We are running a variety of Winnt and 2k workstations. On the Winnt workstations we were getting 'Out of string space' and 'Exceded maximum variables' errors. In the same places on our 2k machines we would get lockups instead. Setting EMS to 4096 with the /M4096 switch solved the problem on our NT machines but not on the 2k machines. When we type WHO at the TCL it shows that on the NT machines Expanded memory is active but on the 2k machines, Inactive.

Has anyone solved this one before?

Regards

Peter Shute

Does \winnt\system32\config.nt include himem.sys on the W2K boxes? Something like this should appear:

dos=high, umb

device=%SystemRoot%\system32\himem.sys

files=40

Are you calling AREV.EXE directly from the Windows shortcut,

or from a batch file called by the shortcut?

Is there one brand of machine (eg. Compaq) which exhibits the problem?

The Sprezzatura Group

World Leaders in all things RevSoft

What do you see under memory for the shortcut you use to access your application. Make sure the expanded memory in this tab is 4096.

I am running Arev.exe from the shortcut direct. Not through a batch file. EMS is set to 4096 and the system32\config.nt does include the 3 lines (including himem) mentioned above.

I have now checked all of our 2k workstations and found the inactive EMS behaviour only exhibited on some. Was there speculation about this problem being related to hardware or bios settings

There are some machines that will not load EMS memory, Dells, Gateways and Compaqs. The manufatures have information on their web sites.

The Sprezzatura Group

World Leaders in all Things RevSoft

There are indeed some machines that seem not to want to load EMS memory. It took some fiddling but on Gateway EV3200, I was able to get EMS in both sides of a dual (W982E/W2K Pro) client on a Novell 4X network.

The secret for me seemed to be to "RESERVE" some of the C800-D3FF range in CMOS. Reserving the range above D000 causes the system to squawk on initial boot since, I suspect, that is where some of the temporarily (while booting) memory is allocated to on-motherboard 3-Com NIC. I have to press escape to get past the message but otherwise works. (In the W98 side of the boot, I need only reserve C800-CFFF… no boot up squawking).

For the W2K boot, I set up a "CMD" shortcut pointing to a batch file that loads the IPXTSR and executes AREV with the appropriate switches. In the _default.pif (in WINNT directory, I set the memory parameters as discussed elsewhere… Worked like a charm except for the problem below that ultimately developed.

For a couple of days, this machine (only 450 Mghtz) in W2K mode was very fast (running Novell client 4.83 with the AREV (Novell speed patch). I thought I was home free…not experiencing any of the speed problems I had seen discussed here on the forum.

HOWEVER, after an associate loaded Office 2K (Outlook 2000 specifically), this machine began to exhibit the W2K slowness problem. Was this coincidence or has anyone else seen this correlation? I have a friend in Florida that runs Groupwise and his W2K machines run as fast as W98… Even after de-installing Office, the machine was still cursedly slow… (Next step, wipe everything off and try reload without Office to see if speed returns. Since we need Outlook, this will serve only to verify the causeof /or link to the problem.)

Am I smoking something or could Outlook (or other Office 2K program) be setting something in the registry (not affected by un-install) that causes our AREV slowdown in a W2K client?

Others experiences that confirm or invalidate this theory?

I've also had the theory that Outlook was the cause of many slowdowns and was never able to actually prove it. However, I've since removed Outlook and many problems went away.

You might want to look at MS FastFind and Office startup, which the Office install places into your autoload area without asking or informing. Some of these are in registry entries, so you will not find it in the Startup program group.

The Sprezzatura Group

World Leaders in all Things RevSoft

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