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Article ID: 141368 - Last Review: January 19, 2007 - Revision: 1.3
Poor Performance from CD-ROM-Based Program
This article was previously published under Q141368
When you run a program that accesses a CD-ROM drive, you may notice that
the program is not performing optimally. You may notice slow data transfer
in a business or reference program, or skipping or slow audio and video in
a multimedia program.
This behavior can occur when the Supplemental Cache Size and Optimize
Access Pattern For settings are not be set correctly for your CD-ROM
drive.
To resolve this issue, follow these steps improve your CD-ROM drive's
performance:
- Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-
click System.
- On the Performance tab, click File System.
- Click the CD-ROM tab.
- Move the Supplemental Cache Size slider to the right to allocate more
random access memory (RAM) for caching data from the CD-ROM drive or to
the left to allocate less RAM for caching data.
Note that many multimedia programs perform better with a smaller cache
because these program tend not to reuse data.
- For reading continuous data, such as .avi files, use a higher setting
in the Optimize Access Pattern For box. For reading random data,
increase the Supplemental Cache Size setting and decrease the Optimize
Access Pattern For setting.
- Click OK, and then click Close. When you are prompted to restart your
computer, do so.
NOTE: If you are using real-mode drivers for your CD-ROM drive, these
settings have no effect.
The supplemental cache is used to hold path table, directory, and file
information. It is a passive cache holding data that has been accessed
and may be accessed again.
The Optimize Access Pattern For setting is based on a 64K cache (single-
speed read ahead plus 14K random access cache). This is incremented in 50K
increments depending on the CD-ROM drive speed. It is an active buffer
storing data initially read from the CD-ROM.
The default cache size is not based on the CD-ROM drive, but on the amount
of RAM in the computer, as follows:
- For computers with less than 8 MB of RAM, the default setting is
single-speed read ahead cache (50K) + small random access cache (14K).
- For computers with from 8 to 12 MB of RAM, the default setting is
double-speed read ahead cache (100K) + medium random access cache
(512K).
- For computers with more than 12 MB of RAM, the default setting is
quad-speed read ahead cache (200K) + large random access cache
(1024K).
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
- Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition
- Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Windows 95
| kbenv kbfaq kbhardware kbprb KB141368 |
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