WIN98 Memory Limit

[Pounder]

I have a P3 800Mhz running Windows 98.

Question 1: Is there a limit to the amount of memory that WIN98 can address, I was told that 512MB was a limit, could someone verify that for me.

Question 2: My motherboard specs say 2 x 256MB of RAM, does the motherboard actually have a limit of 512MB or is that the limit at the time the motherboard was built (because maybe the largest memory was 256MB), will the motherboard address a pair of 512's or a pair of 1gig's.

 

[Speedo]

IIRC 98 could support up to 2GB, but it seems like there was some bug in it that anything over 512MB didn't make much of a difference.

When you say "motherboard specs" where do you mean exactly? The manual should five you some limit like 512MB, 1GB, etc... though they may be saying that you can support up to 512MB, but it has to be two seperate 256MB sticks. Dunno why they'd put it like that though.

It probably also uses SDRAM, and I doubt you'll be able to find anything larger than 512MB sticks. May be wrong though.

 

[CruddyLeper]

Motherboard limit is dependent on the exact make and model of motherboard. To get Win98 to be happy if you have more than 512Mb of RAM plugged in;-


1) Click the Advanced button on MSConfig (select "run" from the startup, type in msconfig, hit enter, then click advanced).

2) Make sure the button limiting RAM is ticked, and set the limit to 512Mb. Click OK.

Of course, you have to have 512MB or less when you do this - but put in more than 512MB after you've done it and Win98 won't care.

Handy for when you have more than one operating system on a machine.