Okay.

If you are running a Mark2_, that implies 12MB of RAM. Also it may be worthwhile to see if that upgrade board will work with that model. I have to check, I do not remember off hand.

Given 12MB of RAM, memory issues are more likely, especially when initially setting up large drives. You should still not see this in playback, though. Do you have any other software (other than the player application and hijack) loaded that might take up memory?

The reservecache option tells the player how much memory to force the cache routine to leave for the player application and kernel. With this, you should try a larger number to fit larger database sizes. I would be surprised that you need to even include the line at all, but you should try larger numbers and work down.

When you see the disk icon, do you see it show up with a "W" indicator? That is a symptom that there is a wait for data on the disk. Typically I have seen this when the cache is trying to fill, starving the kernel for memory.

Try setting the reservecache to a higher number - 256 or 192 to start and work down. The goal is to save enough of the 12MB you have for the player, shrinking the cache size a bit. Your disks may remain spun up more, but the playback should be a bit better. The default, based on a somewhat dated version number (1.03) in the FAQ is 180.

As to the rwm, it is just convenience. I am sure that anytime you rwm your player to go into disk read/write mode, it must take forever. This way, it is almost immediate.