[aurgathor]

I'm currently backing up one of my PC (2 x 450 MHz PIII w/1 Gig) RAM and once I finish (only 300 more gigs to go... ) I'll be installing 98SE one one HD, then W2K on another one.

Question: how much memory can 98SE actually use? I know that it requires no trickery to get it working with 1 Gig (unlike my other PC w/2 Gig) but will it actually use the last 512 meg of memory? Would it be better if I were to create a 256 - 512 meg ramdrive, and use it as a dedicated swap space?

TIA

[LLXX]

It seems to depend on the motherboard. I've used 2Gb for three months with no problem, while I've seen others complain that only 1Gb won't work on their system even with the MaxFileCache limiter setting enabled.

[noguru]

In some cases Win98 runs with >512 MB ram but refuses to install with it. So you might need to remove some memory from the system and then place it back after install.

[ed209uardo]

... Unfortunately, I don't know the answer to your question, but I'll try to help anyway, given the responses you've received thus far...

aurgathor, on May 13 2006, 08:49 PM, said:

I'm currently backing up one of my PC (2 x 450 MHz PIII w/1 Gig) RAM and once I finish (only 300 more gigs to go... ) I'll be installing 98SE one one HD, then W2K on another one.

Question: how much memory can 98SE actually use? I know that it requires no trickery to get it working with 1 Gig (unlike my other PC w/2 Gig) but will it actually use the last 512 meg of memory? Would it be better if I were to create a 256 - 512 meg ramdrive, and use it as a dedicated swap space?

TIA

... He's not asking if 98 will work with more than 512MB of memory, he's asking if 98 can USE more than 512MB of memory. If 98 can't use it, he was thinking of just using the extra memory as a ram drive for the swap file... (personally, I'd check out this forum and see about putting 98 on that ram drive instead)

[noguru]

Sorry you are so right, I must learn to read

[aurgathor]

Hehehe, I read the replies, but I decided not to comment on them. At least the intent was there.

Couldn't find a definitive answer, but it appears to me that memory over 512 meg can only be used for vcache, so I might be better off turning some of that into a swap space via a ramdrive.

[dnamechanic]

aurgathor, on May 13 2006, 06:49 PM, said:

Question: how much memory can 98SE actually use? I know that it requires no trickery to get it working with 1 Gig (unlike my other PC w/2 Gig) but will it actually use the last 512 meg of memory?

A reference that I have found reliable is Aumha.org

He recommends that if you have more than 512 MB: to set a max on VCache of 512 MB

This is done in the System.ini

With a MaxFileCache=xxxxxx

xxxxxx is the number of bytes for MaxFileCache,

I have used the binary equivalent of 768MB OK.

Otherwise, VCache can get large enough to use up addresses in the system area.

-------------------------------------------------------------

If you have more than 1 GB of RAM

Add a statement in System.ini under [386enh]:

MAxPhysPage=40000 in System.ini

This does limit access to more than 1GB RAM.

It stops the boot problem with large amounts of RAM.

I have tried these fixes and they work fine. Before applying the fixes, I saw the "boot" problem on one system.

So, back to your question.
The safe maximum appears to be 1GB RAM with limits on VCache size, although some may have used more.

There is some more discussion on this topic at Techspot.

-dnamechanic

[aurgathor]

Thanks, this is the best reply thus far, but still didn't answer my intended question. It may have been poorly worded, so I guess I need to re-phrase it.

Based on the below techspot quote:

Quote

Windows 98 memory manager architecture divides memory into 2 parts:
- Protected-mode disk cache (VCACHE)
- Memory allocated to run programs and hold data (VMM)

my main question is:
What is the maximum amount of VMM Vindows 98 or 98SE can actually use? (assuming 1G or 2G physical memory)

I know I can restrict VCACHE (well publicized) but is there any way to set the size of VMM? It may not be possible, but if there is a way, I'd like to force it to be as large as possible. I suspect the limit on it is 512 meg, but I have no proof.

[LLXX]

aurgathor, on May 21 2006, 09:04 PM, said:

What is the maximum amount of VMM Vindows 98 or 98SE can actually use? (assuming 1G or 2G physical memory)

At least 2Gb. I've tested this before, by running a compression test program that gradually allocated increasing amounts of memory. As soon as allocated memory reached approximately 2Gb (a little less, since the kernel and shell and other loaded programs take a bit) heavy disk activity was noticed - it was beginning to use the swapfile. I had 2Gb of physical RAM installed at the time.

The upper limit is ~4Gb of virtual memory and 3Gb of physical memory (maximum supported for PC architecture).