Countach69

Thank you! I was looking for a replacement for FSHed and this is IT. Countach

Depending on your installed hardware and chipset, the MaxPhysPage may be necessary to avoid strange behaviour, BSOD or constant reboots. If you can complete the Windows 98SE installation process without any problem then this entry may be optional. Coupled with the MinFileCache/MaxFileCache VCACHE settings set to a low and constant value this equates to a 99.9 % chance of problem free initial Windows 98SE installation with 1 GIG of RAM. BIOS vendor, AGP aperture size, memory on video card, VCACHE settings all play a role filling up the SYSTEM ARENA. If you want to caclculate VCACHE settings using the multiple or power of approach, i have no objections. I adjust VCACHE settings according to the task at hand; when i use a 500 Meg RAMDRIVE i lower my usual 400 Meg of VCACHE to a lower value etc. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/253912 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304943

Fred, 01-Start the Windows 98SE installation. 02-Choose the components you want to install etc. 03-Stay in front of your computer; this first step will only take a couple of minutes. 04-When this first step is completed the computer will restart. 05-Now hit the F8 Function key to go in the BOOT menu. 06-Choose: Command prompt only. 07-Edit the file named system.ini with the following command: edit c:\windows\system.ini Locate the following entry: [386Enh] Add the following line below the [386Enh] entry. MaxPhysPage=3FE00 This will limit Windows 98SE to 1020 Megs of RAM. If you experience any problem use this value instead: MaxPhysPage=3C000 Locate the following entry: [vcache] Add the following lines below the [vcache] entry. MinFileCache=100000 MaxFileCache=100000 08-Save the file and exit. 09-Reboot. Countach

-You've now ruled out the driver part of the NIC...well almost; it wasn't a clean install of the driver and uninstalling seldom works 100% leaving behind registry keys etc. It still leaves the NIC itself. -The connection message Windows gives you is fine. -Your system is still overclocked, not by much, but it still is. Have you tried testing it at stock speed? Reset the BIOS values to their default so you don't forget anything. -Since you cannot obtain an other ADSL modem for test purposes we have to skip this variable. -Have you ever deactivate Proxomitron and Norton or better yet deactivated all the programs (except the one related to your ADSL connection manager) located in the STARTUP tab in MSCONFIG? -The last step, and it's the one people hate, is a fresh install of Windows with ONLY the following software installed; Windows, chipset driver, ethernet driver and ADSL connection utility...and i suppose the E-Mule program. -I am not aware of any upload related problems with Windows 98SE. I personnaly have never encountered one in my almost 4 years of ADSL use...but i do not play Counter-Strike or use E-mule, just regular HTTP or FTP uploads/downloads. A relative of mine has used most of the P2P software out there on Windows 98SE, and he never reported any anomalies like the one you are experiencing. Countach69

You're using the driver for the ethernet card from the original ISP installation CD and that you've always done so with all of your computers? There could be a bug with the Windows 98SE driver and not with the 2000 one! Eliminate that variable by looking for an updated driver. Does your most recent computer sports an integrated NIC? If so, have you ever tried using that one instead of the one supplied by your ISP? Playing a game locally over your network and playing over the internet are 2 separate things. Your IP packets will go through many networks and will be fragmented much more then on a LAN. Any "flakiness" on the part of the driver/hardware combination may result in what you are experiencing right now with your upload problem. I would focus my attention toward the NIC and NIC drivers. If you can update the drivers or better yet get yourself another NIC with a DIFFERENT chipset on it. P.S. Never assume anything with computers...just test, test and re-test again! Countach69

