[billyb]

I started in the dos days although am not as technical as a lot of you guys here. I installed the unofficial updates etc from here on an old 1999 pentium win98se machine last year and all is cool with that one. So now, I'm experimenting with installing win98se on faster P4s etc, some of which have 2-4gb of ram.

I bought and installed Loew's patch a few days ago for a clean test install of win98se on a 2gb p4 HP a475 that I have sitting around. The pc is 4 or 5 or so years old and runs fine with xp. It's based on some sort of Asus mobo with intel 848 chipset etc. It also has both ide and sata ports on the mobo

Loew has great documentation and the patch installed just fine after the first reboot. In fact, before I bought the patch and the large drive patch, I called him with some questions and he was very helpful. Haven't tried the large drive patch yet and am testing all this on an 80gb ide drive

Anyway, I installed win98se and the Loew memory patch and then installed various video card drivers, intel chipset drivers etc and the unofficial update (2.1 is the one I have from about a year ago I believe). I also have another hofixes update something-or-other that I haven't installed yet from last year.

On this 2gb P4, I have some intel smbus and other errors I'm still tracking down, but other than that, the pc seems to be flying just fine.

One thing I haven't yet figured out is that the system icon on control panel shows I'm running 1024mb of ram although there is 2gb inside. The bios reports all the ram. Icon also shows I have Winse98 4.10.2222 A

Any ideas on settings or things to search out on getting windows to see all of the 2gb?

This post has been edited by billyb: 04 March 2009 - 12:14 PM

[submix8c]

Go here for a complete discussion and tips on limitations (Mr. Loew also comments) -
http://www.msfn.org/...opic=118097&hl=

[billyb]

Thanks for the links. I think I get the concept now. Win98 just isn't going to really need or address more than 1gb, but at least the patch lets me get it installed onto a 2gb P4 machine that otherwise wouldn't let me install at all.

This post has been edited by billyb: 04 March 2009 - 02:53 PM

[dencorso]

Since you're using the RAM Limitation Patch, Win 9x/ME ought to see up to about 3.3 GiB and be able to use it.
Look closely at the configurations of RLoew's and of Dave_h's machines. I suspect you have a MaxPhysPage directive in system.ini. If so, comment it out and reboot. If not, post again and we can investigate further what's happening. In my own machine I do use a MaxPhysPage equal to the amount of memory that would be available anyway, after the Ramdisk has hidden away half the available RAM, for other reasons (because it seems some process along the GDI stack seems to require the statement). In principle it oughtn't to be needed...

[billyb]

I've been reading the links and have done a fresh install of win 98se a few times along with the loew patch and the system initially sees the entire 2gb of ram I have inside.

I then install this and the system only sees 1gb from then on - http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html

Any idea what it is in those fixes that un-does the Loew patch? Or at least what is knocking down the amount seen to 1gb. I've been reading the various posts and haven't nailed this down yet.

The first workaround I tried was to reinstall the loew patch after the Exhberant update and I got a message "VMM file updated by other program". So I followed Rudolph's steps for replacing files in the windows system dir and then re-running the patchmem program. The patch showed successfully installing all files extracted and installed but at reboot, the system still only sees 1gb. Runs great. But only sees 1gb.

Think I'll re-read the patch information and try a couple more fresh installs

This post has been edited by billyb: 14 March 2009 - 11:57 AM

[dencorso]

@billyb: There's no need to reinstal again.
Here's how to solve your problem:
I) Boot into true DOS
1) go to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VMM32 and issue the following commands:
ren vcache.bak *.rrk
ren vcache.vxd *.rrd
ren vmm.bak *.rrk
Note: leave vmm.vxd untouched.
2) go back to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM and issue the following commands:
ren vmm32.bak *.rrk
ren vmm32.vxd *.rrd
copy vmm32.rrk vmm32.vxd
3) run once more RLoew's patch program. This time it ought to report success.
II) Reboot into Win 98SE
Are your system seeing all the 2 GiB again? If it is, you may stop here.
If not, then open C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI with notepad and search for MaxPhysPage, and write a
semicolon before each line containing that directive. Save.
III) Reboot into Win 98SE
All ought to be OK now. If so, you can delete all .rrl and .rrk files generate during this procedure.
Note: If not, don't delete anything and post here again, telling what happened.
In any case, keep me posted. Good luck!

