Using more than 512MB of memory on a Win98se, WinXPpro DualBoot PC

[John C]

I have a PC that I built with an XP2800+ Gavx1394
(Gigabyte) Board.The Win98se is on the HDD 0 ata 100 ,
XPpro on HDD1 ata 133. I have 512MB of DDR 400 running in
it now.I have 2 sticks of DDR400, laying around, from an
Win2000 Machine I had that broke.
I was told there was a way to run 1GB, or more on a
Dualboot PC, if there were settings made in DOS on the
Win98se HDD.

I was not able to boot into Win98se with the extra 512MB
stick of memory installed, and had to remove it to boot
into it.

Is it true I can set up Win98se to accept the 1GB of
memory, and if so would someone please instruct my on how
I can accomplish this.

Thanks,

John C

[Jef Norton]

Hi John -

While this is a Windows XP newsgroup, I do know the answer to your question.

In System.ini, under the [vcache] section, enter the following line:

MaxFileCache=524288

This limits the file cache to 512 megabytes of virtual memory, otherwise the
file cache will attempt to take all of the real memory addresses, resulting
in out of memory errors.

Jef

"John C" <grafix...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:011901c34ef3$be1fa430$a101...@phx.gbl...

[Ron Martell]

"John C" <grafix...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Boot the system into Windows 98 with the 512 mb of RAM installed.

Make the following changes to the System.ini file:

1. Add the following entry to the [vcache] section:
MaxFileCache=524288

2. Add the following entry to the [386enh] section:
MaxPhysPage=40000

Shut down and install the additional RAM.

Your Windows 98 should now operate okay. It will only be using 1 gb
of RAM maximum (that is what the MaxPhysPage entry does) and it will
not attempt to map more than 512 mb of that RAM for use as disk cache.
Mapping an excessively large disk cache is the primary cause of
problems on Windows 98/Me systems with more than 512 mb of RAM.

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."

[John C.]

Thank you both for your help, I am up and running in both
OS, with no problems!

Regards,
John C.

>.
>

[Donald Link]

Windows 98 is not the problem. Posting in a Window XP newsgroup is.
However, 1 gig will run on a Win98 and XP Pro providing you can get the
machine to recognize it. Probably a memory timing or density problem. Did
you try the DDR 400 one at a time to see if it will run with a single. I
had 2 sticks of memory from a 950 Athlon system that refused to work
together when I upgraded to a xp 2200 Via system. Only one of them would
work of the two. Put the so called bad chip into my 950 with 98 and is
working to this day. Since then I have purchase 2 DDR ram together at the
same time and have had no problem running 1 gig memory. Is it possible that
the ram from the old machine is not good?

"John C" <grafix...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:011901c34ef3$be1fa430$a101...@phx.gbl...

[Ron Martell]

"Donald Link" <li...@mindspring.com> wrote:

>Windows 98 is not the problem. Posting in a Window XP newsgroup is.
>However, 1 gig will run on a Win98 and XP Pro providing you can get the
>machine to recognize it. Probably a memory timing or density problem. Did
>you try the DDR 400 one at a time to see if it will run with a single. I
>had 2 sticks of memory from a 950 Athlon system that refused to work
>together when I upgraded to a xp 2200 Via system. Only one of them would
>work of the two. Put the so called bad chip into my 950 with 98 and is
>working to this day. Since then I have purchase 2 DDR ram together at the
>same time and have had no problem running 1 gig memory. Is it possible that
>the ram from the old machine is not good?
>

The system is dual boot XP and 98. XP has no problems with the full 1
gb of RAM. And neither does Windows 98 now that the simple
configuration values have been entered.