Problem getting Win98 to run correctly on sys with mucho memory.

Zealot

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Hi. I am new on the forums, but I have been reading the news on the front page forever. Anyway, I really need some help getting this thing running.

The Specs:
P4 3.2GHz
2GB DDR SDRAM
Abit IC7-Max3 Board with SATA disabled (using only IDE in the Win98 setup)
Nvidia Quadro FX 3000 256MB
1 14GB and 1 60GB (partitioned into 2 equal sections) HDDs
1 FDD
1 DVD+/-RW
Win98
The Problem:
I am trying to setup Win98 on my system to play some of my older games but it is giving me fits. I am aware of the memory problems, and I have tried to implement MS's recommended fixes:

System.ini file-
Code:
[386Enh]
MaxPhysPage=30000

[vcache]
MaxFileCache=524288

To get Win98 to run at all required them. However, I keep getting out of memory errors when I run programs under windows. Since I am still updating the system I have mostly noticed this with installer and updater applications, but Alcohol 120% won't allow me to create a virtual drive because it fails to load its device driver with this error:

Set device maps failed!

Error ID: 2
Message: Dll or driver was unable to allocate memory for its internal needs.

I am not sure how windows deals with the RAM on the video card, so I tried to set the MaxPhysPage and MaxFileCache values to 20000 and 262144 respectively. I was hoping to cut the memory values for the system by 256MB and only allow it to see 256MB on the system plus the 256MB of video card RAM. This didn't seem to change any of the problems though.

As an aside, because I am not sure if it is relevant, the OS is seeing my processor as:

x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 9

according to the general tab under system properties. I am guessing that this is because the OS was never programmed to recognize a P4 processor, but I am not sure.

Any help you give would be appreciated, I am really jonesing for some retro gaming.

Thanks,
Z
 
Why don't you use a DOS emulator program instead? Or Virtual PC with Win 3.1x/95 installed on it, rather then using Win 98 as a primary install on such a nice system, which is a terrible idea.
 
i agree with Gracie Lyons with a system like that dont put 98 on it find a alternative to play the games. i dont know how well copmpatibility mose in Xp works but you could give it a try.
 
sraycoz said:
i agree with Gracie Lyons with a system like that dont put 98 on it find a alternative to play the games. i dont know how well copmpatibility mose in Xp works but you could give it a try.
I had a huge problem installing a Win98/XP dual boot on this system, so I did the next best thing. I have the SATA off for Win98, but when I enable it, the system doesn't see the two IDE drives, instead I have 2 200GB WD SATA drives with XP loaded. I had 98 loaded before, but when I installed Starfleet Academy and Klingon Academy it broke something. I just left the Win98 side alone for a long time after that. Recently I got Imperium Galactica 2 off of Ebay for cheap though, and I can't get that to run on XP for love or money. Even the 1.08 patch isn't helping. So I am now back trying to get 98 to work. I have a couple of lower end systems for my wife and child, but all the goodies are in my system, so I had really hoped to use it.

Thanks,
Z
 
kinda blows my mind that you have such a sweet rig like that and you're using win 98. have you tried running your games in win xp pro and using compatibility mode for 98 or 95?

why not try some new titles?
 
If you have more then 1GB of ram with Windows 98 you will have problems and it will really only make use of 512 MB.
 
koko said:
kinda blows my mind that you have such a sweet rig like that and you're using win 98. have you tried running your games in win xp pro and using compatibility mode for 98 or 95?

why not try some new titles?
I just have an urge to go retro right now I guess. Usually I run XP and its mostly fine for what I play. The first time I tried to install 98 was a few months ago when I had first built the system. I had just gotten my hands on a copy of Klingon Academy that I had somehow missed when it first came out. When I tried to load it on XP it just gives me a Wrong OS message box and exits the installer. Just recently I got a copy of Imperium Galactica 2, and none of the XP fixes seem to work for me, so I thought I would try to load 98 again and play it on that. There aren't a lot of good 4x games, and IG2 just looks sweet.

Other than those I do play alot of the newer games (mostly flight sims), and XP works great for those.

Z
 
American Zombie said:
If you have more then 1GB of ram with Windows 98 you will have problems and it will really only make use of 512 MB.
I don't really need any more than 512MB (probably not even that) for any of the games I want to play on the Win98 partition. Could you elaborate on the Win98 and 1GB RAM problem though? I am aware that it can't use more than 512, but I thought that setting the MaxFileCache and MaxPhysPage numbers were supposed to cure the ills of systems with more memory than that. Is that not true?

Thanks,
Z
 

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