Can't boot into Safe Mode

Hi letterman!

Your last comment did make me laugh! One of the reasons why I changed the
motherboard was because my existing system got just so bogged down it
literally ground almost to a standstill. It was an old Socket 7 with just
128MB of RAM. I found it just couldn't cope with modern day demands 'though
the old OS seemed to accept everything I threw at it (hence no upgrade to XP
or Vista). So I wasn't going to mess about and probably went to overkill
with the RAM, it wasn't terribly expensive and appropriate for the mobo and
future proofing a later OS system as & when it becomes necessary.

I didn't realize at the time that 98se doesn't like that amount of RAM
according to MS, but after making the necessary adjustment to the [386ENH]
section of system.ini and I have no problems with it (as yet!). Wanted to go
into Safe Mode to configure some drivers I was reloading (looking for
'ghosts') and found the issue described above.

What do you reckon?

Sandy.

"letterman@invalid.com" wrote:

> On Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:45:02 -0700, Sandy
> <Sandy.DeleteThis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> >Hi again Guys!
> >
> >Since my last post I've upgraded my mobo to an MSI and have 2x1 GB RAM
> >modules installed. I quickly learned that Win98 grunts at anything over 1GB
> >and ideally likes 512MB. However making an adjustment to the System.ini file
> >as per MS KB article there's no problem with booting normally. However, if I
> >wanted/had to boot into Safe Mode, then of course the startup files,
> >presumably including the system.ini, are by-passed resulting in "not enough
> >memory to initialize windows".
> >
> >Is there a work-around to this or have I lost this important bit of
> >functionality? The only other alternative as I see it if something goes wrong
> >is to then rely on Scanreg /restore.
> >
> >Cheers,
> >
> >Sandy.
> >
>
> Just curious why you need that much ram for Win98?
> I got 384 megs and thats plenty.
>
> Now if you were running Vista, you'd probably need to add 10 more gigs
> to satisfy their bloatware.
>

Have you tried booting into Safe Mode, or are you just speculating?

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
http://grystmill.com

"Sandy" <Sandy.DeleteThis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:81238EE5-C7F0-4490-8DDB-14685C9AD46C@microsoft.com...
> Hi again Guys!
>
> Since my last post I've upgraded my mobo to an MSI and have 2x1 GB RAM
> modules installed. I quickly learned that Win98 grunts at anything over
> 1GB
> and ideally likes 512MB. However making an adjustment to the System.ini
> file
> as per MS KB article there's no problem with booting normally. However, if
> I
> wanted/had to boot into Safe Mode, then of course the startup files,
> presumably including the system.ini, are by-passed resulting in "not
> enough
> memory to initialize windows".
>
> Is there a work-around to this or have I lost this important bit of
> functionality? The only other alternative as I see it if something goes
> wrong
> is to then rely on Scanreg /restore.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Sandy.
>
>

Sandy wrote:
> Hi letterman!
>
> Your last comment did make me laugh! One of the reasons why I
> changed the motherboard was because my existing system got just so
> bogged down it literally ground almost to a standstill. It was an
> old Socket 7 with just 128MB of RAM. I found it just couldn't cope
> with modern day demands 'though the old OS seemed to accept
> everything I threw at it (hence no upgrade to XP or Vista). So I
> wasn't going to mess about and probably went to overkill with the
> RAM, it wasn't terribly expensive and appropriate for the mobo and
> future proofing a later OS system as & when it becomes necessary.
>
> I didn't realize at the time that 98se doesn't like that amount of RAM
> according to MS, but after making the necessary adjustment to the
> [386ENH] section of system.ini and I have no problems with it (as
> yet!). Wanted to go into Safe Mode to configure some drivers I was
> reloading (looking for 'ghosts') and found the issue described above.
>
> What do you reckon?
>
> Sandy.
I reckon that if you are just using Win98se and not any other OS on your PC,
you should remove one of the 1 GB sticks, set the value MaxFileCache=512000
under 386Enh and be done with it.

Hi again Gary, Letterman & Buffalo!

No speculation, it's a fact! Thanks to the other guys... I'll try taking
out a module to see if that's enough. I would have done that first if there
was no other way but was reluctant to do so since they're hellish difficult
to get back in on an MSI.

Sandy.

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote:

> Have you tried booting into Safe Mode, or are you just speculating?
>
> --
> Gary S. Terhune
> MS-MVP Shell/User
> http://grystmill.com
>
> "Sandy" <Sandy RemoveThis @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:81238EE5-C7F0-4490-8DDB-14685C9AD46C@microsoft.com...
> > Hi again Guys!
> >
> > Since my last post I've upgraded my mobo to an MSI and have 2x1 GB RAM
> > modules installed. I quickly learned that Win98 grunts at anything over
> > 1GB
> > and ideally likes 512MB. However making an adjustment to the System.ini
> > file
> > as per MS KB article there's no problem with booting normally. However, if
> > I
> > wanted/had to boot into Safe Mode, then of course the startup files,
> > presumably including the system.ini, are by-passed resulting in "not
> > enough
> > memory to initialize windows".
> >
> > Is there a work-around to this or have I lost this important bit of
> > functionality? The only other alternative as I see it if something goes
> > wrong
> > is to then rely on Scanreg /restore.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Sandy.
> >
> >
>
>
>

This message is not archived

letterman RemoveThis @invalid.com wrote:
> On Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:22:28 -0600, "Buffalo" <Eric RemoveThis @nada.com.invalid>
> wrote:
> I fully agree. You dont need 2 gigs for Win98. Remove one of them,
> and save it for an upgrade or sell it to a friend. Win98 originally
> ran on computers that only had 32 megs of ram. That's low, but it
> worked. My 384megs is fine. (one 256 and one 128 stick). If I
> stumble across another 256 for a reasonable price I might upgrade to
> 512, and I might see a very small improvement. But anything over 1
> gig is just not needed, and if Win98 does not allow it, you might
> actually be causing problems or slowing the computer down.


When I upgraded from 512MB to 1 GB of ram on my Win98SE ststem, there was
quite a big improvement in my games, such as Doom2,Quake2, Half-Life and
Unreal Tournament. Other than those games, the speed improvements in
surfing, etc were minimal or non-existant.