I am currently builing a computer. All good stuff. Gigabyte GA-7DXR board (w/ onboard soundblaster audio), 2 Maxtor UDMA 7200 rpm hard drives (1=20GB, 1=40GB), 16X DVD, 16X10X40 CDRW, 1.4 T-bird Athlon CPU, 400w case, 2X 512K PC2100 266 DDR Micro ram sticks, Radeon 64mb DDR graphis card, Windows 98SE and fans galore. My problem is when I install the drivers for the graphics card, the system crashes with the blue screen of death. In troubleshooting the system I've found one temporary remedy. When I remove one of the sticks of ram (back to 512K) everything works great. The motherboard should support up to 3GB ram. Both the ram on board and on the graphic card are DDR. I've tried a different card (32mb Nvidia GeForce2 MX-200 w/ SDR ram). As soon as I installed the driver, I get the same problem. It will run fine on both sticks of ram and bare minimum windows driver graphics (16 color-640X480). I even tried Windows Me with no effect. It seems like I have a memory conflict. I have contacted Gigabyte, Micron-Crucial, Nvidia, Radeon, and several friends and they all scratch their heads at this one. I am thinking about unplugging each piece of hardware to see if that fixes the problem. I could really use some help here. I need the ram and graphis for the work I do. Thanks... Karlton Criswell
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Leakers revise RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 power draw to 575W and 360W respectively — Up to 27% higher than last-generation RTX 40 GPUs
Yes this could be a known issue, have a look <A HREF="http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;q253912" target="_new">here</A> at microsoft support for 512mb and large amounts of ram issue.
<font color=purple>Three ways to do things, your way, my way and the right way!</font color=purple>
<font color=purple>Three ways to do things, your way, my way and the right way!</font color=purple>
Please check out Windows 2000 Pro.
If you wish to install that much memory, and you intend to run heavy-duty multimedia applications ... you are <i>definitely</i> using the wrong operating system. Win98 is the only real weak link in your entire configuration.
As for your problem, it sounds like either a bad RAM stick, the drivers for your video card, or an IRQ conflict. I'd do something about that onboard SoundBlaster Audio, too ... even if you only install a $25 dollar sound card ... simply because of the CPU cycle and memory loss from the integrated component ... and the fact that the drivers for these devices are often buggy and tend to conflict with other peripherals. Like video cards, for instance.
Toejam31
<font color=purple>My Rig:</font color=purple> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847</A>
<font color=purple>"Cheops' Law: Nothing <i>ever</i> gets built on schedule or within budget."</font color=purple>
If you wish to install that much memory, and you intend to run heavy-duty multimedia applications ... you are <i>definitely</i> using the wrong operating system. Win98 is the only real weak link in your entire configuration.
As for your problem, it sounds like either a bad RAM stick, the drivers for your video card, or an IRQ conflict. I'd do something about that onboard SoundBlaster Audio, too ... even if you only install a $25 dollar sound card ... simply because of the CPU cycle and memory loss from the integrated component ... and the fact that the drivers for these devices are often buggy and tend to conflict with other peripherals. Like video cards, for instance.
Toejam31
<font color=purple>My Rig:</font color=purple> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847</A>
<font color=purple>"Cheops' Law: Nothing <i>ever</i> gets built on schedule or within budget."</font color=purple>
pcilliterate
Distinguished
- Jul 6, 2001
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That O/S will run properly with the fix, it's so common it isn't funny. But your right, best you use Win2Pro
It will run properly with the fix, the <i>majority</i> of the time. But not always ... Win98 can still surprise you with it's insufficient memory management. There will always be the occasional moment when running more than one application will bring up the out-of-memory error, simply because you've had to alter the system.ini file, and restrict the system's "updated" memory management back to older Win95 settings ... which for all intents and purposes, disables use of the Virtual Memory. And unless you can afford to drop a couple of GB's of memory on a 'board, you just can't do without a good-sized Paging File for multimedia programs. Which pretty much leaves Win9x off the valid list of options.
