Windows 98 not enough memory

Discussion in 'Windows OS's' started by zinge, Apr 16, 2005.

  1. zinge

    zinge Geek

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    Hi im running Win 98 se on an
    AMD Sempron 3000+, 1gig ram, 128mb ati machine (its installed on a 2gig hard drive in a mobile rack) and i keep geeting the messsage - not enough memory

    Any ideas - do i need a bigger hard drive - have almost a gig of free space on the hard drive - im only using 98 to play games. I have XP installed on an alternate mobile rack which works fine.
     
    zinge, Apr 16, 2005
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  2. Anti-Trend

    Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek

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    Windows 98 has some serious memory handling problems. It's not that you don't have enough memory (RAM, not HDD), but that you have too much. You'll need to edit a config file to get it going. If you can't even boot properly, you may need to boot to a Linux distro like Knoppix and edit it there. In any case, you'll have to edit your system.ini file, which is located in the C:\Windows directory. Make these additions:

    In the [vcache] section of your system.ini, add:
    Code:
    MaxFileCache=524,288
    In the [386enh] section of the system.ini, add:
    Code:
    MaxPhysPage=40000
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1
    That should keep Win98 from overconsuming your RAM, as well as quelching the memory leak in the Windows 9x family.
     
    Anti-Trend, Apr 16, 2005
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  3. zinge

    zinge Geek

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    Win 98 se boots fine - below are the changes i made - but it doesnt seem to make any difference. (just shows relevant sections)

    [386Enh]
    ebios=*ebios
    woafont=dosapp.fon
    mouse=*vmouse, msmouse.vxd
    device=*dynapage
    device=*vcd
    device=*vpd
    device=*int13
    device=*enable
    keyboard=*vkd
    display=*vdd,*vflatd
    PagingDrive=C:
    MinPagingFileSize=256000
    MaxPagingFileSize=256000
    MaxPhysPage=40000
    ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1

    [vcache]
    MaxFileCache=524,288

    Found the system.ini file in the folder c:/windows and then edited in notebook (correct?)
     
    zinge, Apr 17, 2005
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  4. Anti-Trend

    Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek

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    You did it right, but you will also need to remove the MaxPagingFileSize entry under [386Enh] section. Reboot to activate the changes.

    -AT
     
    Anti-Trend, Apr 17, 2005
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  5. zinge

    zinge Geek

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    Removed the line and still no change - hard drive is only 5400rpm
     
    zinge, Apr 17, 2005
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  6. Anti-Trend

    Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek

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    Alright, at this point it's clear to me that we're talking about two different kinds of memory. A 2GB HDD? I don't know what games you're going to be playing, but modern games can take up 2GB per game. You should definately get something on the order of at least 40GB, if not more.
     
    Anti-Trend, Apr 17, 2005
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  7. zinge

    zinge Geek

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    Im only using it to play old win 98 games that wont work on xp. Two games work ok although one wont run at high resolution (but in general most .exe files dont work. I will transfer the image to a larger hdd and see if it makes a diff. - cheers for the help though much appreciated Anti-trend
     
    zinge, Apr 17, 2005
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  8. Anti-Trend

    Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek

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    No problem. You may be able to even play DOS games that don't even run properly on Windows 98 on your NT4, Windows 2000 or XP machine by using VDMSound. I used to play Daggerfall flawlessly in Windows 2000 Pro using VDMSound ages ago. The MIDI music sounded sooo~ much better on my custom synth than it did originally on my pitiful SB16 so long ago. :)
     
    Anti-Trend, Apr 18, 2005
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