Windows Vista, Flash Memory with USB

This what you mean.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2017844,00.asp

Thanks, but that's not familiar. What I read was something more specific to FSX. I guess WV has the ability to have a flash drive installed while using FSX and it can treat it like it's additional RAM. I guess this would speed up performance right?

Michaelvg1 wrote:

Thanks, but that's not familiar. What I read was something more specific to FSX. I guess WV has the ability to have a flash drive installed while using FSX and it can treat it like it's additional RAM. I guess this would speed up performance right?

I read this also in the PC Pilot magazine. I'm sure I managed to do this with XP a while ago, I will have another go. 🙂

"Ready Boost" is what you are talking about. It is NOT as good as Ram, but faster than page file (swap file). I have 2 G Ram and played with it. I noticed that after setting up a 1G jump drive and having it in, FSX loaded alot faster when starting. I just ordered 2 additional G Ram.

I am holding off on the RAM for now since it will cost $400. My FSX Works great (over 30 FPS), but would like to use a Flash Drive in the USB just for that added benefit. I tried my PNY Flash 1 GB, but Windows Vista said it's not cabable of Ready Boost. Are there special ones for this feature? Which ones are they, where can I find them?
Thanks

Michealvg1: Your drive is too slow for ReadyBoost. There is a hack/mod that allows you to be able to use ReadyBoost anyways

Windows ReadyBoost is a great technology, caching things on USB drives to improve system performance, but Windows Vista insists on checking the drives for certain speed requirements before enabling the feature. If you have a USB drive that is just a hair to slow to beat the test, or you want to use an external hard drive (slower speed, loads of cache space), Matt Rajca posts at Channel 9 how you can force Vista to let you use ReadyBoost on an unsupported device, whether it wants to or not:

1. Plug in the device.
2. Open the Readyboost tab on the device properties.
3. Select “Do not retest this device”
4. Unplug the device
5. Open regedit (start->run->regedit)
6. Expand - HKLM (Local Machine)->SOFTWARE->Microsoft->Windows NT->CurrentVersion->EMDgmt
7. Find your device.
8. Change Device Status to 2
9. Change ReadSpeedKBs to 1000
10. Change WriteSpeedKBs to 1000
11. Plug in the device.
12. Enable Readyboost!!!!

Source: http://www.thehotfix.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=9621

I don't know. I don't like messing with system configs. Shouldn't I just go out and buy a Readyboost capable Flash Drive? They are pretty cheap...

I just went to J&R and picked up a 1GB SD Card. I figured I would not use that slot for anything anyway so why not just get a Card for more RAM. Hopefully when I get home Windows Vista will approve the device. It's a San Disk Extreme III. 20MB per second read/write.
Does that sound good?

I am having a problem now. It appeared to be working the first time I starting using the SD Card. At least the LED in the front was always blinking on and off link when the hard drive is working, but now after I accepted the readyboost feature it does not seem to be running and when I right click the drive in Explorer, it's always defaulting to the radio button, "Do not use this device" and I select "Use this device" but it's still not blinking. What am I doing wrong now?
Thanks

I figured it out. There is this small Lock slider on the SD Card. It was Locked somehow..

I just experimented with the Windows Vista ReadyBoost feature. I started with two different Sony MemoryStick Duo cards, and found that if I used a cheapo iConnect USB Multicard Reader/Writer on the usb port directly attached to the motherboard, Autoplay WOULD display the General tab with the system speedup feature. Microsoft recommends a 4 to 1 ratio (flash to main memory). I have a 4gig card, but settled on using the 1 mb stick anyway. The setting was 560mb of reserved space, and I've sinced increased the framerate from 20 to 24frames-per-second. Actually the range is 16-24. Flying around a particular local for a couple of days actually steadys the frame rate until I will finally see less and less of those 'lags'. I think the hard drive's cache is still in play. Ah to buy a modern serial ATA hard drive with flash cards slots built-in...

Can you tell me more about this 4:1 thing...
I thought if I have 1 Gig Ram, I should get 1 Gig Flash SD Card?
My tower has a direct SD Card insert in the front, so I just leave it in there and it starts blinking when needed. Should I get a 2 Gig Ram Flash card? I will eventually get real RAM but do not need it quite yet.

Hi Michaelvg1, First, remember that the flash mem is not taking the place of Ram. I wouldn't spend more on Flash mem when you can add ram. Course, that's without knowing how old your PC/hardware is. But it must be pretty new to run Vista. When I first tried Ready boost with 2 g od DDR2/800, I tried a 2g PNY flash drive. Like yours, it wasn't fast enough and said so. So I popped in my 1 G Lexar and Voila ! But seeing the increase, I ordered 2 additional g Ram and it made a nice improvement. So Ram is still the 3rd best upgrade, video card/processor being the first two. But then you have to figure out the best settings for video card/FS to see improvement. That's where it is hardest !!! Good Luck, rob

Yeah. Slowly but surely. I really don't think I need to do anything to expensive right now. I got a nice HP with a 2 duo core Intel processors. Getting 20-40 FPS with current set up. Just want to maximize what I have now and then maybe later this year, get a super video card and add more ram.
Thanks for the tip.
I also noticed a difference with the flash memory.

This just came in a newsletter today.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=198500307