Win98SE and 768MB RAM

[Tannin]

I remember reading a while ago on the old SR forum that there are special steps you need to take to use >512MB RAM with Windows 9.X.

Anyone know what they are?

System has a Soltek DDR board and runs perfectly with 512MB (either a single Legend 512MB Infineon module, or 2 x 256MB Legend Hynix modules.) (Legend is an Australian manufacturer and good stuff: lifetime warranty, A-grade RAM only, similar to Cruical or Kingston in the USA.)

With >512MB the system has out of memory errors in DOS mode (!) blue screens, Windows protection errors on boot, the works. With 512MB or less, it's as solid as a rock.

Thanks guys.

Tony

[James]

http://support.microsoft.com/ default.aspx?scid=%2fsearch% 2fviewDoc.aspx% 3fdocID%3dKC.Q253912% 26dialogID%3d8265790%26iterationID% 3d1%26sessionID% 3danonymous% 7c7531614 (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=%2fsearch%2fviewDoc.aspx%3fdocID %3dKC.Q253912%26dialogID%3d8265790%26iterationID%3 d1%26sessionID%3danonymous%7c7531614)

[Tannin]

Ahh, Thankyou James.

[GMac]

Ahh the old Win98 memory mismanagement problem :D I've had more than one puzzled computing novice come to me asking about that one, wondering why their RAM upgrade slowed the machine down and/or crashed it. Once the VCache setting has been changed (to 512MB) in system.ini, there's no further problem.
BTW what do you think of that Soltek board Tony? I'm thinking of upgrading my box to an XP1700+ or 1800+ ere long, and I'm exploring the various mobo alternatives. I was thinking about the Epox 8KHA+, but a mate of mine bought two and both were faulty, which dented my confidence in it somewhat. So, as my local dealer sells the board you mentioned, I'd like to know how it performs etc

Cheers

GM

[Tea]

Hi GMac!

I haven't heard back from my friend with the extra RAM, but seeing as I gave him this URL he's probably read it for himself already.

On the mainboards, it's funny you should ask that just now, as I spent most of last night doing a partial update on my long-neglected web page, and the motherboard section was the place I started. www.redhill.net.au/new.html

There I don't mention the failure rate of the KT-266A boards, simply because (touch wood) out of ~10 MSIs and 20 or 30 each of the Soltek and the Epox we haven't had any at all fail. Usually I try to include a little more detail than in those current write-ups, but I'll come back to them when I get time.

[GMac]

Cheers Tony - much obliged :)

GM

[Terry]

I own the computer Tannin first posted the query for. The problems were eventually solved by adding a MinFileCache=???? setting to the [VCache] setting in the system.ini file. The MaxFileCache=???? setting alone did not help at all, even limiting it to 512 Mb.
Eg:[VCache]
MinFileCache=2048
MaxFileCache=24576

I have been very happy with the Soltek DDR board since original problems rectified.

Thanks for the help everyone! :D

[Tannin]

Terry, as I understand it (thanks to your explanation), you have to set a minimum cache size as well as a max when you have lots of RAM. I guess it's easy enough to accept this as just another bit of classic Microsoft weirdness, but can anyone explain why it is so?



(PS: James. For purely accidental reasons I seem to have moderator powers in this part of the forum at the moment. I just took the liberty of editing your MS-link post to un-scroll the thread.)

[Santilli]

Hi
I had a Soyo motherboard, that even though it said it supported 768 mb of ram, it just did not work, something wrong with the third ram slot.

I tried all kinds of ram combinations, and ran memory testing dos programs, and that's when I finally figured it was the slot, not the memory problem.

Isn't Cacheman an easy way to adjust the cache size avaliable???

gs