MS-DOS 7.10 Knowledge Base (Article D4)


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Why does Windows/WFW 3.x show "PageOverCommit value in SYSTEM.INI is too large. Decrease the value, or if not present, add a setting that is less than 4." on some newer systems? 

Last updated on: January 17, 2004


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The information in this article applies to:

Windows 3.x
Windows for Workgroups 3.x
MS-DOS 7.10
SYMPTOMS

When you start Windows 3.x or Windows for Workgroups 3.x in 386 Enhancement Mode from DOS, you may receive the following information on some newer systems:

PageOverCommit value in SYSTEM.INI is too large. Decrease the value, or if not present, add a setting that is less than 4.

CAUSE

There is a bug (or more exactly: "design limitation") in Windows 3.x and Windows for Workgroups 3.x when using 386 Enhancement Mode, which may cause them to show that message. This happens ONLY IF the physical memory of your system reported by DOS/Windows is MORE THAN 256MB, since Win3.x/WFW3.x has a problem using that much XMS memory (>256MB~1024MB) as its swap file.

RESOLUTION

To get rid of this problem, you can just set the value of "PageOverCommit" in [386Enh] section of the system setting file SYSTEM.INI to 3 or less, e.g. "PageOverCommit=2" (without quotation marks). So it will look similar to this: 

In SYSTEM.INI: 

[386Enh]
...
PageOverCommit=2
... 

If the total XMS memory is more than 512MB, then please set the value to 1 or 0; if the total XMS memory is even more than 1024MB (1GB), then you have to set it to 0. 

In addition, there is another workaround by using an older version of XMS memory manager (HIMEM.SYS) which limits the maximum XMS memory to 64MB or even smaller so that DOS/Win3.x can only see 64MB memory at most. However, I don't recommend this workaround (i.e. by replacing HIMEM.SYS) since it's Win3.x's own bug with large memory. 

MORE INFORMATION

The valid values for PageOverCommit are from 1 to 20. The default value is 4. The value for PageOverCommit is used as a multiplier to determine the size of the permanent swap file. You can calculate the desired value for PageOverCommit using the following equation: 

Desired permanent swap file size = # of PageOverCommit × XMS memory

For example, assume you have 256MB XMS memory, with the value of PageOverCommit = 4, then

Desired permanent swap file size = 4 × 256MB = 1024MB = 1GB

This is the maximum desired permanent swap file size that Windows 3.x/Windows for Workgroups 3.x can support. Win3.x/WFW 3.x will report that error if the actual product is greater than 1024MB=1GB.


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