I, myself, don't intend to dual-boot with Win9x any longer than necessary. But I don't think WinXP is completely ready for the gaming community ... perhaps when the first $200.00 "Service Pack" is released. (i.e. WinXP Pro SE ... or something similar?) When that happens, my multiple boot will be a thing of the past.
What's my gripe with WinXP and games? OpenGL support. I'm a little tired of Bill Gates, and his insistence on programming he considers to be the write-once "wave of the future." And .NET? Over my cold, dead body. I'm not downloading my desktop from Microsoft, ever.
Sorry ... back to the subject matter!
So ... until WinXP is fully-supported, IMHO, Win2K is the only real solution.
All of the Microsoft OS's are barely acceptable, as far as I'm concerned. I really wish that a truly user-friendly Unix or Linux variant with a decent interface would hit the market, with enough consumer support that the majority of third-party companies would be forced to change their OS priorities.
But that's likely to be just wishful thinking ... and I'm a little too old to believe in leprechauns, if you catch my drift.
Toejam31
<font color=red>My Rig:</font color=red> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847</A>
<font color=purple>"Cheops' Law: Nothing <i>ever</i> gets built on schedule or within budget."</font color=purple>
I, myself, don't intend to dual-boot with Win9x any longer than necessary. But I don't think WinXP is completely ready for the gaming community ... perhaps when the first $200.00 "Service Pack" is released. (i.e. WinXP Pro SE ... or something similar?) When that happens, my multiple boot will be a thing of the past.
What's my gripe with WinXP and games? OpenGL support. I'm a little tired of Bill Gates, and his insistence on programming he considers to be the write-once "wave of the future." And .NET? Over my cold, dead body. I'm not downloading my desktop from Microsoft, ever.
Sorry ... back to the subject matter!
So ... until WinXP is fully-supported, IMHO, Win2K is the only real solution.
All of the Microsoft OS's are barely acceptable, as far as I'm concerned. I really wish that a truly user-friendly Unix or Linux variant with a decent interface would hit the market, with enough consumer support that the majority of third-party companies would be forced to change their OS priorities.
But that's likely to be just wishful thinking ... and I'm a little too old to believe in leprechauns, if you catch my drift.
Toejam31
<font color=red>My Rig:</font color=red> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847</A>
<font color=purple>"Cheops' Law: Nothing <i>ever</i> gets built on schedule or within budget."</font color=purple>
I currently rum Win9xME successfully, had no probs with it at all except it eats memory, but this 512MB plus problem as you describe has me a little concerned. I too will be seriously video editing/making and intergrating the pc with a home thearter system in the near future..
So what do think is the go, Win2pro, XP home, XP pro?
(Not entirely happy about XP needing a key for every 2nd install.)
Or should I do some crash courses in Linux etc.
<font color=purple>Three ways to do things, your way, my way and the wrong way!</font color=purple>
So what do think is the go, Win2pro, XP home, XP pro?
(Not entirely happy about XP needing a key for every 2nd install.)
Or should I do some crash courses in Linux etc.
<font color=purple>Three ways to do things, your way, my way and the wrong way!</font color=purple>
i just got done "testing" out XP Pro myself the past few days. i've run win2000 since beta and i've been happy and impressed with it (a quantum leap in my opinion to nt4). but xp, theres just something about it doesn't quite strike right with me. activation isn't an issue with the professional/corporate edition. i thought going from nt4 to w2k sucked at first though, because w2k was so "wizard" oriented. well xp is 10x beyond w2k in that respect. also that "compatiblity mode" doesn't sit to right with me either. if it can't run it in the native os, i certainly don't want it running it as anything before. not to mention, photoshop took 3 trys to get it to install. and painter wouldn't even install. i found it a little pain in the butt that xp decided to make my firewire card the default network card too, and having to go through and disable that, set up my ethernet card. don't see what their talking about with this "blazing fast" bootup. xp boots up like 6secs quicker than w2k, oh no! i didn't get to do much bench marks, heck i really didn't want to, but the little i did do i wasn't impressed with. for q3 ran about the same fps but i noticed a considerable "jitter" to the screen, running det 3 and det 4, as well as MS's "native" driver. dv capture in premiere i was just left with sparatic footage, which i never had that problem in w2k. not to mention the fact that people will really want to use movie maker, or whatever the hell that app is. and that was another thing too, if anyone is like me and HATES having unnecessary apps installed on their system, you won't like xp for sure. not to mention it runs bloated anyways. i can configure my w2k to run on about 54mb of memory, lowest for xp i could manage was 66. in the end it looked ok for a little while, but it was like those toys you get, they look so cool, you don't know if they'll stand up to a beating/workload. sorry i rambled on, but i had to get this off my chest, whew!
