An outstanding issue

I’ve never been particularly adept at this topic, but today I decided to tackle two rather peculiar issues that have arisen with my IBM 330. Now, after a long period, this gem, thanks to the assistance of others, has been improved and is functioning quite well. However, during the various tests that have since been conducted, I’ve noticed two problems that I had only mentioned in passing previously, without ever really insisting on their resolution.

I had noticed these issues in the past, and perhaps this is also why I decided, in addition to it being my preferred operating system, to continue using Windows 95 instead of 98SE. Between the two operating systems, Windows 95 seems to manage RAM much more efficiently and makes better use of the processor.

Let me explain further: when I use programs or watch videos, Windows 95 performs much better than Windows 98SE. In fact, starting with RAM management, Win95 handles it better. Practically, if during the various operations I perform, the memory is used up and only 10 or 20% of it remains free, once each type of operation I carry out is completed, whether it’s work-related or simply watching a video (which is what uses the most RAM, even reaching 99% of RAM used), once you stop watching a video or performing another operation, as expected, the RAM is freed up, and 80% of it becomes available again.

I’ve noticed that this doesn’t happen with Windows 98SE. If I perform the same operations as with Windows 95, once I stop each operation the RAM isn’t freed up and always remains full until I restart the PC. This causes a significant slowdown in my PC, since the RAM is full and if no operation is performed, it still remains full, for no apparent reason. Using programs to clean and free up RAM has no effect. I don’t understand why!

As for the use of the processor, Windows 95 is able to play MPEG videos at a resolution of 426x240 in normal or good quality without any issues. With Windows 98SE, this isn’t possible, since during the playback of the movie, it occasionally freezes for less than a second every few seconds. The processor works at 100%, and struggles to play the video smoothly, which doesn’t happen with Windows 95. The processor always works at 100% but the videos never freeze.

Does anyone know why Windows 98SE behaves abnormally in this way?

Check this thread
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=84776
They mentioned "DMA"
Before changing any setting for DMA, it's important to know it can result in erasure/corruption requiring a reinstall

I'm curious what your DMA setting is set to in Control Panel > System > Device Manager > Disk Drives > (Whatever device it is) > Properties > Settings

Also what do your BIOS settings for Hard Drive say? Is there a DMA setting in there?

DMA has nothing to do with the memory manager, it (in this case) allows ATA devices to operate out of PIO mode. When you originally installed the machine, enabling DMA was one of the things that I had you do, whether you did it subsequently...

But to the question. I suspect that Windows 98's VCache on your older hardware (I forget how much RAM you have) is the cause. VCache uses main RAM to hold information that the system thinks it might need again. It is slower to unload and re-load applications from RAM, when the data can be left in RAM and simply marked as cleanable. This means that you aren't waiting for CPU cycles to free RAM when you exit commonly used apps and if you re-open a commonly used app, it does not need to be retrieved from the hard drive, but is already in RAM. The down side is that once RAM is full, the first process to need the RAM has to wait while VCache clears expungable memory.

What the 9x task manager doesn't do is clarify that. subsequent versions could display/do display the cache allocation.

You can try tweaking it, even disabling it, if you want to expriment.
http://www.putergeek.com/vcache/
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/memmgmt.php

Regarding the DMA it is obviously enabled, both on Windows 95 and 98SE. Videos only play smoothly on windows 95. I don't understand why.
The installed RAM is 160 MB.
The two links are very interesting, but if I have read and translated correctly, they talk more about increasing the vcache depending on the physical RAM installed and do not mention anything about emptying it.
As for the slowness in freeing physical RAM, in my case it doesn't free it at all. I remember leaving the PC for 5 minutes without doing anything, and in those 5 minutes, the RAM was never freed up, as Windows 95 regularly did.
The explanation explains that:
If Windows has anything at all it can do with the RAM, then free RAM is wasted RAM. Windows will try to make use of all of the RAM it can, for one good purpose or another. This benefits the user. Having unused RAM rarely benefits the user.
I'm not too sure as this slows down the entire operating system. I noticed it accentuatedly when I was running tests with Windows 98SE.
The only setting I should try to change is the following if I'm not mistaken: ConservativeSwapfileUsage ??

Edited by NarakuITA 2024-04-01 10:48 AM

Video playback is really dependent on the display driver, so I'd start there. What driver is it currently using?

Cached RAM won't free, that's the entire point.

