Cool Programs - After Death - Windows 98 - More Pages
How To Use More Than 512 MB Of RAM With Windows 9x
How To Use More Than 1 GB Of RAM With Windows 9x
How To Run A Dial-Up Networking (DUN) Connection From Within A Batch File
How To Open An Empty Internet Explorer Window
How To Create A Cascading Control Panel Menu
Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE and Windows ME will access more than 512 MB of RAM but it needs a tweak to do so.
The problem is that if more than 512 MB is installed, the VCACHE -- which is a portion of RAM set aside to hold code from previously loaded applications that have been subsequently closed in order to speed up reloading them -- increases to about 80% of the total RAM installed, leaving too little RAM to operate from. This results in an error message, and frequently, a crash.
The solution is to limit the VCACHE.
To do this, you must:
1. Open a file called SYSTEM.INI located in the C:\WINDOWS directory.
2. Go through the SYSTEM.INI file until you find a section headed with [vcache] (including the square brackets). There will probably be no entries directly under it.
3. You will need to add two entries under it, one being MinFileCache=x, the other being MaxFileCache=y.
The values for x and y will determine how much RAM is used for the VCACHE. The values for x and y must be entered in kilobytes (KB). Remember that 1 megabyte (MB) is equal to 1024 kilobytes, not 1000 kilobytes.
| [vcache] MinFileCache=2048 MaxFileCache=65536 |
My system has 1 GB (1024 MB) of RAM, and I don't multitask very heavily, so I use a minimum of 2048 KB (2 MB), and a maximum of 65536 KB (64 MB).
If you want to, you can make x and y higher or lower, depending on your needs. You can experiment to find your optimal values.
Bill Funk
For more information, visit the following web sites:
Microsoft Support: "Out of Memory" Error Messages
with Large Amounts of RAM Installed
http://thpc.info/ram/vcache98.html
http://thpc.info/ram/z_vcache98.html
The information on this web site came from http://www.pippinf.com/vcache.htm, which no longer exists.
Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE and Windows ME will access more than 1 GB of RAM but it will need 2 tweaks to do so.
To apply these tweaks, you will need to open the SYSTEM.INI file located in the directory where Windows is installed (usually C:\WINDOWS).
First, you will need to find the [vcache] section and add the VCACHE tweak described in the "How To Use More Than 512 MB Of RAM With Windows 9x" section above.
Second, you will need to find the [386Enh] section and add the MaxPhysPage=3BFFF entry to it. Do not alter the other entries in the [386Enh] section.
You can copy this section to your own computer:
| [vcache] MinFileCache=8192 MaxFileCache=32768 [386Enh] MaxPhysPage=3BFFF |
Adding the MaxPhysPage=3BFFF entry to the [386Enh] section will limit the amount of memory Windows uses to 960 MB. This will prevent the "Out of Memory" error that occurs when Windows 95/98/ME is booting on a machine with more than 1 GB of RAM installed.
I have tried this tweak on my own computer, and it really works. In fact, I am using this computer right now to assemble this web page. My computer is a 1 GHz dual-processor Pentium III with 1.5 GB of RAM installed and it is running Windows 98 SE.
start RUNDLL RNAUI.DLL,RnaDial Name of DUN Connection
Create a shortcut with the following command line:
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" -nohome
Create a folder with the following name:
Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}