?overenthusiastic memory management nobbling my Winamp

Hi good people

Win98 notSE, only32MB, 30GB & 40GB HDD, 100MHz P1 noMMX

my older 30GB HDD started making noises and, worrying it would fail, I bought a 40GB.

...discovered the 30GB was actually OK after all, all was wrong was it had come slightly loose on its mounting - so very happy about that, both drives fitted -> everything backed up and squeaky clean new install of Windows on the new drive. Couldn't be better but...

...now I have trouble with Winamp (running v2.75 as no MMX) - it stutters and hiccups

Using System Monitor gives clue; looking at "Unused Physical Memory" gives the game away; looks like a staircase going down every 10 seconds or so until almost no unused memory left: every "step down" makes Winamp stutter.

It didn't do this before I put in the new HDD. Looked like a staircase, but didn't make Winamp stutter...

...beforehand I had a 730MB HDD as D:, I used to put the swapfile onto it. If I just left the swapfile on C: where Windows puts it Winamp would stutter a bit (but not nearly as badly as now)

(Apart from the stuttering on the sound, Winamp AVS is working a lot better. It used to lock up for a second or so when first going to fullscreen mode on the older setup, this no longer happens.)

C:, E:, F:, G:, H:, I:, were the partitons of the 30GB as master on primary IDE. The 730MB D: was master on second IDE with CDROM as slave...

...so I though I was being clever putting the swapfile onto the other ribbon cable, trying to give it "go faster stripes" (it certainly need them!), it seemed to be working well, AVS and all

now Winamp stutters whichever drive, partition, cable I put the swapfile on - I've tried all the combinations.

Can it be that what I was actually doing was slowing down the memory recovery / reallocation process? Both the 30GB and the 40GB have 2MB cache, and the machine is very processor-challenged... is it possible that this cache is providing such a burst as to make the paging process go too quickly for the CPU to cope with other tasks? Seems weird, but...

I don't wan't to put the Quantum drive back in if I can avoid it. Mixing HDD manufacturers has given awful problems (mucks up FATs and boot areas) as the two EZ-BIOS won't play with each other

If I could, say, halve the size of the "chunk" the memory manger is using to reallocate the physical memory I'm sure I could get away with it

a smaller chunk size, or some way of slowing it down just a notch maybe?

(I tried increasing the process priority class from normal to high on the Winamp Options menu with no discernable effect)

Thanks in advance, Hugh

(I know the proper way out is to get a "proper" PC with true EIDE, will do soon as poss. But would dearly like to get this one going for the moment)

 

Hugh

I'm headed to bed but try this quickie if you have not already done it.

Device mgr HD controller set it to use DMA and reboot. If it don't like DMA it will revert back to default. If It was not DMA and it takes this may fix the stutter and HD speed in general.


MikeZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

Hi Mike

thanks for replying, superquick too! - hope you got some quality kip.

I've had a look as you suggest - but can find no mention of DMA either on the HD controllers or the properties for the HDDs themselves

(perhaps cannot DMA through this pesky EZ-BIOS?)

looking at the "resources" for the HD controllers, I tried unchecking the box for "use automatic settings" to see if that would produce any further options; but it told me that I wasn't allowed to change settings...

I did Computer Properties>View Resources for DMA. I see two entries for Sound Blaster (01 and 07); one for floppy (02); one for ECP (03); and one for DMA controller (04)

Reserve resources shows nothing at all for DMA

while in system properties I also tried Peformance>FileSystem and took the read-ahead down a notch for 64k to 32k to see what would happen - made it quite a bit worse

same place, tried changing "typical role" away from Desktop PC; all changes here also had adverse effect

reckon I have to try with that old Quantum 730MB; I did zero-fill it (maxtor utility - had been warned to use the utility from the same mfr. as the drive) - which made the EZ-BIOS "war" less heavy.

But it's still a dodgy business. I shall be extremely careful - usually end up with boot sector of C: mucked up. It will boot through it when this happens but to a very unhappy PC, has caused chaos in the past. At least I now have spare partitions so will have everything backed up before trying.

Could try booting from startup floppy after reconfiguring the HDDs - scandisk for there - probably best bet...

there's nothing easy about this EZ-BIOS - the thing's lethal - any reconfiguration of the IDE devices causes carnage. Unless only one mfr. involved both before and after (taking 'em out's just as bad)

All The Best, Hugh.

 

...have now got screenshot from friend's (more normal) PC; confirms the DMA checkbox on "settings" tab of Hard Disk properties just ain't there on my PC

not grayed out: just not there at all

that's on the Hard Disk properties, not the controller; I'm getting him to take similar for the HD controller to see what gives...

