Windows 98 wont boot with 768mb of ram!

BigRed · 11-15-01, 08:36 PM

grrrrrr
i just bought 3 sticks of crucial pc133 cas2 ram and windows wont even boot when i have all 3 sticks in.

i finally got it to boot but then it started to install all my hardware again cuz it said it was new, lol. then it said my radeon was a rage fury pro, and it said my sound card was a soundblaster16, lol.

i thought the 3rd stick was just bad but i put it in alone and everything worked fine.
why cant i have my 768mb of ram?

Jon · 11-15-01, 09:32 PM

Win98 normally has problems with anything more than 512MB.

There really is no point in that much since Win98 has absolutely no means to utilize anything over 512MB anyway.

kevin_bouchard · 11-16-01, 01:30 AM

2 words, go winxp (that is of course if you have the money) its a great os and it supports up to something like 4gig of ram so i cant see 768mb of ram being a problem, but there is a setting that will help you use 768mb of ram but i dont remember it, maybe someone here know it(i will post it if i can find it. I know it has something to do with manually telling win98 how much ram you have.
i dont think this was much help but its all i could do

Blackearth · 11-16-01, 07:48 AM

i seem to recall win98 not supporting anything over 512...forget 98, if you have access to win2k or xp go for it. . .

martyt · 11-16-01, 08:01 AM

Does anyone have info that confirms that XP can utilize 4 gigs of RAM? With RAM so cheap this is something I would consider.

Angry · 11-16-01, 09:40 AM

This was discussed a LONG time ago, Win98 cnnot support anything of 512 because it cant address more than that or something, Shadow and a few other guys went on a mission to figur this out and this is what we came up with, I will serach for the post, but this was back in the old forum so it may not be there.

::EDIT:: no its not there sorry, maybe shadow remembers this and will be along shortly...

RedDeathDrinker · 11-16-01, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by martyt
Does anyone have info that confirms that XP can utilize 4 gigs of RAM? With RAM so cheap this is something I would consider.

Yes. XP will support up to 4gigs. Motherboard dependant.

MS have a 64 bit version of XP available that will take up to 16gigs +

kevin_bouchard · 11-16-01, 04:47 PM

16gigs

, sorry for the false information, but does any desktop mobo support that much ram? And what would use that much ram?
thanks

BigRed · 11-16-01, 05:13 PM

Intel Itanium motherboards can use that much, they have like 4 ram slots and each can have a 4gb stick in it.
Its used so internet servers can load everything into memory so it never has to access the hard drive (only to save important stuff) so it would increase speed.
you wouldnt really want anything over 2gb on a normal processor though, cuz it would slow the computer down a ton because the cpus cashe is too small to utilize that much ram, if you wanna use that much ram get like a p3 xeon that has 2mb of cahe

YMAN · 11-16-01, 08:59 PM

Windows 98 itself will only use 256MB but it can support 512MB

trey_w · 11-16-01, 09:06 PM

you can use more than 512 in 98 but you have to set refresh and buffer rates along with other things to get it to work

not worth the time

Yodums · 11-16-01, 10:07 PM

Upgrade to Windows 2K.. The Windows 98 won't utilize your 768 ram.. Only 512 .. But then again it won't run it at 512 ram it'll run it as 256... Win 9x = Bad memory management.

Silversinksam · 11-17-01, 03:49 AM

Maybe your OS wont utilize more than 512 megs but the P3v4x can run 2 gigs......Its a toss up here........upgrade the OS to utilize the ram you bought or just use 512 with 98

Miss winnie · 11-17-01, 05:55 AM

Is there ANY way to upgrade to windows XP without having to format the whole harddisk?

Yodums · 11-17-01, 07:13 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Miss winnie
Is there ANY way to upgrade to windows XP without having to format the whole harddisk?

Yes thats why they have a upgrade option..

