Windows Ram limitations

[delmer_1]

Hello,
Before i get started with my problem, here is my system configuration:

Abit KT7 motherboard
AMD Thunderbird 800Mhz CPU
1.5GB PC133 SDRAM (3 x 512MB)
2-30GB Maxtor 7200 rpm hard drives
Voodoo 5 64MB AGP video card

Until recently I was running Windows 2000 Pro. I purchased a few games the other day and they will not run on Windows 2000. So like a jackass, i partitioned and formatted my drives (Fat32) and tried to install win98. I got it installed but during the first boot up it said that there wasn't enough memory to load windows. I knew that wasn't true, but i also know that win 98 only supports 512MB of RAM. So i said "ok" and installed Windows ME (please don't yell at me). It installed just fine, but certain programs i tried to run gave me that not enough memory error. This made me sad. So I shut down and removed 1GB of RAM so that I only had 512MB. It runs fine now.(well, as good as ME can run i guess.) Anyway, I was playing unreal tournament yesterday and it was running a bit choppy, i know i could just drop the screen resolution down to 1024x768 and that would fix it, but i don't want to do that. I would like to set up a dual boot with ME and 2000. Here is my problem. Is there a way to limit how much RAM windows ME would see? Windows 2000 doesn't have any problem with my 1.5GB of ram, so i would use it as a primary OS, and boot to ME when I wan't to run those certain games. Ideally i would like to have windows 2000 with 1.5 BG of RAM and ME that only sees 512MB. I noticed today the option in MSCONFIG to limit memory to xMB. But i didn't know if that would work. I am at work now, so I can't try it until I get home. Does anyone know if this will work? Thanks alot, sorry for rambling on and on...

delmer

[82camaro]

MSCONFIG should work.

[Web Master]

Uhhh... Try less memory, maybe 1 stick of 512MB or if you have a 128MB laying around try it. A lot quicker than getting guesses here. Just my 2 centimeters.

[Quiet Thunder]

Using Msconfig, you can limit your ram to 512 and that should take care of your problem, because I believe that this will not carry over to Win 2000. I believe the limitation will only occur when Win98 loads. I would also go with 98 as opposed to Me for obvious reasons. Note, I havn't acutally done this, but I am also considering a dual boot with the price of Memory today and my newfound preferance for Win 2000.

[CampbellD]

Hi Demon,

You could also wait or try and get a copy of Windows XP <IMG SRC="smilies/wink.gif" border="0">

From me limited experience of Win ME - Memory is handled much the same as Win98 was. Once you hit the limit - thats it...

Check this out - Should give you some idea

Windows Knowledge Base - Win98 and ME Memory Limitation

[delmer_1]

Thanks alot everyone. I booted up and opened MSCONFIG and limited RAM to 512MB. then i shut down and installed the other GB of ram. it showed 1.5GB when booting up, but ME only sees 512MB. I then Installed 2000 Pro. It sees my full 1.5GB. Everything is working fine. Now i have alot of software to reinstall under 2000, but that is OK. I agree about ditching ME and going with 98 and 2000. the only problem is that I already installed 2000 and they are on the same partition. I would have to format and reload both operating systems. I don't really want to do that again. It takes so long. I am not going to be using ME very much, only when i want to play those few games that won't run in 2000, so unless I run into a major problem with ME, i will leave it intact. Thanks again for all of your help.


Delmer