Windows crashes with Video playback

Well, my IBM 330, if you remember, had windows 2000 all updated, however, however optimized it was, I had to take another 32GB CF and install Windows 95. This is because unfortunately, after various uses, I opted to go back to the my favorite Windows, 95 which is much lighter.
Now for those who remember, I had taken an ATI RADEON 7000 video card, but this could not be used, as it is not compatible with my motherboard, and the operating system did not start, giving beeps, when starting the PC.
Under Windows 95 I managed to get the ATI RADEON 7000 to work, the only problem is that I can't "restart" the pc otherwise it crashes. For the rest it works perfectly. I also installed the device which is not compatible under windows 95; LogiLink USB2.0 PCI Card, with unofficial drivers. So I'm able to use USB 2.0 without problems.
Now we come to the problem of videos. If I play short videos, which are on CD or 500GB external disk, under 10 minutes, there is no problem.
If I play videos that are 20 minutes or longer, which are on a CD, nothing happens, no problem, the video plays just fine.
But if I play the same long video, 20 minutes or more, which is on the 500GB USB external disk, Windows 95 crashes and blue screen appears.
How come?

I have noticed, with an external program, the consumption of RAM during video playback. This goes to 0MB. It's all used up. Could this be the problem?
However it also happens if the video is on CD but Windows 95 doesn't crash.
It crashes only if the same video is on the External USB Drive.

Although there is risk of damaging the CF card, maybe you can try expanding the virtual memory (pagefile). That will virtually "expand" the RAM by enabling the disk (CF in this case) to be the virtual memory.
It might make the video playback really slow, but it might not crash... (The RAM that is eaten up will be replaced by virtual memory.)

Back when I was using Windows XP with like 256MB of RAM, I remember increasing the virtual memory to view more internet sites' windows open...

Just a thought.

Some info on it here:
http://www.putergeek.com/virtual_memory/

-stingraze

Here I am late. Thanks so much for the suggestion.
I will try to do so.
However, I would like to point out that the problem does not arise if the video is on a CD or DVD.
If it was really a problem of RAM which is low, why doesn't Windows crash the same if the video is played from CD?

Hmm… Not sure but maybe there is enough buffer to transfer video from real disk drive but not USB drive? Maybe something to do with implementation of the USB drive driver… How big is your USB drive and what is it formatted in?

Try reading the movie from a memory stick, if that doesn't crash try (temporarily) completely disabling the swap file. See if it keeps crashing under those two configurations.

500GB disk formatted in FAT32

OK, by memory stick you mean the Compact Flash?
By "swap file" what do you mean and where does it disable?

EDIT:
Ha ok, I get it.
I copied the whole movie to C (CF) and it doesn't crash. Windows doesn't crash.
Now if I understand correctly the "swap file" is virtual memory, right?
But if I disable it won't it cause more problems? Since during playback the memory runs out and drops to 0MB.
Or that a virtual memory also on USB drives?
Is that the one I need to deactivate, not the one on main drive C?

Edited by NarakuITA 2023-03-12 11:52 AM

No, I mean USB

Control Panel, System, Performance, Virtual Memory

You just have to experiment and see what happens. Disable it, increase it, move it

So, I tried to increase the virtual memory; Minimum 320MB, maximum 512MB. The problem is not solved.
Then I tried to disable the virtual memory, the video can not be played due to lack of memory.
Not having a secondary disk I can not move the Virtual memory.

Can you try the same file on a FAT16 2GB USB drive?

A 2GB drive, but in Fat32 formatted with windows 95. The problem still occurs.

Some quote from Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_fault

"In computing, a page fault (sometimes called PF or hard fault)[a] is an exception that the memory management unit (MMU) raises when a process accesses a memory page without proper preparations. Accessing the page requires a mapping to be added to the process's virtual address space. Besides, the actual page contents may need to be loaded from a backing store, such as a disk. The MMU detects the page fault, but the operating system's kernel handles the exception by making the required page accessible in the physical memory or denying an illegal memory access.
Valid page faults are common and necessary to increase the amount of memory available to programs in any operating system that uses virtual memory, such as Windows, macOS, and the Linux kernel.[1]"

so, I guess the error is something to do with virtual memory... What is the largest you can allocate? Maybe try allocating a bit more?

-stingraze

Edited by stingraze 2023-03-13 8:01 PM

What version of Windows 95 are you on? I think OEM service release 2.5 (OSR2.5) had (in theory) the best usb support

I have exactly this one you mentioned.

I set the virtual memory:
Minimum: 512MB
Maximum: 1GB
Result: Crash
I don't understand, if I play the file from the main disk, no problem.
If I play the same file on CD, no problem
If I try to play the video from USB disk the system crashes...
In theory, if it's a memory problem, the system should always crash, but it doesn't....

Edited by NarakuITA 2023-03-13 10:49 PM