Win98 and 1.5 GB of RAM

[TonyB]

Im trying to get a win98se system to run with 1.5Gb of ram, I have 3 sticks of Micron 512MB SDRAM modules and im installing it into a P3 1000mhz system using the Asus CUV4X-E motherboard. According to the manual it can handle up to 1.5GB of RAM and has 4 ram slots. Ive tried getting the system to run with this much memory but everytime i boot up it gives me the out of memory error. I know that about the limitations of Win98 and ive tried to mess with the vcache settings under system.ini but whatever i do i cannot get the system to boot up with 1.5GB of ram, it works ok at 1GB but its kinda unstable. Anyone have any suggestions as to how to fix this problem besides switching operating systems. Also can anyone recommend any Intel Pentium3 capable motherboards that can handle 2GB of ram? Thanks.

 

[dowxp]

asus p3v4x? i dontknow win98 so i cant help u.

 

[TunaBoo]

<< asus p3v4x? i dontknow win98 so i cant help u. >>




There are fixes. But it will not make good use of that much ram. Why bother?

 

[dowxp]

why did you quote me? im not the one with the question

 

[MiamiJones]

win98 can't se more than 512mb ram. Asus supports ram of this quantity with Win2000 try dual-booting.

 

[pillage2001]

Win98Se can see more than 512Mb of RAM. Refer to the FAQ section on how do they do it.

 

[AndyHui]

<< win98 can't se more than 512mb ram >>



Rubbish. Win9x's kernal can address up to 4GB of RAM, and actually use up to 2GB of physical RAM. See this.

There is a vcache problem with more than 512MB of RAM under Win9x. To resolve this problem, boot to the Command Prompt, then

Edit system.ini (make sure you are in the Windows directory)

Under the [vcache] section, add the entries
MinFileCache=102400
MaxFileCache=102400

This fixes the size of the vcache to 100MB, and will fix your Out of Memory Error.

 

[iluvdeal]

Under the [vcache] section, add the entries
MinFileCache=102400
MaxFileCache=102400


Any reason you choose those values? I remember reading it was recommended to them both to twice the amount of your RAM.

 

[Adul]

Does win98 performance suffer any?

 

[GFORCE100]

Actually that's 10MB and not 100MB. It's in KB. I just set it to 32768 it booted with 1GB of RAM. However likes the folks here say it's crap making use of the memory, try scanning in some high resolutions photos and you will find out.

 

[noninterleaved]

Do you mind if I ask WHY you need 1.5GB of RAM on a windows 9x machine?

If you are using this much RAM you must be doing some serious stuff... I have never been able to actually use more than 512MB... and this is running Win2k Server, with IIS on and SQLServer Enterprise Edition running....

Why not just get Win2000 or WinXP? That is the only way you are gonna get the perf you want on a MS os.

 

[GFORCE100]

That's a valid point, it's very silly to be using Windows9x in connection with this much RAM.

 

[bacillus]

guess cheap ram is too much of a temptation!

 

[InsaneTBONE]

Can people please stop going on about silly amounts of RAM like 512MB+ and why you don't need that much amount etc. I mean sure its seems silly but hey, bragging is fun and RAM is cheap. It's his choice to use that much RAM. People who say you dont need that much HD space or this much RAM eventually get proven wrong. On the other hand you are entitled to ask such questions but hey being a hardware extremist is always about doing things in excess right?

 

[TunaBoo]

<< why did you quote me? im not the one with the question >>



I think I missed reply and hit quote

 

[Athlon4all]

Dump 98, get Windows 2000. 98 can't see, nor use that much RAM. 2000 can.

 

[rw120555]

Here is Microsoft's discussion of the problem and its solutions. As noted above, the best route is probably to fiddle with the vcache settings. (At least, I imagine you'd rather do that than uninstall or disable a GB of memory.) I'm not sure what the optimal values are but they could go as high as 524,288.

 

[DuffmanOhYeah]

HOLY CRAP! 1.5 gig is overkill for ANYTHING I can think of!

 

[ratz]

Have you ever tried to do a High res scan?512 is'nt enough

 

[GFORCE100]

No one with a right mind would do high resolution scanning in Windows9x even with 4GB RAM. The point is Windows just trashes up the RAM and then reports it's out of memory regardless how much RAM you have.

 

[TonyB]

thanks for the info, on Monday when i get back to work i'll try to see whats wrong with the system. For your information, the system that im helping to build belongs to a friend of mine who works at the lawrence livermoore lab here in california. He wants to dual boot win2k and 98se. Win2k works fine, the problem was with win98 not being able to boot with more than 512MB of ram. Im going to try to set the Vcache settings to the one mentioned above, anyone know whats the lowest setting for the vache?

 

[ratz]

<< No one with a right mind would do high resolution scanning in Windows9x even with 4GB RAM. The point is Windows just trashes up the RAM and then reports it's out of memory regardless how much RAM you have. >>



I'm out of my mind,but I still use Win ME for restoring old photos.I scan 8X10's at 1200 dpi and above.

 

[Quickfingerz]

I don't think any operating system will make good use of 1.5 gb of ram.

 

[sparks]

Windows 2000 Advanced Server

 

[netdude]

Install a freeware program named Cacheman and it will work with 1.5 gig of memory without a hitch.