Invisible Memory

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horizon
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Invisible Memory

Post by horizon »

Hi Guys,
I have switched to your product from the competition RamDiskXP and it looks fine.

I've been using wxp 32bit with 2GB ram. (already running with PAE... in low-memory conditions, applications behave better with PAE.) I plan to have it upgraded to 4GB or more.

So I've been wondering, if Invisible Memory feature in your product would enable me to reach (/use as ramdisk) the space above(!) 4GB limit or not...

If yes, then it would be beneficial to have 6 or 8 GB in the laptop even with wxp 32bit!

The description in the article was not really conslusive for me... :( http://www.romexsoftware.com/main/suppo ... g-ram.html

Thanks
Lukas
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Re: Invisible Memory

Post by Support »

Yes, IM feature supposed to have the ability to use the memory above 4GB (maximum 64GB).
But at first you need to check if your hardware support Memory-Remapping, some old motherboards don't support Memory-Remapping as well as some old CPUs don't support PAE.

Using IM may have dangers, as we said on the website. Although most computers using our product can detect the correct invisible memory, we cannot make sure all the computers work.
horizon
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Re: Invisible Memory

Post by horizon »

Okay, thanks.

I upgraded my laptop to 4GB ram (4GB modules are too expensive) and enabled the usage of hidden memory. (Reported is 508MB).

I raised my ramdrive size to 512 MB ram (from original 256MB), but based on information regarding occupied memory provided by process explorer, it looks like, that actualy hidden memory might not be used.
(Commit charage in use (Limit=3.4GB) seems to be affected by creation and deleting of ramdrive.)

My question is: How can I prove/confirm, that IM is really in use? (By some tools or st. like that.)

Regards
Lukas
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Re: Invisible Memory

Post by Support »

To use IM, please refer to http://www.romexsoftware.com/main/suppo ... g-ram.html

To check if IM works, you may write down Available Physical Memory provided by Task Manager before and after creating a ramdisk out of IM. The two results should be almost the same.

In your case, the IM size is 508MB and the ramdisk is 512MB, so 4MB of OS managed memory is used which means the Available Physical Memory will reduce 4MB after you create the ramdisk.
horizon
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Re: Invisible Memory

Post by horizon »

Ouch, sorry. :)

I have got it enabled, but not turned on for the particular ramdrive...
horizon
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Re: Invisible Memory

Post by horizon »

well, well. seems to be working. (Until I enable using of image file, which takes computer directly for reboot.)
sigi
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Re: Invisible Memory

Post by sigi »

Having 4GB of main memory on my Acer Aspire 7720G (CPU Intel T5450), the main attraction of VSuite Ramdisk for me is the Invisible Memory Support.
The main memory between 3.3 or 3.4 GB and 4GB is not only not visible, it is a valuable resource that is not used by Vista 32-bit.
I installed VSuite Ramdisk Standard Edition V4.1.3925.1624, but the checkbox "Use OS Invisible Memory" is grayed out, and it says "feature not supported by the computer".
However, my notebook does have the Intel chipset PM965, which is a chipset more recent than the 946 you require.
The boot menu does not mention the "Physical Address Extension (PAE)", but is this feature required even if I do not want to address beyond the 4GB addressable by a 32-bit address?
Is there anything that can be done to make the Invisible Memory Support work?
Thanks.
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Re: Invisible Memory

Post by Support »

Hi sigi,

First please check that you have ticked the "Enable OS Invisible Physical Memory" in the "Options" tab.

If it says something like that "Your computer does not support PAE feature." Then please check that you have enabled PAE feature for OS. To enable PAE in Windows Vista, you may run the command prompt (cmd.exe) (run as an administrator) and input the following command:

BCDEDIT /SET PAE ForceEnable

You need to reboot the computer to take it effect. And then you can check if the Invisible Memory can be enabled or not by ticking the "Enable OS Invisible Physical Memory" in the "Options" tab again.

please refer to
http://www.romexsoftware.com/main/suppo ... g-ram.html
http://www.romexsoftware.com/main/suppo ... ble-os-pae
sigi
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Re: Invisible Memory

Post by sigi »

The "Enable OS Invisible Physical Memory" in the "Options" tab was grayed out too.

Executing "BCDEDIT /SET PAE ForceEnable" and re-booting made them available.

I ticked both check boxes, the "Use OS Invisible Memory" and the "Enable OS Invisible Physical Memory", and now it seems to work.

So far, I used 512MB for disk size and requested Support IM Hibernation
(maybe I don't need IM Hibernation support, as I only use the version of sleep/hibernation that keeps main memory powered up? - any opinion on that?)

The "Options" screen shows "OS Invisible Memory: 1020MB".
Does that mean that Vista-32 never uses the top 1020MB of my 4GB memory and that I could expand my Ramdisk to 1020MB?

(How could Vista-32 "waste" all of this valuable resource, if you are able to use it with VSuite Ramdisk?)

I don't think "Dynamic RAM Allocation" is useful as long as I use only "Invisible Physical Memory".

I did not use "Reserve First xx MB of Invisible Memory" and my system runs fine so far, so I don't think I should do such a reservation.

Is there anything I could do better?
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Re: Invisible Memory

Post by Support »

First off, you may check if IM size detected by the program is correct or not.
IM size plus OS managed RAM size shall equall the installed RAM size. From your previous post, we noticed that you have 4GB RAM total, however you said only 3.3G/3.4G visible to OS. Then 1020MB IM size is strange...
You may check the OS visible RAM size form Windows Task Manager (Item: Physical Memory total). This value plus 1020MB shall equal 4096MB.

If 1020MB is correct, then yes. You can expand the ramdisk to 1020MB with all IM size.

If you always keeps main memory powered up, then IM Hibernation is not needed. However if computer have possibilities to enter hibernation state, then you need to enable IM Hibernation becasue Windows doesn't back up data on IM to the harddisk.

Yes, Dynamic RAM Allocation is not useful if you using IM only.
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