w2k: AGP Program May Hang When Using Page Size Extension on Athlon Processor

[remy]

Some people are experiencing very weird crashes. If you have an Athlon based system running w2k and you have the latest motherboard drivers and latest video card drivers and all the service packs installed then you could try this (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q270/7/15.ASP&NoWebContent=1&NoWebContent=1).

"The following workaround for this issue prevents Memory Manager from using the processor's Page Size Extension feature and may affect the performance of some programs, depending on the paging behavior" Not to mention that entering a typo in the registry can really mess things up if you aren't careful :)

[ÜberJumper]

For conviencience:



SYMPTOMS
A Windows 2000-based computer may stop responding (hang) when you use an Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) program such as Ziff Davis 3D WinBench 2000. This behavior may occur more frequently depending on the computer's processor, memory, and graphics configuration. This problem is known to occur with Nvidia GeForce 256 and Matrox G400 video adapters on computers with AMD Athlon processors. This issue is not specific to any particular video adapter type.

CAUSE
This behavior can occur if memory that is allocated by the video adapter driver is being corrupted.

RESOLUTION
WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

The following workaround for this issue prevents Memory Manager from using the processor's Page Size Extension feature and may affect the performance of some programs, depending on the paging behavior. This registry value also limits non-paged pool to a maximum of 128 megabytes (MB) instead of 256 MB.


Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
Locate and click the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:
Value name: LargePageMinimum
Data type: REG_DWORD
Radix: Hexadecimal
Data value: 0xffffffff

Quit Registry Editor.
Restart the computer.