I want to put in 1Gb of PC2100. I have 512MB of Double sided and Two sticks of 256MB single sided. When I put just the 512Mb in the system works perfectly fine. When I go to add both the 256Mb in, the system wont start and I get this error message: "Cannont find or load required file KRNL386.exe. The path was not found. System Halt." What does that mean and how can I fix it. My motherboard is an Abit BD7II, it can support 2Gb of PC2100 Ram. Please help me, Thanx.

512 meg of Ram is the maximum that ME will address, there is a hack for it but I can't remember it. Change it and get Xp, then you won't have the prob.

Name: WhitPhil Date: October 28, 2002 at 09:56:17 Pacific Subject: Insufficient memoery to run DOS pro Reply: It is a file cache issue when you get above 512. Do Start > Run > System.ini Scroll to the [vcache] section and add the line MaxFileCache=512000 Save, exit and reboot shows vchache size and physical memory size http://home.plutonium.net/~bjackson/ ====================================================================================== http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;253912 Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 253912 "Out of Memory" Error Messages with Large Amounts of RAM Installed The information in this article applies to: Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition Microsoft Windows 98 Microsoft Windows 95 This article was previously published under Q253912 If this article does not describe your hardware-related issue, please see the following Microsoft Web site to view more articles about hardware: http://support.microsoft.com/support/windows/topics/hardware/hwddresctr.asp SYMPTOMS If a computer that is running any of the versions of Windows that are listed above contains more than 512 megabytes (for example, 768 megabytes) of physical memory (RAM), you may experience one or more of the following symptoms: You may be unable to open an MS-DOS session (or command prompt) while Windows is running. Attempts to do so may generate the following error message: There is not enough memory available to run this program. Quit one or more programs, and then try again. The computer may stop responding (hang) while Windows is starting, or halt and display the following error message: Insufficient memory to initialize windows. Quit one or more memory-resident programs or remove unnecessary utilities from your Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files, and restart your computer. CAUSE The Windows 32-bit protected-mode cache driver (Vcache) determines the maximum cache size based on the amount of RAM that is present when Windows starts. Vcache then reserves enough memory addresses to permit it to access a cache of the maximum size so that it can increase the cache to that size if needed. These addresses are allocated in a range of virtual addresses from 0xC0000000 through 0xFFFFFFFF (3 to 4 gigabytes) known as the system arena. On computers with large amounts of RAM, the maximum cache size can be large enough that Vcache consumes all of the addresses in the system arena, leaving no virtual memory addresses available for other functions such as opening an MS-DOS prompt (creating a new virtual machine). WORKAROUND To work around this problem, use one of the following methods: Use the MaxFileCache setting in the System.ini file to reduce the maximum amount of memory that Vcache uses to 512 megabytes (524,288 KB) or less. For additional information about how to use the MaxFileCache setting, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 108079 32-Bit File Access Maximum Cache Size Use the System Configuration utility to limit the amount of memory that Windows uses to 512 megabytes (MB) or less.For additional information about how to use the System Configuration utility, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 181966 System Configuration Utility Advanced Troubleshooting Settings Reduce the amount of memory that is installed in your computer to 512 MB or less. STATUS Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. MORE INFORMATION Vcache is limited internally to a maximum cache size of 800 MB. This problem may occur more readily with Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) video adapters because the AGP aperture is also mapped to addresses in the system arena. For example, if Vcache is using a maximum cache size of 800 MB and an AGP video adapter has a 128-MB aperture mapped, there is very little address space remaining for the other system code and data that must occupy this range of virtual addresses. Last Reviewed: 7/30/2002 Keywords: kbDiskMemory kberrmsg kbprb KB253912 ========================================================================================== http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;108079 Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 108079 32-Bit File Access Maximum Cache Size The information in this article applies to: Microsoft Windows for Workgroups Microsoft Windows 95 This article was previously published under Q108079 SUMMARY When you use Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11 with 32-bit file access, the maximum amount of memory that can be set in the 