For Windows 98 or Windows 2K.

martyt · 11-17-01, 07:31 AM

If you want to keep the data on your hard drive but do a clean Windows XP installation it is possible with a bit of work. After doing this you will need to reinstall your applications, but in most instances the data will be preserved from your Win9x setup. That is why I like to do it this way. I don't have to backup and reinstall all the data. I make a list of the appications that I feel are essential and then make sure I reinstall them when the new OS is up and running.

I tried to go the upgrade route for a week or so and finally gave up. During upgrade my settings couldn't be brought over to XP. I tried this every which way and was not able to get all the settings over. (I had a cloned version of my WinME hard drive and was able to go back and forth without fear of losing data.)

When the settings wouldn't come over automatically in the upgrade I tried the program in XP that allows you to copy your settings and documents from an old machine. My old machine was my cloned hard drive. This still wouldn't work. I think the reason it wouldn't work had to do with my wife using Outlook Express at the same time that I was using Outlook 98. XP seemed to have a hard time with that. In fact even after I did the full install I will outline below, I still couldn't configure OE and O'98 to run on XP with the settings that we wanted.

So what I did to install without doing a hard drive format was to wipe out all the "c:\documents and setttings" folders that were created during my XP install attempts and all my "c:\windows" files and folders and all the files in the "c:\" root drive location.

I booted to the c prompt, made sure that I could access my CD Rom drive to install XP and then I did a deltree on all the above listed areas. Deleting this way takes a long time but I felt it was worth it.

The sticky part about installing from this point is that the setup program that is easy to find on the CD will not work from a DOS prompt. To do the install from the DOS prompt you need to navigate to the i386 dir on your xp cd and run "winnt.exe".

BigRed · 11-17-01, 08:07 AM

uhh yes but sam rember dimm3 on that p3v4x i bought from you doesnt work

thats why i only got 3 sticks of ram from crucial instead of 4

oh well, i couldnt use it anyway until i fork over $200 to microsoft

Yodums · 11-17-01, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BigRed
uhh yes but sam rember dimm3 on that p3v4x i bought from you doesnt work
thats why i only got 3 sticks of ram from crucial instead of 4
oh well, i couldnt use it anyway until i fork over $200 to microsoft

You can.. Send it to me!

BigRed · 11-17-01, 05:48 PM

Quote:

You can.. Send it to me!

funny

Quote:

you can use more than 512 in 98 but you have to set refresh and buffer rates along with other things to get it to work

not worth the time

im bored

how do you do this?, its making me depressed seeing the stick of ram i cant use sitting here. i dont care if windoze

wont use it, i just want it in the computer heh

trey_w · 11-17-01, 05:59 PM

my dad was the one who showed me how to do it

it looked pretty complicated, and in the end still was not worth it, no performance gain

just a hacked up registry and config.sys files among many other things

but i'll try to get him to make a text file with directions and i will send it too you if i get it

11-15-01, 08:36 PM	Thread Starter #1
BigRed Caffinated Member Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Mount Vernon, WA	Windows 98 wont boot with 768mb of ram! grrrrrr i just bought 3 sticks of crucial pc133 cas2 ram and windows wont even boot when i have all 3 sticks in. i finally got it to boot but then it started to install all my hardware again cuz it said it was new, lol. then it said my radeon was a rage fury pro, and it said my sound card was a soundblaster16, lol. i thought the 3rd stick was just bad but i put it in alone and everything worked fine. why cant i have my 768mb of ram? __________________ These products not tested on animals. But if you've got pets, and want to do your part for scientific inquiry... How far over stock could an overclocker clock, if an overclocker could clock over stock? Back in the days of the Greeks and Romans whenever the people where confronted with a single or chain of Destructive events on the Epic scale they took it as a sign of the gods displeasure with how things are going then promptly deposed (killed) the leader of the time. AHHH the good ol' days :D
	QUOTE Thanks

