Putting the pagefile on an SD card
I've been getting increasingly annoyed by the amount of heat my tablet puts out and the increased fan cooling that accompanies it. For heavy computing, it's unavoidable, but I feel it's excessive for casual use, like web surfing, so I'm striking at the source: the pagefile.
The pagefile or paging file (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paging) is an element of a computer's virtual memory, which stores data on the hard drive in order to augment the RAM. This means using the pagefile means more hard drive activity, even for simple tasks, which means more heat.
I proved this to myself by turning off the pagefile system. Ran cooler, but there were performance issues. Processor worked harder to manage the memory. Drivers crashed when it came out of hibernation. And some programs, like Acronis TrueImage (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/), won't work without the pagefile.
Keeping the pagefile on the hard drive leads to heat. Disabling it causes problems. The only option left is to move it to a flash drive.
I'm testing it now with a 1 GB SD card with good results. The card capacity is lower than what is recommended, but it's running without bugs and still eliminating the heat. And it's not even a high-speed card.
There are, of course, drawbacks to the system. First, I can't remove the SD card unless I shut down. Not much of a problem since my camera is broken and I have no other SD card devices in active use. I've also never ejected the card accidentally (knock on wood).
Second, flash memory wears out. It can handle tens of thousands of erase cycles, but eventually it wears out and becomes useless. On the other hand, 1-4 GB SD cards are pretty cheap, and it would be interesting to see how long it takes to wear out a flash card.
I think I'll test this out for a bit and even spring for a new SD card, bigger and faster, to do an even evaluation of it. And then maybe I'll give the card a real workout and test out eBooster (http://www.eboostr.com/), a ReadyBoost (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_Boost) alternative for Windows XP. I'll keep you posted.
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Labels: Tablet PC
Putting the pagefile on an SD card
posted by Sumocat at 4/21/2008 10:32:00 PM
13 Comments:
So far I havent gotten it to work. I am using vista and a 2GB sd card. When I set it and after a reboot it says I am still not using it for the pagefile.
By
James A. Morman, at 4/22/2008 08:04:00 AM
Could be Vista or the card reader. I'm running XP on my Toshiba R25. My card reader is recognized as a drive in the BIOS (I think). Or maybe you need to turn off the pagefile first. I was testing it with pf off, then switched it to the card. Hopefully it's as simple as that. Otherwise, it's one of the immutable elements.
By
Sumocat, at 4/22/2008 09:04:00 AM
Does it improve battery life when you're doing things that don't involve the hard drive much?
By
Evan, at 4/22/2008 10:42:00 AM
Okay, I'm a dumbass. I just checked my drives and the pagefile is still on the hard drive. Apparently the virtual memory settings don't actually work, yet when I compare it back against the normal setting, there is a difference in the heat. There's some other factor at work, but I don't know what it is. Could just be that I limited the size of the pagefile. I'll have to investigate further.
By
Sumocat, at 4/22/2008 11:39:00 AM
Thanks for the suggestion. I am getting a Class 6 4GB sdhc card to try with eboostr in this HP2710p.
By
Phil, at 4/23/2008 06:25:00 PM
ree: I'll be checking that with eBoostr, but dollars to donuts the reduced heat I'm experiencing means some increase in battery life.
Phil: Just don't hold me to this as a bonafide suggestion. I'm just testing eBoostr. I'm not married to it yet.
By
Sumocat, at 4/23/2008 07:54:00 PM
Okay, so has anyone actually been able to get the pagefile on the SD card in vista?
By
Unknown, at 4/23/2008 09:44:00 PM
Not as far as I know.
By
Sumocat, at 4/23/2008 10:04:00 PM
i am able to get my page file on a cf on my vista samsung q1p. it took numerous reboots, but it finally took. the first reboot involved decreasing the size of the pagefile on c: from system configured to 200mb. then i popped my cf card in and got it recognized by vista. then, i created a custom pagefile the cf card and rebooted. voila, 2gb pagefile on my cf.
By
VictorE, at 4/30/2008 06:28:00 PM
I gave that a try, manually copying the pagefile to the card, but it's still reading the pagefile on the hard drive. Reboot and see which file shows what is more recently updated.
By
Sumocat, at 4/30/2008 07:28:00 PM
On Vista with a Toshiba M700, no luck.
I can set the SD Card to show it has a page file in advanced properties, but in the main dialog it doesn't recognize any pagefile on the SD card, only the HD. If I set it only on SD, on reboot there is no page file at all.
If anyone figures this out, let us know, I'd love to try this.
By
Tariq, at 5/12/2008 10:21:00 AM
Operating system doesnt always detect the SD Card on startup, thus it cant read/write to the pagefile...
By
Anonymous, at 5/30/2009 06:41:00 AM
Win7 on Toshiba Portege T110
Windows allowed me to set page file on SD Card, but on reboot Windows created a temporary page file on HD.
Prior to this operation, I had relocated the page file to an occasionally used partition on my HD, and it was okay.
By
Cat, at 1/07/2011 02:04:00 AM
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