Greetings Everyone: I have searched the archives before posting this question and I've not been able to find the answer to this qustion/s. I would like to know if anyone could advise me on the Max. Disk Cache for Hard Drive settings, Mim. Disk Cache, Cache Chunk Size, File Cache Settings, and CD - Rom Settings Max and Mim. My system and ram size is posted on here as you will see. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated from the wonderful and informative people on this GREAT and I mean GREAT site for help. Regards, Reno

You should get more ram. Windows 98SE only starts to run as it should if you have at least 128 mb. With the amount you have, your hard drive is not running to its full potential - it will with 128mb or more. You won't see much change after more than 192 mb, so getting a 128mb module, removing the 32 if you have only two slots, would be fine. Be aware that new 4 chip ram does not work on many older mboards. Max. Disk Cache for Hard Drive settings, Mim. Disk Cache, Cache Chunk Size,..... - where are you trying to set these? The bios? I would leave them alone if I were you, but you can probably dig that up on the net somewhere, if you really want to. The Auto settings should work fine for now. Ram settings in the bios - you may be able to tweak them higher. Go here for a description of, and a link to, a free utility that reads the tiny SPD identity chip present on all modern DIMM modules (SDRAM, etc.) - CTSPD - http://www.overclockers.com/tips448/ - this will tell you if the ram you got is generic crap (no brand name, CL3 or worse at top speed, little info). To find whether it is 2 or 4 clock, choose Extended Display - Modul and Device Attributes - bottom right corner. It can display this info for up to 8 Dimm's, one at a time. If all of your ram is CL2 at the bus speed you are using, you can change that setting in the bios to that. If all of your ram is 4 clock, change that setting. RIGHT click My Computer - System Properties - Performance tab - File System - Properties Hard disk tab - Typical Role - Network server is the best says Sysoft Sandra, but it doesn't make much difference CDRom tab - CDRom cache to max if X4 or faster System Properties - Virtual Memory - default is fine, but you don't need more than 200mb. You can really reduce your fragmentation by using a small hard disk partition for your Windows swap file (disk cache) - 200mb is a good size. Of course that takes preparation when you Fdisk your drive in the first place, or you can use a program such as Partition Magic to add it. This works best with Win 9x, ME. With XP, even if you do that, XP has to have some swap space on each hard drive as well, but at least fragmentation is reduced. You make your own settings, in Virtual Memory, and specify the tiny partition drive letter, using the whole drive. This does not show up when you save, and look at Virtual Memory again - it looks the same as when you started. You check that it is in effect by going to the drive letter of the tiny partition, and there should be the file Win386.swp - the Windows swap file (Windows disk cache, virtual memory). The size of this file will vary, depending on what you are doing. This drive will never need to be defragmented, and the fragmentation on your C: drive is greatly reduced. Drawbacks? Drive letter changes. For this reason it is best to do this when you first load Windows on the hard drive. For example, if you have one hard drive, one partition, the tiny partition will be D: and your cdrom drive will shift to E: if it was D: before. I get around this by selecting a drive letter that is higher in the alphabet, in Device Manager - CDRom - Settings. I use L:, and have ever since I loaded Windows. This is also recommended by Sysoft Sandra. Make sure DMA is turned on in Device Manager - Cdrom - (name of CDRom drive - Settings, and in Device Manager - Disk Drives - Generic IDE... - Settings for your hard drives (RIGHT click My Computer - System Properties - Device Manager) Defragging helps but it is over rated. It's often a combination of a lot of things that slow your computer down over time - a common one is most people have too many programs running, particularly ones that load when you first load windows. What is usually the real problem with slowdowns, other than not enough free hard drive space, is you are using too much of your Windows system resources, which are a fixed amount regardless of the amount of ram you have (but in XP you can now increase the amount to more). Reducing the number of these un-necessary programs frees up Windows system resources, and everything benefits. Load only the ones you use most often - you can always have icons to click on, rather than e.g. having something in your taskbar always running, when it only saves you a few seconds. Use Start - Run - type MSConfig - use Startup tab if you want to see what you load every time Windows loads - you can disable most non-essential programs from loading there simply by removing a checkmark, and re-enable them just as easily (a few will reappear as a second enabled entry). You can also do things such as loading fewer fonts, having fewer icons on your desktop, not loading a screen saver, not loading wallpaper, etc. You can see how much of your system resources are being used, and see which programs use how much, by looking in Start - Programs - Accessories - System Tools - System Information

Let windows manage your memory. The best thing you can do is get more memory as has been stated. Read this; http://aumha.org/a/memmgmt.htm

Dan: thanks for posting that link; he's put together quie a useful resource base; lots of useful utils too. trvlr