The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

July 1994

Traversing the GP Fault (Con't from p.7)

“stacks=9,256” establishes nine stacks, each of which occupies 256 bytes of conventional memory. You may have as many as 64 stacks, each of which may be configured to consume from 32 to 512 bytes. Microsoft includes a “readme” document with Windows 3. lx which suggests you try the following sethngs in the “stacks=” line, in the following order:

[Note: As a next step, the second line in CONFIG.SYS may be further modified as follows:

The “noems” segment effectively disables expanded memory, since very few programs access these memory addresses any more. This segment is strictly optional . The “novcpi” segment disables the Virtual Control Program Interface. The added benefit of the "novcpi" segment is that both Win dows and Windows applications, like FoxPro, will actually load faster.

The next installment of this discussion, ‘The Not- So-Obvious”, will deal with additional segments that can be added to this statement to further reduce the possibilities of GPFs.

An added consideration here is to be using the latest version of EMM386 you can find, preferably

the one contained in DOS 6.22. However, these suggestions will work with DOS 6.0 and DOS 6.2.]

Set up a permanent swap file for Windows. This can be accomplished by opening the “Main” Windows box, double-clicking on the “Control Panel” Icon, then double-clicking on the “386 Enhanced” icon. Next click the Virtual Memory pushbutton, then the “Change” pushbutton. Performing this step will enlarge the window. Change the “Type” from “Temporary” to “Permanent” and the “New Size” from whatever it is to 8000 KB. (The OS will automatically adjust the size to 7980.) Confirm the changes and restart Windows. 8 MB is a good overall average size for the permanent swap file, but you can use more or less depending on the remaining space on your hard drive. Also, be aware that exceeding the 8 MB permanent swap file size may subject your hard drive to a certain amount of “disk thrashing”. (The alternative is to reduce the size of the temporary file.) Setting up this permanent swap file will also create a new file in the “C:V’ root directory named “386spart.par” and will be marked as “unmoveable” by disk utility prOgrams such as Norton Utilities. While it’s acceptable to leave the “Use 32-bit Disk Access” box checked, I will be revisiting this aspect in the next installment.

Reinstall Windows. Occasionally Windows files and drivers will get corrupted. To test for this, make a directory called something other than “WINDOWS”, for instance ‘WINDAS”, and do a custom installation to that directory. The custom installation will install a “bare bones” version of Windows and will allow you to test without interference from any other drivers which may have been placed in either the "win.ini" or “system.ini” files. Remember to remove “windows” from the path statement in AUTOEXEC.BAT and replace it with the renamed directory.

Next month, I’ll be addressing some of the not-so- obvious and lesser-known aspects of the Windows environment, as well as some hardware issues which may interfere with Windows performance.

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