1-Have you ever tried using your ADSL modem in a different phone jack in your house/apartment? A friend of mine has difficulty obtaining a constant/steady connection using the phone jack in the room where he uses his computer but no problem whatsoever when using the phone connection located in the kitchen area. The phone wiring reaching his bedroom is the culprit; he now uses a 50 feet extension to the kitchen phone jack. 2-If you know someone who has an ADSL modem you might want to borrow it for an afternoon to do some testing. Borrow everything from that individual, that is: -ADSL modem -External ADSL power supply -AND Ethernet cable You'll be able to kill 3 birds with one stone, that is, test the modem, power supply and ethernet cable. A friend of mine lost his ADSL power supply and went out and bought a new one. Unfortunately the specifications for this new unit did not match exactly with his old one. The modem worked, but he kept experiencing odd behaviour from his internet connection. When i bought him the exact match everything went back to normal; fortunately no permanent damage was done to the ADSL modem. 3-Your Ethernet Network Inteface Card (NIC) could be the problem or the driver powering it. You can: -Update the driver. -Some NIC have a bunch of settings you can change; reset them all to their default values. You'll find these settings if you right-click on the Network Neighborhood icon on your Windows desktop. -Again, if you know someone with a spare Ethernet card you could borrow it. 4-Try to find a constant way to reproduce your upload problem. Try to upload a large file to a file hosting service like: rapidshare.com or fileho.com and see if you can make it fail intentionally. 5-There are also a ton of variable to check: -Are the ADSL filters installed on the other phone line in the house? -Is your system stable? -Is it overclocked? -What program are running in the background? -Have you tried a fresh install of Windows with only the following software installed; Windows, chipset driver, ethernet driver and ADSL connection uutility? 6-And last but not least, have you tried using TCP Optimizer from www.speedguide.net I will cut and paste the instruction from a previous post: Windows TCP/IP settings are far from optimal; this also includes XP. 1a-Do a download test. 1b-I like to download the Chimp Demo from ATI's website. hxxp://www2.ati.com/misc/demos/ATI-9800-Chimp-Demo.mpg (Replace the hxxp to http) 1c-Take note of the speed at which you are downloading. 2a-Go to the following address: hxxp://www.speedguide.net/ (Replace the hxxp to http) 2b-On the left side select: SpeedGuide.net TCP/IP Analyzer 2c-This will analyze the TCP/IP settings of Windows. 2d-Look at the section labeled: bandwidth * delay product 2e-You will see the maximum bandwith your current TCP/IP provide. 2f-Take note of these results. 3a-Now, again on the left side, select: TCP Optimizer 3b-Download: TCP Optimizer 3c-Go to the middle of this webpage in the section: Microsoft Windows 9x Vtcp.386 Update 3d-Download: 236926usa8.exe 4a-Execute the Microsoft patch: 236926usa8.exe 4b-Don't reboot. 4c-Execute: TCP Optimizer 4d-Set the slider Connection Speed to: 15000 Kbps 4e-Network Adapter selection: Select your Network card 4f-Select: Optimal settings (located bottom right of the screen) 4g-Select: Apply changes, then OK and reboot. 5a-Go back to SpeedGuide.net website and redo the TCP/IP Analyzer test and look at the results. 5b-Redo the previous download test from ATI. Countach69

You may want to lubricate your fan or better yet replace it; do it yourself or have it serviced. The fan is probably not able to cool your laptop adequately because it's only spinning at, lets say 1500 RPM (Revolution Per Minute), instead of 2500 RPM (hypothetical numbers) thus remains always ON. The fans is also making noise because it's either old, needs lubrication or something is rubbing against it; an unlubricate defective 40mm fan can emit a VERY loud sound! Countach

Here are some suggestions: -Can you associate an event when this problem started occuring? Let say, everything was working fine and then you installed/updated a new driver/program and you noticed something strange. -Unhook any unnecessary peripherals (joystick, wireless device, ADSL modem etc.) and reboot. -Does you computer behaves the same when you boot in Safe Mode? -Have you tried using the Microsoft Configuration Utility (msconfig.exe) to disable programs from loading at startup? Disable everything in the Startup Tab and possibly autoexec.bat/config.sys and Win.ini (ONLY this section: Windows, Load, Run) -Are you running your laptop from the battery of AC outlet? Does it behaves the same on both? -Since your laptop is probably 5 years old there could be some "dust bunnies" clogging airflow thus making the fan run at it's maximum all the time. -Any specific BIOS settings related to fan speed; Always on, Only ON when reaching X degrees Celcius etc. Countach69

