Problems with installation of win98

[Skeletor]

I've tried to install win 98 on my computer (celeron 600, 64mb, 20gb hdd) but after the whole process it hangs at the win98 restarting window. When I reboot, it says "unreliable xms memory at address 03004414.

What to do?

 

[Skeletor]

In addition, on another computer (p150, 16mb ram, 1gb hdd) I can't use a win98 fdisk to create a FAT32 parition. It keeps trying to verify the drive. What's that about?

 

[JimmyG]

For the first problem, you may have some bad ram. Also, 64megs is not enough to run Win98 very well. You should add some ram....it's cheap.

For the second problem, an old computer like that probably doesn't support fat32 in the bios.

 

[aaaaaaaaaa]

i had 48mb for win 98se back in the day and it ran fine.

 

[Skeletor]

For the first computer, (celeron 600, 64mb, 20gb)
If it is the ram, where do I get "cheap" ram and which chip to I replace or do I need to replace the whole simm or dimm.

For the 2nd computer, (the 16mb, 1gb hd, p150)
That makes sense. So when I use FAT16 to install win98, I get all these errors that these gifs won't load. Is that about the FAT or something else? I have loaded win95 on it. Oh and I have 2 bad sectors on it. Does that also have something to do with it.

And thanks for helping!

 

[JimmyG]

You need to replace the entire SIMM. The best source for cheap simms is a local computer show. Check your newspapers for a computer show. There will be vendors there selling recycled SIMMS.

Bad sectors usually aren't a problem because they are marked bad by the OS during format and the OS doesn't try to write to it.

A few months back I installed win98 on a 166 mhz computer that had 64 mb of ram and it ran ok. I was just suggesting that it would run better with more ram. You may be limited by what the mobo will support anyway.

If you have more than one SIMM in the computer you might try running with only one to see if you can successfully install that way. If that doesn't work try running with the other SIMM. It is very unlikely that both are bad.

 

[Skeletor]

A funny thing happened...

Well guess what. My partner and I were driving down the street and low and behold there was a computer show TODAY a few blocks from my house!! I bought some stuff and a 128mb RAM DIMM for 27 bucks. And low and behold, the damn thing worked. It was the ram. The one guy said that one of my 32mb DIMMS had a lower PC then the other 32mb DIMM with PC-100. He figured the PC-100 blew the other one and that was why I had the XMS error.

Thanks for the help!

 

[JimmyG]

Good show! Always nice to see someone fix their problem.

 

[Audioaficionado]

In addition, on another computer (p150, 16mb ram, 1gb hdd) I can't use a win98 fdisk to create a FAT32 parition. It keeps trying to verify the drive. What's that about?

You can't create a FAT32 partition in less than 2Gb. You can create and install 98 on FAT partitons.

However TTBOMK it will refuse to install with less than 24Mb of RAM because the GIUs will take too much of the low level memory to install. There is a way to install it without hardware checks and GUIs using some command line switches but 98 will run like crap on that box until you put at least 32Mb of RAM on it. 64Mb would be much better. I installed 98lite on a 16Mb 486 but soon deleted it and installed a 16bit DOS6.22/win3.11 & NT4. Even 98lite was too slow on that ancient hardware eventhough I'd upped the RAM to 64Mb.

These guys have the skinny on running 98 well on old machines including those command line switches. In fact I only run 98lite on any box where I need 98.
http://www.litepc.com/
http://www.litepc.com/faq3.html#2

 

[Brundle Fly]

...I have 98SE installed on a 866MB HDD right now, 32meg of RAM, P60@70mhz using H'Oda's SoftFSB(wow!!! heh heh heh), and it runs like a charm, all things considered. It's on an old Intel board, so I'm gonna try a P90 AMD in it, and see if that speeds things up, it's just for my kid's word processing for school, they use my system for gaming. Cool to mess around with though, brings a smile to my face everytime I boot it...

...gonna have a boo at your links Audioaficionado, thanks man, 98SE is takin up a full third of the HDD, hahahahahaha...

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

I've tried to install win 98 on my computer (celeron 600, 64mb, 20gb hdd) but after the whole process it hangs at the win98 restarting window. When I reboot, it says "unreliable xms memory at address 03004414.

What to do?

Are you overclocking the processor at all? Overclocking the processor with the Vcore majorly too low can also cause a Himem.sys RAM test failure. I seen that symptom before:

Instead of:

HIMEM is testing extended memory... Done.

(passed)

The following appears:

HIMEM is testing extended memory

ERROR: HIMEM has detected unreliable memory at X

XMS driver not installed.

(failed)
-----------------------------------------------------

If not, it's probably the RAM.

The causes of the above symptom:

1. The RAM is faulty or incompatible.

2. Your processor is overclocked and it requires a higher Vcore value setting.
I seen that symptom before after increasing the processor frequency by at least 150 mhz, but left the Vcore value setting at the stock setting. Whoops. LOL. Remember that even when a processor overclock is able to pass the Himem.sys fast test don't mean jack for general stability, you probably are still required to increase the Vcore value even more.

---------------------------------------------------

Himem.sys has a built in test that is fast with newer PCs. But it probably can't replace good ol' Memtest86.

I still recommend Memtest86, which is available for download at:

http://www.memtest86.com

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

You can't create a FAT32 partition in less than 2Gb. You can create and install 98 on FAT partitons.

However TTBOMK it will refuse to install with less than 24Mb of RAM because the GIUs will take too much of the low level memory to install. There is a way to install it without hardware checks and GUIs using some command line switches but 98 will run like crap on that box until you put at least 32Mb of RAM on it. 64Mb would be much better. I installed 98lite on a 16Mb 486 but soon deleted it and installed a 16bit DOS6.22/win3.11 & NT4. Even 98lite was too slow on that ancient hardware eventhough I'd upped the RAM to 64Mb.

These guys have the skinny on running 98 well on old machines including those command line switches. In fact I only run 98lite on any box where I need 98.
http://www.litepc.com/
http://www.litepc.com/faq3.html#2

Wrong!!! You can create a FAT32 partition less than 2 GB.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

For the first problem, you may have some bad ram. Also, 64megs is not enough to run Win98 very well. You should add some ram....it's cheap.

For the second problem, an old computer like that probably doesn't support fat32 in the bios.

Wrong!!! FAT32 isn't BIOS dependent at all. You can create a FAT32 partition with ANY BIOS, as long as the partition size is within what the BIOS supports.

 

[Audioaficionado]

Wrong!!! You can create a FAT32 partition less than 2 GB.

Please tell us how and there's no reason to be rude.

 

[JimmyG]

Audioaficionado, exactly my sentiments.