ram upgrade help

[chornung]

I'm trying to upgrade the ram on my system and I've run into some trouble I hope somebody can help clear up. My system is an AMD 900 on an Asus A7V133 mobo running win98se (the vid card is a GF4 4200Ti w/128mb of ram). I upgraded from 256mb to 512 mb last week (took out old 256mb low density chip and added 512mb high density chip) and everything went fine so I decided to order another 512 (i know it's really too much, but it's cheap) from the same place. I got it a few days ago and both chips work ok separately, but together I get nothing but trouble. I've tried setting the VCache MaxFileSize as suggested(262,144) but no luck. The computer posts ok and detects all 1024mb during the memory check, then I either get a reboot when windows should be loading or I get the desktop but programs don't run properly. I tried limiting the max memory used by windows to 768mb and then 512mb in msconfig with slightly improved but still unacceptable results. I've tested the ram in different slots on the mobo so I know the mobo slots are ok. What I'd like to ask is what I should try next. The only things I can think of are a BIOS update (I'm still running 1.004a) but I called ASUS tech support and they didn't think there were any memory issues addressed in the later updates. I could also try upgrading to winXP, but I really don't want to throw good money after bad... Is there anything I might be missing?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[LumberJack]

Hmm.. it sounds like Win98 doesn't like your big heap of ram. If you say the mobo isn't the one, and the ram is all good, then yeah. Go check windows web page.. I think there should be a patch or something related to large memory and large harddrives that was release... See what you can find ... I somehow recall this being a problem...

To err is human... to really screw things up you need a computer!

 

[knowan]

Win 98 doesn't like using over 512 megs of ram. It's memory manager freaks out. That sounds like the issue here. I don't think it's a hardware issue at all, I think it's a software (windows) error.

Unfortunately the only "solution" offered by Microsoft is what you have already done. <A HREF="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;253912" target="_new">http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;253912</A>. Looks like you'll either have to remove the second stick or else upgrade to win 2k or higher.

When in doubt, blame Bill Gates.

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Knowan likes you. Knowan is your friend. Knowan thinks you're great.

 

[zed201]

Yea win 98/98se/ME all have memory limits go to MS help files you have to regedit .. i did it on a ME rig but I did not see any increse in speed due to those OS"s will only use 512 max memory no matter how much yo put in it.. to see any increse you need to go to XP Home max mem 1.5 GB, XP PRO 2.5 G.B