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Windows protection error

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by tchrist4

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I have Microstar motherboard K7T MS6330 rinning Win98SE. I bought a PNY 512 dimm of PC133 memory. When I put it in I get Windows Protection Error you need to restart computer. I can take it out and put my old 256MB chip in and it boots fine. The motherboard says it supports 512MB and on the PNY site with MS6330 it lists the Dimm I bought as compatible. I called PNY and they said it is windows problem as it recognizes the chip in the POST..HELP I have spent about 3 hours on microsoft searching the knowledge base and found nothing to help me

12 replies

by wcp

Windows 98 and ME become very unstable when you install 512MB or more RAM. This is known issue by Microsoft (MS). Refer to MS Knowledge Base Q253912. I have seen Windows screen gone blank after the Windows logo and a simple application would crash. If you want to keep the 512 MB RAM put the following line after [vcache] in Syste.ini.
MaxFileCache=384MB (512MB if your total RAM is more than 512MB)
It has worked for me. If you still have the error message, replace the RAM.

by tchrist4

Sorry but yes I found this Q253912 and a couple more on that page. I tried what it said but it did not help at all. In fact after doing that I put my old 256 and 128 chips back in and when I booted up it said I had 156MB ram instead of 384 like it used to so I had to go change it back to make it recognize what I actually have without the 512 chip in.

by wcp

Since you get the error message AFTER you put in 512MB RAM, it's most likely the RAM is causing the problem.
You may try other options:
1). Stay under 512MB total RAM size.
2). Replace the 512MB RAM if you have not yet. You still need to put thatline or you may try
Start | Run and type "msconfig" without the quote. Click Advanced and check the box on "Limit memory to " like MS Knowledge Base says. I have not tried this so I cannot tell you what to expect.

by tchrist4

Thanks again but I did the msconfig thing also before I posted this question on here. I have tried it with jsut the 512 mb chip by itself and then with the other two chips but I cant get it to boot into windows. The bios recognizes it just fine so it cant be bad memory i dont think. It has something to do with Windows 98 I guess. ANymore ideas would be apprecaited THANKS

by thee loopster

Hello, It would not hurt to try a different chip of memory. I ran into a similar problem. The system would do a memory count without any problems it even installed an OS but then I would get the same error message you got, I replaced the RAM and it was fixed.

by tchrist4

Thanks but it is brand new piece of memory. And true i have always used kingston before so this is my first one of PNY and i guess it could be a bad one right out of the box but i sure hope not and i dont have another 512 mb stick to test with

by edsdave

Mother Board supports that much RAM but do the individual slots support that much RAM. Might check back on MoBO website and see if it is required to go into specific slot.

by tchrist4

Thanks yep the motherboard supports 3 512 mb chips for 1.5 GB total. The problem is in Windows 98 somewhere but not sure where

by kbud

I am not a pc-guru but did you check to see if the Bios is set to run pc133 memory just a thought
It is the memory causing the problem but then what is causing that could be a bad chip also

by tchrist4

ya i took memory back to compusa and got another stick of it and boom it worked like a champ. So i guess it was a bad stick of PNY memory. i usually buy Kingston and haven had any trouble with it. THANKS

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