DIK COATES (1:253/232) wrote to ALL at 08:37 on 16 Mar 1997:
 DC> Picked this up spelunkin... any suggestions to pass on?
Dik, I suppose this is not specifically a Word question but I do have some 
comments.
 DC>  * Reply to msg originally in Technical Compute
>>>> QUOTING David Maggin to All <<<<
 DM> Intermittently, though on a fairly regular basis, when sitting idle
 DM> (and w/system resources around 95%), Winword will lock up.  There are
 DM> no other programs running or open, and I've disabled the screen saver
 DM> as well as anything that might be running in the background (e.g.,
 DM> anti-virus software, etc.).  Additionally, there's nothing being
 DM> automatically loaded or run at startup.  When the lock-up occurs, the
 DM> HD access light is on, so I've reckoned it's due to some background
 DM> "housekeeping" (or swapping) conflict that I missed???
I've seen this kind of lock-up but only on systems with disk drives with slow 
(+22 ms) access times.  Replacing the drive fixed the problem.
 DM> I don't know if it's related, but I've been unable to upgrade the RAM
 DM> to 16 megs (4 4 meg SIMMs).  Once installed, the BIOS properly
 DM> recognizes 16 megs, but Win95 halts half-way through the boot with
 DM> either an "unable to initialize VFAT..." or "HIMEM.SYS has encountered
 DM> unreliable XMS memory..." messages.  The RAM (3 different sets!) has
 DM> all been tested OK.  I've tried reducing RAM read/write speed (which
 DM> is generally the cause of this type of error), but have been unable to
 DM> remedy the problem, so I reinstalled the original RAM.  (I'm fairly
 DM> certain, however, that this problem is due to the system's old BIOS.)
That may attributable to RAM which is too quick for the motherboard.  The 
system might do better with 80ns RAM.  Incidentally, the latest (4/8/97) 
issue of PCMag has a note on this point.
 DM> The system:
 DM> AMI BIOS dated 1990 (which may not be fully compatible w/Win95?)
 DM> Cyrix Cx486DRX^233/66GP processor (386->486 upgrade chip?) w/math
 DM> co-pro 8 megs (8 1 meg SIMMs) of 30-pin 70ns RAM, 64K L2 cache
That is awfully marginal.  We have found that a 486/33 needs 16MB RAM to run 
Win95 properly.
Pass on the comments.
Take care,
Steven Horn (shorn@yknet.yk.ca)
Moderator CAN_SYSLAW 
--- timEd/386 1.10+
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