Not Enough Memory on 2Gb RAM Computer

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Windows 98 was not designed to recognize that much RAM. Have a look at some of these articles .

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(Edited by HansV to make URLs clickable – see Help 19)

Hi,
One of our members is requesting help with a memory problem on a 2Gb RAM computer. Here is his message:

“I have a computer problem that is driving me crazy. OK, no comments about that being a simple task.

I have a Pentium 4, 3.2 Ghz desktop computer with an Asus P4G800-E Deluxe motherboard that has dual channel memory. I have four 512 mb memory installed for a total of 2 Ghz of RAM memory. I am attempting to install Win98 SE on a 20 GB hard drive and am having problems.

I know. I know. Why such an ancient operating system? Because some of our people, translators, here still use it, and I want to have a hard drive with it installed to help them.

Anyway, every time I attempt to either install Win98 SE or boot up a hard drive from another machine with Win98 SE already installed, I get the same message:
“Insufficient Memory To Initialize Windows”
The computer hangs up and says “press any key to continue”.
When I press any key, the computer shuts down.
I have gone to the Microsoft knowledge base and they say to insert the “MaxPhysPage=30000” command beneath the “[386Enh]”
in system.ini. I have done this and still get the same error message.

I have also inserted the following two command lines in system.ini, under the [vcache]:
chunksize=2048
maxfilecache=115000

I still get the same error message and results.

When I take out half of my 2 GB of memory, Win98Se will boot OK into SAFE MODE.
But, obviously, I don’t want to have to take out half of my memory every time I want to boot to the Win98 SE drive.

Then, when I attempted to boot it up, I selected the “step by step” boot
up. It went all the way through Autoexec.bat and Config.sys, and then
started on a list of windows drivers. It went through about 12 windows
drivers, and immediately after I said “Yes” to “msmouse.vxd”, the same
error message mentioned above came up. Now, my guess is that the
msmouse.vxd is either causing the difficulty (which I doubt), or that was
the last driver on the windows drivers list to do and whatever comes next
caused it.

I have found the following websites, but am not sure what to do with them:

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic368.html%5B/url%5D
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=333688%5B/url%5D
http://www.tsgserver.com/pipermail/list_ts…ber/004526.html%5B/url%5D

I am thinking there must be a command line parameter or something in Autoexec.bat or in Config.sys that can work around this problem.

Help. What should I do? Can you ask around about this?”

TIA for your help.

Bob

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It seems that all Windows systems were “designed” to handle 2GB of RAM, but Win 98 has a bug. I found the following here

To warn Windows that you have more than 512MB of memory installed, add
the following line to the [VCache] section of your win.ini file:
MaxFileCache = 524288.”
from:
(http://www.cc.umb.edu/desktop/FAQw98SEramlimit.htm)

Microft

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Why then Doc, would MS state otherwise – Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 311871 and Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 304943 ?

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Well, we all know MS has a tendency to contradict itself and conventional wisdom from time to time. What my link was referring to was a “workaround” published by MS to address this “issue”. It’s true the systems weren’t “designed” to handle that much RAM, but it seems they were designed to limit the amount of RAM that could be used effectively and that those limits could be adjusted.

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Further reading, also from the MSKB, can be found here. That site was found here. MS really does have an answer for everything. And if they don’t, they will make one up or manufacture something that fits a particular answer. Just so they can prove that they are never wrong, only misunderstood.

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Thanks for the references Doc. I guess MS does have an answer for everything . Hopefully, one of these workarounds solves the OP’s problem.

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It’s just that they have so many undocumented & hidden features that it’s difficult to keep track of everything.

I think the change to the win.ini file should do the trick.

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I was poking around and just came upon this thread and since I have a Win 98SE box at home I was investigating the suggested work around for the VCACHE settings in the WIN.INI file.

I don’t have such a section and wondered if that was normal for some to have and some to have not?

-Jester

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Normal. If you don’t have one, it can be added. The exact setings will, of course, be related to your own system configuration. HTH

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Try the “Unofficial 98SE Service Pack” bet that help

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Try the “Unofficial 98SE Service Pack” bet that help

It is helpful to post a link to the recommended software or information about help you suggest.

Unofficial 98SE Service Pack.

