osiff Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 I want to install windows 98se on my Inspiron 1525 for love of the OS and quest for speed. Once I install, though, and after setting the MaxPhysPage to 40000 and MaxCacheFile to 40000, once rebooted, the system hangs at a black screen. I don't want someone to tell me about how old the OS is and how I should just run it in a virtual machine instead. I want someone to tell me how I can solve the problem and where I might find something (such as some drivers) that I would find useful in installing this. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dencorso Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 Help us help you: instead of a preemptive rant, you could have given the machine's specs and details about the black screen (is it fully black or has it any message, and if so what does it say? How much RAM does the machine have? What about a link to the user's manual? You want help, you're gonna get it, *provided* you do your part. We do not troubleshoot solely based on crystal balls... But my crystal ball says you should try MaxFileCache=393216, just in case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 We do not troubleshoot solely based on crystal balls... But my crystal ball says you should try MaxFileCache=393216, just in case.Heck! Your crystal ball seems like MUCH better tuned than mine that rarely shows that kind of precision... And tarots and I-Ching are even worse.... jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dencorso Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 You should wrap your crystal ball with spider-silk and expose it (for not more than 2h) to the first morning dew after every 1st full-moon night, then unwrap it and let it dry on a dark place, for it to self-tune properly. Works well most of the time, but crystal balls can be very unpredictable, as you are well aware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osiff Posted March 18, 2011 Author Share Posted March 18, 2011 Sorry I Kinda posted it quickly and forgot some stuff. Its an Inspiron 1525 from 2007 and it has a single core 1.8ghz celron and 2gigs of ram and Brodcom wireless. I'm going to try setting the maxphyscache to your value later but the screen is completely black and there is no disk activity. I tried to boot in safe mode and it hung for a little bit than gave the "Insufficient memory to run windows" message making me think that 40000 might be too low. I have put the driver exe's and some other things such as the unofficial sp and kernel x on the hdd by means of an ubuntu cd and a flash drive. Thanks for the help so far, though. And sorry about my "rant". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dencorso Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 If my 1st suggestion doesn't work, then set MaxPhysPage=30000 just to get it to boot, and add Xeno86's patched VCache to C:\Windosws\System\VMM32 (check whether there is a VCache.VxD there first, and if there is, rename it to VCache.Old, before copying the modified one there). Once the machine begins booting and loading Windows, then we can tweak MaxPhysPage by steps, up to the max value that works for your system. A link to Xeno86's patched VCache is available in the first post of my > 1GiB list, for which there is a link in the left part of my signature. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osiff Posted March 18, 2011 Author Share Posted March 18, 2011 Your higher value in MaxPhysCache gave a "insufficient memory" screen and the lower value hangs again at the same black screen. I also "installed" the modded vcache by using an ubuntu live cd again. Is there a happy medium to the MaxPhysCache? Should I set a value in MaxFileCache and MinFileCache? Or maybe I have it spelled wrong. Either way thanks for all the help. All the people in other forums just tell me that the operating system is outdated or something like that. I was frustrated at that in my first post. So thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dencorso Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 MaxPhysCache doesn't exist! It's MaxFileCache. Now, set MaxFileCache=393216 and MaxPhysPage=30000 and try again. If this doesn't work, then set MaxFileCache=32768, and try again. Note that MaxFileCache goes under [vcache], while MaxPhysPage=30000 goes under [386Enh]. If you do have a MaxPhysCache or a MinFileCache, do delete those lines. Then let me know what happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osiff Posted March 19, 2011 Author Share Posted March 19, 2011 After setting those values it hangs again, and in safe mode it says "Insufficient memory" again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rloew Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 After setting those values it hangs again, and in safe mode it says "Insufficient memory" again.Try the Demo Version of my RAM Limitation Patch.If you have Gigabit Ethernet, use the /M Option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dencorso Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Do one last test, set MaxFileCache=16384 and MaxPhysPage=30000 and see whether it succeeds at booting or not. If not, then you definitely need to test RLoew's RAM Limitation Patch with the /M option. You may get the free demo at his site. in any case, do keep me posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osiff Posted March 20, 2011 Author Share Posted March 20, 2011 Same result; the system hangs at the same black screen. Could the problem be that I'm using an ubuntu live cd to edit the system.ini file? And that patch you mentioned is a demo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dencorso Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 You should work from true dos, to dispel that doubt. It's quite easy to create a dos boot cd.Yes, the patch you can download is a demo. The full version is not for download, and not for free, but its value far outweights its price.But I do think MaxFileCache=16384 and MaxPhysPage=30000 should be enough to boot your machine, with 2GiB RAM.So, if you want, do attach your zipped system.ini to your next post, so that I can ensure it's in proper dos format or correct its format and attach it back. Then you may delete it from the windows directory and put the corrected one in its place, and then try again.You can move files around and zip/unzip them without any problem using ubuntu (or any other unix-family OS), but editing text files can give problems, so we ought to check this first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osiff Posted March 20, 2011 Author Share Posted March 20, 2011 (edited) Is using the MS-DOS mode OK for making changes to system.ini? I tried to attach the file but I'm not sure if it worked. Edited March 20, 2011 by osiff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osiff Posted March 20, 2011 Author Share Posted March 20, 2011 SYSTEM.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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