Download Process Explorer from Sysinternals; it's a free utility. You'll be able to determine what program(s) are hogging CPU cycle. http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html Scroll down at the bottom of the page and download the version for Windows 9X/ME. Countach69

Windows TCP/IP settings are far from optimal; this also includes XP. 1a-Do a download test. 1b-I like to download the Chimp Demo from ATI's website. hxxp://www2.ati.com/misc/demos/ATI-9800-Chimp-Demo.mpg (Replace the hxxp to http) 1c-Take note of the speed at which you are downloading. 2a-Go to the following address: hxxp://www.speedguide.net/ (Replace the hxxp to http) 2b-On the left side select: SpeedGuide.net TCP/IP Analyzer 2c-This will analyze the TCP/IP settings of Windows. 2d-Look at the section labeled: bandwidth * delay product 2e-You will see the maximum bandwith your current TCP/IP provide. 2f-Take note of these results. 3a-Now, again on the left side, select: TCP Optimizer 3b-Download: TCP Optimizer 3c-Go to the middle of this webpage in the section: Microsoft Windows 9x Vtcp.386 Update 3d-Download: 236926usa8.exe 4a-Execute the Microsoft patch: 236926usa8.exe 4b-Don't reboot. 4c-Execute: TCP Optimizer 4d-Set the slider Connection Speed to: 15000 Kbps 4e-Network Adapter selection: Select your Network card 4f-Select: Optimal settings (located bottom right of the screen) 4g-Select: Apply changes, then OK and reboot. 5a-Go back to SpeedGuide.net website and redo the TCP/IP Analyzer test and look at the results. 5b-Redo the previous download test from ATI. Countach69

Follow-up -This proxy: 201.0.4.148 supports HTTPS. I just used it to connect securely to my Yahoo account. -I do not want to alarm you but it is not a wise decision to do financial transactions in an Internet Café. You have no control over the computer you are using in these places. Keylogger and Packet sniffer may be on these networks collecting every keystroke (Citibank login/password) and web page you navigate to. -You may want to try other proxies. -Replace the xx in hxxp below to http hxxp://www.proxy4free.com/page2.html Programs running in the background may interfere with your internet connection. -Click on the START button on the lower left of the screen. -Go in the RUN menu. -Type the following: MSCONFIG -Hit ENTER -Go in the START-UP tab; it's the last one after Win.ini -Uncheck everything. -Hit OK -Restart the computer. -Upon re-entering Windows you will be greeted with a message from MSCONFIG basically telling you that you have now started the computer in a selective fashion. -Try to access Citibank in your usual way. Note: This is a temporary measure to see if some background applications are causing you problems. It does not uninstall any application, it is not destructive in any way; it only prevents some programs to load. You should still be able to connect to the internet unless some of the programs we've just unchecked are necessary...it's a possibility. If you're using an anti-virus software it will probably not be functional. If you still cannot connect to citibank reliably then restart MSCONFIG and this time CHECK all the boxes and restart your computer. Countach

Lets try one more test. Connection to citibank.com via a proxy. -Use Firefox. -Go in the menu: Tools, Options, General, Connection Settings and select: Manual Connection to a Proxy -You will now be able to enter text in the fields below; the only field we're interested in is: HTTP Proxy or Proxy HTTP (remember i'm using a french version) -In the field listed Proxy HTTP enter: 201.0.4.148 -In the field listed Port enter: 80 -Try to access Citibank in your usual way. I will explain in detail what Petr wants you to try. -Copy the following text: command /k ping citibank.com -Click on the START button on the lower left of the screen. -Go in the RUN menu. -Paste the text in the box; if there is already some text in this box make sure to delete it first. -Hit OK -Make a note of the information that appears on screen. -When done, type the following: exit -Hit ENTER. -Report your findings on this board. Countach