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This thread was originally started in 2005 but as someone has revived it so here’s a pointer to the definitive story on this issue:
Day-to-day running Win 9x/ME with more than 1 GiB RAM

Help on a related issue is here: Big HDD & 48-bit LBA Thread Index, On using HDDs larger than 137 GB (128 GiB) with Win 9x/ME

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This thread was originally started in 2005 but as someone has revived it so here’s a pointer to the definitive story on this issue:
Day-to-day running Win 9x/ME with more than 1 GiB RAM

Help on a related issue is here: Big HDD & 48-bit LBA Thread Index, On using HDDs larger than 137 GB (128 GiB) with Win 9x/ME

That first link gets this response:

Warning: preg_match() [function.preg-match]: Compilation failed: missing ) at offset 42 in /home/msfnorg/public_html/board/admin/sources/classes/useragents/userAgentFunctions.php on line 763

Guess the baby was born …

The 2nd link gets this:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘)’ in /home/msfnorg/public_html/board/admin/sources/classes/useragents/userAgentFunctions.php on line 763

PHP programming error, or just a messed up internal link?

Hoping something in this thread is usable since my wife still likes to use PrintShop 6 a few times a year, so she boots back to the W98 setup from the Linux she normally uses, and I don’t like “restricting” her PC to “only” 512 MB RAM – remember when 64 MB seemed like a huge amount? Otherwise, we are done with all the M$ issues of malware and restrictions – just have to pick and choose Linux apps for what we want, but nothing I have found so far can work with her years old PS6 “projects”, so that is the only exception for her – YMMV.

RO

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That first link gets this response:

Warning: preg_match() [function.preg-match]: Compilation failed: missing ) at offset 42 in /home/msfnorg/public_html/board/admin/sources/classes/useragents/userAgentFunctions.php on line 763

Guess the baby was born …

The 2nd link gets this:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘)’ in /home/msfnorg/public_html/board/admin/sources/classes/useragents/userAgentFunctions.php on line 763

PHP programming error, or just a messed up internal link?

Both links work fine for me with IE8.

Joe

--Joe

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That first link gets this response:

Warning: preg_match() [function.preg-match]: Compilation failed: missing ) at offset 42 in /home/msfnorg/public_html/board/admin/sources/classes/useragents/userAgentFunctions.php on line 763

Guess the baby was born …

The 2nd link gets this:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘)’ in /home/msfnorg/public_html/board/admin/sources/classes/useragents/userAgentFunctions.php on line 763

PHP programming error, or just a messed up internal link?

Hoping something in this thread is usable since my wife still likes to use PrintShop 6 a few times a year, so she boots back to the W98 setup from the Linux she normally uses, and I don’t like “restricting” her PC to “only” 512 MB RAM – remember when 64 MB seemed like a huge amount? Otherwise, we are done with all the M$ issues of malware and restrictions – just have to pick and choose Linux apps for what we want, but nothing I have found so far can work with her years old PS6 “projects”, so that is the only exception for her – YMMV.

RO

Links still work for me but MSFN Forums have had a revamp recently and when I use the links they redirect me to:
1) http://www.msfn.org/board/running-9xme-more-than-t118097.html
2) http://www.msfn.org/board/thread-index-t129027.html

Does that help?

stuck

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Both links worked in Firefox 3.6.3 as well.

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Thanks. Both old and new links work now for me, so I guess the server was having a bad php moment the first time I tried ;-}

Anyway, the MaxFileCache in vCache setting did not help, but I saw in those other discussions mention of “maxphsypage” in that case as a “last resort”.

I am remembering though, that I picked up PS 20-something on clearance for a few bucks a while ago, and installed it on an XP setup I have on my wife’s X30 notebook, and it managed the the old project files ok (along with the wonky Lexmark Z515 USB printer and special fonts for it PS6 uses, which prevented a VMware Win98 vm under Linux from printing). We don’t think about that “spare” XP setup much since the notebook normally boots to Linux (Mint), but that seems to be the path of least resistance now.

Regards,
RO

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Why not use a virtual computer?????

Limit it to 512m or whatever and be done with it?

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As a computer tech, I’ve been given several old Windows 98 machines, over the years.
Without exception, every one of them accepted windows XP and runs just fine.

It’s a good FIX.

The Doctor 😎

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