Windows 98 keeps saying I have low memory

[Keoni]

I am using windows 98 se and most of the time it keeps telling me that i have low memory. My computer is a p4 1.5 with 512 rambus and 80 gig 7200 hard drive. It shows the message most of the time. Can anybody tell me how to fix this problem. Thank You

 

[Toejam31]

The best fix is an upgrade to the operating system. But if that's not within your budget, I suggest you take a look at some of these links:

<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=31205#31205" target="_new">Maximum Memory In Windows</A>

<A HREF="http://www.pcforrest.freeserve.co.uk/vcache.htm" target="_new">Memory And Vcache in Windows</A>

<A HREF="http://www.aumha.org/a/memmgmtz.htm" target="_new">Memory Management In Win98 and WinME</A>

<A HREF="http://www.3dspotlight.com/tweaks/memory/print.shtml" target="_new">System Memory Tweaking</A>

Please pay particular attention to the sections discussing the Vcache settings in the system.ini file.

You also might consider going to Start/Run, and type MSCONFIG. There you will find the programs that are starting up when Windows loads. Those that you don't need ... delete. But examine them carefully before you remove them ... reinstalling a file might be more difficult than removing it. And files like Explorer and Systray should not be removed ... these are necessary.

While this may not correct the low memory errors you have been experiencing ... it will certainly help your system resources, which are limited, as well as badly managed in an operating system with the Win9x kernel.

If none of the information you find in these links alleviates the problem, you might need to have the system checked ... you could have a bad memory module (although that's a little more unusual with RDRAM than SDRAM or DDR.)

Let me know if you need more information.

See ya ...

Toejam31

<font color=red>My Rig:</font color=red> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new"><font color=green>Toejam31's Tantalizing Tantric Toy</font color=green></A>
____________________________________________________________

<font color=purple>"Procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."</font color=purple>

 

[AMD_Man]

This guy is dead wrong. The problem you are having is that your are running out of system resources. System Resources are a fix amount of RAM that Win9x/ME use for backwards compatibility. Once you run out of it, there's nothing you can do and no tweaking can help. No matter how much physical RAM you have, you'll run out. The only solution to your problem is upgrading to Win2000 or WinXP.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

 

[Toejam31]

That's me ... nearly dead, and always wrong!

System Resources:

System Resources are areas of memory that are used by the input manager (USER.EXE) and the graphic display interface manager (GDI.EXE) for keeping track of all of the windows that are open in a session and for drawing objects on the screen.

These programs are limited to a to a single 64KB segment of DOS memory. If either of these segments becomes full, programs may fail to load and Windows may become unstable - regardless of how much other free memory there is.

Each application that is loaded, and each window and child-window that is open, consumes system resources. Typically, an application consumes 2-8% of system resources, and each child-window consumes 1-2%. Closing an application should release it's allocated system resources, but some software is not as well behaved as it should be and this release may not happen. If the free resources fall below about 10-15%, serious problems may be encountered and Windows should be restarted as soon as possible. This is a very common cause of memory error messages and program crashes.

The Windows API (Application Programming Interface) is contained in a few DLLs. The most important are Kernel - (functions for managing memory, processes and threads), User - (functions for user interface such as window creation and messages), and GDI - (functions for drawing graphical images and displaying text).

Windows has five separate "heaps" (areas of memory) for USER and GDI to store things.

USER has a 16-bit heap and two 32-bit heaps. One of these 32-bit heaps stores WND (window) structures. There is a WND for every window in the system. The structure holds important information about the window. The other 32-bit heap stores menus. The 16-bit heap stores things like window classes, message queues, etc.

The User component manages input from the keyboard, mouse, and other input devices. It also manages interaction with the sound driver, timer, and communications ports. Win98 uses an asynchronous input model for all input to the system and applications. As the various input devices generate interrupts, the interrupt handler converts these interrupts to messages and sends the messages to a raw input thread area, which in turn passes each message to the appropriate message queue. Although each Win32-based thread can have its own message queue, all Win16-based applications share a common one.

GDI has a 16-bit heap and a 32-bit heap. GDI uses its heaps to store fonts, brushes, fonts, palettes, bitmaps and pens (graphical stuff).

The GDI is the graphical system that manages what appears on the screen. It also provides graphics support for printers and other output devices. It draws graphic primitives, manipulates bitmaps, and interacts with device-independent graphics drivers, including those for display and printer output device drivers.

"Free Resources" are just the amount of memory left in the GDI and USER system heaps.

Win9x incorporates the Windows 64KB system-resource limit for better performance when it is providing backwards-compatibility.

Link: <A HREF="http://mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml" target="_new">Startup Control Panel</A>. An excellent program for all versions of Windows. Use this to configure which programs should run when your computer starts.

See ya ...

Toejam31

<font color=red>My Rig:</font color=red> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new"><font color=green>Toejam31's Tantalizing Tantric Toy</font color=green></A>
____________________________________________________________

<font color=purple>"Procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."</font color=purple>