Hi, I got a problem. My computer works fine with 384mb of ram installed, but when I upgrade it to 512mb, it shows my desktop for a couple seconds, then it gives me a blue screen error. But-I can put it back to 384mb and it works fine. I know my motherboard can take it, it can go up to 1.5gb of sdram. The ram is good, I took it out of a working computer, I have tried 2 different sticks of ram, one a match to my other stick, and the ram check that the bios does says it`s okay, so please help! Thanks!

To increase RAM to more than 384 Mo under Windows ME change Vcache in system.ini to 512 Mo or use msconfig from Run to change amount of Ram in the Advanced Properties.Also you can enter a line in the System.ini under [i386] for the hexadecimal value of the RAM installed : MaxPhyPage=20000 For other values of memory: Value for MaxPhysPage 1024 1.073.741.824 MaxPhysPage=40000 960 1,006,632,960 MaxPhysPage=3C000 896 939,524,096 MaxPhysPage=38000 832 872,415,323 MaxPhysPage=34000 768 805,306,368 MaxPhysPage=30000 704 738,197,504 MaxPhysPage=2C000 640 671,088,640 MaxPhysPage=28000 576 603,979,776 MaxPhysPage=24000 512 536,870,912 MaxPhysPage=20000 448 469,762,048 MaxPhysPage=1C000 384 402,653,184 MaxPhysPage=18000 320 335,544,320 MaxPhysPage=14000 256 268,435,456 MaxPhysPage=10000 224 234,881,024 MaxPhysPage=0E000 192 201,326,592 MaxPhysPage=0C000 160 167,772,160 MaxPhysPage=0A000 128 134,217,728 MaxPhysPage=08000 96 100,663,296 MaxPhysPage=06000 88 92,274,688 MaxPhysPage=05800 80 83,886,080 MaxPhysPage=05000 72 75,497,472 MaxPhysPage=04800 64 67,108,864 MaxPhysPage=04000 56 58,720,256 MaxPhysPage=03800 48 50,331,648 MaxPhysPage=03000 40 41,943,040 MaxPhysPage=02800 32 33,554,432 MaxPhysPage=02000 24 25,165,824 MaxPhysPage=01800 16 16,777,216 MaxPhysPage=01000 12 12,582,912 MaxPhysPage=00C00 08 8,388,608 MaxPhysPage=00800 Reference is in french but the table is self explanatory: http://www.jurixt.com/milly/milly_03.htm The amount of 512 Mo should not make the computer perform any faster but you may experience problems or errors like a wrong CPU reported or possibly more severe problems.If problems arise revert to the previous amount of RAM you had making changes to the values as indicated. Good luck.

Petit Jean, I do not mean this to be personal but you have just touched on my Pet Peeve. Abbreviations that make no sense. I have been using this forum to increase my knowledge of computers and the such but the abbreviations some of the experts us really set me back. What is MO? You use the terms 384 MO and 512 MO, is this some kind of code? I understand the 384 and 512 as amounts of RAM but the MO escapes me. When I upgraded my system from 128 MB to 512 MB memory I just removed the old stick of memory and inserted a stick of 512. The change was immediately recognized on re-boot and nothing else had to be done.

richard, Mo obviously means Mb, mb, meg, megabyte...it's not rocket science. Keep in mind that this forum is international with contributors from every corner of the world. Skip

There is a simple explanation of how to overcome the RAM limit on my homepage link at point 6

Also, if you are just going up to 512MB, possibly wouldn't need a work around. What error are you getting? Have you tried to put the memory, in a different order. That being, to put the different amounts of MBs, into different slots. Try different arrangements. Some motherboards will only take certain types/and amount of RAM, in slot one, ect.. As compared to what they may take in the rest of them. This problem, may be a motherboard limit. I don't mean the amount (MB), but the arrangement, and types of RAM.

It could be a problem with the system board. I have several boards that support up to 1.5 GB, but they will only work correctly with a smaller amount of memory. One only works with 256 MB while the other only works with 512 MB. Same type of problem, Windows crashes with a blue screen. The memory works fine in other systems. It could also be a case where the additional memory module just will not work in that system board. Have you tried it with just that one additional module? Windows ME should work with any memory size from 64MB to 640MB without any changes. It does not hurt to add the MaxFileCache=524288 line in the [vcache] section of the system.ini file in case you ever add more than 512MB.