This post has been edited by dencorso: 14 March 2009 - 06:49 PM

[billyb]

Thx for all the tips on this.

From your step 2 in the windows\system dir, I renamed vmm32.vxd to vmm32.rrd but loew patch attempt then shows "vmm32.vxd missing" and then halts. If I reboot instead, I have "Vmm32.vxd is required to run windows" and boot stops. If I rename the file back to vmm32.vxd, system boots fine.

Just out of curiosity, the Rloew instructions have me typing "wininit" each time before I start the patch from the command prompt. What does wininit do?

This post has been edited by billyb: 14 March 2009 - 04:48 PM

[dencorso]

Sorry, billyb! My bad! I forgot a necessary step. Now I've corrected my previous post and the missing step is the line in blue.

WININIT.EXE is Windows Setup Initialization Utility. It does several things during setup, especially executing the instructions in (when it exists). Those instructions may create, substitute, rename or delete files and/or directories. A WININIT.INI is created when updates, like Gape's 98SESP are run. By typing WININIT before patching you ensure the now newly patched files won't be substituted by unpatched ones from a previously created WININIT.INI that was lurking there.

If everything goes well your system will end up having in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VMM32 a VMM.VxD v. 4.10.2225 patched by the RAM limitation patch. You can confirm it is pached by verifying that the system is now seeing all your 2 GiB RAM, and check its version by finding the file in Windows Explorer, highlighting it, right-clicking on it and selecting the Properties tab, and then the version tab. There should be also an unpatched version of it there, named VMM.BAK, which version should also be 4.10.2225, if you check it by the same procedure.

Keep me posted on your results.

[rloew]

billyb, on Mar 14 2009, 06:42 PM, said:

Thx for all the tips on this.

From your step 2 in the windows\system dir, I renamed vmm32.vxd to vmm32.rrd but loew patch attempt then shows "vmm32.vxd missing" and then halts. If I reboot instead, I have "Vmm32.vxd is required to run windows" and boot stops. If I rename the file back to vmm32.vxd, system boots fine.

Just out of curiosity, the Rloew instructions have me typing "wininit" each time before I start the patch from the command prompt. What does wininit do?

During Windows Installation, the WININIT command is used to merge and compress the core set of VXD files into VMM32.VXD. This is done immediately after the first Reboot.

The RAM Limitation Patch is designed to work with the already merged VMM32.VXD file.
It will work with the unmerged VXD files but it will be unable to uninstall or update them after Windows has merged them.

If you are planning to install 98SESP later, you will need to run WININIT before you install the RAM Limitation Patch.

I would recommend the following procedure when installing 98SESP.

1. Complete initial Windows Installation with my Patch Installed if not already done.
2. Boot Windows.
3. Uninstall the RAM Limitation Patch.
4. Install 98SESP but do not reboot, if asked.
5. Reinstall the RAM Limitation Patch.
6. Reboot Computer.

If you are forced to reboot between steps 3 and 5 do the following:

1. Boot from a DOS floppy.
2. Reinstall the RAM Limitation Patch.
3. Boot Windows.
4. Uninstall the RAM Limitation Patch if the 98SESP Installation has not been completed.
5. Continue from where you left off making sure you Reinstall the RAM Limitation Patch before shutting down.

The Exuberant website says that the 98SESP Patch fixes the 512MB Limitation. This means that it probably sets MAXPHYSPAGE to limit total RAM as well as the MAXFILECACHE setting. After you install their Patch, you should remove both lines from your SYSTEM.INI file. This should give you full access to your 2GB of RAM.

