win 98 low memory error. has 635.152 free. Will not boot. Clean install P4 3.2

[wpete574]

I am installing Win 98 in a P4 3.2 with 2 gig memory and a 160 gig HD. It is clean install. When it boots I get an error that there is not enough memory. I checked and I have 635.163 of free conventional memory. Almost everything is loaded in upper memory. Any help out there? 

[oldnotbold]

I had this problem when I increased ram to 2 GB on an existing installation. There was an existing thread on this here: http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,49400.30.html.

One of the links posted there led me to the solution: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/184447

As advised at that link, I added "MaxPhysPage=30000" to the [386Enh] section of system.ini (using the edit utility from the DOS prompt), and that solved it for me.

Unfortunately I then had another problem: once I was in Windows the machine claimed I didn't have enough memory to open a DOS window, so I had to add a MaxFileCache entry in the [VCache] section of system.ini, as discussed at this link which was also posted in the other thread: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/253912. I used a value of 262144. (I couldn't use 524288 because that caused a new startup problem.)

A MinFileCache entry turned out not to be necessary, but I did have to remove the fixed paging file size I was previously using for virtual memory, and let Windows manage that on its own. That, in combination with the MaxFileCache entry did the trick for the DOS windows.

[Cityscape]

Windows 98 cannot take more then 512 RAM unless you specially tweak it.

After being tweaked it can take up to 2 GB.

I've got this same error installing Windows 3.1 with too much RAM.

[oldnotbold]

The first microsoft link in my post above claims that Win98 can access up to 768 MB.

Do you have any details on how to tweak it to use 2GB?

[patio]

I was wondering myself why he didn't post the tweaks after stating it could be done...

[Cityscape]

the MaxPhysPage and/or win.ini and config.sys normally have to be configured in a special way.

But since you haven't installed the OS yet I do not know how to configure it. I do know that people have overcome this problem.

read more here: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/333688.html

I was wondering myself why he didn't post the tweaks after stating it could be done...

I was in a rush

[oldnotbold]

Virtual PC can be another way to solve this problem. See my post in the other thread:

http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,49400.msg742500.html#msg742500

[BC_Programmer]

I am installing Win 98 in a P4 3.2 with 2 gig memory and a 160 gig HD. It is clean install. When it boots I get an error that there is not enough memory. I checked and I have 635.163 of free conventional memory. Almost everything is loaded in upper memory. Any help out there? 

Remove a GB of RAM if possible, install Win98, apply tweaks that oldnotbold posted previously, then replace the memory.

If your RAM is a single 2GB stick, (or otherwise irreplacable) then either buy a smaller stick, or go with the Virtual Machine method that oldnotbold recommends. (personally I prefer VMWare myself, I was curious and upped the memory VMWare gave my win98SE install to 2GB, and I saw various errors, but applying the tweaks they mentioned by booting to "command prompt only" allowed it to start just fine.

The only other way to force the install to work with 2GB would be to literally edit the correct INF files on the CD-ROM and burn a new copy of the CD, which is generally more trouble then it's worth. Additionally it might not work, I'm purely guessing as to wether the appropriate settings are even available in the INF files.