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- Jan 1, 1970
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they don't play nice together. Does anyone here know how to resolve this kind of RAM issue with WIN 98. I have been told there is a registry setting that needs to be changed, but I can find it anywhere.
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I have Win 98SE and 768MB of RAM and...
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butchrecon
MIS
Actaully Win98 cannot CACHE more than 320 meg of RAM at one time (Even though it can "see" 2gig). More than that will slow down performance and could cause lock ups and such. I know of no registry setting to change this. If you want to utilize that much RAM upgrade to Win2K Pro. OR take your RAM amount down to 320meg. James Collins
Systems Support Engineer
A+, MCP
email: butchrecon@skyenet.net
Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.
Systems Support Engineer
A+, MCP
email: butchrecon@skyenet.net
Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.
I agree,, 768 will hardly be faster than 256.
see if this might help:
Specifying Amount of RAM Available to Windows Using MaxPhysPage
------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
Microsoft Windows 95
Microsoft Windows 98
------------------------------------------------------------
If this article does not describe your hardware-related issue, please see the following Microsoft Web site to view more articles about hardware:
SUMMARY
This article contains a table of MaxPhysPage values you can use to limit the amount of random access memory (RAM) available to Windows.
MORE INFORMATION
To use the MaxPhysPage entry to specify the amount of RAM that is available to Windows, add the following line in the [386Enh] section of the System.ini file
MaxPhysPage=<nnn>
where <nnn> is a hexidecimal number that determines the number of memory pages available to Windows. A page is 4096 bytes of RAM for 486 and Pentium processors.
When the MaxPhysPage entry is used, the following formula is used to determine the amount of RAM available to Windows:
4096 X MaxPhysPage (decimal) = Amount of RAM available to Windows in bytes
Therefore, to limit Windows to 32 MB of memory, use the following formula to determine the MaxPhysPage entry:
(32 * 1048576) / 4096 = 8192 (decimal) or 02000 (hexadecimal)
NOTE: One megabyte is 1,048,576 bytes.
The following table list some common RAM amounts and the corresponding MaxPhysPage entry:
Amount of RAM
available to Windows (MB) (Bytes) MaxPhysPage entry
--------------------------------------------------------------
960 1,006,632,960 MaxPhysPage=3C000
896 939,524,096 MaxPhysPage=38000
832 872,415,323 MaxPhysPage=34000
768 805,306,368 MaxPhysPage=30000
704 738,197,504 MaxPhysPage=2C000
640 671,088,640 MaxPhysPage=28000
576 603,979,776 MaxPhysPage=24000
512 536,870,912 MaxPhysPage=20000
448 469,762,048 MaxPhysPage=1C000
384 402,653,184 MaxPhysPage=18000
320 335,544,320 MaxPhysPage=14000
256 268,435,456 MaxPhysPage=10000
224 234,881,024 MaxPhysPage=0E000
192 201,326,592 MaxPhysPage=0C000
160 167,772,160 MaxPhysPage=0A000
128 134,217,728 MaxPhysPage=08000
96 100,663,296 MaxPhysPage=06000
88 92,274,688 MaxPhysPage=05800
80 83,886,080 MaxPhysPage=05000
72 75,497,472 MaxPhysPage=04800
64 67,108,864 MaxPhysPage=04000
56 58,720,256 MaxPhysPage=03800
48 50,331,648 MaxPhysPage=03000
40 41,943,040 MaxPhysPage=02800
32 33,554,432 MaxPhysPage=02000
24 25,165,824 MaxPhysPage=01800
16 16,777,216 MaxPhysPage=01000
12 12,582,912 MaxPhysPage=00C00
08 8,388,608 MaxPhysPage=00800
For additional information about MaxPhysPage, please see the following Articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Article-ID: Q134503
TITLE : Parity Error Messages May Indicate Bad Memory
===========================================================
Here's another:
"Out of Memory" Error Messages with Large Amounts of RAM Installed
------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition
Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 95
------------------------------------------------------------
If this article does not describe your hardware-related issue, please see the following Microsoft Web site to view more articles about hardware:
SYMPTOMS
If a computer that is running any of the versions of Windows that are listed above contains more than 512 megabytes (for example, 768 megabytes) of physical memory (RAM), you may experience one or more of the following symptoms:
You may be unable to open an MS-DOS session (or command prompt) while Windows is running. Attempts to do so may generate the following error message:
There is not enough memory available to run this program.
Quit one or more programs, and then try again.
The computer may stop responding (hang) while Windows is starting, or halt and display the following error message:
Insufficient memory to initialize windows. Quit one or more memory-resident programs or remove unnecessary utilities from your Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files, and restart your computer.