You may want to try the following: 1-DNS Problem Start your browser. Do not type: www.citibank.com Instead type: 192.193.217.120 2-HOSTS file problem -Close your browser. -Rename the following file: Hosts (It's located in your C:\WINDOWS directory) -To something like: Host -Start your browser. -Try to access Citibank in your usual way. 3-Browser Proxy settings -I will be using Firefox as an example. -Go in the menu: Tools, Options, General, Connection Settings and choose: Direct Connection to Internet (I'm using a french version of Firefox so the above wording may not be totally exact but should be close enough) -Try to access Citibank in your usual way. There could be other reasons: -All in one type of security software installed on your computer preventing you from accessing certain sites. -Restrictive Router settings etc. -Spyware, virus etc. Countach

In response to MDGx The latest version of DirectX was installed, that is 9.0c Countach

Windows 98SE Stability Test. Instead of arguing with people claiming Windows 98SE is an unstable Operating System, i decided to set the record straight by recording a not so typical gaming session with it. Basically, it consists of me playing 6, almost 7, different games simultaneously and alt-tabbing out of them while doing basic computer work. All of this on a supposedly unstable operating system...Windows 98SE. A mix of old (1998-Dethkarz) and new (2005-Need for speed: Most wanted) games were used. My intentions were not for people to revert back to 98SE but to make the critics realize that this OS is a viable option for a lot of people. So, if you feel bored and have the bandwidth, you can download this 5 part sefl-extracting .RAR file. Mind you, this is not exciting stuff, but it proves once and for all that if your computer hardware, drivers and applications are stable, Windows 98SE will be also. Replace the hxxp below to http hxxp://www.rapidsharing.com/07c00c9dae71323df624eb5c3665c861 hxxp://www.rapidsharing.com/3dd4a6550e64ef6abf1a63c69b00f576 hxxp://www.rapidsharing.com/9342fa283b803bf3c1e72b3143e6348f hxxp://www.rapidsharing.com/74e1a8b89ab7a265132de5f7ece0736a hxxp://www.rapidsharing.com/c65daaed0855a5dceb500449fd7612d0 Computer specifications: -Intel D865 PerlX motherboard -Celeron 340 2.93Ghz -1 Gig of RAM -ATI Radeon 9600XT 128 Megs -Analog Device Soundmax audio -K-world capture card File information: -Format : MPEG 1 - no special codecs are necessary -Resolution : 352 x 240 -Quality : average -Length : about 45 minutes -Size : 470 megs 1-The file was captured in VHS format and converted to MPEG 1. 2-Games like Doom 3 and Need for speed: Most wanted needed replacing the string GlobalMemoryStatusEx to GlobalMemoryStatus to work in windows 98SE. 3-The capture file was not edited in any way. 4-There were no TSR running in the background (anti-virus, instant messaging, firewall etc.) 5-Some win.ini tweaks were used like MinFileCache/MaxFileCache etc. 6-No Microsoft updates of Windows 98SE were installed. Chronology: Starting/playing : Need For speed: Most wanted Demo Alt-tab to : Desktop Starting/playing : Flatout Alt-tab to : Desktop Starting/playing : Bloodrayne 2 Alt-tab to : Desktop Starting/playing : Dethkarz Alt-Tab to : Need for speed: Most wanted Demo Alt-tab to : Desktop Starting : Hamrick Vuescan Starting : Firefox -browsing and downloading files (via USB Wi-Fi connection) Alt-Tab to : Flatout Alt-Tab to : Desktop Alt-Tab to : Bloodrayne 2 Alt-Tab to : Desktop -finishing scanning -displaying scan in Irfanview and Foxit -browsing and downloading files Starting/playing : Painkiller: Battle out of hell Alt-Tab to : Desktop Starting/playing : Doom 3 Quitting : Doom 3 (not able to alt-tab out of Doom 3) Continuing : browsing and downloading files Starting/playing : The suffering Alt-Tab to : Desktop Alt-Tab to : Need For speed: Most wanted Demo -lack of memory -constant paging to hard disk Quitting : Need For speed: Most wanted Demo Alt-Tab to : Painkiller: Battle out of hell Alt-Tab to : Desktop Alt-Tab to : Bloodrayne 2 -lack of memory -constant paging to hard disk Alt-Tab to : Desktop Alt-Tab to : Dethkarz Alt-Tab to : Desktop Alt-Tab to : Flatout -lack of memory -constant paging to hard disk Quitting : Flatout Alt-Tab to : Painkiller: Battle out of hell Quitting : Painkiller: Battle out of hell Alt-Tab to : The suffering Quitting : The suffering Quitting : Firefox Alt-Tab to : Bloodrayne 2 Quitting : Bloodrayne 2 Writting message with Wordpad Closing computer