**edit** maybe?? the 730MB was FAT16 so its clusters must be far bigger than on either of the big FAT32 drives

...so a given size chunk of swapfile would mean far fewer FAT entry updates. Could that be what's overloading it on the FAT32 drives - needing to rewrite masses more FAT entries?

Kernel Processor only shows 20% or so when this is happening. Other things make the Winamp stutter true - always have done - but these are all things which stick CPU at 100% as well

Best Wishes, Hugh

 

Hi Hugh

Just got in from work. Looked in from there but to busy to reply then.

I will look at this more after I have something to eat.

I have never noticed this being related to EZ-BIOS, it is more related to hardware.

Do you have specific chipset drivers or windows default generic. What you need is the latest Motherboard chipset drivers I think if possible to get DMA.

What is the brand of HD controller.

Mike

 

Hi Mike

the controllers look like they are generic: for both I see "Standard IDE/ESDI Hard Disk Controller" using driver files
ESDI_506.pdr and
IOS.vxd

Manufacturer of Hard Disk Controller just shows
(Standard Hard Disk Drives)

I'm now really thinking that it's got to be down to changing FATs - or to delay due to the translation done by the EZ-BIOS - 'coz every time I use the 730MB for the swapfile as D: it works.

But put the swapfile on either larger WD FAT32 and it doesn't - tried all the configurations I can find (switched 30GB and 40GB; swapfile on C: like Windows wants; swapfile on other partition of same big drive; swapfile on other physical drive; all stutter)

the motherboard BIOS limit is 8.4GB - so the 730 MB works straight through...

So to summarise as I see it - what's altered:
1. FAT32 so rewriting 4x as many clusters for given memory recovery chunk
1a. biggest "chunk" ~500MB but even smaller chunks will make it stutter.
2. faster transfer rate and
3. 2MB buffer on the bigger drives designed for ATA66 (30GB) or ATA100 (40GB)
4. bigger drives have to translate through EZ-BIOS

am going away until Thursday - it's a Compaq Prolinea5100 - if I can find out the chipset I'll try and post details before I go

found out the problem is not as bad if I really clobber the PC with lots and lots of tasks - but still nowhere near useable.

the Winamp is such a lightweight task! (apart from the AVS) - it's the only thing I run which cannot handle getting held up for other things to complete.

The sound file is getting buffered for about half a second I think - depends on bitrate.

I'm getting a new computer! somehow! have decided. Anyway got to think about bloated software and proper firewall nowadays, can't get away with it anymore. Can't even run Zone Alarm properly on this one. And its only 8 years old - has date stamp inside

thanks tons again for your help

Good Luck and Best Wishes, Hugh

 

Mike I'll be going back home later today & will open the box and get the numbers off the chips
I tried trawling the Compaq site and a few other ideas whilst away, but no joy
would have opened it before I went but the PC above it in the stack was in heavy use
Best Wishes, Hugh

 

had a look at the numbers on the chips but they are Compaq reference numbers

a few also had manufacturers logos (Texas and NEC) and numbers, these I tracked down but none was HDD controller

pesky thing is crammed full of ASICs they even use one for half of COM1

there's a big square ceramic job (only Compaq numbered + date code) looks like it's for the HDDs but even this is hard to tell as their connectors are on a daughter board with the PCI and ISA slots

no joy whatsoever from Compaq + tried trawling their forums

unless anyone knows of a cross-reference for the Compaq numbers I'm stuck

but it doesn't matter - I gave up and put the Maxtor730MB back in - just means putting up with FAT mending after I've done a backup

BTW the EZ-BIOS is Seagate! according to System Information...

tried the other way of doing the larger HDDs - jumpered to misreport the size to the BIOS - also enabled the DASP on the Maxtor (jumpers on drive) (=Digital Adaptive Speculative Preprocessing, not the anti-shock DASP). Just tried all the permutations to see what worked. No real idea what the DASP does...

ended up ~60% faster with no stutters on the memory paging! works a dream I can now leave the real-time virus buster on all the time, may even get it to handle ZoneAlarm that would be really good.

have a horrible feeling this DASP thing may work in cahoots with firmware in the ceramic unknown chip? It was the drive that shipped with the PC after all.

I'm getting a new PC! The Compaq is too canny about "only replace with Compaq part number..." Even the RAM - looks like normal 72pin SIMMs (FPM/EDO) but it works off 2V6 not 3V3 - the whole thing's cranky and too old for spares

Thanks tons Mike and everyone - if anyone knows a source for Compaq documentation that would be megauseful... but I'm going to divert the energy into getting something a bit better now.

Best Wishes, Hugh