CAUSE
The Windows 32-bit protected-mode cache driver (Vcache) determines the maximum cache size based on the amount of RAM that is present when Windows starts. Vcache then reserves enough memory addresses to permit it to access a cache of the maximum size so that it can increase the cache to that size if needed. These addresses are allocated in a range of virtual addresses from 0xC0000000 through 0xFFFFFFFF (3 to 4 gigabytes) known as the system arena.
On computers with large amounts of RAM, the maximum cache size can be large enough that Vcache consumes all of the addresses in the system arena, leaving no virtual memory addresses available for other functions such as opening an MS-DOS prompt (creating a new virtual machine).
WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, use one of the following methods:
Use the MaxFileCache setting in the System.ini file to reduce the maximum amount of memory that Vcache uses to 512 megabytes (524,288 KB) or less.
For additional information about how to use the MaxFileCache setting, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q108079 32-Bit File Access Maximum Cache Size
Use the System Configuration utility to limit the amount of memory that Windows uses to 512 megabytes (MB) or less.
For additional information about how to use the System Configuration utility, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q181966 System Configuration Utility Advanced Troubleshooting Settings
Reduce the amount of memory that is installed in your computer to 512 MB or less.
STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.
MORE INFORMATION
Vcache is limited internally to a maximum cache size of 800 MB.
This problem may occur more readily with Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) video adapters because the AGP aperture is also mapped to addresses in the system arena. For example, if Vcache is using a maximum cache size of 800 MB and an AGP video adapter has a 128-MB aperture mapped, there is very little address space remaining for the other system code and data that must occupy this range of virtual addresses.
reghakr
see if this might help:
Specifying Amount of RAM Available to Windows Using MaxPhysPage
------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
Microsoft Windows 95
Microsoft Windows 98
------------------------------------------------------------
If this article does not describe your hardware-related issue, please see the following Microsoft Web site to view more articles about hardware:
SUMMARY
This article contains a table of MaxPhysPage values you can use to limit the amount of random access memory (RAM) available to Windows.
MORE INFORMATION
To use the MaxPhysPage entry to specify the amount of RAM that is available to Windows, add the following line in the [386Enh] section of the System.ini file
MaxPhysPage=<nnn>
where <nnn> is a hexidecimal number that determines the number of memory pages available to Windows. A page is 4096 bytes of RAM for 486 and Pentium processors.
When the MaxPhysPage entry is used, the following formula is used to determine the amount of RAM available to Windows:
4096 X MaxPhysPage (decimal) = Amount of RAM available to Windows in bytes
Therefore, to limit Windows to 32 MB of memory, use the following formula to determine the MaxPhysPage entry:
(32 * 1048576) / 4096 = 8192 (decimal) or 02000 (hexadecimal)
NOTE: One megabyte is 1,048,576 bytes.
The following table list some common RAM amounts and the corresponding MaxPhysPage entry:
Amount of RAM
available to Windows (MB) (Bytes) MaxPhysPage entry
--------------------------------------------------------------
960 1,006,632,960 MaxPhysPage=3C000
896 939,524,096 MaxPhysPage=38000
832 872,415,323 MaxPhysPage=34000
768 805,306,368 MaxPhysPage=30000
704 738,197,504 MaxPhysPage=2C000
640 671,088,640 MaxPhysPage=28000
576 603,979,776 MaxPhysPage=24000
512 536,870,912 MaxPhysPage=20000
448 469,762,048 MaxPhysPage=1C000
384 402,653,184 MaxPhysPage=18000
320 335,544,320 MaxPhysPage=14000
256 268,435,456 MaxPhysPage=10000
224 234,881,024 MaxPhysPage=0E000
192 201,326,592 MaxPhysPage=0C000
160 167,772,160 MaxPhysPage=0A000
128 134,217,728 MaxPhysPage=08000
96 100,663,296 MaxPhysPage=06000
88 92,274,688 MaxPhysPage=05800
80 83,886,080 MaxPhysPage=05000
72 75,497,472 MaxPhysPage=04800
64 67,108,864 MaxPhysPage=04000
56 58,720,256 MaxPhysPage=03800
48 50,331,648 MaxPhysPage=03000
40 41,943,040 MaxPhysPage=02800
32 33,554,432 MaxPhysPage=02000
24 25,165,824 MaxPhysPage=01800
16 16,777,216 MaxPhysPage=01000
12 12,582,912 MaxPhysPage=00C00
08 8,388,608 MaxPhysPage=00800
For additional information about MaxPhysPage, please see the following Articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Article-ID: Q134503
TITLE : Parity Error Messages May Indicate Bad Memory
===========================================================
Here's another:
"Out of Memory" Error Messages with Large Amounts of RAM Installed
------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition
Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 95
------------------------------------------------------------
If this article does not describe your hardware-related issue, please see the following Microsoft Web site to view more articles about hardware:
SYMPTOMS
If a computer that is running any of the versions of Windows that are listed above contains more than 512 megabytes (for example, 768 megabytes) of physical memory (RAM), you may experience one or more of the following symptoms:
You may be unable to open an MS-DOS session (or command prompt) while Windows is running. Attempts to do so may generate the following error message:
There is not enough memory available to run this program.
