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Horrible performance on Win2k AMD box

last year I upgraded my WIN2K box to 1 GHz. But its performance has been horrible. It is grinding data in and out of virtual memory far more than it should. Taskmanager's perfromance says that there is lots of physical memory available. Here is what I have tried:
- adding more RAM 256 to 384
- defraging the HD
- fixing the size of virtual memory

None of this seems to have fixed the problem. Any suggestions?

CrazyOne

Memory Performance Tweak
http://www.windowsxpatoz.com/cgi-bin/performance/index.cgi?answer=1036284180&id=1036282433

These Settings will fine tune your systems memory

management -atleast 256MB of ram recccomended

go to start\run\regedit -and then to the following key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

1.DisablePagingExecutive -double click it and in the decimal put a 1 - this allows XP to keep data in memory now instead of paging sections of ram to harddrive yeilds faster performance.

2.LargeSystemCache- double click it and change the decimal to 1 -this allows XP Kernal to Run in memory improves system performance alot

3.create a new dword and name it IOPageLockLimit - double click it and set the value in hex - 4000 if you have 128MB of ram or set it to 10000 if you have 256MB set it to 40000 if you have more than 512MB of ram -this tweak will speed up your disckcache

Reboot and watch your system fly
-----------------------------

Swap File Tweak
http://www.windowsxpatoz.com/cgi-bin/performance/index.cgi?answer=1036282590&id=1036282433

For Users with 256 MB RAM or more this tweak will boost their Windows- and Game-Performance.
What it does: It tells Windows not to use any Swap File until there is really no more free RAM left.

Open the System Configuration Utility by typing msconfig.exe in the RUN command. There in your System.ini you have to add "ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1" under the 386enh section.

Restart your Windows and enjoy better Game performance
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1

CrazyOne

Also set the max and min of the pagfile to the same size. This will prevent defragmentation.

Defragmentation of the pagefile can pull down performance.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

rustyrpage

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SimonL-UK

What is your Win2K box doing - is it a server or workstation?
A couple of things to try:

1) Install/reapply Service Pack 3 and running Windows Update.

2) Check for any driver problems/issues/updates

3) Defrag your paging file using System File Defragmenter from SysInternals

msubasic

ASKER

Though this was not the most sophisticated answer (and the one I didn't want to do), it did work.

Thanks to everyone who pitched in (especially CrazyOne).