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How to install Windows 98 in modern motherboards using more than 1 GB.


cannie

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Slight changes in the contents and improvement in the shape of the first post.

Included a quote about the posible need of modifyng BIOS before using the DOS boot floppy.

HTH

Edited by cannie
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  • 5 weeks later...

  • 2 weeks later...

After finding that the bearwindows download page doesnt't work any more, I've changed the download adress for the mentioned universal video driver.

HTH

Edited by cannie
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  • 6 months later...

Just for the record:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=2325&st=22

2010, JUNE

*** VBEMP(9x) ***

1. New version of driver with VESA/VBE calls support in DOS window/fullscreen.

:thumbup

jaclaz

I tried it in my ECS 6100SM-M Computer with a NVidia 8400 Video Card.

When I opened a DOS Box, I got a blank screen just like the previous Version.

Disabling Hardware Acceleration and setting 640x480 did not help.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 year later...

Don't know if the OP is still around, but a solution to this problem is exactly what I need for my dual boot WinXP/Win98SE system, and so I did my best to follow the provided instructions. My system used to be 1GB and Win98SE was happy with that, but I added another 1GB to benefit WinXP and all-of-a-sudden, Win98SE wouldn't run due to an oversized vcache (remove memory resident programs in Config.sys error message during boot). So, I first tried making a modified Win98SE disc using the edit described in the second post -- seemed very elegant. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to work. So, I turned to the original OP instructions and manually created and edited a System.ini file at the very beginning of the install. That worked fine, but at the first boot when I went back in to update the System.ini file, nothing had changed. OK, so maybe I was just lucky and so I checked again at the next boot point, still nothing had changed. At the end of the automated install the failure symptom was also unchanged and so this thread benefited me not at all. I don't know what system you were installing when you came up with those instructions, but I don't see how it could have been 98SE. Very disappointed :(!

If you wish to discuss, please respond.

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Don't know if the OP is still around, but a solution to this problem is exactly what I need for my dual boot WinXP/Win98SE system, and so I did my best to follow the provided instructions. My system used to be 1GB and Win98SE was happy with that, but I added another 1GB to benefit WinXP and all-of-a-sudden, Win98SE wouldn't run due to an oversized vcache (remove memory resident programs in Config.sys error message during boot). So, I first tried making a modified Win98SE disc using the edit described in the second post -- seemed very elegant. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to work. So, I turned to the original OP instructions and manually created and edited a System.ini file at the very beginning of the install. That worked fine, but at the first boot when I went back in to update the System.ini file, nothing had changed. OK, so maybe I was just lucky and so I checked again at the next boot point, still nothing had changed. At the end of the automated install the failure symptom was also unchanged and so this thread benefited me not at all. I don't know what system you were installing when you came up with those instructions, but I don't see how it could have been 98SE. Very disappointed :(!

If you wish to discuss, please respond.

You're not alone if those "RAM tweaks" for Windows 9x above 512MB given here and elsewhere didn't work for you. They have never worked for me either.

I purchased RLoew's RAM Limitation Patch, and have never looked back.

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Well, there is a thread dedicated to this:

summing up all the various tricks and tweaks and what not that people has uses and uses to run 98 day to day with more than 1 Gb Ram ;).

Of these, not all use the Ram limitation patch by R.Loew.

jaclaz

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Indeed, reading more that just Post#1 and Post#2 would have told you that.

BTW, "nothing had changed" because the changes get "wiped" after each reboot and that's the reason for "re-editing".

Notice my PC is in the list of Greater Than 1gb (2048mb).

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Well, there is a thread dedicated to this:

summing up all the various tricks and tweaks and what not that people has uses and uses to run 98 day to day with more than 1 Gb Ram ;).

Of these, not all use the Ram limitation patch by R.Loew.

jaclaz

True. But many people find that the alternatives do not work for them. LC and the person who E-Mailed me this morning discovered that.

Certain Ethernet and Registry issues are not resolved by the alternatives as well.

