..
On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 00:12:47 -0500, "Tim" wrote:

I have a Win98 system and the swap file has been ballooning to fill all
of
the free space of the HD, so large that "low memory" warnings appear. I
tried deleting the swap file in DOS but the newly-created version still
balloons (2 GBs the last time). Is there a way to pinpoint the cause of
this
problem? Normally I only run a few apps at a time, such as OE, IE and
Word.
The only changes I made prior to this issue was updating DirectX from the
original version (6.1) to version 7.0a. I also updated the sound card
drivers. Any help is greatly appreciated.


System Specs
Windows 98SE
HP4535 with ...
Intel i810 chipset (w integrated video)
Celeron 400
Maxtor 10GB EIDE HD
320 MB PC100 SDRAM
8x CD-ROM
Diamond MX300 sound card
floppy drive

Thanks Mikhail. I don't use freeware memory programs and know I now they
can hurt performance too.

"Mikhail Zhilin" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 8 Jan 2005 06:59:16 -0700, "Dan" wrote:

I always heard that those freeware memory programs did not make much of a
difference. Am I wrong in thinking this, Mikhail?

These programs make things worse: so, they swap to HDD those portions of
RAM, which wouldn't be swapped were Windows works by its own.

Thus, both system slows down in average (because of the superfluous HDD
operations, which are much more slow than RAM operations), and swap file
becomes inflating with no need.

See, for example, Jim Eshelman's (MS MVP) article
"Windows 98 & WinME Memory Management",
http://aumha.org/win4/a/memmgmt.htm
--
Mikhail Zhilin
http://www.aha.ru/~mwz
Sorry, no technical support by e-mail.
Please reply to the newsgroups only.
======
"Mikhail Zhilin" wrote in message
.. .
Don't you use by chance any of the so-called "memory optimizing"
programs (like FreeMem etc.)?
..
On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 00:12:47 -0500, "Tim" wrote:

I have a Win98 system and the swap file has been ballooning to fill
all
of
the free space of the HD, so large that "low memory" warnings appear.
I
tried deleting the swap file in DOS but the newly-created version
still
balloons (2 GBs the last time). Is there a way to pinpoint the cause
of
this
problem? Normally I only run a few apps at a time, such as OE, IE and
Word.
The only changes I made prior to this issue was updating DirectX from
the
original version (6.1) to version 7.0a. I also updated the sound card
drivers. Any help is greatly appreciated.


System Specs
Windows 98SE
HP4535 with ...
Intel i810 chipset (w integrated video)
Celeron 400
Maxtor 10GB EIDE HD
320 MB PC100 SDRAM
8x CD-ROM
Diamond MX300 sound card
floppy drive

Hello,
Thats it Gary, I have well overstayed my bodies ability to stay awake,
buuuuuuuut, I was silly enough to click on yet another post and what
did I find but the mention of a person haveing problems with his
computer after updating DirectX.
That flaming thing has me so scared now that I think I'll will not bother
about entertaining the thought of having it on my computer whether or
whether not my son wants a game;
I will let him play cricket in the back-yard instead, there is no directx
out there.
Its very late and I am very tired, I should not have even clicked on this
post, perhaps I will look at it in 8 hours and see if it makes a difference.
I havent even got around to looking at posts that I was a part of before
going away, Twice.
I think I need a holiday from the holiday, tenting is very draining.

regards Jane

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote in message
...
See my article, "Security!" http://grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

Also, use MSCONFIG (started from the Run box) to disable all background
apps. Be sure to physically disconnect from the internet before doing so,
since your antivirus will likely be disabled. See my other article, "Clean
Boot--What it is and why you need it."
http://grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm for more detailed instructions.

Restart after disabling the startup items (and other background apps like
Norton Antivirus that may not get disabled entirely.) See if the swap file
still grows. If not, then re-enable items one by one until you find the
culprit.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User

"Tim" wrote in message
...
I have a Win98 system and the swap file has been ballooning to fill all of
the free space of the HD, so large that "low memory" warnings appear. I
tried deleting the swap file in DOS but the newly-created version still
balloons (2 GBs the last time). Is there a way to pinpoint the cause of
this
problem? Normally I only run a few apps at a time, such as OE, IE and
Word.
The only changes I made prior to this issue was updating DirectX from the
original version (6.1) to version 7.0a. I also updated the sound card
drivers. Any help is greatly appreciated.


System Specs
Windows 98SE
HP4535 with ...
Intel i810 chipset (w integrated video)
Celeron 400
Maxtor 10GB EIDE HD
320 MB PC100 SDRAM
8x CD-ROM
Diamond MX300 sound card
floppy drive