always with one shoe untied and never finding the other.
always with one shoe untied and never finding the other.
Those are tough questions. Here's my wacky opinion:
I think it's going to boil down to your personal preferences. For me ... that's Windows 2000 Pro. It is relatively stable, runs all my software, and has decent memory management. As long as you have the drivers for your hardware ... this OS is the best that Microsoft has ever released. It is a mature, 32-bit, full-fledged operating system, unlike OS's based on the Win9x kernel.
WinXP? At the moment ... I'm undecided. I'm still waiting for my copy of the gold code to arrive, (hello, Redmond?) but my recent experiences with the last beta were mixed. Some good, some not so good.
I like the Remote Desktop Sharing and Administration. I hate the new interface ... it looks like the designer had a little too much Liquid Sunshine back in the '60's and began experiencing flashbacks. It has a better version of Plug-and-Play ... but I dislike that the OS only "wants" signed XP drivers. Having a driver be WHQL in the past was never a sure sign of stability ... and now it has to be XP certified, too? Yuck. I think I'm a better judge of whether a driver is stable than Microsoft; I'm the tech who'll be staring at a BSOD and trying to fix it if something goes wrong.
I like the speedier boot time. That's nice. But that's offset by my intense dislike for the Product Activation. I don't think it's anybody's business what I choose to have in my machine, whether Microsoft has a piracy problem, or not. I think Microsoft needs to come up with a better method of protecting themselves, without impinging on the rights of the consumer. And I like owning a license for my software ... I don't want to lease it, and pay a yearly fee ... which is why I dislike the .NET initiative even more than Product Activation. I mention this, because the two will are interrelated.
I can see all of this eventually reaching the point where it will be the "norm" to turn on your computer(with it's always-on MSN/Time Warner/Bellxxxxx broadband connection) and download your desktop from a Microsoft server, during which time, the smart card reader (where the old floppy drive used to be) will automatically debit your checking account for each hour the system is active. Thrilling proposition, huh? But that's where Mr. Gates is headed. Just the security issues around a scenario like that are enough to keep the members of this community busy posting assorted screams and moans for years to come.
But ... back to the present!
Unless the gold code for WinXP has a better driver database, and better support for gaming (specifically, OpenGL) ... Win2k still has it beat for power users.
Note: I'm talking about WinXP Pro ... I have not even seen a copy of the consumer edition. I wish I could avoid that, too. My phone is going to ring off the hook for six months. I like making money ... but keeping my happy face on the entire time might require surgery.
You don't need to take crash courses in Linux! LOL! But it wouldn't be such a bad idea for a dual-boot, or even a triple-boot with Win2k SP-2, WinXP Pro, and a variant of Linux. It would be an educational experience, and allow you to decide for yourself what you prefer.
*If none of this makes any sense, it's because I spent all morning arguing with some egomaniacal technician over at another forum for giving out bad tech support, and in the process, I forgot to have my daily caffeine infusion. It's a wonder that I'm awake enough to put together a coherent thought without falling over! (Piss-poor excuse, I know.)*
Toejam31
<font color=red>My Rig:</font color=red> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847</A>
________________________________________
<font color=purple>"Cheops' Law: Nothing <i>ever</i> gets built on schedule or within budget."</font color=purple>
I think it's going to boil down to your personal preferences. For me ... that's Windows 2000 Pro. It is relatively stable, runs all my software, and has decent memory management. As long as you have the drivers for your hardware ... this OS is the best that Microsoft has ever released. It is a mature, 32-bit, full-fledged operating system, unlike OS's based on the Win9x kernel.