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Don't know if the OP is still around, but a solution to this problem is exactly what I need for my dual boot WinXP/Win98SE system, and so I did my best to follow the provided instructions. My system used to be 1GB and Win98SE was happy with that, but I added another 1GB to benefit WinXP and all-of-a-sudden, Win98SE wouldn't run due to an oversized vcache (remove memory resident programs in Config.sys error message during boot). So, I first tried making a modified Win98SE disc using the edit described in the second post -- seemed very elegant. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to work. So, I turned to the original OP instructions and manually created and edited a System.ini file at the very beginning of the install. That worked fine, but at the first boot when I went back in to update the System.ini file, nothing had changed. OK, so maybe I was just lucky and so I checked again at the next boot point, still nothing had changed. At the end of the automated install the failure symptom was also unchanged and so this thread benefited me not at all. I don't know what system you were installing when you came up with those instructions, but I don't see how it could have been 98SE. Very disappointed :(!

If you wish to discuss, please respond.

OOPS!

Went back to it again this morning and realized I made a dumb goof during the install process. I went per the instructions, making a Windows directory and then a system.ini file inside it, but after initiating the Win98SE CD setup, I didn't notice that when it prompted for the Windows directory name, it suggested "Windows.000". I'm used to it always suggesting "Windows" and at first glance it looked normal and I accepted. The result was the installation process never even looked at my [386Enh] and [vcache] entries, it was busy building the system over in directory "Windows.000". And to imagine, the old problem was still there -- duh! (Note: Once in EDIT, to save the file and exit use ALT-F to open the "File" menu. Then type in the highlighted letter to make your menu selection.)

This time, I stored the initialized copy of the System.ini file on my Win98SE startup diskette for the sake of convenience and after creating the windows directory, I just copied it over. Following the OP's instructions, I kept booting to the startup floppy and observed that on the first boot after startup, the [386Enh] entry was unchanged, but the [vcache] entry was deleted and I had to re-enter it. However, I found that on the second and all ensuing boots, neither entry had been modified and so no further editing was needed. Happy to report, Win98SE came up nicely with 2GB installed. I checked with Device Manager and was informed the system had 1022KB which must be how "MaxPhysPage=40000" works out. (I should mention I used a different spec for "MaxCacheSize", I specified 65536. Reason is the machine is for gaming and I read elsewhere a much smaller vcache is best for games, both since the video card typically needs a lot of virtual address space for its RAM window, and also because games usually want lots of direct RAM access. That particular size had been suggested.)

In any case, the OP's procedure worked and I now have a functioning 98SE/XP dual boot with 2GB DRAM. Perhaps my experience will be helpful to somebody else.

-- Thanks very much OP :)!

Don't know if the OP is still around, but a solution to this problem is exactly what I need for my dual boot WinXP/Win98SE system, and so I did my best to follow the provided instructions. My system used to be 1GB and Win98SE was happy with that, but I added another 1GB to benefit WinXP and all-of-a-sudden, Win98SE wouldn't run due to an oversized vcache (remove memory resident programs in Config.sys error message during boot). So, I first tried making a modified Win98SE disc using the edit described in the second post -- seemed very elegant. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to work. So, I turned to the original OP instructions and manually created and edited a System.ini file at the very beginning of the install. That worked fine, but at the first boot when I went back in to update the System.ini file, nothing had changed. OK, so maybe I was just lucky and so I checked again at the next boot point, still nothing had changed. At the end of the automated install the failure symptom was also unchanged and so this thread benefited me not at all. I don't know what system you were installing when you came up with those instructions, but I don't see how it could have been 98SE. Very disappointed :(!

If you wish to discuss, please respond.

You're not alone if those "RAM tweaks" for Windows 9x above 512MB given here and elsewhere didn't work for you. They have never worked for me either.

I purchased RLoew's RAM Limitation Patch, and have never looked back.

What matters is you got it working, congrats. I was banging my head against this for over a week and it just seemed logical that with all the configuration tweaks the early Win systems supported, this should be workable. Apparently, the trick is to force all the automated setup decisions to stay within the tweak bounds from the very beginning, rather than trying to back-fill with msconfig later.

