"Ben Myers" wrote:

"kleefarr" wrote in message ...
Right, so to cut out all of the fiddling about, I decided to backup
everything and have completely erased the HDD.
I have managed to install Win 98 as far as the 'restart after copying files'
and then got the error message...
'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.'
So I did a quick search and found theMaxPhysPage=30000 fix form Microsoft...
Error Message: Insufficient Memory to Initialize Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/184447
However, when I get to command prompt and got to edit the SYSTEM. INI file
there is nothing in there. No sign of the [386Enh] section that I'm supposed
to add the line to. The system.ini section is completely empty.
I did try anding theMaxPhysPage=30000 anyway, but no change.

Start the computer in Safe mode by tapping the F8 key repeatedly during
bootup and rename the "c:\autoexec.bat" and "c:\config.sys" files to
"autoexec.bak" and "config.bak". Then restart normally. If this doesn't help,
try editing the "system.ini" file by typing "edit c:\windows\system.ini" at
the command prompt.

Right. Had another try after the long week-end.
Couldn't get into safe mode. So I tried changing the system.ini file, but
this time I put the line MaxPhysPage=30000 at the top of the [386Enh] section.
After saving the file I rebooted and was then able to progress to the rest
of setup for the first time.
However, on rebooting again after finalising the setup I was presented with
'While Initializing Device NDIS: Windows Protection Error'
I rebooted again to see if I got the same message, but this time I got the
original '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.' Error.
I went back into system.ini and changedthe MaxPhysPage value to 20000. I
rebooted again, but still got the NDIS error.
Now I did come across this NDIS error before a few years ago and know it's
to do with the CPU running at too fast a clock speed. However, even after
searching I can find the fix for this and can't remember what I did. I recall
having to load a fix for it via floppy, but I don't have a floppy drive
anymore.

Some people have solved this problem by replacing the "c:\windows\system\ndis.vxd"
file with one from another version of Windows or with one from the manufacturer of
the network card or device.

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/win98/t1036524908

If you don't need the network card, try starting the computer in Safe mode, then go
to "Control Panel", "System", "Device Manager", expand and highlight the network
card, select "Properties", then "Disable in this hardware profile".

Ben


Actually Ben, forget my "I need the network card" (actually onboard LAN).
I won't need it at all with WIN 98, only with Win2000 when I get it installed.
So I was actually thinking about starting again from scratch and when
installing WIN 98, only install a compacted version without connection stuff.

Good idea?