Vcache tweaking produced odd result! 1

[KimLeece]

Hi everyone-

OK - I just changed my vcache settings via the recommendations I found at:

http://tweakhomepc.virtualave.net/memory/vcache.html

The original settings were minimum and maximum both set to 8196 - the recommendation for my laptop (Windows ME with 256Meg Ram) was - no minimum cache/maximum cache=196608 - to achieve "no minimum cache" I removed the minimum cache line completely - (I'm not sure if that was the right thing to do - should I have left in a line MinimumCache=0?)

When I rebooted everything seemed to be ok - except Sygate Personal Firewall didn't start. It also wouldn't start from the start menu. I reinstalled it and now it appears to be alright!
Can anyone explain what might have happened?

Further - the tweakhome site recommends adding the following lines:-

chunksize=2048
namecache=4096
directory cache=96

Can anyone explain to me what these lines are for? - and if they are of any use?

Kim Leece

 

[cdogg]

That tweak should not affect any installed apps, including Sygate Personal Firewall. That seems kind of strange - probably just coincidence.


Chunksize:
Common values for this are 128, 256, 512, 1024, and 2048. The rule of thumb: large hard drives/partitions (at least 10GB), you may want to set this to a larger value using multiples of 128. The default in the registry is 512 unless you specify it in the System.ini.


You might want to set the Chunksize value, but I wouldn't bother with the NameCache or DirectoryCache. To optimize both, do this instead:

1) Right-Click "My Computer" and go to Properties
2) Go to the Performance tab
3) Click the "File System" button
4) Change the role of the computer from Desktop to Network Server

** this tweak tells Windows to use more memory (an extra 8KB) to remember recently accessed folders and files. This setting wasn't recommended on pc's with less than 32MB. ~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein

 

[KimLeece]

cdogg-
Thankyou for the info!
My hard drive is 4.5 Gig - what would you recommend for chunksize?

Kim Leece.

p.s. I have noticed a definate improvement since changing the vcache!

 

[cdogg]

Thanks for the star!

OK, based on a 4.5GB hard drive, I wouldn't set it any higher than 1024. As a matter of fact, I would probably just leave it to the default without putting an entry in there at all.

It seems that the biggest improvement (other than upgrading your CPU/Motherboard) would be a new hard drive. Do you know if your motherboard supports ATA/100? Also, how many IDE devices do you currently have in your system (CDROM, HD, etc)??


~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein

 

[KimLeece]

Ok - thanks again-

Actually this is a laptop - HP Omnibook 4150 - I did some research a while ago and as far as I know the best improvement I could make was to change the harddrive to 6GB - this didn't seem worth it at the time as I can only have the one internal drive and it would mean moving everything through backups to the new drive - (however I am thinking about it again as I am considering putting XP on this machine - and that takes up loads of room especially when you install Japanese language support!) All in all it works fine as it is with ME though - so I am really wondering if it would be worth the hassle! I mean after all - I've built enough computers to know the old adage -
"If it's not broken - don't fix it!"
The only true benefit of XP would be that with Japanese language support installed it would work a lot better with Japanese peripherals/drivers/programs etc - but even that is limited as now I have found most of the workarounds/english driver versions that I need. The main exception being a PC Firewire card that has a lot of trouble on this machine -
But anyway - thanks again for the help and info - the star was the reward for the accurate and helpful information.

Kim Leece

 

[cdogg]

OK, so you have a laptop. With that in mind, I doubt you'll see much difference with a new hard drive. It depends on how old your laptop is. I believe most laptop hard drives today run only at 4200RPM (ATA/66). In comparison, there are ATA/100 and ATA/133 IDE hard drives that run at 7200RPM.

If you can upgrade to at least a 20GB drive, then I'd highly recommend it, though you might not notice much difference in performance.


~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein