Windows 9x memory problem

[4EyeGuy]

Hi,

i'm planning on buying a new computer with in the next month and i've heard that win 98 ( not sure if win ME is included) have a memory problem at 512MB memory and more. Is that true? and if yes how can i solve it?
Is it solved in win ME?

i'm planning on using Win ME, because it supports all the games, and i'm not gonna buy the geforce chip win 64MB Ram for nothing :)

i'd appriciate the feedback,
Tom,

[sockmonkey]

Yep, RAM messes up the system on win98, but you can fix it with Cacheman I think. Not too sure about WinME though. Either way 256MB is pretty much the most effective amount.

[UnseenMenace]

Win98 and WinME both see minimal gains with memory above 256 mb however they can both use up to 512 mb without problems, exceeding this amount requires some minor modifications to the OS ( the article can be obtained from microsofts knowledge database ). I use WinME with 512 mb and at times have exceeded this, however there is not much point in doing so.

[4EyeGuy]

Well i'm planing on about 700Mb of RAm, because i have some PC133 just hanging at home... i use cacheman all the time.. i'ts a good peace of software... by the way, if i put like 1 gig of ram in my machine, can i even boot up to change the size of Vcache?


because i would like to make a RAm drive and try to install Utournarment on it :)... and also because i'm using LARGE video and audio files too...

[UnseenMenace]

Originally posted by sockmonkey
Yep, RAM messes up the system on win98, but you can fix it with Cacheman I think. Not too sure about WinME though. Either way 256MB is pretty much the most effective amount.

You are correct in that 256 mb is the most effective amount however cacheman only makes more effective use of the memory that your system has and frees up system resources by making closed programs release the resouces that they sometimes hold on to, however I do not believe that it actually solves the problem of Windows 98 or ME using more than 512 mb of ram
(I use Version 4 of Cacheman so this feature may be available in newer versions)

[4EyeGuy]

Oh man... i can't belive that you have to pay for windows... i mean it has so many bugs... and now this...

well... do you know what to look for in the knowledge base.. i mean keywords or something?? or do you maybe know the site that describes the problem and the solution??

One more thing... is this just the problem with Vcache or the entire win file system not able to allocate that much memory??

[redduc900]

The way that I've found to solve the problem of >512MB ram is this...

Add the following line to the [vcache] section of the System.ini...MaxFileCache=102400

...so it looks like this

[vcache]
MaxFileCache=102400

This setting sets MaxFileCache to 100MB...you shouldn't use a setting higher than 1/4 of your systems' installed ram (i.e. "MaxFileCache=131072" for 512 MB)

This MSKB article addresses this issue (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q253/9/12.ASP?) :D

[cyberey66]

Thats why I can't stand 98. But I have it dual booted with NT until I can afford 2000. I only use 98 about once a week if I want to play a dos or direct x game.

[Phoen-X]

I already bought a pair of 256mb of DDR ram, and the people sellin me my motherboard (Abit KG7) are selling me another pair of 256mb DDR ram (same company I bought mine from, Crucial) with it, more like giving it to me for free really. But if Win 98 has that problem with 512mb of ram, which Windows can accutaly use or support 1GB of ram? I can get 98, NT, ME, or 2000. Or should I wait and buy XP?

(redduc900)
What would I add to the [vcache] section of the System.ini to be able to use 1gb of ram?

If more info on the system I'm gonna build is needed--
1.4 AMD Athlon
Abit Kg7 motherboard with RAID
1024mb or 1GB DDR ram
2 40.0GB 7200rpm hard drive
12/10/32 cd rewriter (using from my old computer, I know there's faster ones)
and the rest I gotta shop around for.
Any recommendations?

[4EyeGuy]

Hi Phoen-X,
Well i've done some research about this, and win9x all have that problem with RAM, but if you want to use them with any more that 512MB RAM you have to add this in the [vcache] section

"minfilecache=X"
"maxfilecache=X"

Without the quotes, and where the x stands for the amount of memory in bytes, like for example "minfilecache=2048", and i also have to say that the largest amount of cache Microsoft recommends is 130MB, so i would put it 100max...

and win2000,winNT, and winXP don't have that problem, well that's at least what microsoft says...

Hope that helps,