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Yes, sometimes the first 640KB does matter. That certainly is true under
Windows 3.x, and it could be so with Windows 95, though I was told it was
less likely to be the case.
There are freeware and shareware programs that help keep "junk" out of that
region and one of these might be compatible with your system and provide
some relief. At least it might be worth a try.
Here is a portion of an article I wrote for Byte magazine (published in
their Dec 95 issue) that will help you understand the situation:
>The difficulties with Windows 3.x, running in 386-enhanced mode, arise
>from some deficiencies in how it manages memory. These deficiencies are
>part and parcel of the Windows architecture.
>
> 1. Global DOS Memory
>
>Windows runs on top of DOS, which runs in real mode on an Intel x86
>processor (or equivalent CPU). In real mode the CPU can only address one
>megabyte of RAM. That makes the first megabyte of its memory address space
>very special. Windows itself and every Windows application must be able to
>get a small region of that first megabyte, or they simply cannot run. The
>Windows name for this memory is Global DOS Memory.
>
>Unfortunately, Windows does nothing to reserve this special memory region
>for the uses for which nothing else will do. When you start Windows, by
>default all the DLLs, for example, get loaded as low in memory space as
>possible. All of them would work just fine in extended memory, but until
>lower memory is too full, they won't go into higher addresses. If you have
>seen the message that starts "Insufficient memory to run this
>application..." the most likely cause was running out of Global DOS Memory.
>This is in many cases the most severe of Windows memory management
>problems.
As I said, Win95 is *supposed* to have solved this, but its solutions are
often less than one might wish them to be.
Here from that same Byte article is what I wrote about the
freeware/shareware programs I mentioned above:
>_MoreMem_ by Daniel N. Woo, published by Gamma Research (shareware
>distributed as MMEM3.ZIP), _Windows Low Memory Saver_ published by Analysis
>& Management Enterprises (shareware distributed as DOSMEM.ZIP), and _1MB
>Fort_ by John McSorley which was published in PC Magazine in 1995 and is
>now freeware distributed as 1MBF.ZIP.
...
>The shareware and freeware programs (MoreMem, Windows Low Memory Saver, and
>1MB Fort) all solve the Global DOS Memory problem in similar, yet different
>ways. Each is effective for that purpose, but fails to handle any of the
>other problems.
(The other problems alluded to in the preceding sentence are possible
shortages of resources or total Windows memory.)
You can find these programs at the usual sites, such as:
http://www.davecentral.com/indexvc.html
http://www.sharewarejunkies.com/
http://www.tucows.com/us.html
(there is an international tucows site; I just don't have its URL handy)
all of which I have listed in no particular order.
Let us know what the solution turns out to be, please. And good luck
finding it.
John
At 01:22 AM 6/4/98 -0600, you wrote:
>
>Hello again all,
>
>I tried something different tonight. I took control of the virtual memory
>away from Win95 and set it to be up to half a gig, but I still got the
>same "Out of Memory" error. Finally, I ran the Resource Meter, while I was
>attempting to start the program and it didn't show any changes at all.
>Resources don't seem to be the problem, so what else could it be? A friend
>of mine said that it was something to do with the amount of the first 640
>K that was available but to the best of my knowledge this doesn't matter.
>Yesterday, I decided to reinstall and retrain DNS. Everything went well
>until it was processing what I had read in the previous half an hour and
>then it stopped. I appreciate all of the suggestions, thank you. I really
>hope that someone can help me out of this problem.
>
>Have a great day, everyone!
>
>David Marshall
>dmarshal@@ucalgary.ca
=======
John M. Goodman, Ph.D., author of "Peter Norton's Inside the PC,"
Seventh Edition (Sams 1997, ISBN 0-672-31041-4)
=======
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