Indeed, reading more that just Post#1 and Post#2 would have told you that.

BTW, "nothing had changed" because the changes get "wiped" after each reboot and that's the reason for "re-editing".

Notice my PC is in the list of Greater Than 1gb (2048mb).

When I said nothing had changed between boots, what I'm saying is that my initial edits remained intact. In any case, it doesn't matter, the system is now running exactly as I wanted, Win98SE and 2GB :)!

Edited by TrevorS
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This time, I stored the initialized copy of the System.ini file on my Win98SE startup diskette for the sake of convenience and after creating the windows directory, I just copied it over. Following the OP's instructions, I kept booting to the startup floppy and observed that on the first boot after startup, the [386Enh] entry was unchanged, but the [vcache] entry was deleted and I had to re-enter it. However, I found that on the second and all ensuing boots, neither entry had been modified and so no further editing was needed. Happy to report, Win98SE came up nicely with 2GB installed. I checked with Device Manager and was informed the system had 1022KB which must be how "MaxPhysPage=40000" works out. (I should mention I used a different spec for "MaxCacheSize", I specified 65536. Reason is the machine is for gaming and I read elsewhere a much smaller vcache is best for games, both since the video card typically needs a lot of virtual address space for its RAM window, and also because games usually want lots of direct RAM access. That particular size had been suggested.)

In any case, the OP's procedure worked and I now have a functioning 98SE/XP dual boot with 2GB DRAM. Perhaps my experience will be helpful to somebody else.

-- Thanks very much OP :)!

Need to make a follow up. The above describes how I got through the Win98 install, but I hadn't yet installed the other bits and pieces such as mother board specific drivers and add ons, etc. Turned out that when I tried to install the driver for my Promise SATA RAID controller, Windows reported a serious driver problem and I couldn't recover, ended up with the old insufficient memory problem again. Perhaps this was related to the only drive on that port being formatted NTFS, but perhaps not, in any case I left it out after that. On another attempt to get through the whole thing, I had failures during install of the ATI Catalyst drivers for my video card. I found that setting MaxPhysPage to 30000 prevented the Catalyst failure and I was finally able to reach the end of my installs (probably higher values would have worked as well, but definitely not 40000). I also concluded that changes to either of the two parameters after 98SE install was risky and likely to cause return of the insufficient memory problem.

In any case, it seems OK now, but it'll take me awhile to get confident, a few more successful program installs maybe.

Edited by TrevorS
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Need to make a follow up. The above describes how I got through the Win98 install, but I hadn't yet installed the other bits and pieces such as mother board specific drivers and add ons, etc. Turned out that when I tried to install the driver for my Promise SATA RAID controller, Windows reported a serious driver problem and I couldn't recover, ended up with the old insufficient memory problem again. Perhaps this was related to the only drive on that port being formatted NTFS, but perhaps not, in any case I left it out after that. On another attempt to get through the whole thing, I had failures during install of the ATI Catalyst drivers for my video card. I found that setting MaxPhysPage to 30000 prevented the Catalyst failure and I was finally able to reach the end of my installs (probably higher values would have worked as well, but definitely not 40000). I also concluded that changes to either of the two parameters after 98SE install was risky and likely to cause return of the insufficient memory problem.

In any case, it seems OK now, but it'll take me awhile to get confident, a few more successful program installs maybe.

Happy to report I've installed three games and engaged in other adventures since the above and the tweaked Win98SE appears to be stable. For me, the values that worked were [386Enh] MaxPhysPage=30000 and [vcache] MaxCacheSize=65536 (focus on gaming). I prepared a copy of "system.ini" containing only those two entries, stored it on the startup diskette, and then copied it into a brand new "Windows" directory at start of install using DOS commands. After starting the install, at the very first reboot, I used "edit" to restore the removed "vcache=65536" entry. From that point on, there was no need to reboot from floppy, the previously entered values held (this result may be different for other version of Windows). Yes, it does appear to work and I again thank the OP :)!

Edited by TrevorS
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