There are several avenues to explore. This is not an exhaustive list of troubleshooting measures but should help you. 1-You may want to uninstall the "possibly" troublesome application, in this case, TurboTax. 01-Boot Windows in Safe Mode. 02-Uninstall TurboTax. 03-Reboot. 2-Restore a previous Windows REGISTRY. 01-Go in the Windows Boot Menu by hitting the F8 Key. 02-Choose: Command Prompt Only. 03-Type the following: CD WINDOWS\SYSBCKUP 04-Hit Enter Key. 05-Type the following: MD OLDCAB 06-Hit Enter Key. 07-Type the following: COPY *.CAB OLDCAB 08-Hit Enter Key. 09-Type the following: SCANREG/RESTORE 10-Hit Enter Key. 11-Choose a registry file dated before you started having problems. 12-Choose restore, the program will restore the registry file and reboot. Hopefully, if the problem relates to registry entries, it will correct the situation. TurboTax will probably not fonction correctly after restoring a previous registry file. 3-You could also use the BOOTLOG feature of Windows. 01-Go in the Windows Boot Menu by hitting the F8 Key. 02-Choose BOOTLOG. 03-As you stated in your post, the computer will reboot. 04-Go in the Windows Boot Menu by hitting the F8 Key. 05-Choose: Command Prompt Only. 06-When at the C:\ prompt, type the following: EDIT BOOTLOG.TXT 07-Examine the entries or do a search for the word : FAIL 08-This MAY give you a clue what driver/application is giving you trouble. Countach.

The FAT (File Allocation Table) is not necessary to recover your data; it makes it easier and 100% accurate but not mandatory. I will assume you're using a FAT16/FAT32 file system not NTFS. The following applies to a hard drive not a floppy disk and refers to the Microsoft format utility not a third party format utility. Formatting a hard drive basically only overwrites/erases both copies of the FAT and the root directory entries; entries locate in the C:\, or D:\ or E:\ etc...not the sub-directories/folders. It leaves your data, that is your files, intact...nothing is erased, every single bit of information is still present. Only problem is, FRAGMENTATION. That's the REAL problem of data recovery on the FAT file system. If you happen to defragment your hard drive and then do a format right afterward you will be able to easily/accurately and automatically recover all your files without user intervention (except the files located in the root directory (C:\, D:\ etc...) which you will have to do manually. Only program needed is a DOS Unformat utility; Microsoft uses to supply one previous to DOS 6 (if i remember correctly) but not anymore. Problem is, as mentionned earlier, is fragmentation. I will not go into details on the subject but when you ear people/website mentionning "defragment your hard drive regularly because it will improve your hard drive performance" substitute it with "defragment your hard drive regularly because it will improve data recovery in case of an accident". As far as improving performance it basically won't do much; files which are fragmented in several hundreds or thousands will see an improvement thou. Again this is a simplified explanation, it does take into account your computer is using a software cache (Vcache in Windows and Smartdrve in DOS). After an accidental format one should use a DOS Unformat utility like Norton Unformat. Or if you have another bootable partition or hard drive one can use a Windows based Unformat utility. One must remenber that every hard drive write after a format WILL permanently ERASE your DATA (not totaly true if you have access to high level electronic equipment) so don't install Windows right afterward because it will overwrite possibly valuable DATA.The success rate of this method will vary from 1% to 99.9% of uncorrupted data recover depending on the fragmentation of your files. Even if the Unformat utility says: File X has been recovered succefully, you MUST load it and test it. Why? If the FATs are gone the recovery program assumes that all the files are continuous, it has no other choice really, and assigns every cluster accordingly. This will lead to some files, lets says a .JPG file, having half it's content intact and an other half, the part that was fragmented, fill with the content of an .MP3 file. Even if you already installed an operating system over your previously formatted hard drive (not repartitionned) all is definately not lost. Use the unformat utility and depending on where the file was located and fragmentation level you might be able to recover it succefully. Don't be surprised to find files that were written a couple years ago being recovered after using an Unformat utility. Remember, nothing is EVER erased on a hard drive, unless you write an another file on top of it; deleting a file does NOT erase the file from the hard drive, emptying the Recycle Bin does NOT erase the file from the hard drive, it just signifies to the operating system that the space that used to be occupied by the file is now available to write data in. Countach69

