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upper memory problem?

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by softtouchjimmy

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I have recently built a new system (my first); Intel Motherboard 865 PERL with 3gHz. P4 processor I am using DDR RAM2x512MB with a speed of 400MHz,the front side bus speed of the board is 800MHz, I loaded Windows `95 via `A` drive and it duly formatted both hard drives then loaded itself onto drive `C` (I assume).
During bootup it gives on screen message; insufficient memory to initiate windows. I checked the memory from dos and it seems to be recognised.

Here are my results:-

MEM TYPE TOTAL USED FREE
CONVENTIONAL 640k 45k 595k
UPPER 0 0 0
RESERVED 128k 128k 0
EXTENDED (XMS)1046780k 45k 1046710k
TOTAL UNDER 1MB 640k 45k 595k
LARGEST EXECUTABLE PROGRAMME SIZE 595k
LARGEST FREE UPPER MEMORY BLOCK 0k
MS-DOS IS RESIDENT IN THE HIGH MEM AREA

Now I`m not well up on such stuff, but it seems to me that there should be at least some upper mem available. I also fitted a powerfull graphics card, could it be reserving too much of the upper memory area?
The RAM I`m using seems identical to what is req`d by motherboard spec. except it is 2.6 volts instead of 2.5 volts as stipulated by Intel.
I have double checked the RAM is in correct slots.
Any help anyone can provide would be much appreciated, as I am fairly new to all this stuff and I am eager to learn as much as I can. Many thanks, Jimmy.

9 replies

by sys86fix

look id say that the graphics crd has to much vidio memory try using a less mor powerfull one
say 64 mb should go great thats what ive got it hammers and also is the main board sharing the memory of the graphics crd

by ann777

Please provide a copy of your config.sys and autoexec.bat files... on a fresh install, these determine how RAM is used and there is probably a misconfigured entry in one of those two files.

by gkheart1

Hi,

You stated 2X512 MB DDR. If you run over 512 MB of system memory with windows versions other then 2000 pro or XP. You will be extremely lucky If your machine will even boot up. It will give you low memory errors. Windows 95 98 ME Wasn't designed to use that much memory, And doesen't know what to do with it so It gives you low memory errors and will not boot.There are some articles on it in the MS knowledge base. The early versions of windows seems to run best for me at 384 MB. I have run some machines at 512MB. But it seems to be very mainboard specific on witch machines run ok with 512 MB of system memory installed. I suggest pulling a stick out and see how it does or install XP It's the best choice in operating system in my opinion.
Regards, Gil

by softtouchjimmy

Yes I think you are right.. I got rid of `95 fdisked and loaded 98 with I mem stick in situ and upgraded to WP from there. Nany thanks for the benefit of your experience. Jimmy

by thechas

gkheart has it right.

There is a bug in the core Windows 9X code that can cause problems with more than 511MB of RAM installed. The bug is VERY configuration dependant, and affects W95, W98, and Me.

Microsoft supports 2 solutions to the bug.
1. remove RAM until you have LESS than 512MB of RAM installed.

2. Add a maxmem command statement to msdos.sys to limit memory used to less than 512MB.

Further, I have read of numerous people having problems with older versions of Windows and new motherboards and CPUs.

While MS no longer provides any support for W95, there is a posted issue with W98 and CPUs faster than 2GHz.

So, you have 2 options:
Reduce the amount of RAM to less than 512MB.
Install a CPU with a clock speed LESS than 2GHz

Switch to Windows 2000 or XP.
Or, Linux.

Chas

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