weird ram problem

[bmxfreakrider]

yes, i got a problem. on my 333mhz compaq(left of sig) i got 128mb ram installed. problem is, the most free memory i can get is about 40mb. what gives? i got nothing but critical system processes running, all visual effects disabled except for the startbar. so i went to system info/memory, and it listed both my graphics cards there. this confuses me a little, the mx4000 has 128mb, and the voodoo 2000 has 16mb. so i think i read somewhere that the graphics cards actually "use" the system ram. but thats just the half of it. yes, its an old pc, but it runs awsome. the deal is, when i try to open something, the mem usage skyrockets(say 30mb free, to 4mb, then the pc starts locking up, and the hdd goes nuts. now i do some old games on here, and they only need like 16mb of ram, but this is so insane, games made for 133mhz systems lag on this system. is there any way to get some of my ram back? i got 128 installed, and a peak of 40 free. heres a pic to show ya

and also another thing. i use photoshop frequently, and even 10mb more free ram would make such a difference. ne suggestions?

 

[talldude123]

Make sure that your MSconfig has everything disabled except for antivirus, and that only the needed services are set.

I think EricB made a file describing them all...

 

[bmxfreakrider]

i already did that, still no diff, except that the peak is 50mb now. photoshop is a little faster, but im shooting for a higher 3dmark2k1 score, right now i got 853, im trying to get at least 1000, so maybe an os with less features will do it. i use ms word, so i dont need notepad or whatever, i dont print on this(i use a mem stick) and i never use wmp. i got a 40 partioned with 2 20's(well, 18.3) one with 2000 pro sp4 for when xp craps out, and xp for when i need to use it for music, i need the advanced audio featues that xp has to offer, cause i use line in from my sandisk. im thinking about putting 98 on the first partion, and maybe a tweakd xp that uses less resources. but, im still curious, why is my graphics cards using my ram, when they got their own memory? i got a stick of 133mhz 512mb sdram, but this is 66mhz, and the bios recognises the chip as 512, but, when it starts loading windows, it bsod's. i dont have ne overclocking support on here, and compaq wont give ne more releases for the bios. on the origional bios, it only supported 128mb total ram, now it supports 512mb, but only 256 per slot. gay isnt it?

EDIT: wait, is there any possible way to mod the bios, to give it overclocking support, or some how make it support memory? even if i did oc it, it wouldnt matter, i got like 3 of these 333mhz slot 1 processors.

 

[talldude123]

Your graphics card might be using the onboard RAM because it doesn't have the right drivers installed, or it's just a BIOS issue.

Have you looked into the BIOS and made sure that no memory is being used for the video card?

*Your video cad is the 3DFusion Geforce MX4000 right?

 

[bmxfreakrider]

i got a 3dfuzion geforce mx4000(128mb pci full size version) and a 3dfx voodoo3 2000(16mb pci fullsize)

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

I would suggest ditching Windows XP, and opting for an older OS (98 as you mentioned), or find another stick of RAM... they are too much.

 

[bmxfreakrider]

i got like 6 64mb chips, 2 128 chips, and a 512 chip. my dads pc has the 2 128 sticks, this has 2 64, the 512 wont work on either pc(it was for my old 133mhz fsb hp). is there any way to give an xp feel to an older os, i can take care of the sounds easy, the problem is the statbar and the titlebar on windows. is there any way to make those in 98 or 2000 to look like xp without having to use any of my valuable memory and mhz up?

as you guys said above, wrong driver is possible, its using the xp supplied driver. ill try reinstalling the drivers, and forceware.

k i updated the mx4000 drivers, got forceware 77.77, but they dont make drivers for the voodoo3 2000 nemore. and installing the drivers and forceware made the memusage go up, so i got less memory now. im gonna retry 3dmark and see if it did nething.

 

[talldude123]

Windowblinds will give you the "XP look" on a different OS, but will take your memory.

Best bet would be to use XPLite.

 

[bmxfreakrider]

or, better known as xp starter edition. you can only have a limited number of programs running(i multi task alot), its very limited. basic networking, no features, and most of all:::no ftp support, which i do for some freinds(only on wednesday). im seriously considering 98 as my primary, and xp for my music sync for my sansa. the only prob with 98, is that there is barley any programs that support it, the usb drivers are very limited, and i got alot of usb things. but, if i do reinstall both os'es, id have to clean out all of my drives, back up all my stuff, and whatnot, because last time i installed xp, it froze on the formatting part for my 40gb and i rebooted, then the 40 was wiped, and the 80 had a "lost or damaged partition". should take me no less than 5 hours total to do the deed, so ill go and get on that.

Final Idea:
partition the 40 with 2 20's, clean the 80, install 98 on c, xp on d, restore all my stuff on G(80), and somewhere in there, clean the inside of my pc. sounds like im gonna have a fun night, and reburn my 98 and xp disks.

 

[talldude123]

What about Win 2000? It requires only 133Mhz and 96MB RAM.