Paul Garceau wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> Without straying too far OT, I think it needs to be said that Win9x/Me
> do not handle resource management or systems scheduling very well. If
> you have something "not responding", it is likely because the OS hasn't
> gotten around to dealing with it and not because the process has had an
> error.
No, [Not Responding] - specifically on the TaskManager list - means the OS has
beaten loudly on the door [by queuing some kind of message] and the ap hasn't
gotten back to the message loop. Typically, no amount of time will fix the
problem unless, for example, some piece of hardware is not ready and you can make
it so.
The stated, and microsoft endorsed solution does indeed drastically decrease the
occurrence of the problems.
Having said all that, yeah MSWin98 is still a "toy" OS. I just don't have disk
for a dual boot and can't convince my family to love Linux.
>
> Cygwin is resource heavy as are most third party apps (such as
> ZoneAlarm) when it comes to Win9x/Me. Add too many processes and the
> OS will effectively freeze...guaranteed. Doesn't seem to matter how
> fast the cpu is. Nor does the amount of ram make much of a difference
> in reducing the frequency of such occurrences.
The amount of RAM is the least significant factor. Win98 resources are fixed
blocks of various types set aside by the OS, the limits on them are fairly low and
for some there is simply no way to increase them. You could buy a Gig of RAM and
you would still have 64K in the resource pool - I just don't know if that's 64K
total memory or 64K number of resource blocks. This stuff is way way down in the
innards of the beast.
You can run out of these resources somewhat gracefully, more often you run out
catastrophically. There ain't much help for it except to kill any extra aps, like
the weather forecaster in the systems tray.
I find Cygwin, OTOH, quite efficient in managing its resources.
>
>
> Peace,
>
> Paul G.
--
Being peacefully illustrious,
David A. Cobb
>
>
> On 1 Mar 2001, at 10:24, the Illustrious David A. Cobb wrote:
>
> > Bernard Dautrevaux wrote:
> >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: David A. Cobb [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> > > > Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2001 1:23 AM
> > > > To: Cygwin General MailList
> > > > Subject: Windows expertise needed: what are MinSPs
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Working in Xemacs-i686-pc-Cygwin-21.1.13 and a [virtual] host
> > > > of Cygwin
> > > > tools, when up popped the devil - BSOD - and said:
> > > > Stack Frames nearly exhausted, try increasing MinSPs in
> > > > SYSTEM.INI,
> > > > MinSPs = 4
> > > >
> > > You're running Win95 or Win98 isn't it?
> >
> > Win98se, yes.
> >
> > > There 32-bit DRIVERS are allocated a default 1-page stack (that is
> > > 4kbyte). If there is a stack overflow, Win98 will look in a pool of
> > > Spare Stack pages to grow the driver's stack. It's this set of spare
> > > stack pages you are increasing by setting MinSPs :-)
> > >
> > > Note that you must always increase it by 4 (i.e. set it to 8, 12,
> > > etc.) according to Microsoft... Now, why do you have stack overflows
> > > in 32-bit drivers is another history but you should have corrected the
> > > problem if you no more get the same message :-)
> > >
> > > HINT: have you installed anything on your computer recently?
> >
> > /Merci/ Bernard. I did install a barcode reader from "CRQ" recently.
> > Also, ZoneAlarm has a driver-like component IKEServices and I quite
> > often have seen ZA as the [not responding] application.
> >
> > I don't know yet how Cygwin does some of its magic without a driver-like
> > component, but it does chew up resources of some sort to maintain its
> > own process stack - a typical "ps" shows 6 or 8 Cygwin processes hanging
> > around waiting for someone to do something.
> >
> > The bottom line is that today with MinSPs=8 the things that were not
> > working before now work like a charm. Again, maybe we should all look
> > at that value on our machines and maybe a FAQ should suggest increasing
> > it if there are hangup problems. -- David A. Cobb, The Superbiskit !
> > Software Engineer, Public Access Advocate, All around nice guy. Get my
> > PGP key at
> > :<http://pgpkeys.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=superbiskit>
> > Fingerprint=0x{6E3E DB8C 2E8C 4248 62B2 FE29 08EE CF0A 3629 E954} "By
> > God's Grace I am a Christian man, by my actions a great sinner." --The
> > Way of a Pilgrim, R. M. French [tr.]
> > <---.----!----.----!----.----!----.----!----.----!----.----!----.---->
> >
> >
> >
> > --
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> >
> >
>
> Nothing real can be threatened.
> Nothing unreal exists.
>
> --
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--
David A. Cobb, The Superbiskit !
Software Engineer, Public Access Advocate, All around nice guy.
Get my PGP key at
:<http://pgpkeys.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=superbiskit>
Fingerprint=0x{6E3E/DB8C/2E8C/4248/62B2/FE29/08EE/CF0A/3629/E954}
"By God's Grace I am a Christian man, by my actions a great sinner."
--The Way of a Pilgrim, R. M. French [tr.]
<---.----!----.----!----.----!----.----!----.----!----.----!----.---->
--
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