98 or 2000

[Hoser]

Ok I'e had it with trying to figure out what the heck is going on with my system. After changing some things around, re-installing windows, changing DIMM's, and trying everything everyone has told me to try, I still can't get my system to recognize all of my installed memory. So my question is this: Should I install Windows 2000, or just live with my problem until I upgrade my system? I use my system mainly for gaming, music, and the net. Any info would be great. My current system consists of:
Celery 900
ASUS TUV4X mobo
SB Live 5.1
GF MX2-400
Maxtor 20 gig 7200 rpm
Maxtor 8.4 gig ?rpm

Thanx

[nitrile]

If you've got Win2k then by all means try it and see if that cures the problems - Windows 98 was designed a long time before the motherboard chipset and you could well be having problems as a result of some combination of hardware (generic fault #4).

Nearly every game I have will run under Windows 2000, and I've not touched any of the old Windows 9x OS's on my main games PC for just coming up to 1.5 years now. That PC spec is certainly adequate enough.

You say you have a memory problem though, is your system correctly counting this at the BIOS level? if it's not reading the amount it's supposed to there it's not a software issue.

[Toyotamr2_86NA]

I never heard of the Operating System NOT utilizing the full capacity of the RAM. The onetime i ran into a problem like this, it was becuase theMother board didnt support DIMMs of the density i was using. Forexample the Mo.bo. could only read up to 64MB in one DIMM bank. So when i put a 128MB DIMM in , itonly read it as a 64MB chip. Id bet that it is NOT anything to do with Software.

[Spune]

I have to agree with nitrile on this 2k has been really good to me and everyone else I know who is using it. Once you have run an NT OS you can't go back.

Even if you could get 98 to see all of your memory it won't really help. After you hit ~192MB in Ram in 98 it really doesn't help any more. The 9x core just doesn't seem to utilize it while 2K definately will.

[Speed]

Oh God yes, go to 2000! I quit using Windows 9x on my own PCs back when NT 4.0 came out. I quit using Windows altogether, but that's another story...

[zgirl]

My question here would be: Are you seeing this problem when the PC boots and the BIOS post screen isn't posting all the memory in the system or is it showing up there correctly and not showing in the system properties for the OS?

The reason is, if it is the former then its a hardware problem with the MB. Otherwise I would say its the OS.

BTW-I throw in my $0.02 in the win2k hat. I've been much happier since I move to that from 98. Although XP is looking really good to me on the one PC I have it on.

I have also been playing around with SuSe. Which I like a lot, but I still have a lot to learn about linux.

[Hoser]

When I power up the system it reads the correct amount at post. I checked my BIOS and even in there it only recognizes 512 meg. I've been told to flash my BIOS, but I've never done that before, and have been told it can damage the mobo if it's not done properly. I'm still going to goto 2000, but I want to fix this problem first.

[Coldfirex]

Well, how much do you have installed? How many dimms of what size?

[nitrile]

I know what the the problem is - the i815 chipset cannot recognise more than 512MB of RAM. This is a chipset limitation Intel actually put in :/. This would explain why it's counting up how much you have (768Mb? 1Gb?) but only allowing you utilise 512Mb of it.

I don't expect any (even hacked) BIOS will let you run more. My Laptop has a version of this chipset so I'm affected by the same limitation, it didn't occur to me before.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: nitrile on 2002-03-12 13:20 ]</font>

[HowardDrake]

If you have 256 or more, run don't walk to 2K. You'll be glad you did. No more system resources to worry about

[0oALio0]

Well if your a gamer who loves those EA sports games (NBA Live, Madden etc) you'll me be see either a huge performance loss or out and out incompatibility if you switch. I myself have only had this problem with the NBA Live series but others people i know report various bugs with xp/2k and ea sports games

[zgirl]

Flashing a BIOS isn't hard. Yes there is potential to hose the MB. But if you READ and FOLLOW the instructions you should have no problem. Just make sure you carefully read the manufacturers instructions and understand the process. Also make sure you down load the right bios for your MB model and version number. In 15 years of IT, I think I've flash somewhere around a thousand MBs. Both in PCs and servers. I have yet to lose one.

[Steel]

Well, according to Asus the TUV4X supports up to 1.5GB of RAM (sorry, nitrile ) so as long as the memory works, the motherboard should see it all. Does the BIOS count up all the memory that's installed? If not, there may be a problem with one or more of your DIMMs. Since Win9x can address up to 2GB of physical RAM, upgrading to Win2K probably wouldn't fix it (but it's still a good idea).

[absurdity]

I'd say flash the bios...everyone has to do it their first time ;P

[Speed]

On 2002-03-15 19:16, absurdity wrote:
I'd say flash the bios...everyone has to do it their first time ;P

Not me! I'm saving my BIOS for the right motherboard.

[videobruce]

A Celery 900????

Just what type of memory does the M/B take?

As far as the 2k issue..............YES...........upgrade to 2k.

I did 6 months ago and love it (wel almost love it) The most stable O/S I have used including 98SE and ME (of course that isn't saying much including ME)

Just alot of adjusting to get use to the new O/S.

I am still running FAT32, since I'm a little chicken about NTFS since I really don't need the security.

[tomosiu]

this sounds like a hardware problem rather than a software one. how old exactly is your mother board and ram. i always fix machine for my friends and one of the major problem with machines is aging.... the contact point on those parts might get dirty or something. preventing the motherboard from reading it properly. i suggest you put everything back to where it was, and then try changing one by one to see which one is causing the problem....

[Hoser]

Thanx to all for the help.I took out everything, and replaced one at a time, and still the same problem, so my problem is with my mobo. I'm getting up the nerve to flash my BIOS, and hopefully that will solve the problem. Also I noticed in my device manager my system recognizes 2 memory controllers, and says 1 has a problem. If I delete that one, when I reboot Windows re-detects it, and comes up with the same problem. So as I stated earlier I am going to try and flash my BIOS. Hopefully the next time you hear from me I'll have good news in this forum, or I'll be in the bargain basement looking for a new board.

[videobruce]

Go with a VIA KT-266A chipset M/B this time.
Forget the Wintell crap.