11-15-01, 09:32 PM	#2
Jon Just Another Retired Moderator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Lawrenceville, GA	Win98 normally has problems with anything more than 512MB. There really is no point in that much since Win98 has absolutely no means to utilize anything over 512MB anyway. __________________ theHTPC.net CheapCritic.com
	QUOTE Thanks

11-16-01, 01:30 AM	#3
kevin_bouchard Member Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: manitoba	2 words, go winxp (that is of course if you have the money) its a great os and it supports up to something like 4gig of ram so i cant see 768mb of ram being a problem, but there is a setting that will help you use 768mb of ram but i dont remember it, maybe someone here know it(i will post it if i can find it. I know it has something to do with manually telling win98 how much ram you have. i dont think this was much help but its all i could do
	QUOTE Thanks

11-16-01, 07:48 AM	#4
Blackearth Member Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: ...alabama	i seem to recall win98 not supporting anything over 512...forget 98, if you have access to win2k or xp go for it. . .
	QUOTE Thanks

11-16-01, 08:01 AM	#5
martyt Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Keyboard NY	Does anyone have info that confirms that XP can utilize 4 gigs of RAM? With RAM so cheap this is something I would consider.
	QUOTE Thanks

Windows 98 wont boot with 768mb of ram!

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11-16-01, 09:40 AM	#6
Angry Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bluefield, WV	This was discussed a LONG time ago, Win98 cnnot support anything of 512 because it cant address more than that or something, Shadow and a few other guys went on a mission to figur this out and this is what we came up with, I will serach for the post, but this was back in the old forum so it may not be there. ::EDIT:: no its not there sorry, maybe shadow remembers this and will be along shortly... __________________ Main Rig.......................Game Server.........................Media Server..............Untangle Core i3 2100 ....... ........Phenom II X4 965...................Athlon II X4 620....... Athlon X2 2350-BE 2.1ghz MSI P67A-GD65 ..............Asus M4A79XTD........................GA-890GX.................MSI 785GTM-45 G.Skill 1333 4x2gb............16gb Partriot S5 DDR3 1333.......4gb DDR3 1600...........4gb OCZ DDR2 1066 EVGA GTX 670 FTW SLI........2x EVGA GTX 550Ti.........................Onboard 890gx 60gb OCZ Summit.................4x250gb WD RE Raid0 ViewSonic VX2453mh-LED
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11-16-01, 04:47 PM	#8
kevin_bouchard Member Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: manitoba	16gigs , sorry for the false information, but does any desktop mobo support that much ram? And what would use that much ram? thanks
	QUOTE Thanks

11-16-01, 05:13 PM	Thread Starter #9
BigRed Caffinated Member Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Mount Vernon, WA	Intel Itanium motherboards can use that much, they have like 4 ram slots and each can have a 4gb stick in it. Its used so internet servers can load everything into memory so it never has to access the hard drive (only to save important stuff) so it would increase speed. you wouldnt really want anything over 2gb on a normal processor though, cuz it would slow the computer down a ton because the cpus cashe is too small to utilize that much ram, if you wanna use that much ram get like a p3 xeon that has 2mb of cahe __________________ These products not tested on animals. But if you've got pets, and want to do your part for scientific inquiry... How far over stock could an overclocker clock, if an overclocker could clock over stock? Back in the days of the Greeks and Romans whenever the people where confronted with a single or chain of Destructive events on the Epic scale they took it as a sign of the gods displeasure with how things are going then promptly deposed (killed) the leader of the time. AHHH the good ol' days :D
	QUOTE Thanks

11-16-01, 08:59 PM	#10
YMAN Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: West Palm Beach, Florida	Windows 98 itself will only use 256MB but it can support 512MB
	QUOTE Thanks

11-16-01, 09:06 PM	#11
trey_w Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Murphy, Texas	you can use more than 512 in 98 but you have to set refresh and buffer rates along with other things to get it to work not worth the time
	QUOTE Thanks

