From: bes38869@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (The Bard Duelak   )
Subject: Re: HD lights flicker in Windows 3.1 ?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 05:01:52 GMT

jmalloy@itsmail1.hamilton.edu (Joseph T. Malloy) writes:

>In article <1993Jan25.181926.19241@donau.et.tudelft.nl> linstee@dutecaj.et.tudelft.nl (Erik van Linstee) writes:
>>mechalas@gn.ecn.purdue.edu (John P. Mechalas) writes:
>>
>>>In article <C1EEq5.Ky1@news.cso.uiuc.edu> bes38869@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (The Bard Duelak   ) writes:
>>>>	I have a 386DX@40Mhz, w/ a Maxtor 7120A 130Mb Hd, and a
>>>>Cirrus GD54 video card.  I havent noticed this before, but when I enter
>>>>Windows, it seems to be taking longer for it to start up, and then when 
>>>>it finally does, Windows seems to be accessin the HD alot, and when it isnt
>>>>accessing the HD, the HD lights constantly flicker.  They dont do this
>>>>running under DOS.  I have even run the most recent version of scan on
>>>>all the files on the hard drive, and no viruses are reported.
>>>>	Has anyone had this problem, or know what is causing it and
>>>>how to stop it?  Please post, or reply by e-mail.
>>
>>>How many buffers and files do you have set in your config.sys?  If you don't
>>>have enough of either, Windows will be foreced to do a lot of disk accessing
>>>(at least, that has been my experience).  I set 30 files and 15 buffers,
>>>though your mileage may vary, if this is indeed the problem.
>>
>>Last time I looked (ages ago) windows keeps accessing the harddisk
>>periodically (every3-5 seconds) even when it isn't touched.
>>I never found a valid reason for it doing so.
>>
>When I boot Windows, hard drive activity stops afer startup and doesn't
>occur again until I do something to require it.  If you're running a
>program that automatically saves files in the background (word
>processor, one of those post-it notes type utilities, spreadsheets --
>all will do that if the options to do so are enabled), well, you'll see
>a bit of disk activity from time to time.  It sounds like theoriginal
>poster's configuration has somehow changed (do you have a disk cache?
>How large is it?) or he's using one or more programs that require more
>memory and so Windows swaps out to disk...

>This may be the equivalent of a Windows Urban Legend, but I've heard
>often enough of problems with Windows (mostly 3.0, I admit) that were
>solved by increasing the number of file handles in config.sys to 50 or
>60 or so.  If you have a disk cache, 15 buffers ought to be okay; if
>not, the more the merrier.

>Try Windows in standard mode and see how that goes, too...

>Good luck!  

>jmalloy@hamilton.edu

>>
	I found the problem, I had reconfigured my memory manager after
installing a new video card, and changing something in autoexec.
Apparently my memory manager did something screwy (still dont know what),
but after re-reconfiguring it, everything is back to normal.
	Thanks to all who replied.

-- Blair

-- 
|Blair Sandberg, student in | "If paper feathers are all it takes to fly,dont| 
|   Microbiology, at the    | you think we'd have heard about it before?"... | 
|  University of Illinois   | - "It takes an uncommon mind to think of these | 
| bes38869@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu | things, Hobbes."          -- Calvin and Hobbes | 
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