Having things sitting in RAM won't harm anything, having too little RAM will force the OS to page memory onto the hard drive and that will kill performance. If it is paging, System Monitor will tell you pretty quickly (start > programs > accessories> system tools)







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As for the RAM advice, I will be able to see, when I install Windows 98SE, if I want to try to do other tests. Now I'm thinking about it, maybe one of these days I'll change the CF and try to install all of Windows 98SE.
Regarding the installation of video drivers, I use a package that has video card drives inside, from Windows 95 up to Windows ME. It's basically the same installation package. I would also like to point out that I also did a test with Windows ME and video playback worsened even further compared to Win 98SE.
I had an idea, perhaps wrong but a personal idea.
Could it be that videos play less smoothly than in Windows 95 because later operating systems are heavier and take up more resources? Windows 95, not consuming as many resources, can concentrate on playing videos better than 98 and ME, since being heavier, there are fewer resources available to play the video smoothly.

So I'm trying to make a text with Windows 98SE. Now before addressing the main memory issue, I realized that I have no drivers for the ACTisys IR device model ACT-IR220Lplus infrared device.
I don't have drivers for Windows 98SE.
I tried downloading those from the site https://www.actisys.com/Downloads.html
They don't work and are only usable for 30 days then you have to buy them...
Any help?



Edited by NarakuITA 2024-04-08 3:41 PM

I tried everything but nothing. I also installed the windows 95 drivers. It installed them without errors and the device shows up in device manager, but it doesn't work. I tried to install on WIndows ME and 2000 and nothing works.
It seems that the only supported operating system is Windows 95. I don't understand why!

This is the situation. Windows 98SE installed and updated with CD 2004. Only OfficeXP and everything you need to sync your HP handheld, installed.
As you can see from the image, with the passage of time and use of the PC, the RAM decreases and when no operation is carried out, the RAM always remains full.

Cacheman reports that free physical RAM is 0 out of 163MB of RAM. 100% RAM used. The PC does not perform any operations but remains full.



Here we can see a strange and constant 25% CPU usage.
Memory allocated above 244MB.
Disk cache size above 122MB.
The two details of Swapping: 122MB.
Swapping used approaches you have 73MB.
Etc., etc.



Edited by NarakuITA 2024-04-24 1:59 AM

It won't support USB sync but you can run ActiveSync 3.8 on Windows 95
https://www.hpcfactor.com/support/cesd/200076/using_activesync_371_38_under_windows_95/

Also, I've loosely been following your stories with Windows 95 vs Windows 98SE on this machine.

Have you ever tried Windows 98 First Edition to see if it's somehow a bit faster than 98SE?

I mean, I doubt it - but just curious if that would help the issues you're having.

BUT: if you have a working install you're happy with, I guess I'd leave it alone.

Try Process Explorer for 98, see if you can identify what process is eating it: https://eternallybored.org/misc/procexp/

It would be nice to use Windows 95 ActiveSync 3.8 but unfortunately I couldn't synchronize the HP handheld.

Here is the current situation, without the PC doing anything. Memory practically almost 100% used for no reason. And with the passage of time 0 free MB on 160MBs available. Then the PC begins to slow down drastically.



EDIT:
The problem is solved! Finally after a long time I understood what the problem was. Apparently after a bit of testing, I discovered that by changing the Compact Flash to another brand, Windows 98SE works fine. RAM is used and when no operations are performed it is freed.
Furthermore, the TuneUp Utilities 2003 memory optimization program works perfectly. It can free up more memory if necessary, something it couldn't do before.

Edited by NarakuITA 2024-04-24 1:57 PM

In process explorer you should be able to change the column view so that you can see how much RAM each process is consuming (at least you can in modern versions).

As for your statement r.e. a solution. That makes no sense to me, but okay Defective controller causing an interrupt issue perhaps?

Good investigation work and odd surprise.

CF card problems sometimes can be resolved by: using older model, using different model/brand, using smaller size, fixing/updating drivers... I thought the SD cards caused more issues typically.

Yes, it's very strange. But it seems that Windows 98 works very well now. I will do more tests to confirm this theory. Anyway, no, the program does not allow you to list which programs are using the most RAM. Or I can't find the relevant option. But it doesn't seem to be there.
Now all I have to do is understand why the infrared device doesn't work with WIN98 even though there are the relevant drivers on the Windows installation CD.