Memory Footprint

How well are you managing your precious memory? I hear lots of complaints from users about being short on memory with "only" 32mb.

One user I know has 16mb of storage filled with frivilous crap. They autoload needless TSR junk wasting more RAM. They have a 1mb bitmap wallpaper. They never empty their IE cache. They have <3mb of program RAM after boot. They wonder why they can't load more than one decent program or work on a fair sized document without getting RAM low errors. They curse and swear at their "crappy little hpc". There's no need for any of that nonsense if you plan a little and are willing to do some work.

I have my RAM intensive programs like Netfront, Acrobat, Conduit Artist, Calligrapher, Resco Explorer & Picview, HPCnotes Pro, Portrait, Text & Planmaker, and many more all installed on a storage card. The only programs installed to RAM are CeAgenda, WR Resinfo and my NIC drivers. I could have installed CEAgenda and Resinfo to the CF for more RAM savings but I like them to autolaunch at reset. Testing & moving the Resco files and dll's was challenging.

With hacks 'n whatnot I managed to move nearly every dll to my CF card. Everything runs great and loads more than fast enough for my needs.I left IE and NF3 caching to RAM so I allocated some space for them in my storage RAM. IE/NF3 run too slowly caching to my CF card.

Net Results: 5120kb allocated as storage RAM with only 1920kb used. (tiny footprint!!)
The remainder of my RAM (27076kb) is for my programs and seems to be more than enough. I can open several large programs at once and work on multiple tasks without worrying much about memory.

So how's your setup?

MobilePro 790 users are lucky in this respect because they have an Internal Flash ROM which provides an extra 14MB of 'safe' storage for files and applications. I have many programs installed in that area which leaves the 32MB RAM practically untouched and dedicated as program memory

On other devices with only the 32 meg I think it does make sense to install most programs on external memory cards, even with a small speed/inconvenience factor. This is especially true for larger applications such as TextMaker and Acrobat Reader.

uh-oh. when i was using a 720 (with 32 MB ram), i had 6-7 MB for storage out of which 1 MB was free - that's enough for IE, because it doesn't really use it even if cache is enabled (maybe it does its job using the program ram?). netfront again doesn't make good use of cache, so the default 1 MB is enough for it.
and the remaining 25-26 MB was enough for everything else. i didn't have to try tweaks etc
a question for you, wally: how much time does it take launching netfront from CF? did you have it installed first into ram? (if not, you've lost some capabilities of netfront.)
lextre, yeah, if only i had a little flash ram. if i understand correctly, it behaves for programs just like "plain" ram, doesn't it? for example netfront would behave perfectly, just as if it were installed into ram. and can you do autolaunch with the programs installed there too?
anyway, now on the 728 it's 14 MB of storage (13 used), with netfront, destinator (map program, must be installed in ram) whatnot. but that should be no problem hahaha

Every program I install on the CF card, only the "taskbar programs" (mute, batterystatus, taskmgr ect) and drivers (wlan driver, size1 MB) I've installed in RAM. Also the DLL plugins (like smalltweak) I've installed in RAM. My Documents is a map on the storagecard, and IE cashes also on storagecard.


I have installed something like 30 programs at my Intermec 6651, using (after a soft reset) 4 MB for program memory, 4,4 MB for storage and 10.5 MB for program files on cf card. 16 MB is reserverd for storage and 16 for program because the largest program is using max. 16 MB

With my J720 is it also the same. I've installed 40 programs, using also 4 MB program memory (afte a soft reset), 4.5 MB for storage and the Storagecard/Programfiles folder is about 40 MB! 11 MB is reserverd for storage and 21 for program because the largest program is using max. 21 MB

Not exactly. The MP790 has Internal Flash ROM not extra RAM. All program, regardless of where they're stored, still need to be loaded into the 32MB RAM as running programs. The advantage of the Flash ROM is that none of the standard 32MB needs to be used as STORAGE for the applications files as is the case on most other HPC's. And yes, programs can 'autolaunch' from this area too.

Jornada 728 owners with 64MB or J720 owners who have had their RAM upgraded to 64MB, do of course also have an advantage here since they can also install more applications and are less likely to get the dreaded out of memory messages.

I really like the Flash ROM feature on the MP790 though as managed carefully, even if the MP's batteries run completely flat there is a good chance of any files and apps stored in that special area being recovered when recharged

Wally,

That big 800+ KB DLL of Textmaker, were you able to move that successfully to a CF card?

I remember trying to do that, and not having TM work properly. Obviously, I have TM installed on a CF card, but its installation does drop the huge DLL into \windows.

Jake

lextre, maybe you partly misunderstood me. i know flash rom (not the correct name though) is not plain ram. i wanted to know if it's like "storage" ram and NOT like CF. but still, you answered my question. so i knew right. i really envy now 790 users though my 728's 64 MB ram is ok.

weell i'm using textmaker from CF. i had some hard resets and did not reinstall textmaker, so i'm sure that dll is no longer in the windows folder. but the program works happily. but maybe i'm missing sthing that would be handy but not working. so, what isn't working for you if you don't have that dll in win folder? thanks!

Maybe here we should call it Flash ROMRAM? I think (and I'm guessing wildly) maybe NEC decided to call it Flash ROM because a) 2mb of the 16 is dedicated to ROM-based system file updates and b)because if they had called it Flash RAM that doesn't really distinguish it from the 'plain' old 32mb memory onboard.

I think 'protected RAM' is a more fitting term but that would perhaps make things more complicated than they need to be for the average user.

>>so, what isn't working for you if you don't have that dll in win folder?<<

Jeez, I can't remember. I do remember problems--it was a couple of years ago, when Tweaks2K was helping everybody store their cookies, etc. in the CF--and I remember talking with Henri Spagnolo, and both of us agreeing that the DLL needed to be in \windows.

But could I be any more vague ? You've piqued my interest. I'll drop the DLL into the TM folder and see what happens.

So you have all TM programs files stored on your CF?

Jake

yep, all on CF.
i reinstalled it now (on my testmachine ), and i cannot see any 800 K dll in windows folder! nothing else, at all. only a hlp file. so strange, isn't it. maybe that's in a previous (or newer ) version only?

it wasn't NEC who decided to call it flash rom it's a much more widely used term.
protected ram? some of the psion machines have a protected ram area, that's real ram, but the OS is loaded into it.

Hi, Cmonex,

The TM DLL in \windows is this one: smw1gce.dll, weighing in at a heft 819KB.

Do you find that in your \windows?

Jake

yes i know i should search for this one. but it isn't there!
(totalcommander, showing hidden+rom files enabled)

what happens if you copy that dll to CF?

Well, I'll copy mine to storagecard2\softmaker and we'll see. Do you have that DLL in your storage card at least. I'm running TM's latest version. rev 405.

Jake