Windows 95/98 Setup Guide
Although these suggestions were originally created for Windows 95, Windows
98 is not a whole lot different and many of these suggestions should work equally
well in setting up a system using the newer operating system. Windows was
created primarily for use in business as well as in the home. In this capacity, it is
a fairly quick and efficient system. However, digital audio applications make
heavy use of real time processing, and in this instance Windows 95 is not well
suited. The good news is that with a little tweaking and optimizing Windows 95
can be made to run digital audio applications quite well.
The following tips and suggestions were put together from personal
experiences as well as recommendations from various hardware and software
manufacturers. In many cases these settings will greatly improve your success in
setting up a working system, but keep in mind that every piece of hardware and
software is different and could require more work or different settings. One more
word of advice, If your system seems to be working fine now it would be best to
not implement these changes. You know what they say about things that ain't
broke ! Besides, some of these changes can actually slow down overall system
performance for non-DAW related tasks. Having said that, if you're having
problems with audio performance under windows 95 or 98 this would be a good
place to start.
Virtual Memory Settings
This setting alone could solve many problems. Normally Windows is setup to
allow the virtual memory swap file to be resized dynamically as the system is
running. While the swap file is resizing other programs can be delayed causing
glitches or pops in the audio during playback. In order to avoid this situation it is
best to set the minimum and maximum parameters in your swap file settings to
the same values.
Setting your Virtual Memory Size.
1.On your start menu click on SETTINGS and then on CONTROL PANEL.
2.Double click the SYSTEM icon.
3.Click the PERFORMANCE tab.
4.Click on the VIRTUAL MEMORY button.
5.Select "LET ME VERIFY MY OWN VIRTUAL MEMORY SETTINGS".
6.Set the MINIMUM and MAXIMUM values to the same value. The best
setting depends on your hardware and the amount of memory you have
installed but I suggest at least 16MB and at most twice the amount of
your physical memory. The most important thing is to make sure both
values are the same.
Disk Caching
Write caching is another feature of Windows 95 that normally helps to speed
applications but in the case of Digital Audio programs can be a big problem. In
order to disable this feature follow these steps.
Turning off Write Caching
1.On your start menu click on SETTINGS and then on CONTROL PANEL.
2.Double click the SYSTEM icon.
3.Click the PERFORMANCE tab.
4.Click the FILE SYSTEM button.
5.Click the TROUBLESHOOTING tab.
6.Check DISABLE WRITE BEHIND CACHING FOR ALL DRIVES
7.Click OK to save the settings.
Read caching can cause similar problems to Virtual Memory in that Windows
95 dynamically resizes the read cache buffers. Again the solution is to set the
minimum and maximum parameters to be the same.
Making changes to Read Cache Settings
1.Open the System.ini file by typing "system.ini" in the Win95 Run line,
click OK.
2.Look for a section in the file named [vcache] There should already be one,
but if not you can add it.
3.Add the following lines under the [vcache] heading.
MinFileCache = 2048
MaxFileCache = 2048
You can experiment with larger settings in increments of 1024.
Double Buffering
Some systems may be configured with double buffering for handling disk
transfers. This can be another source of audio problems.
Disabling Double Buffering
1.Locate your root directory on your boot drive.
2.Right click on the MSDOS.SYS file and select PROPERTIES.
3.Uncheck the read only box and click OK.
4.Double Click the MSDOS.SYS file and open it in Notepad.
5.Look for a section labeled [Options]
6.Look for a line under the heading which says DoubleBuffer=1
7.Change this to say DoubleBuffer=0
8.If there is not a line at all add "DoubleBuffer=0"
9.Save the file and exit Notepad.
Read Ahead Optimization
This is an additional area for optimizing HD performance for Digital Audio
applications. You should turn off Read-ahead optimization.
Disabling Read Ahead Optimization
1.On your start menu click on SETTINGS and then on CONTROL PANEL.
2.Double click the SYSTEM icon.
3.Click the PERFORMANCE tab.
4.Click the FILE SYSTEM button.
5.Move the READ-AHEAD OPTIMIZATION slider to the left (OFF)
6.Select NETWORK SERVER from the TYPICAL ROLE OF THIS MACHINE
setting.
7.Click OK.
Video Cards
Many video cards can monopolize the PCI bus and interfere with DMA
operations. One of the first things you should do is make sure you have the latest
drivers for your card. Many new drivers provide applets which allow you to disable
or modify certain settings for the card. If there is an option for PCI bus retries
and/or DMA bus mastering or a similar option, you should try disabling these. If
you are still having problems or your video driver does not have the above options,
you can try reducing hardware acceleration from the control panel.
Reducing Graphics Hardware Acceleration
1.On your start menu click on SETTINGS and then on CONTROL PANEL.
2.Double click the SYSTEM icon.
3.Click the PERFORMANCE tab.
4.Click the GRAPHICS button.
5.Move the HARDWARE ACCELERATION slider to the left one notch.
6.Click OK.
You will need to restart Windows. If the problem remains, repeat the above
process until the problem is solved or the slider is all the way to the left. If this did
not solve your problem you should probably reset the slider to the highest setting
(to the right).
Media Control
To keep the Media Control Interface (MCI) from introducing a double buffering
condition in your system you may need to disable the Wave audio device.
Disabling the Wave Audio Device
1.On your start menu click on SETTINGS and then on CONTROL PANEL.
2.Double click the MULTIMEDIA icon.
3.Click the ADVANCED tab.
4.Click the plus sign next to MEDIA CONTROL DEVICES.
5.Select the WAVE AUDIO DEVICE(MEDIA CONTROL) and click
PROPERTIES.
6.Select the "DO NOT USE THIS MEDIA CONTROL DEVICE" option.
7.Click OK.
More Suggestions
Compressed Drives
This may seem obvious but make sure you are not using compressed drives.
Your computer must uncompress the files on these drives on the fly leading to
obvious problems for real time hard disk recording and playback.
Close running programs
Make sure you are not running unnecessary programs in the background. You
should clear out your start-up folder and the LOAD and RUN lines in your win.ini
file. The win.ini file is located in your windows directory. Load it by typing win.ini
in the Win95 Run line.
FAT-32
Newer versions of Win95 as well as Win98 include the option to format your
drive with FAT-32. With the default 4k cluster size this can decrease wasted
space on hard drives, especially if you have many small files. Unfortunately it's
also a bit slower than FAT-16. Audio files tend to be very large so you are better
off with either a FAT 16 formatted drive or a FAT 32 drive using larger clusters for
audio applications. Partition Magic is an excellent utility which will allow you to
format FAT 32 drives using larger cluster sizes.
Defrag
Defragment your drives. A heavily fragmented drive can put a noticeable drag
on hard disk performance.
MS-DOS Compatibility Mode
Make sure you aren't running your hard drives or CD-ROM in MS-DOS
compatibility mode. You can check this in the Control Panel | System |
Performance window. If you see a message stating that windows is running in
MS-DOS compatibility mode you should resolve the problem. The most likely
cause is missing 32 bit drivers for your hardware.
CD-ROM Notification
You might want to try disabling auto insert notification for your CD-ROM drive.
This can cause problems with some systems. To disable this go to the Control
Panel | System | Device Manager | CD-ROM | Properties | Settings , and disable
AUTO INSERT NOTIFICATION.