Old PhotoShop 4 virtual memory problem.

[XP rookie]

I have to reset/increase the virtual memory in my HP comp's properties window (from "factory" of 1139 to about 4000-4005) so PhotoShop 4 will load correctly with new/more memory installed. The setting of "4000" will stay put & photoShop 4 loads correctly, but the next time the comp is re-booted the memory setting re-sets back to to "1139" again. How do I get the increased virtual memory settings to "stick" after starting the comp the next time? Thanks for any info.

[F1]

Set your VM minimum and maximum (Be sure to hit the "Set" button) the same and be sure there is no other pagefiles anywhere. Photoshop will also run better if you have a separate 'scratch file' set up on another drive.

[XP rookie]

F1, that's what I have to do each time I start the comp to get PS4 to work (like in your example). But the virtual memeory settings won't stay where I set them after the comp is started the next time (they re-set back to 1139 again each reboot) even with clicking the "Set" button.

Does setting the virtual memory to a higher setting have to be done in "safe mode" to stop the re-set back to 1139, or will it always revert back to the "factory" settings each reboot?

I created another partition (drive "F", 15 gig) to use for the scratch file set. Will this work OK, or would a separate hard drive be better for the scratch file set?

[F1]

Using a separate partition for the PsP scratch file will work fine ( I use a separate HDD myself). As for the VM, I don't understand why it would revert back after each reboot unless you are using an account that doesn't have Administrator permissions (I assume you're using XP or W2000Pro). You might try logging in under the Administrator profile and changing your settings that way.

[Snoopy]

Photoshop 4 is probably not fully XP compatible (probably not even W2K compatible) and is probably having problems with the differences in VM settings / VM structure of XP since Photoshop 4 was in all likelihood designed for Win98.

[cauzomb]

4.0 has some NT support, but it's not optimised for non ntfs VM scratchdisk, or unified globalmem. There's a plugin or setting in 5.0 and 5.5 that uses a scratchdisk of it's own but it still uses the memory subsystem of the OS so it's not any better off than 4.0 using a "HUGE" scratchdisk. 4gig's lol Systematically upgrading to a fully xp compatable application is your best bet, the cheapest way is to get 5.50 or 6.0 NEW and upgrade to CS, saves about 350 bucks over buying CS2.0 retail, 4.0 works well enough and is feature rich but not compared to CS, it is minus all the extra filters and ease of use automatic options but you can get most of the features via eyecandy

my only issue with the older versions are that they don't support many camera/raw formats