EDIT:

Confirmed!

98SESP Patch SPUPDATE.INF sets MAXPHYSPAGE and MAXFILECACHE

This post has been edited by rloew: 15 March 2009 - 10:57 PM

[billyb]

Well, that was fun. I've spent the past week trying every which way to get this system to see more than 1gb. All the suggestions work except when I implement one, I'd get the system seeing 2gb but my ATI card drivers went screwy, knocking me back to showing 640/standard vga and I lost half the intel drivers with Control Panel showed only 7 or 8 items in there total. Weird. On reboot, I could reinstall all the 848 intel stuff and ati drivers, Control Panel items looked great with eventually only 1 error msg on ACPI something or other resource error...but then I'd be back at the system only seeing 1gb. I went through a few complete reinstalls quite a few times, trying to nail this down. I also had a sidetrip in trying to get some usb devices to work which took some time too.

Long about 3 days ago, I decided that even if I can only see 1gb in this machine, that's okay. I couldn't install win98 at all before the loew patch so I'm ahead at this point. I left it at that and continued on, added the autopatchers from 2007, 2008, some of those Revolutions effects and and a bunch of apps I have and .... cool .... Win98 now looks and works pretty snazzy compared to the old days when I last used it.

I then turned to a P4 I have here that has 2.5gb in it. That one is based on 915gv chipset and gma900 integrated graphics. The loew patch works during initial install and the system sees all 2.5gb. Couldn't get any of the drivers to work as they're all xp. Looked all over at Intel and nothing. Dove into the posts around here a little deeper and realized I'm probably not going to get anywhere further with this particular machine.

I might dig back into this experimenting later on with a few other P4s I have around, but at least for now, I at least have one working pretty well. Thanks Dencorso and you too Loew

[rloew]

billyb, on Mar 22 2009, 01:42 AM, said:

Well, that was fun. I've spent the past week trying every which way to get this system to see more than 1gb. All the suggestions work except when I implement one, I'd get the system seeing 2gb but my ATI card drivers went screwy, knocking me back to showing 640/standard vga and I lost half the intel drivers with Control Panel showed only 7 or 8 items in there total. Weird. On reboot, I could reinstall all the 848 intel stuff and ati drivers, Control Panel items looked great with eventually only 1 error msg on ACPI something or other resource error...but then I'd be back at the system only seeing 1gb. I went through a few complete reinstalls quite a few times, trying to nail this down. I also had a sidetrip in trying to get some usb devices to work which took some time too.

Long about 3 days ago, I decided that even if I can only see 1gb in this machine, that's okay. I couldn't install win98 at all before the loew patch so I'm ahead at this point. I left it at that and continued on, added the autopatchers from 2007, 2008, some of those Revolutions effects and and a bunch of apps I have and .... cool .... Win98 now looks and works pretty snazzy compared to the old days when I last used it.

I then turned to a P4 I have here that has 2.5gb in it. That one is based on 915gv chipset and gma900 integrated graphics. The loew patch works during initial install and the system sees all 2.5gb. Couldn't get any of the drivers to work as they're all xp. Looked all over at Intel and nothing. Dove into the posts around here a little deeper and realized I'm probably not going to get anywhere further with this particular machine.

I might dig back into this experimenting later on with a few other P4s I have around, but at least for now, I at least have one working pretty well. Thanks Dencorso and you too Loew

On your first system, you can try unistalling and reinstalling my Version 6.0 Patch using the "/M" option. This rearranges low RAM and helps solve some issues.

As for your 2.5gb system, the lack of drivers is a problem we share. I have two systems that have little support for Windows 9X.
I have developed a solution for unsupported SATA controllers but not for anything else.
Sometimes you can find related drivers but there are no guarantees.
The alternative is to add cards for functions that you need but are not supported such as Ethernet, Audio, Video etc.