Simviation Forums

Memory...What flippin' memory...?

Just have a peek at this... :o...!

Total Memory: 510Mb. (DDR). (The Maximum on Win '98!)
Used Memory: 507 Mb.
Free memory: 3 Mb.

Programs running: (Sorry, stuttering!). FS 2002
Explorer.
Systray.
Grab-Clip-Save. (To get this screenshot!).
(Plus some very small system programs required by Windows).

All other back ground programs shut down. (As you do!).

What do you make of that then...?
It's worse than "Freddy" suddenly appearing at the bottom of your bed in the middle of the night.... :o...!
....I reckon I've got some secret little gremlins using my memory to play "Space Invaders" in the background.... ::)...!
Mind you, at my age now, I do have some affinity with my computers memory. We both need each other desperately... :'(...!

System specs at the bottom of this post... 8)...!



Flying FS 2002 with 3 Mb of free memory is as mind altering as de-fragging my hard drive...>>>

http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/ ... 1081580941

Cheers all... ...!

Paul.

Paul I think this memory thing is to do with your age

Mark

Heya Paul!

I think FS2002 is memory adaptive - it loads as much of itself into free RAM as possible to give the best performance. I.e. FS2002 does not take up a specific amount of RAM, it just uses as much as is available. Try closing FS2002, leave the computer for a few minutes to get free RAM back again, and see how much is used/free then.

Cheers

Jonathan

Heya Paul!

I think FS2002 is memory adaptive - it loads as much of itself into free RAM as possible to give the best performance. I.e. FS2002 does not take up a specific amount of RAM, it just uses as much as is available. Try closing FS2002, leave the computer for a few minutes to get free RAM back again, and see how much is used/free then.

Cheers

Jonathan

Hi Johnathan...!
Ta Mate, will do...!
It's just that when I get this far into flying the sim, (FS 2002/2004), and the free memory is reduced to this small amount, the game struggles to find enough memory available, and the frame rates swap between 30 FPS, (see screenshot), and 6 FPS, resulting in a lot of stuttering... ...!
So...
I'll try your tip, shut down, wait, re-boot, close background progs and fire up FS 2002... ... ... ....!
Normally when things are going well, my frame rates hover around, (locked), 30 FPS with everything maxed... ....!

Cheers Jonathan....!
thanks for the reply... ...!

Paul.

Hi Paul!

Yup, I think that should give you better fps . The eye can't detect anything above 30fps so don't bother trying to get it any higher

Jonathan

PS. I found a utility a while ago that would insert itself into FS2002 & FS2004 and would automatically free memory for itself when it knew the stuff it was getting rid of would not be used again (for a while at least). For the life of me I cannot remember where I found it, but I'll have a look for you. I tried it and went from 20fps near a busy airport to more than 30

PPS. Jonathan not Johnathan (me being fussy ... no worries really )

I use EndItAll to stop unwanted processes (and you'd be surprised how many of those can pop-up)

This may not be connected but I find it useful. It sits in the control panel and allows you to take control of what programs run when you start up. May free your memory a bit and you wont have to use end-it-all so much!
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

Also his startup monitor program is useful too. It runs in the background and tells you when something registers a start-up program and allows you to stop that happening.
http://www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml

Birdman,

Another way of doing it instead of adding even more programs to your computer is to add another profile to your computer and name it gaming or whatever. In that profile use MSConfig or regcleaner or whatever and remove all the unwanted items from your start-up files. Disable all the services you won't need in that configuration, uninstall your printer, scanner, unused USB ports to free up resources etc... That way when you want to play a game, boot into that configuration and your done, thats it.

I just ran FS2002 with the fancy f16 and it showed usage by FS2002.exe as 154mb.........

I have a total of 1048mb with 664mb free as running above in winXP, with several other processes running.

The Gremlins gotcha!

Also Fozzer, if you got another 256mb stick lying around, drop it in and see what happens. I always ran 768mb in '98SE.

win xp has a handy task manager which shows you what programs are running and how much ram they are using....helped me sovle a problem with a memory leak with svchost.exe sod knows what it was but took 400 mb of ram up.. tried shutting the thing down and the whole system shut down lol.. reformatted and fine now

..........Also Fozzer, if you got another 256mb stick lying around, drop it in and see what happens. I always ran 768mb in '98SE.

Hi congo...!
..now you've got me really confused.... ...!
...just about everyone and his sister-in-law keeps telling me that Windows '98 SE cannot recognise anything more that 512 Mb of memory installed..... ...!
I have one more spare memory slot, (for another 256 Mb), but haven't used it because of the comments above... ...!
What do you reckon...?

Cheers congo... ...!

Paul.

P.S.   I was reluctant to purchase another stick of DDR memory, as it's a bit on the expensive side if it doesn't work.... ...!

Hi Paul!

I'm confused too now. I am sure that putting anything more than 512mb in Win98 slows it down

Congo, check your figures mate! I might be wrong though ...

Jon ... confused ...  ???

I have had this discussion several times in this forum, ie., about more than 512mb ram in Win'98.

I have been fortunate in the past few years not to be completely alone in my quest for performance. A good friend and his son have been experimenting and gaining skills along with me, the biggest difference between us being that they could afford all the toys, while I continuously struggled to keep up.

One of the side effects was that they went out and bought a couple gig of PC2100 DDR RAM which failed to configure in Win'98se, only 768mb of ram would work. (either 3x256mb or 1x512mb + 1x256mb). A surplus 256mb stick was then passed on to me! WooHoo!

Hi congo...!
Many, many thanks for your detailed reply...!
At the moment, providing I do a re-boot, and clear out all my back-ground programs before firing-up FS 2002/2004, the existing memory appears to be sufficient, but I will try another 256 stick of DDR memory so that I have plenty in hand....(768 Mb)... ;D...!
I don't have any problems with my frame rates providing I go through the sequence above...(30 FPS locked, everything maxed).

As for Win XP....
..this is a bit of a turn-off...

Quote>>
....and Service Pack 2 is now released in a "beta" version for public testing (a 256mb download mind you!).
<
...256 Mb download on dial-up...in my flippin' dreams...
LOL..LOL..LOL.. ...!

I think I'll stick to Win '98SE for a while yet, I've got used to all its little foibles, ie, Blue Screen Of Death, un-expected occurrences,  the dreaded Freeze, etc, etc....
It passes the time finding cures, and life would be quite boring without it... ...LOL...!

Cheers congo... ...!
..and many thanks again for the replies... ...!

Paul.

There's a program out there called "TuneUp Utilities 2004" you can get it off www.download.com.  It is payware ($40) but they give you 30 days free. Has a memory tune up utility that can automatically clear things up. I find it very useful. Comes with some other cool goodies as well.