disk cache

[jamiha]

I would like to understand this...

When a blue screen appears for locked pages, one of the suggested remedies is - disable disk caching in the BIOS.

In looking at this in the BIOS, a side box indicates that I would have to switch to a manual mode. (I don't see where or how to do that) In trifling with the BIOS, I think it should be under guidance from someone who actually knows what they are doing. I did not trifle.

One, Is it a good thing to disable all disk caching, including RAID0 drives, OS, Audio and what about the DVD drive?
How does that help avoid getting the locked pages blue screen?
If it should be done, how is it done?

Ready for a learned response and thank you,

tony

[Richard Berg]

Caching is not the cause of your BSOD. You have a bad driver and/or bad hardware.

Disk caching is done by the Windows memory manager. You cannot disable it in the BIOS (or anywhere else, except for removable drives).

[crazyox]

Caching is not the cause of your BSOD. You have a bad driver and/or bad hardware.

Disk caching is done by the Windows memory manager. You cannot disable it in the BIOS (or anywhere else, except for removable drives).

You can disable write caching with microcrap's free Tweak XP (or Tweeak UI XP, can't remember) program. Also, if you google 'Optimizing XP for DAW' you will find another way, please lots of other useful info, but use at your own risk because some tweaks are incompatible with some hardware/software. I kind of doubt that is the cause though. Disabling the write cache is, in general, to protect from data loss if your computer crashes/lightning strikes, etc. SOme people believe it has DAW advantage, but I am unconvinved.

Your problem could be a corrupt windows driver, corrupt windows in general, device driver or hardware problem, or just about anything. Windows, even XP is terrible for that, but I use it because Macs have certain other disadvantages, like incompatibilty with most of my hardware and software. (except for running Windows XP on a power Mac, but that kind of defeats the purpose.

I usually just reinstall windows, sometimes even reformatting my harddrive, but makes sure everything is backed up, and it is an awefully severe soultion when you don't even know if it will work. Try a Windows troubleshooting forum first, or try uninstalling your harddrive IDE controllers in Device Manager and restarting your computer...but don't blame if it it goes bad for you, this is free advice with no warranty or liabilty implied. I am not a computer doctor...I just play one on Youtube.

[Haydn]

I use the Windows Debug tools to look at the crash dump files. This is little tricky to work with and is a big download as you need to get the symbol files for the OS you are debugging. I've found this tool to be very good at pointing to the bad driver causing the issue.

Jim

[jamiha]

Thank you all for the responses. It looks like it is best not to tamper with it. I will pay more attention to the B/S instructions the next time I see it.
If I find anything significant, I'll post it.

tony