Poor Performance from CD-ROM-Based Program The information in this article applies to: Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition

Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition Microsoft Windows 98 Microsoft Windows 95 This article was previously published under Q141368 SYMPTOMS When you run a program that accesses a CD-ROM drive, you may notice that the pro gram is not performing optimally. You may notice slow data transfer in a busines s or reference program, or skipping or slow audio and video in a multimedia prog ram. CAUSE This behavior can occur when the Supplemental Cache Size and Optimize Access Pat tern For settings are not be set correctly for your CD-ROM drive. RESOLUTION To resolve this issue, follow these steps improve your CD-ROM drive's performanc e: Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double- click Syst em. 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 acc ess memory (RAM) for caching data from the CD-ROM drive or to the left to alloca te less RAM for caching data. Note that many multimedia programs perform better with a smaller cache because t hese program tend not to reuse data. For reading continuous data, such as .avi files, use a higher setting in the Opt imize 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 h ave no effect. MORE INFORMATION The supplemental cache is used to hold path table, directory, and file informati on. It is a passive cache holding data that has been accessed and may be accesse d again. The Optimize Access Pattern For setting is based on a 64K cache (single- speed r ead ahead plus 14K random access cache). This is incremented in 50K increments d epending on the CD-ROM drive speed. It is an active buffer storing data initiall y read from the CD-ROM. The default cache size is not based on the CD-ROM drive, but on the amount of RA M in the computer, as follows: For computers with less than 8 MB of RAM, the default setting is single-speed re ad ahead cache (50K) + small random access cache (14K). For computers with from 8 to 12 MB of RAM, the default setting is double-speed r ead ahead cache (100K) + medium random access cache (512K). For computers with more than 12 MB of RAM, the default setting is quad-speed rea d ahead cache (200K) + large random access cache (1024K).