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Fix the size of your vcache. The Win95 OS attempts to cache data recently read from disk in the computer's RAM. The next time Win95 gets a request for this data it does not need to pull it from the computer's hard disk. Rather, the data is now available via the computer's RAM -- a much faster type of data storage. In theory, disk caching will boost the computer's performance. By default Win95 dynamically allocates RAM for disk caching, and this can be problematic. When Win95 runs out of RAM to use for disk caching, the Virtual Memory Manager takes over and begins swapping data back out to disk, to what is called the "swap file." At those moments when the Virtual Memory Manager begins swapping the disk cache back to disk, access to both the hard disk and RAM is delayed and any pending data requests are interrupted. This redundant data caching can affect timing dependent operations such MIDI Time Code (MTC), digital audio, and digital video. The results can be audio drops, dropped video frames, and MTC stuttering. To stabilize the Win95 disk caching scheme, we simply need to set the disk cache (vcache) to a fixed size. Here's how:

Open the System.ini file by typing "system.ini" in the Win95 Run line, and click "OK."

Now, add the following to the SYSTEM.INI file, found in C:\WINDOWS:

[vcache]
MinFileCache=2048
MaxFileCache= 2048

Where 2048 is 10-25% of the total system memory in kilobytes. 1 megabyte is equal to 1024 kilobytes (2MB = 2048KB).

There should already be a [vcache] section in the System.ini file. Simply add the "MinFileCache" and "MaxFileCache" line to this section. Be sure not to create a second [vcache] section!

 

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