Memory management in Windows 98SE partly deals with the SYSTEM ARENA; virtual memory mapped in the C0000000 to FFFFFFFF address space (3 to 4 Gigabyte region). Video RAM (memory on your video card), AGP aperture size (in the BIOS) and VCACHE all reside in this space which is limited to 1 Gigabyte. This 1 Gigabyte space can get filled rather quickly if you let Windows 98SE manage VCACHE on its own. VCACHE can initialize up to 800 Megabytes thus leaving no room for other devices/program using this region. Look at the SIMPLIFIED example below: -Computer RAM: Large amount (768M, 1Gig, 1.5Gig etc.) -Video card RAM: 128 Megabytes -Size of AGP aperture (in the BIOS): 256 Megabytes -MAXIMUM left in SYSTEM ARENA: 640 Megabytes (1024 -(128 + 256)) -VCACHE initialize: -VCACHE says to himself: "This computer has a lot of RAM so lets use a large amount for caching purposes". Caching simply means it will store a copy of frequently access file in this region of RAM so the next time the computer needs them it will not have to load them from the much slower hard drive. The drawbacks are that this memory is no longer available to run large program/games (simplified explanation). -If the size VCACHE initializes to at startup is bigger than the amount left in the SYSTEM ARENA, Windows 98SE will not load or will behave erratictly. Solving this problem involves 2 settings in the SYSTEM.INI file; MaxPhysPage and/or MaxFileCache depending of your particular problem. If you have a large amount of RAM in Windows 98SE and you suspect that it is causing installation problem and would like to limit it to a certain amount then do the following: If you are installing a fresh copy of windows 98SE 01-Start the installation normally. 02-Upon the FIRST reboot, stop the computer at the DOS prompt using the F8 or CTRL key. 03-Edit the file SYSTEM.INI using the following command: EDIT C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI 04-Locate the following entry: [386Enh] 05-Add the following string: MaxPhysPage= 05a-After the equal sign use the table below to limit the amount of memory Windows 98SE will use. 05b-Example: MaxPhysPage=30000 would limit the amount of RAM to 768 Megs. 06-Locate the following entry: [vcache] 07-Add the following string: MaxFileCache=100000 07a-The previous line would limit the size of VCACHE to 100000 Kilobytes (100 Megabytes). 07b-Contrary to the MaxPhysPage setting the amount is in decimal format. 07c-Limiting VCACHE to 217 Megabytes would be: MaxFileCache=217000 07d-Lets not split hair with 1 megabyte = 1024 OK! 09-Reboot. 10-Continue the installation normally. RAM 960 MaxPhysPage=3C000 896 MaxPhysPage=38000 832 MaxPhysPage=34000 768 MaxPhysPage=30000 704 MaxPhysPage=2C000 640 MaxPhysPage=28000 576 MaxPhysPage=24000 512 MaxPhysPage=20000 448 MaxPhysPage=1C000 384 MaxPhysPage=18000 320 MaxPhysPage=14000 256 MaxPhysPage=10000 224 MaxPhysPage=0E000 192 MaxPhysPage=0C000 160 MaxPhysPage=0A000 128 MaxPhysPage=08000 96 MaxPhysPage=06000 88 MaxPhysPage=05800 80 MaxPhysPage=05000 72 MaxPhysPage=04800 64 MaxPhysPage=04000 56 MaxPhysPage=03800 48 MaxPhysPage=03000 40 MaxPhysPage=02800 32 MaxPhysPage=02000 24 MaxPhysPage=01800 16 MaxPhysPage=01000 12 MaxPhysPage=00C00 08 MaxPhysPage=00800 If your Windows 98SE is already installed you can use MSCONFIG.EXE and go in the General Tab, Advanced Settings to limit the size of RAM. For limiting the size of VCACHE use SYSEDIT.EXE. A little note about MaxFileCache and the MinFileCache settings. These value are NOT meant to be fixed, that is, set a value and forget. They are meant to be adapted to each situation. I like to use very large amount for the cache when testing applications where i have to open and close them frequently. With a small cache i would be accessing the hard drive constantly but not so with a large one. On the opposite, i only have 512 Megs of RAM so when i play a RAM intensive game like Far Cry i use a small value for the cache. Remember allocating RAM to VCACHE means that this memory will no longer be available to run program (simplified explanation). RAM demanding Games: DOOM3, Quake 4, Far Cry, around 30 Megs allocated to VCACHE. [vcache] MinFileCache=30000 MaxFileCache=30000 Everyday tasks, around 150 Megs allocated to VCACHE or as the tasks dictactes 200, 300 Megs etc. [vcache] MinFileCache=150000 MaxFileCache=150000 BAD USE of VCACHE with a system with 512 Megs of RAM and playing Far Cry. With these settings below it would take an enormous amount of time to load Far Cry because there is basically no more RAM available to load the game. Windows would rely on simulating RAM using the hard drive which is incredibly slow. But with a system with 1 Gig of RAM these settings would be perfect. [vcache] MinFileCache=350000 MaxFileCache=350000 Countach69 -Specifying Amount of RAM Available to Windows Using MaxPhysPage http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;181862 -Computer May Reboot Continuously with More Than 1.5 GB of RAM http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;304943 -Error Message: Insufficient Memory to Initialize Windows http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;184447

