Windows 2000 and Windows 98 with 512 MB RAM

[pmistry 0]

I just reinstalled a dual boot with Win2k and Win98, getting rid of a buggy WinME in the process. However, I noticed that when I boot Win98 and go to device manager, it says I have only 511.0 MB RAM? I know I have 512 and WinME used to show this and Win2k shows my memory to be 512 but it is listed in KB. My motherboard says I have 512 too, when the system starts it counts to 524 288 KB. Is this just a Win98 thingy that it won't count up to 512 since it can't use more memory than that? I checked to see if some sort of TSR is loaded at startup but there isn't and I also removed every DIMM and plugged each one in separately and they all said either 128 or 256 or 384 correctly, only with 512 i get 511. I even rearranged my DIMMs around and all combinations of 512 give 511 in Win98. My DIMMs are like this

- Have 3 DIMMS slots all are filled

1 - 128 MB PC133

2 - 128 MB PC133

3- 256 MB PC133

[Andrew275 0]

So what if it says 511 instead of 512? Is it really that big of a difference?

[pmistry 0]

Not really, but it does bug me, anybody else have Win98 and have 512 megs of RAM?

[ValkyerieK7 0]

Well...do you know about your video architecture? is it shared?

[SHS 0]

Don't worry about pmistry Win98 thur WinME have as memory limits

Beside you should have this way

1 - 256 MB PC133

2 - 128 MB PC133

3- 128 MB PC133

[pmistry 0]

Thanks for the tip SHS, I'll move my larger DIMM to the first slot.

[pmistry 0]

I don't have shared video memory, I just have a GeForce 2 MX with 32 MB and an SB Live Value all working on an Asus K7V with BIOS 1007.

[bobbinbrisco 0]

i read that if u r running win98 and u already have 128Mb RAM then having any more than that will not make ANY difference- but it would really benefit win2k

[Gemfire James 0]

check your bios for that 14-15 MB Memory Hole thing (I think that's what it's called), if it's on, turn it off, disabled it.

[pmistry 0]

good suggestion

[Gemfire James 0]

question is, did that work? haha

[pmistry 0]

It doesn't matter anymore simply put Win98 won't recognize the 1 meg, probably due to a VIA chipset issue or the OS itself. If I use WinME it reads 512, if I use Win95B it is still saying 511. Microsoft's 9x OSes are almost eliminated, XP all the way!