[NTLUG:Discuss] The New User Experience; a Novell'a

[Robert Pearson]

Courtney Grimland wrote:
> Robert Pearson wrote:
> >Win98 needs about 512 MB of memory to run decently and 1 GB to run
> >well. It will run in less than 512 MB but when it gets very busy it
> >will "miss" things.
> >
> I was always under the impression that Win98 and WinME would not work
> with more than 512MB.  Am I wrong?  I know I removed some RAM from a
> friend's WinME box years ago to get it down to 512MB and all of his
> problems went away.

I don't wish to obscure the original issue nor pass myself off as a
Windows expert. I was a serious user Windows because work required it.
I was a Unix guy.
My initial memory was 512 MB with Win98SE, WinME and Win2K. I made the
move very rapidly from Win98SE (which I ran for several years) to
WinME (ran less than a month. It was really buggy) to Win2K. I
upgraded to 1 GB memory with Win2K. My work colleagues, some of whom
were very Windows knowledgeable, recommended 1 GB all along and ran it
themselves successfully as the text below indicates can be done. I
never ran in this configuration.
===============================================================
Win 98 does in fact have RAM limit of 2 GB, but there is a bug in the
memory management. There may be problems when you install more than
512 MB:

"Does Windows '98 SE have a RAM limit?
"PROBLEM: I recently read that Windows 98 Second Edition can recognize
only 128MB of RAM, and that purchasing more memory is not productive.
Is this true?
SOLUTION: No. It's an urban legend. From time to time you'll see
postings claiming that Windows 98, SE, ME, NT, 2000 (take your pick)
can recognize only 64MB, 128MB, 256MB, or who-knows-how-many megabytes
of memory. In fact, all modern versions of Windows can handle 2GB of
memory; far more than most of us are likely to encounter in the
foreseeable future.
There's one minor gotcha, though: A bug in Windows 95, 98, SE, and ME
crops up if you have more than 512MB of memory installed. The part of
Windows that moves files in and out of the main computer sets aside
enough memory so it can work with big files, and if the amount of
available memory is large, the memory chunk that's set aside is large,
too. Unfortunately, if the amount of available memory is huge—more
than 512MB-the file—handling routines can grab so much memory that
nothing is left for more mundane functions. Paradoxically, if Windows
hits this bug, it may report the problem to you by saying "There is
not enough memory available to run this program. Quit one or more
programs, and then try again." Or it may hang completely.
To warn Windows that you have more than 512MB of memory installed, add
the following line to the [VCache] section of your win.ini file:
MaxFileCache = 524288."
===============================================================

Thanks,

Robert