VirtualLarry
No Lifer
I realize that this request may garner some ridicule, but I recently transferred my multi-boot OS install (Win98se, W2K SP2, XP SP1) from my old AMD XP2000+/KT400/768MB rig to a new Intel E4400/865PE/2GB rig. I got Win98se to re-detect the hardware just fine, but now when booting and attempting to run programs, I get a "not enough memory to run program" error. Attempting to boot in Safe Mode gets me a different error, about not having enough memory to initialize Windows.
In my existing install, I already had the MaxPhysPage tweak in the SYSTEM.INI file. It's supposed to limit Win98se's usage of memory to a specific page limit, I had it set to 512MB. I also had VCACHE set to a limited size of around 16MB, I think.
But it appears that these "fixes" are incomplete, and Win98se still bugs out with too much RAM installed. (In fact I had similar issues installing it onto a C2D laptop with 1GB RAM installed, don't ask.)
I remember an issue with Win9x running out of "low memory" (memory under 1MB), because Win9x needs to create a small data structure known as a PSP (program segment prefix, also used by DOS) for each process in the system.
There was a program that specifically fragmented DOS low memory to workaround this issue, so that some driver wouldn't steal all of the DOS low memory and cause this issue. Does anyone remember about that program or it's name?
I'm not entirely sure that is the real issue though.
One idea that I had to limit Win98se's memory usage, would be to create a RAMDISK in XMS memory, to use up 1.5GB of RAM, thus leaving Win98se with only 512MB. I haven't tried that yet, I will when I get back to my box.
It would be a lot simpler if BIOSes offered an option to limit overall physical RAM size available to the OS. Then one could set that limit and boot Win9x, and then reset it and boot back into XP.
Oh yeah, I also had to do a repair install in both W2K and XP, because those installs wouldn't boot, in fact they wouldn't even load the 2nd-stage bootloader (the load bar display). Not sure what the issue was, although they were installed with the MPS Uniprocessor HAL, and I was running on a multi-core ACPI system. I used a W2K SP4 and XP SP2 disc to do the repair install, so when it was done, I ended up with a free upgrade to both OSes. They were long overdue, I suppose. 🙂
Edit: For some reason, my previous edit doesn't show up when I click "Edit", only my original post.
Background info: http://www.patentstorm.us/pate...64811-description.html
1MBFort: http://www.macarlo.com/mbfort.htm
Fix1MB: http://www.fors.com/orasupp/win31/28811_1.HTM , http://www.microsoft.com/msj/backissues96.aspx
In my existing install, I already had the MaxPhysPage tweak in the SYSTEM.INI file. It's supposed to limit Win98se's usage of memory to a specific page limit, I had it set to 512MB. I also had VCACHE set to a limited size of around 16MB, I think.
But it appears that these "fixes" are incomplete, and Win98se still bugs out with too much RAM installed. (In fact I had similar issues installing it onto a C2D laptop with 1GB RAM installed, don't ask.)
I remember an issue with Win9x running out of "low memory" (memory under 1MB), because Win9x needs to create a small data structure known as a PSP (program segment prefix, also used by DOS) for each process in the system.
There was a program that specifically fragmented DOS low memory to workaround this issue, so that some driver wouldn't steal all of the DOS low memory and cause this issue. Does anyone remember about that program or it's name?
I'm not entirely sure that is the real issue though.
One idea that I had to limit Win98se's memory usage, would be to create a RAMDISK in XMS memory, to use up 1.5GB of RAM, thus leaving Win98se with only 512MB. I haven't tried that yet, I will when I get back to my box.
It would be a lot simpler if BIOSes offered an option to limit overall physical RAM size available to the OS. Then one could set that limit and boot Win9x, and then reset it and boot back into XP.
Oh yeah, I also had to do a repair install in both W2K and XP, because those installs wouldn't boot, in fact they wouldn't even load the 2nd-stage bootloader (the load bar display). Not sure what the issue was, although they were installed with the MPS Uniprocessor HAL, and I was running on a multi-core ACPI system. I used a W2K SP4 and XP SP2 disc to do the repair install, so when it was done, I ended up with a free upgrade to both OSes. They were long overdue, I suppose. 🙂
Edit: For some reason, my previous edit doesn't show up when I click "Edit", only my original post.
Background info: http://www.patentstorm.us/pate...64811-description.html
1MBFort: http://www.macarlo.com/mbfort.htm
Fix1MB: http://www.fors.com/orasupp/win31/28811_1.HTM , http://www.microsoft.com/msj/backissues96.aspx
