Richard B

My recollection was that Win98SE is not really limited to 512MB RAM, but that using excessive amounts of RAM could slow it down. When Win98SE boots, it tries to load "as much as possible" into RAM. If it needs more stuff loaded, it makes "virtual RAM" on the hard drive.

Since the processor can only use what's in RAM, there can be lots of swapping between RAM and Virtual.

Since the OS also has to keep track of where all the loaded stuff is, it creates a "paging file" in RAM that's used to access what's in RAM and in Virtual memory. Since Win98 always keeps available RAM nearly filled, transactions to move RAM-stuff to Virtual and retrieve from Virtual to RAM requires a lot of "bookwork," and with large amounts of RAM installed, the paging file simply gets bigger than the loaded files and the machine bogs down.

Again relying on ancient memories, 512MB was the recommended "optimum" for most users, but for those using some programs that require more memory (CADD and some page layout publishing programs) I believe that 1MB was a "recommended maximum." That may have depended on having some SP packages that came out after the original Win98SE issue(?).

Adding more than 1MB RAM could actually slow the machine down. Adding more free space on the hard drive, for Virtual memory is always a benefit, but a built-in limit prevents using more than a percentage (10%?) of available hard drive free space for Virtual memory. Some Windows versions have allowed you to change the percentage, but I don't recall whether Win98 was one of them.

Microsoft removed most Win98 Knowledge Base articles when the termination of support was first announced. Some of them have crept back in, but finding the old ones remains rather difficult. The KB article number I have on file that I think dealt with RAM issues in Win98 doesn't come up. It may be back under a different name, but would be hard to find even if it's there.

John