PAE Settings & 4GB Systems

[cvscorpc]

This is valid only for 32Bit Systems. Ignore this for 64Bit Systems.

 

In searching for causes of the notorious Exception Error: 0xc000005, which generally relates to hardware or driver failures, like video, audio and memory, I came across DEP/PAE configurations on my systems that did not match the hardware configuration, leading to CTD's after execution of DCS/UBI Products.

 

In each of my systems, I did have 4GB of RAM present when the Windows 7 OS was originally installed, and then reduced the available RAM to 2GB, after the OS install sometime later.

 

Apparently, the boot configuration, which can be seen with Visual BCD or MSConfig, configures itself upon Windows 7 installation, to the amount of RAM in a system, as well as whether the processor has hardware implemented DEP, which will again, set switches in the boot configuraton.

 

Although I reduced my memory from 4GB to 2GB, the boot configuration switches for PAEPolicy and x86PAEMode were still set to allow 4GB memory addressing even though the /NOEXECUTE switch was present.

 

Rather than attempting to explain the misconfiguration, it will be easier to explain correct settings for these items, depending on available memory in a system needed for DCS Products to run correctly.

 

*If you have 4GB or more in your system, you should "enable" PAE.

 

(from thread: http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/faq/Win32)

*If you have 3GB, but less than 4GB in your system, add "bcdedit /set increaseuserva 3072" to your boot configuration, and "enable" PAE.

 

*If you have 2GB or less, you should "disable" PAE.

 

PAE may be turned on when it is not required, or it may be disabled on systems with 4GB that need it, <<(if you upgraded RAM from 2GB to 4GB after the OS was installed), in any event, if it is not set correctly, you can generate exception errors and CTD either launching or during gameplay.

 

Whether you want DEP depends on what settings you chose or changed in System Options/Data Execution Protection.

 

Good resource for DEP/PAE and what it does.

 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/gg487503.aspx

 

http://andrewfraserdba.com/training/32bit.html

 

In conclusion, once I reconfigured my system for 2GB and changed the boot configurations to represent current Intel Processor and lack of hardware DEP, my CTD and exception errors went away.

 

All I am really stating is to check your boot configuration, memory configuration and the settings for DEP/PAE and insure they match the hardware and processor you have, or the choices you made for DEP Execution.

 

Hope this helps.

 

:)

Edited October 12, 2012 by cvscorpc