Quit one or more programs, and then try again.
The computer may stop responding (hang) while Windows is starting, or halt and display the following error message:
Insufficient memory to initialize windows. Quit one or more memory-resident programs or remove unnecessary utilities from your Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files, and restart your computer.
CAUSE
The Windows 32-bit protected-mode cache driver (Vcache) determines the maximum cache size based on the amount of RAM that is present when Windows starts. Vcache then reserves enough memory addresses to permit it to access a cache of the maximum size so that it can increase the cache to that size if needed. These addresses are allocated in a range of virtual addresses from 0xC0000000 through 0xFFFFFFFF (3 to 4 gigabytes) known as the system arena.
On computers with large amounts of RAM, the maximum cache size can be large enough that Vcache consumes all of the addresses in the system arena, leaving no virtual memory addresses available for other functions such as opening an MS-DOS prompt (creating a new virtual machine).
WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, use one of the following methods:
Use the MaxFileCache setting in the System.ini file to reduce the maximum amount of memory that Vcache uses to 512 megabytes (524,288 KB) or less.
For additional information about how to use the MaxFileCache setting, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q108079 32-Bit File Access Maximum Cache Size
Use the System Configuration utility to limit the amount of memory that Windows uses to 512 megabytes (MB) or less.
For additional information about how to use the System Configuration utility, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q181966 System Configuration Utility Advanced Troubleshooting Settings
Reduce the amount of memory that is installed in your computer to 512 MB or less.
STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.
MORE INFORMATION
Vcache is limited internally to a maximum cache size of 800 MB.
This problem may occur more readily with Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) video adapters because the AGP aperture is also mapped to addresses in the system arena. For example, if Vcache is using a maximum cache size of 800 MB and an AGP video adapter has a 128-MB aperture mapped, there is very little address space remaining for the other system code and data that must occupy this range of virtual addresses.
reghakr
Simple solution as suggested above, reduce the ram to 256. I used to run 512 until it was suggested here that that may be responsible for the random blue screens and so-on. No problems since. A limitation of the O/S I'm afraid. My suggestions are what I would try myself. If incorrect, I welcome corrections to my knowledge. Andy.
plook
IS-IT--Management
- Apr 1, 2000
- 33
gotta Love Linux... if ever I could convince my wife to use Linux on this computer too..
But Thanks guys for the info, I can stop looking for a way to fix that problem then ;p
ok.. I have one more question...HotFusion wrote that he did not have any problems since he decreased his RAM from 512MB to 256... Well..even when I put only one stick of 256MB I am getting extreme slowliness. But not right away after I boot, until I use around 200MB of memory (Physical memory and Virtual Combined)... I can also see some cute messages "Out of memory"... even if I leave everything closed, I will get problems (it only takes a few days instead of few hours..). Yes, I can leave the computer on, ...and do nothing but booting it up... then..appear the message boxes "Out of memory".."System resources are low..." etc etc Can Win98 have a memory leak on its own ? I have installed all the patches.. ok, I'm not running WIN98SE, only WIN98..but still. When I first noticed these "out of memory" boxes, my first thought was to upgrade the RAM, so I did. But same probems happen and as fast...
Does anybody know if that is a problem related to that OS limitation ?
Secondly, the above post from Reghakr kind of rang a bell.... specially where it talks about AGP Aperture and stuff. This computer is using a PCI video Card. So, I don't need any Aperture, am I right ? If I put the Aperture in the BIOS to 0MB or disabled..( I don't remember what the choices are...), could that fix the problem ?
Thirdly..as a comment.. why did Microsoft come up with a limitation of 800 MB of addressable memory ?? don't 6th generation CPU (PII, PIII..) have a limit of 4GB ? What are they doing with the difference of addresses ?? Oh right... they problably HAD to put their so famous Easter Eggs ! Indeed.. it's so practical to have pinball game inside a Word Processing program ;p
Anyways, sorry if I offended somebody... I did not mean to. Everybody is free to like or prefer what they like or prefer. (did that make sense ? anyways..)
