I have two questions I would like answers to, I will pay $2.50 for
each answer. If this is not enough please let me know.
Questions 1.When mu 'puter slows down, how can I use the info from
System Monitor to help diagnose the cause.
Question 2.What are the advantages and disadvantages of Extended
memory and Expanded memory. I know that expanded memory is oblolete
now but would still like an answer. Many thanks, John

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Request for Question Clarification by livioflores-ga on 13 Aug 2004 06:01 PDT

First of all, can you please tell us which Operative System (windows
version for example) are you using and also a brief description of
your computer (CPU, RAM, etc)?

Thank you.

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Clarification of Question by jonny65-ga on 13 Aug 2004 07:33 PDT

Oh dear, how do I clarify these 2 questions. I am trying to learn
'puter memory management, or some parts of it so that I can think
about an exam. the first question deals with the System monitor and
how it can diagnose the slow down of a computer over a period of time.
the system involved would be DOS,windows 3.x and windows 95os1 plus
windows 98.The cpu's involved would be 8088/8086. 286/386 and up to
Pentium 11. As for question 2.,I need to know the advantages and
disadvantages of extended and expanded memory in how they can be used
in real mode and protectedmode etc. e.g. the 286 could run in real and
protected mode and access memory up to 16mb. Literally, it is just the
advantages and disadvantages of using these two types of memory that I
need to know. I hope this clarifies these questions a bit. Mny thanks,
John.

It's unlikely you'll find a 286 with 16 MB of memory,maybe 1 or 2 MB tops.

Expanded Memory
The Expanded Memory System (EMS) was developed by Lotus, Intel, and
Microsoft to circumvent the 640K conventional memory barrier. EMS
works by using the same type of paging technology used by video cards.
Expanded memory is divided into 16 KB pages that are swapped four
pages at a time into a special memory address space in reserved
memory. The area in reserved memory that holds these pages is called
the expanded memory page frame. This area usually occupies a full 64K
block in the memory map and is created when EMM386.EXE, the expanded
memory driver, is loaded.

Although very few programs use EMS today, it is handy to load DOS
drivers and TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) programs into the unused
portions of reserved memory. You do this by adding the below two lines
to your CONFIG.SYS file:

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE 
DOS=UMB 

Using EMS has the benefit of freeing up conventional memory for use by
your programs and is a key concept to memory optimization in DOS. If
you don't need expanded memory capability, you can add NOEMS at the
end of the line that loads EMM386.EXE. This will turn off EMS, yet
allow the ability to load drivers and TSRs into upper memory blocks
(a.k.a. UMB).

Extended Memory
EMS was great in the early days of DOS. It allowed people to add a
megabyte or two of extra memory to deal with those burgeoning 1-2-3
spreadsheets. Unfortunately, as explained above, paging methods are
pretty inefficient. The computer would be much better off if it were
able to work with all of its memory at one time. Enter extended
memory.

With extended memory, the CPU uses two different operating modes: real
mode and protected mode. In real mode, your computer would operate
like an old 8086 (only faster) and is able to access only 1 MB of RAM.
To access memory above 1 MB, the CPU switches to protected mode. Most
programs written for Windows 95, 98, and NT, are able to take
advantage of the benefits of extended memory in protected mode.

http://www.computerbits.com/archive/1999/0100/memory_guide2.html

FAO askNeeraj-ga. That is a great comment you have posted there and
would probably suffice for what I am looking for. Many thanks. do You
have any ideas on my other question regarding using System Monitoring
to diagnose computer slow-down?? Once again, many thanks. John

hi,

The best way to know HOW your computer slow down is go to task manager
by pressing Alt+ctrl+del. Go to process tab, look for which process is
taking up your CPU & memory. Also check the networking performance if
any.

Computer maintenance is my job. Recently I send out an email regarding
"computer speed & performance". There is few ways to fine tune
computer, may come in handy:

1. Stop unnecessary system or user SERVICES. (Advance user)
Go to control panel> administrative tools> services> started service. 
Looks CAREFULLY for those service that do not require to be run. Smart
viruse may add live in ur computer as 'user services'.
So, stop those services that u CONFIRM its not required to be run.
 
To stop a service, select the service. Make sure you read the service
description carefully & understand what the service is used for.
right click, go to property. Click stop button to stop the service. On
the "startup type", select disable. There is lots of unnecessary
services. Including windows service.
 
NOTE: STOPPING A SERVICE WILL RESULTING A
PROCESS/APPLICATION/PROGRAM/FUNCTIONALITY STOP FUNCTIONING.
Which mean a program will not run, or u will getting an error when u
run ur computer program. Example: stopping the OracleservicesORADB9I
will resulting the SQLplus can not accessing the oracle database.
However, I like to stop Oracleservices, because i not require it
everytime and it consume more than 100Mb of SDRAM in my computer.
 
To see what services is currently running, press alt+ctrl+del,
processes tab. It there is too many services running, ur computer sure
getting slower.


2. run>msconfig> startup
Uncheck those service/program that u not require.

3. check what programs are auto started during bootup. Go to 
run>regedit>
path=my computer\hkey_local_machine\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run
path=my computer\hkey_local_machine\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\runservices
remove/delete those program or service that u think u do not need.
*Remove suspecious program/service. Most viruses/worms put their
program path at here.
ONLY keep those u need. Remove others.

3. Remove/uninstall unnecessary programs. Go to control panel> add remove program.

4. Check Internet browser
Internet explorer 6.0.
Internet Option>general>settings>view objects
In this section, you will see the "downloaded program files". All of
the item displayed is IE plugin which u installed over the internet.
Keep only those important plugin like "shockwave flas" and "shockwave
activeX control". Remove others, espacially those without proper
digital signature. Right click and select "remove" to remove the
plugin. Make sure u read the plugin description & understand what it
is used for.
Removing it will resulting the plugin functionality fail to be performed.
NOTE: third party plugin downloaded from unsafe/infamous Internet site
are totally dangereous. Make sure you remove those
suspecious/unnecessary plugin.


5. Scan your computer with latest antivirus update. Patch your Windows PC.
From my experience, high CPU usage in idle time, mainly causes by
trojan/worms. Do try patch your computer & scan it.

6. Disk Defragmenter. Available at Accessories>system tools.
Defragment ur computer, this result in faster files access.

Sixth solution I proposed, Simple & advanced, hope they works.

Regards,
Jason33

Hi Jason-ga, That is a terrific answer and will help me a lot. Many
thanks.Could you possibly tell me how I could diagnose the slow down
problem by using system monitor? The O/S  I am referring to here is
Win 3.x and Win 95/98. Many thanks again, Regards, John.