win98se and more than 512mb of ram

[McMadman]

Figures I'd have troubles, I did manage to get it to boot with limiting memory and the vcache set, but any other ways I might be able to get windows to recognize and load without error the full gig of memory?

[vcache]
MinFileCache=0
MaxFileCache=131072

msconfig limited to 768

 

[IamDavid]

Do a search here in the operating system forum.. Someone posted a great tweak to allow more ram..

here ya go

 

[McMadman]

I'll try vcache of higher and removing the limit of 768mb, I had this common problem which may or may not be resolved (without limiting).

Insufficient memory to initialize windows. Quit one or more memory-resident programs or remove unnecessary utilities from your Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files, and restart your computer.

I had to do a clean install of 98 on a friends system for troubleshooting and it worked fine with 1 gig, this seems to be a hit and miss issue.

 

[THUGSROOK]

[vcache]
MaxFileCache=524288

[386Enh]
MinPagingFileSize=1048576

do not limit the ram at all from msconfig.

link

 

[McMadman]

Thanks for the attempt but nope

changed limited size to 900, fail
limnited size to 800 success

SYSTEM.INI

 

[THUGSROOK]

you didnt do what i said....

remove these entries:

ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1
;Rem TShoot: MaxPhysPage=383FF
MaxPhysPage=31FFF
Paging=on

MinFileCache=275000


and add the correct values i stated earlier:

[386Enh]
MinPagingFileSize=1048576

do not limit the ram AT ALL from msconfig.

 

[Matt84]

keep "ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1" because with 1 GB RAM 98se will never touch the page file at all. Its like running with the page file off totally until in the rare occasion that it might actually be needed.

I've got 98se to run fine by editing the following sections of my system.ini


[386Enh]
ebios=*ebios
woafont=dosapp.fon
mouse=*vmouse,msmouse.vxd
device=*dynapage
device=*vcd
device=*vpd
device=*int13
keyboard=*vkd
display=*vdd,*vflatd
EMMExclude=C000-CFFF,C000-CFFF,C000-CFFF
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1

[vcache]
MinFileCache=16384
MaxFileCache=262144

yours will probably differ slightly in the [386Enh] but the [vcache] can be the same

 

[McMadman]

When I tested it earlier, I had the proper maxfilecache, and minpaging, however conservative was still enabled, and the paging=on was enabled, I just reverted everything back to the way it was for simplicity sake.

Although my memory management is also set for windows determining it, most of the time I've got a 0 byte swap file.

I've made some changes, but can't actually test them for another hour and a half, so instead I'm going to bed.

I have reupdated my system.ini link for the changes (I'm just remming out and commenting as changes occur)

But there'll be more testing tomorrow, and possibly (hopefully?) a resolution.

(side note, I need to get off my ass and fix my dualboot one of these days)

 

[THUGSROOK]

ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 does not play well with 1024mb of ram and will cause your system to run slower and lockup eventually (with 1024mb of ram)

1024mb works fine but you need to remove all previous tweaks cause they wont work with 1024mb.
this is exactly why most ppl have problems......

 

[McMadman]

I remmed out EXACTLY what was commented before (reupdated the ini to reflect said changes)

I also tried just putting those changes onto a semi clean install of 98se with the same error, I'm begining to think that it will just not run >790mb on this system.

 

[THUGSROOK]

you could be looking at a 768mb moboard limit....

can you boot up to memtest86?

 

[jmatt]

Here is copy I made a few months ago , of a way to do it .

To use more than 512 megs of RAM on 98/ME.

Open System.ini
C:\WINDOWS\System.ini
Scroll down until you see [vcache] and copy the following to below it:

MinFileCache=131072
MaxFileCache=524288

It should look like:

[vcache]
MinFileCache=131072
MaxFileCache=524288

when you are done.

For an extra tweak:
In System.ini scroll down until find [386Enh] and at the bottom of the list add:

IRQ14=4096
IRQ15=4096
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1
PagingDrive=C:
MaxPagingFileSize=393216

That will increase RAM to your hard drive IRQs and speed up performance, and it also makes
Windows use all of your RAM before using a SwapFile on your hard drive. One thing that 98 has
over 2000/XP.

 

[McMadman]

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
you could be looking at a 768mb moboard limit....

can you boot up to memtest86?

The board limit is officially 1gb and the bios detects as much, but I'll try it anyways.

I don't have any known good floppies and memtest86.com appears to be down (as of 7pm est), do you have a link to the iso version?


EDIT:
In regards to the second post, my system.ini is really quite similar, I've been playing with the vcache, and as far as swap goes, windows is still set for "default management" with no permenant swap file set.

I still seem to think that >512mb and win9x is hit and miss depending on system configurations, I've tried things that are said to work, but it just dosen't want to go past 790 or 800.

Thats another "issue" I've always had, when I had a single stick of memory things were detected as "511mb" instead of 512
Now when I've limited ram to 800mb it shows up as 790 (when limited to 768 it shows as 758.) Now safe mode will show the REAL value that I've set for (or 1024 if no limit set.)

 

[skyking]

gotcha covered, see your PM's.

 

[McMadman]

memtest (only 1 pass, standard tests) no errors, I would let it run overnight but i want to resume a download

I didn't think there was a problem with the ram itself, only win98.