Windows 98SE and Quake iv. On a follow-up note, Quake 4 uses the DOOM3 "engine" so just replace the string GlobalMemoryStatusEx with GlobalMemoryStatus in the Quake4.exe and Quake4Ded.exe with a Hex Editor. Same as DOOM 3. Played about an half an hour so far; works fine. Only glitch on MY system is the use of the mouse 2 button; probably video card related or game related but nothing serious. Countach69

Unfortunately you cannot use the HEX Editor approach, or the one i call "The DOOM3 GlobalMemoryStatusEx to GlobalMemoryStatus" switch on this one. It worked flawlessly i might add; i completed DOOM3 twice on Windows 98SE without a single crash or incident whatsoever. They got a little wiser now but not much. With the F.E.A.R. demo you cannot replace the string without overwritting part of another string. Alas my programming skills are not up to the task. Maybe we should contact the author of 3D-Analyze at http://www.tommti-systems.com/ to see if he would be gracious enough to help the Windows 98SE community; he did it for the non-TnL video card owner so why not! Countach69

Playing newer games on Windows 98SE. As anyone ever heard of an XP wrapper? I would like to be able to play some newer game/demo on Windows 98SE but unfortunately some games, like the upcoming F.E.A.R., will not start du to some silly variation in function calls. Take the aforementionned F.E.A.R. demo, using the program Dependency Walker you notice those 3 slight variations in two dll file. Hardly justifiable to limit/ban Windows 98SE users. The same applies to many new game like The Chronicles of Riddick, Medal of Honor Pacific Assault etc. Anybody would like to comment? Kernel32.dll Windows XP: GetFileSizeEx Windows 98SE : GetFileSize Kernel32.dll Windows XP: SetFilePointerEx Windows 98SE : SetFilePointer Shell32.dll Windows XP: SHGetFolderPathA Windows 98SE : SHGetSpecialFolderPathA