11-16-01, 10:07 PM	#12
Yodums Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Ottawa, Canada	Upgrade to Windows 2K.. The Windows 98 won't utilize your 768 ram.. Only 512 .. But then again it won't run it at 512 ram it'll run it as 256... Win 9x = Bad memory management. __________________ Peter Gibbons: Let me ask you something. When you come in on Monday, and you're not feelin' real well, does anyone ever say to you, 'Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays'? Lawrence: No. No, man. ****, no, man. I believe you'd get your ass kicked sayin' something like that, man.
	QUOTE Thanks

11-17-01, 03:49 AM	#13
Silversinksam Moderator/ Silver Paste Taster© Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Sunshine State, USA	Maybe your OS wont utilize more than 512 megs but the P3v4x can run 2 gigs......Its a toss up here........upgrade the OS to utilize the ram you bought or just use 512 with 98 __________________ -15 May 2012: On Hiatus helping bees and the planet at the moment -You have over 101 posts and Can't see the classifieds??? Click this link. My Heatware
	QUOTE Thanks

11-17-01, 05:55 AM	#14
Miss winnie Registered Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Eh....	Is there ANY way to upgrade to windows XP without having to format the whole harddisk?
	QUOTE Thanks

11-17-01, 07:31 AM	#16
martyt Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Keyboard NY	If you want to keep the data on your hard drive but do a clean Windows XP installation it is possible with a bit of work. After doing this you will need to reinstall your applications, but in most instances the data will be preserved from your Win9x setup. That is why I like to do it this way. I don't have to backup and reinstall all the data. I make a list of the appications that I feel are essential and then make sure I reinstall them when the new OS is up and running. I tried to go the upgrade route for a week or so and finally gave up. During upgrade my settings couldn't be brought over to XP. I tried this every which way and was not able to get all the settings over. (I had a cloned version of my WinME hard drive and was able to go back and forth without fear of losing data.) When the settings wouldn't come over automatically in the upgrade I tried the program in XP that allows you to copy your settings and documents from an old machine. My old machine was my cloned hard drive. This still wouldn't work. I think the reason it wouldn't work had to do with my wife using Outlook Express at the same time that I was using Outlook 98. XP seemed to have a hard time with that. In fact even after I did the full install I will outline below, I still couldn't configure OE and O'98 to run on XP with the settings that we wanted. So what I did to install without doing a hard drive format was to wipe out all the "c:\documents and setttings" folders that were created during my XP install attempts and all my "c:\windows" files and folders and all the files in the "c:\" root drive location. I booted to the c prompt, made sure that I could access my CD Rom drive to install XP and then I did a deltree on all the above listed areas. Deleting this way takes a long time but I felt it was worth it. The sticky part about installing from this point is that the setup program that is easy to find on the CD will not work from a DOS prompt. To do the install from the DOS prompt you need to navigate to the i386 dir on your xp cd and run "winnt.exe".
	QUOTE Thanks

11-17-01, 08:07 AM	Thread Starter #17
BigRed Caffinated Member Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Mount Vernon, WA	uhh yes but sam rember dimm3 on that p3v4x i bought from you doesnt work thats why i only got 3 sticks of ram from crucial instead of 4 oh well, i couldnt use it anyway until i fork over $200 to microsoft __________________ These products not tested on animals. But if you've got pets, and want to do your part for scientific inquiry... How far over stock could an overclocker clock, if an overclocker could clock over stock? Back in the days of the Greeks and Romans whenever the people where confronted with a single or chain of Destructive events on the Epic scale they took it as a sign of the gods displeasure with how things are going then promptly deposed (killed) the leader of the time. AHHH the good ol' days :D
	QUOTE Thanks

11-17-01, 05:59 PM	#20
trey_w Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Murphy, Texas	my dad was the one who showed me how to do it it looked pretty complicated, and in the end still was not worth it, no performance gain just a hacked up registry and config.sys files among many other things but i'll try to get him to make a text file with directions and i will send it too you if i get it
	QUOTE Thanks

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