Memory limitations

I am running Proe on Windows 2K. I am working with large assemblies that very easily chew up all my RAM which currently is 1,5 Gb. I have not installed any more because I have been told that Windows 2K cannot handle more RAM than 1,5 Gb. I have also heard that Windows XP Pro can handle 4 Gb. Can anybody confirm that this is so, i.e. if I switch to XP Pro and install

4 Gb, Proe can put this to full use?

Grateful for any input

Bertil

Reply to
Bertil Rogmark
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Not true.

Win 2K and Win XP are both 32bit os's which means they can both address 4GB of ram. The limitation is in the way Pro/E uses the ram and what other programs you have running. I have a Win2K and a WinXPpro at work, both with 2GB of ram. Pro/E will crash on both machines when memory used by the xtop.exe application reaches

1.4-1.6GB.

Win XP64bit is another story, but it requires a system that is 64bit enabled. If your machine is running Win2K, then I doubt it is 64bit enabled.

Reply to
Ben Loosli

This seems like a good overview, with some particulars.

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seem to say that xp and win2k have the same addressable memory limits. Anyway, why not install more ram: if it doesn't work on win2k, then switch to xp or Linux. I'm running Pro/e on win2k with 3gs of memory, over a thousand part assemblies, 3gs fixed the previous crapping out problem when the workstations had only 1g of memory. Haven't reached the limit yet, haven't frozen, haven't died. Like the Energizer Bunny, just keeps on going.

Reply to
David Janes

Ben and David, thanks to both of you. I think I am getting to understnad at least some of the problem. My experience with crashes are the same as Ben's even after having installed

3 Gb. I wonder what good David has done in his life to be spared this. David's link is quite informative - as I read it, all memory above 2Gb is reserved for the OS but subject to change. However, I have also found out that there is a Microsoft recipe to increase the memory-per-process by increasing the allocatable memory from 2 Gb to 3 Gb. It is about adding a switch "/3GB" to the boot.ini file for WINXP. The thing is referred to in another context in the link below:
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I am trying to find out exactly how it is done and if it also applies to Win2K.

Does one of you know how Proe behaves in an XP64 environment with RAM >>

4Gb?

Bertil

Reply to
Bertil Rogmark

The /3GB switch is only in Win XP. It also takes some memory from the AGP graphics area, so there is a trade off.

Our corporate design center in India just installed some new Dell workstations with 64bit CPU's and Win XP64bit. There machines have 4GB of RAM. I haven't heard how they perform yet.

Reply to
Ben Loosli

Our IT guru said the 3GB switch in the boot.ini file also works in Win2K but suggest adding it like this at the end of the last line in the boot.ini: /3GB /USERVA=2900

Try it and see if that doesn't help - it sure did for us!

Reply to
Viper

formatting link
is a nice explanation but it seems to imply that the setting only applies to Windows Server 2003. It also mentions XP and NT Server Enterprise Edition. Don't know, technically, how it works, but seems to be saying that memory is taken from programs by this switch and given to kernel. I suppose if programs are gobbling up all the memory and starving the kernel, this could be a good thing.

David Janes

Reply to
David Janes

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