WinXP? At the moment ... I'm undecided. I'm still waiting for my copy of the gold code to arrive, (hello, Redmond?) but my recent experiences with the last beta were mixed. Some good, some not so good.
I like the Remote Desktop Sharing and Administration. I hate the new interface ... it looks like the designer had a little too much Liquid Sunshine back in the '60's and began experiencing flashbacks. It has a better version of Plug-and-Play ... but I dislike that the OS only "wants" signed XP drivers. Having a driver be WHQL in the past was never a sure sign of stability ... and now it has to be XP certified, too? Yuck. I think I'm a better judge of whether a driver is stable than Microsoft; I'm the tech who'll be staring at a BSOD and trying to fix it if something goes wrong.
I like the speedier boot time. That's nice. But that's offset by my intense dislike for the Product Activation. I don't think it's anybody's business what I choose to have in my machine, whether Microsoft has a piracy problem, or not. I think Microsoft needs to come up with a better method of protecting themselves, without impinging on the rights of the consumer. And I like owning a license for my software ... I don't want to lease it, and pay a yearly fee ... which is why I dislike the .NET initiative even more than Product Activation. I mention this, because the two will are interrelated.
I can see all of this eventually reaching the point where it will be the "norm" to turn on your computer(with it's always-on MSN/Time Warner/Bellxxxxx broadband connection) and download your desktop from a Microsoft server, during which time, the smart card reader (where the old floppy drive used to be) will automatically debit your checking account for each hour the system is active. Thrilling proposition, huh? But that's where Mr. Gates is headed. Just the security issues around a scenario like that are enough to keep the members of this community busy posting assorted screams and moans for years to come.
But ... back to the present!
Unless the gold code for WinXP has a better driver database, and better support for gaming (specifically, OpenGL) ... Win2k still has it beat for power users.
Note: I'm talking about WinXP Pro ... I have not even seen a copy of the consumer edition. I wish I could avoid that, too. My phone is going to ring off the hook for six months. I like making money ... but keeping my happy face on the entire time might require surgery.
You don't need to take crash courses in Linux! LOL! But it wouldn't be such a bad idea for a dual-boot, or even a triple-boot with Win2k SP-2, WinXP Pro, and a variant of Linux. It would be an educational experience, and allow you to decide for yourself what you prefer.
*If none of this makes any sense, it's because I spent all morning arguing with some egomaniacal technician over at another forum for giving out bad tech support, and in the process, I forgot to have my daily caffeine infusion. It's a wonder that I'm awake enough to put together a coherent thought without falling over! (Piss-poor excuse, I know.)*
Toejam31
<font color=red>My Rig:</font color=red> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847</A>
________________________________________
<font color=purple>"Cheops' Law: Nothing <i>ever</i> gets built on schedule or within budget."</font color=purple>
Something told me this was the wrong year to give up smoking crack.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!
Toejam31
<font color=red>My Rig:</font color=red> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847</A>
_________________________________________
<font color=purple>"Have you noticed how much they look like orchids? Lovely!"</font color=purple>
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!
Toejam31
<font color=red>My Rig:</font color=red> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847</A>
_________________________________________
<font color=purple>"Have you noticed how much they look like orchids? Lovely!"</font color=purple>
Ok win2kpro it is then 
should be nice and cheap now too. Thank you all for your opinions.
So home or business XP users will have to be online, dictatorship thing huh. Well there goes some of my programs if I install it.lol. aye aye captain yellowbeard we are now out of business.
<font color=purple>Three ways to do things, your way, my way and the wrong way!</font color=purple>
should be nice and cheap now too. Thank you all for your opinions.So home or business XP users will have to be online, dictatorship thing huh. Well there goes some of my programs if I install it.lol. aye aye captain yellowbeard we are now out of business.
<font color=purple>Three ways to do things, your way, my way and the wrong way!</font color=purple>
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