memory limitation on 98se?

Windows 98 & WinME Memory Management
http://aumha.org/win4/a/memmgmt.htm

markma wrote:

Not aware of any w98 memory limitations. But your Motherboard or BIOS may
not support that much. ALso, if you are using more than one RAM stick, they
generally must be installed in identical pairs, or even numbers, to insure
the same operating speed, access, etc, etc....

You can pause the PC boot up by using the "pause" key on the keyboard. Try
to catch ot when the screen first shows the checking ram line.

The BIOS string should have also popped up across the bottom. Generally, if
you use the last set of characters in the string, you can go to your BIOS
companies' web site to see what Hardware, and RAM are supported for your
motherboard. The BIOS company is usually splashed on screen for a few
seconds, something like American Megatrends, or AMIBIOS, PHOENIX...

Just type the BIOS company name into google and find the home page. Then
enter your BIOS string into the Homepage "search" funtion.

Good luck

"chris hudson" wrote:


I have today tried to add an extra 512MB to existing 512 mb ram. System
became unstable.

Any ideas?

Windows 98 & WinME Memory Management
http://aumha.org/win4/a/memmgmt.htm

markma wrote:

Not aware of any w98 memory limitations. But your Motherboard or BIOS may
not support that much. ALso, if you are using more than one RAM stick, they
generally must be installed in identical pairs, or even numbers, to insure
the same operating speed, access, etc, etc....

You can pause the PC boot up by using the "pause" key on the keyboard. Try
to catch ot when the screen first shows the checking ram line.

The BIOS string should have also popped up across the bottom. Generally, if
you use the last set of characters in the string, you can go to your BIOS
companies' web site to see what Hardware, and RAM are supported for your
motherboard. The BIOS company is usually splashed on screen for a few
seconds, something like American Megatrends, or AMIBIOS, PHOENIX...

Just type the BIOS company name into google and find the home page. Then
enter your BIOS string into the Homepage "search" funtion.

Good luck

"chris hudson" wrote:


I have today tried to add an extra 512MB to existing 512 mb ram. System
became unstable.

Any ideas?

markma wrote:

Not aware of any w98 memory limitations. But your Motherboard or BIOS may
not support that much. ALso, if you are using more than one RAM stick, they
generally must be installed in identical pairs, or even numbers, to insure
the same operating speed, access, etc, etc....

You can pause the PC boot up by using the "pause" key on the keyboard. Try
to catch ot when the screen first shows the checking ram line.

The BIOS string should have also popped up across the bottom. Generally, if
you use the last set of characters in the string, you can go to your BIOS
companies' web site to see what Hardware, and RAM are supported for your
motherboard. The BIOS company is usually splashed on screen for a few
seconds, something like American Megatrends, or AMIBIOS, PHOENIX...

Just type the BIOS company name into google and find the home page. Then
enter your BIOS string into the Homepage "search" funtion.

Good luck


All of the 9x family of Windows (95/98/98SE/Me) may experience errors
or other problems whenever the installed RAM exceeds 512 mb.

The primary cause of this is the tendency of Windows to use an
excessively large portion of this RAM as disk cache. The solution is
quite simple, just limit the amount of RAM that Windows can use as
disk cache. For Windows 98/98SE/Me add the following line immediately
below the existing [vcache] header in the system.ini file:

MaxFileCache=512000

For Windows 95, because of more primitive memory management in this
version, the entry should read:

MaxFileCache=65536

This change does not affect or limit the ability of Windows to use the
full amount of the installed RAM for Windows components, application
programs, and/or user data files. It should allow you to use at least
up to 1 gb of total RAM with these Windows versions.

Once you go beyond 1 gb of RAM with these versions of Windows there
are other issues that can arise. These are not well understood, and
there are no known fixes or workarounds for them other than reducing
the amount of RAM to 1 gb or less, or preventing Windows from using
more than 1 gb of RAM by adding the following line to the [386enh]
section of the system.ini file:

MaxPhysPage=40000

This limitation has the same effect as physically removing the
additional RAM beyond 1 gb and is useful in situations where the
computer is configured to boot more than one operating system and
where more than 1 gb of RAM is needed for one of the other operating
systems such as Windows XP.

There are no known instances of Windows 98/98SE/Me being used
successfully on any computer with more than 1.5 gb of RAM installed
and available.

Hope this explains the situation.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

markma wrote:

Not aware of any w98 memory limitations. But your Motherboard or BIOS may
not support that much. ALso, if you are using more than one RAM stick, they
generally must be installed in identical pairs, or even numbers, to insure
the same operating speed, access, etc, etc....

You can pause the PC boot up by using the "pause" key on the keyboard. Try
to catch ot when the screen first shows the checking ram line.

The BIOS string should have also popped up across the bottom. Generally, if
you use the last set of characters in the string, you can go to your BIOS
companies' web site to see what Hardware, and RAM are supported for your
motherboard. The BIOS company is usually splashed on screen for a few
seconds, something like American Megatrends, or AMIBIOS, PHOENIX...

Just type the BIOS company name into google and find the home page. Then
enter your BIOS string into the Homepage "search" funtion.

Good luck


All of the 9x family of Windows (95/98/98SE/Me) may experience errors
or other problems whenever the installed RAM exceeds 512 mb.

The primary cause of this is the tendency of Windows to use an
excessively large portion of this RAM as disk cache. The solution is
quite simple, just limit the amount of RAM that Windows can use as
disk cache. For Windows 98/98SE/Me add the following line immediately
below the existing [vcache] header in the system.ini file:

MaxFileCache=512000

For Windows 95, because of more primitive memory management in this
version, the entry should read:

MaxFileCache=65536

This change does not affect or limit the ability of Windows to use the
full amount of the installed RAM for Windows components, application
programs, and/or user data files. It should allow you to use at least
up to 1 gb of total RAM with these Windows versions.

Once you go beyond 1 gb of RAM with these versions of Windows there
are other issues that can arise. These are not well understood, and
there are no known fixes or workarounds for them other than reducing
the amount of RAM to 1 gb or less, or preventing Windows from using
more than 1 gb of RAM by adding the following line to the [386enh]
section of the system.ini file:

MaxPhysPage=40000

This limitation has the same effect as physically removing the
additional RAM beyond 1 gb and is useful in situations where the
computer is configured to boot more than one operating system and
where more than 1 gb of RAM is needed for one of the other operating
systems such as Windows XP.

There are no known instances of Windows 98/98SE/Me being used
successfully on any computer with more than 1.5 gb of RAM installed
and available.

Hope this explains the situation.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."