But Thanks guys for the info, I can stop looking for a way to fix that problem then ;p
ok.. I have one more question...HotFusion wrote that he did not have any problems since he decreased his RAM from 512MB to 256... Well..even when I put only one stick of 256MB I am getting extreme slowliness. But not right away after I boot, until I use around 200MB of memory (Physical memory and Virtual Combined)... I can also see some cute messages "Out of memory"... even if I leave everything closed, I will get problems (it only takes a few days instead of few hours..). Yes, I can leave the computer on, ...and do nothing but booting it up... then..appear the message boxes "Out of memory".."System resources are low..." etc etc Can Win98 have a memory leak on its own ? I have installed all the patches.. ok, I'm not running WIN98SE, only WIN98..but still. When I first noticed these "out of memory" boxes, my first thought was to upgrade the RAM, so I did. But same probems happen and as fast...
Does anybody know if that is a problem related to that OS limitation ?
Secondly, the above post from Reghakr kind of rang a bell.... specially where it talks about AGP Aperture and stuff. This computer is using a PCI video Card. So, I don't need any Aperture, am I right ? If I put the Aperture in the BIOS to 0MB or disabled..( I don't remember what the choices are...), could that fix the problem ?
Thirdly..as a comment.. why did Microsoft come up with a limitation of 800 MB of addressable memory ?? don't 6th generation CPU (PII, PIII..) have a limit of 4GB ? What are they doing with the difference of addresses ?? Oh right... they problably HAD to put their so famous Easter Eggs ! Indeed.. it's so practical to have pinball game inside a Word Processing program ;p
Anyways, sorry if I offended somebody... I did not mean to. Everybody is free to like or prefer what they like or prefer. (did that make sense ? anyways..)
You said that the slowness problem doesn't occur right away after starting up. That sounds like you have a resource problem. You may have too many programs loading at startup and using up resources. Look under the startup tab in msconfig and see how many are there. Uncheck what you don't need loading at startup then click ok and restart. If you need help with that click start--run--type msinfo32 and click ok. Then double click on Software Environment then double click on Startup Programs then click edit--select all--edit--copy--then come here and right click in your reply and click Paste. That'll let us see what's under your startup tab in msconfig. Then we can recommend what to leave checked or what to uncheck.
The out of memory errors can also occur if you have virtual memory enabled with a min and max setting. Change it back to let windows handle it and do the msconfig thing above and then see if the errors go away. A virus can also cause out of memory errors. Run a scan with updated definitions to be sure you don't have any.
The out of memory errors can also occur if you have virtual memory enabled with a min and max setting. Change it back to let windows handle it and do the msconfig thing above and then see if the errors go away. A virus can also cause out of memory errors. Run a scan with updated definitions to be sure you don't have any.
butchrecon
MIS
Actually Kento the out of memory errors occure when the Min and Max swap file size is too low. Forcing the the size to an amount thats right for your system should not cause that. If you force your swap file size and you get out of memory errors, increase the swap file size by 32 meg untill the errors go away. James Collins
Systems Support Engineer
A+, MCP
email: butchrecon@skyenet.net
Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.
Systems Support Engineer
A+, MCP
email: butchrecon@skyenet.net
Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.
plook
IS-IT--Management
- Apr 1, 2000
- 33
Thanks for the info guys..
right now. the virtual memory is set to let Windows take care of it.. but the file is always the same size (512MB)..I can try again to force windows to use my settings.. I don't think it did anything good when I tried that though..
And, Kento, if I would be loading too many programs at startup, wouldn't I start seeing problems right away? I mean, when the computer boots, it is using around 130MB.. I leave it running, and a few hours later it's much higher..it increases by 50-75MB per hour...
I scanned it for viruses..for McAfee (4148) did not find anything... Maybe I should just get a licence for Win2000 and upgrade to 2000 instead of looking for a solution. It seems like Win2K manages memory a lot better than Win9x OSes..
right now. the virtual memory is set to let Windows take care of it.. but the file is always the same size (512MB)..I can try again to force windows to use my settings.. I don't think it did anything good when I tried that though..
And, Kento, if I would be loading too many programs at startup, wouldn't I start seeing problems right away? I mean, when the computer boots, it is using around 130MB.. I leave it running, and a few hours later it's much higher..it increases by 50-75MB per hour...
I scanned it for viruses..for McAfee (4148) did not find anything... Maybe I should just get a licence for Win2000 and upgrade to 2000 instead of looking for a solution. It seems like Win2K manages memory a lot better than Win9x OSes..
butchrecon
MIS
You would not nessisarily see problems right away. Kento is correct in that too many programs loading at start up is a bad thing. There really is no need to have them load. If you need them just open them up. Keeping the path in memory is just a waist of memory if you do not use the program all the time. James Collins
Systems Support Engineer
A+, MCP
email: butchrecon@skyenet.net
Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.
Systems Support Engineer
A+, MCP
email: butchrecon@skyenet.net
Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.
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