What is "Delayed Write Fail"???

[KM Richards]

Anybody ever hear of "Delayed Write Fail"???

My computer froze up with this on the screen:

Windows - Delayed Write Fail Windows was unable to save all the data for the file \WINDOWS\system32\config\AppEvent.Evt The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere.

Anyone have any ideas about what this is?

[TwoRails]

Something here may help:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330174
http://searchwinit.techtarget.com/ti...041334,00.html

[KM Richards]

Cool! That's just the kinda thing I was looking for so I at least have a starting point for checking out possible causes of this.

Thanks!

[Force Flow]

I usually see that when the pagefile gets full with computers running centurian guard or something similar.

In your case, you can try increase the pagefile size to 1.5 to 2 times the capacity of your RAM.

To change it, right-click My Computer and choose Properties. Then click the "Advanced" tab and click the "Settings" button under "Perforumance". Then, click the "Advanced" tab in that dialog and click "change".

Click on the drive letter that houses your Operating System. Click on the "custom size" radio button and enter the same two numbers (2048, for instance if you have 1GB to 1.5GB in your system).

Hit "Set" and ok, and you will be prompted to restart, so go ahead and do that.

Once you're back up and running, see if the problem still exists. If it does, two more things you can try:

1) run scandisk on the hard drive
2) run memtest86 on the RAM

[KM Richards]

Originally Posted by Force Flow Click on the drive letter that houses your Operating System. Click on the "custom size" radio button and enter the same two numbers (2048, for instance if you have 1GB to 1.5GB in your system).

What is the recommended setting for my system, that has 4gigs of RAM running the latest version of XP Professional?

[Vaillant]

then you'd want 6 to 8 gigs of pagefile (scary thought though)

[KM Richards]

OK, I re-read what you said and went ahead and made the change.
Even my computer showed what was recommended, and that's what I went by when I increased the file size.

Here's the before pic...
http://www.professionalmediaservices.../pic1__gif.gif

Here's the after pick...
http://www.professionalmediaservices...s/pic2__gif.gi

[KM Richards]

Just a thought...if the problem returns (hopefully it won't), what would
happen if I selected the "No Paging File" option?

[TwoRails]

You system will be laggy when you switch programs and the like. I haven't played much with XP's page file, but with Win 98 I always had trouble when setting a "Max" size. I've had no need to use anything but System Managed sized, as all is good when switching between programs and running video editors and the like.

[KM Richards]

Well, hopefully I won't have to disable page filing at all and my current settings will provide me with many years of happy computing

[Force Flow]

Your images aren't showing up.

I'm not sure what will happen if you go over 3072MB for the pagefile size...I haven't needed to go that high before. If things are still weird, drop it down to 3072MB.

Aslo make sure that the min and max sizes are the same. This helps keep the pagefile all in one place on the hard drive.

If you select "no pagefile", you will certainly take a huge performance hit.

[KM Richards]

The pics were just showing before (20 something) and where I set it to at 4606.
When I got there to check this, it actually said that 4606 was recommended.
So, I simply put in what it was recommending and yes I made both min & max the same.

Keep in mind, my machine has 4gigs of DDR RAM on board, so maybe the number is supposed to be higher. So far, no issues whatsoever and I've not had the write fail error message again.

[Force Flow]

Alright, sounds like you're golden then

[KM Richards]

This is really funny...right after I posted that last reply...my computer decided to re-boot itself! No error messages or anything. Just a sudden blank screen and the tower became quite.

Then, it started booting up immeditely as though I had re-booted but it did this on it's own.

So, I got to thinking that I know Windows XP Pro only recognizes 3 gigs out of the 4 gigs of RAM installed...so I took your advice and changed it to 3072 which is probably what it should be set at.

Anyway...if I run into any further troubles I'll post here again.
Hopefully this will be the final adjustment.

[Force Flow]

The pagefile is a single file called pagefile.sys and I suspect it's limited to the same 32-bit addressing issue as RAM over 3.5GB.

[edit]: Alright, my interest was piqued on this particular issue, so I did some digging and it looks like 4095MB is the max possible pagefile size due to the 32-bit limitation. 64-bit platforms have a cap of 16TB (terabytes).

If you need more virtual memory on a 32-bit system, you can create additional pagefiles on seperate partitions/drives (however, I do not recommend this unless your 4GB pagefile keeps filling up--this would only really apply to servers and highly-utilized multimedia PCs).

Now, if you're looking for a slight performance boost, you can move your pagefile off of the O/S's drive and onto a secondary drive. Note that you'll run into the same issue as having no page file if you remove the secondary drive (or if it dies).

[KM Richards]

Doesn't the pagefile.sys have a way of relieving itself so it doesn't become full?

If not, then wouldn't the page file on all computers be a problem?

[Force Flow]

The pagefile acts much the same way as RAM. When data is no longer needed, it is discarded and thus, frees up space.

You would only see the pagefile get full if it's too small for the demands that are being put on the machine (ie, heavy multi-tasking).

[KM Richards]

That may explain it, as I use my machine primarily for business so when I'm busy working I may have several applications open at once.

That's why I got the high end (at the time of purchase) FX-60 AMD processor and 4gigs of DDR Ram, even though Windows XP Pro only sees 3gigs (32bit edition)

Anyway, thanks very much for the input.
Hopefully now I can enjoy many years of happy computing!

[ITlover]

Originally Posted by KM Richards Anybody ever hear of "Delayed Write Fail"??? My computer froze up with this on the screen: Anyone have any ideas about what this is?

This messege shows that something is wrong with your system files.
Which HDD are you using?

What i understand is that the computer is not able to write and store the data on the HDD because the HDD might be having some problems.

You must be geting this error messege when you shut down your computer and at that time all your data either in RAM or somewhere is written back to the HDD before the computer shuts down completely.

Did you make any hardware changes in the system before you started to get this error messege? Did you install or replace any hardware device or its driver on the computer?


If you answer these questions it will help us, troubleshoot your problems.

Regards,

[ITlover]

page file is a file which is used during paging file, when your applications or file that are not urgently needed or required are temperorily kept in the swap rather than loaded on RAM.

[Force Flow]

ITlover, the issue has been resolved.

[ITlover]

Thanks for informing, actually i didnot read the whole discussion, just read the question posted by the user.

[glc]

IT, you must stop posting in threads without reading the ENTIRE discussion. You are disrupting the boards and the staff is getting concerned. This is an official warning.

- Admin -