Tic-Tock

Just recently upgraded my Video Card from ATI 9800 to X-1650... Have had Half-Life 2 and HL2-Episode 1 for some time and never a problem with old 9800...

Now, I'm running NGO-ATI 1.7.3 (mainly cause I've read about problems in AGP based systems with newer versions of ATI Cat.) and they seem to be working just fine, except for my new "Orange Box" games from Valve/Steam.

Half Life 2 - Episode 2 gives me an early warning "OS Page Pool Memory Low", and soon locks up... Next message is "Driver ati2dvag.dll may not be functioning properly - infinite loop"..

Half Life 2- Episode 1 does not give me the 'page pool memory' warning, but also locks up early on in the game and gives me the 'ati2dvag.dll' error message..

It's my understanding that the ati2dvag.dll is associated with DirectX-3D operations?? Maybe I could fix one problem by switching to 'Open GL'??? But, even so, this would not fix the Page Pool Memory situation??

I'm using AVG anti-virus, which the Steam people say is a page pool memory hog and may cause the page pool memory low warning... I always "end process" on the two AVG related processes using Task Mgr. in the "Administrator" area prior to playing any of my games, but, there are still two AVG proceses running in the SYSTEM area that I hesitate to end process on because I have been told that shutting down any process in the SYSTEM area can be hazardous?? Comments??

Have also read that ATI is not properly supporting users with the older AGP based systems in the DirectX-3D arena???

I'm looking to you guys for any suggestions you may have??

Thanks in advance...

morbo

is this vista?

could be where you went wrong

can you up your page file like xp??

or run sissoft sandra over your pc

that will test it out

link here somewhere

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Dyre Straits

You might be interested in this thread here on GameSpot:

GameSpot Forums - The Orange Box - WARNING: OS Paged Pool Memory Low

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Tic-Tock

Tks to Morbo and Dyre Straits for your replies;

My system is Windows XP, SP2... Not convinced yet that Vista is stable enough... Went thru the Control Panel\System tree to check Virtual Memory setting... It is set to 1.5Gb?? Now I'm confused after reading the posts on the Game Stop Forum link that Dyre Straits left here??

I remember reading somewhere that Paged Pool Memory size should be 1.5x main memory size minimum, and 3x main memory size on the maximum size?? I think I found that thru MS Help? But, now I have to go back and check...

According to the post on Game Stop, the PPM should not exceed 4 Mb in size?? So, I followed the Register tree shown in the Game Stop post 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ ........, etc.\Memory Management... and found that the value shown in 'Page Pool Size' is '0x00000000 (0)'?? That's ten characters in length, where the Hex values listed by Chris in the Game Stop posting were all eight characters in length??

If anyone knows if there are limits or 'best' size values for Page Pool Memory, please reply to this post? I'm going to try and find something meaningful myself, and will post here when/if I find it.. Don't want 1.5Gb of Page Pool Memory allocation if I only need 4 Mb??

Tic-Tock

I found a tech report concerning Page Pool Memory recommended size at Microsoft Support Center. There is a related report concerning how to move your Page Pool Memory size (or create two Page Pool Memory files) that will increase the efficiency and performance of your system.

This is good information to tuck away in your memory bank. To read these reports please click How to configure paging files for optimization and recovery in Windows XP

I have now set up a minimum PPM file on my Drive C: equal to my RAM size, and a second PPM on my back up HD: F with min. 1.5x RAM size and max. 3x RAM size.. According to the articles I read, Windows XP will by default use the second PPM file for programs and increases the performance speed by cutting the number of reads required in half...

Hope this is useful...

TIC-TOCK

morbo

yeah dont be too worried about upping your page file

i have ran 3 huge page files with no real slow down.

as it said recommended is not always the best setting

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