FAO anyone using 3GB switch

[Ramsay]

Hi guys. Im having a bit of a problem trying to install the 3GB switch on 2 of my workstations. The boot.ini file seems to be missing on these machines All system files are shown as are hidden files and folders so I dont really know whats going on. Anyone seen this before?

[TishoChaos]

You can see what happens if you go to start->settings->system and then in Advanced tab press Settings button in the Startup and Recovery section. In the new dialog press Edit button. It should open you Notepad with the current boot.ini file. If you want to modify it for 3GB switch, copy-paste the line for the operating system and then in the newly pasted line add /3gb.

[Ramsay]

Yeah I tried that too, I get a pop up window saying: "The c:\boot.ini file can not be opened. Operating System and Timeout settings can not be changed"

WTF??? Surely I must have a boot.ini file on my machine!?!

[percydaman]

make sure you have admin rights maybe?

[Ramsay]

Yep, I do... same thing happens when im logged on as administrator Any other ideas? I cant even find it when I do a DOS search

[RErender]

if you type "msconfig" in the run window do you see it?

on boot up do you get "Invalid or missing boot.ini, booting from C:\Windows"...

You can try creating a new boot.ini in the root of c: but it may be that windows is installed with a incorrect HAL in which case it would have to be reinstalled.

[Ramsay]

if you type "msconfig" in the run window do you see it?

I get this message: 'msconfig' is not recognised as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

on boot up do you get "Invalid or missing boot.ini, booting from C:\Windows"...

Yes I do actually but only on one of the two machines.

it may be that windows is installed with a incorrect HAL in which case it would have to be reinstalled.

Ok looks like im getting somewhere... what is an incorrect HAL?

[Da_elf]

what version of windows is this? XP im assuming?

[Ramsay]

Yep XP pro. One machine is a dual AMD opteron 2GHz and the other is a dual AMD athlon 2400+

[RErender]

HAl is the "Hardware abstraction layer" basically it is how xp knows what it is running on.

You might try a reinstall and force the correct HAL , probably a ACPI one dual or single per your system http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;299340

[RErender]

I would probably try this before a reinstall http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;330184

[CCS]

I couldn't do it thru MSCONFIG either. Worked fine thru notepad.

I thought this was a good reference too: http://www.eyeonline.com/Web/EyeonWe...echFAQ.aspx#15

[Ramsay]

I would probably try this before a reinstall http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;330184

Fantastic that did the trick

Thanks for all the help everyone!

[RErender]

cool

[pshupe68]

so if I have 4 gig of RAM can I set it to 4 gig or more instead of 3 Gig? Is 3 Gig a majic number with 32 bit OS?? Thanks.

I used the 3 gig switch and seems to run fine but I have upped the sub-divisions and quality and now it hangs after about 5 frames, which before it just shutdown and didn't hang?

I'm trying to find the happy medium for an animation for quality - if I use med-anim I'm getting a very jumpy animations - materials jittery and moire effect changing makes it look really bad.

I will post screen shots of settings and test anim if I get any interest. Thanks.

Regards Peter.