386 Enhanced dialog box in Control Panel is 24 megabytes (MB)(or 24,576 kilobytes [K]). Microsoft Windows 95 does not provide a user interface to change the 32-bit file access cache size. MORE INFORMATION Although the user interface is limited to 24 MB, the theoretical maximum size of the cache is actually 2GB. This cache size is using physical RAM; therefore, the cache size is limited to the amount of RAM on your computer. Setting the cache size greater than the physical amount of RAM available results in the following error message when re-entering the Virtual Memory settings in the 386 Enhanced dialog box: 32-bit file access was unable to run. Your hard disk(s) may not be compatible with 32-bit file access. Steps to Manually Increase or Decrease the Cache Size for Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and Windows 95 Open the System.ini file in a text editor, such as Microsoft Windows Notepad. Go to the [VCache] section. Change the MinFileCache= and the MaxFileCache= settings to the desired value. NOTE: The value for these settings are in kilobytes. For example, if you want to create a 50-MB cache that cannot exceed 55 MB, the lines would be as follows: [VCache] MinFileCache=51200 MaxFileCache=56320 Please note that Microsoft's testing did not include cache sizes greater than 40MB. Microsoft makes no guarantees that the cache size will operate correctly when increased above the user interface. Microsoft is not responsible for data loss or data corruption due to a cache size larger than the user interface. Last Reviewed: 2/21/2003 Keywords: kbprint kbenv kbnetwork kbBug KB108079 ====================================================================================== http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;181966 Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 181966 System Configuration Utility Advanced Troubleshooting Settings The information in this article applies to: Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition Microsoft Windows 98 This article was previously published under Q181966 SUMMARY This article describes the advanced troubleshooting settings in the System Configuration Utility tool. MORE INFORMATION To start the System Configuration Utility and view the advanced troubleshooting settings, use the following steps: Click Start, and then click Run. In the Open box, type msconfig, and then click OK. Click Advanced. Advanced Troubleshooting Settings Disable System ROM Breakpoint: This setting specifies whether Windows 98 should use Read Only Memory (ROM) address space between F000:0000 and 1 megabyte (MB) for a break point. Windows normally searches this address space to find a special instruction that is used as a system break point. If this address space contains something other than permanently available ROM, you should disable this setting. This sets "SystemROMBreakPoint=0" in the System.ini file. This is equivalent to starting Windows with the command-line switch "/d:s". For additional information about SystemROMBreakPoint, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Article ID: 71264 TITLE : Information on SYSTEM.INI [386enh] Entry SystemROMBreakPoint= Disable Virtual HD IRQ: This setting prevents Windows 98 from terminating interrupts from the hard disk controller and bypassing the ROM routine that processes these interrupts. Some hard disk drives may require this setting to be enabled for interrupts to be processed correctly. If this setting is enabled, the ROM routine handles the interrupts, which can slow system performance. This sets "VirtualHDIRQ=0" in the System.ini file. This is equivalent to starting Windows with the command-line switch "/d:v". EMM Exclude A000-FFFF: This setting prevents Windows from trying to scan for unused memory address space. This also disables the Random Access Memory (RAM) and ROM search instructions for the memory address space. This scanning can interfere with some devices that use the same memory addresses. This sets "EMMExclude=a000-ffff" in the System.ini file. This is equivalent to starting Windows with the command-line switch "/d:x". Force Compatibility Mode Disk Access: This setting prevents all 32-bit disk drivers from being loaded except the floppy driver. You may want to enable this setting if your computer does not start due to disk peripheral input/output (I/O) problems. If you enable this setting, all I/O uses real-mode drivers or the basic input/output system (BIOS). Also, all disk drives that are functional in protected mode only, no longer function. This is equivalent to starting Windows with the command-line switch "/d:f". For additional information about how to troubleshoot compatibility mode issues, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 130179 Troubleshooting MS-DOS Compatibility Mode on Hard Disks VGA 640 x 480 x 16: This setting causes Windows 98 to use the standard VGA display adapter driver. This disables the existing "display.drv=" line of the System.ini file, and adds the "display.drv=vga.drv" line to the [boot] section of the System.ini file. Use SCSI Double-Buffering: Some Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) drives may require that this setting be enabled. Windows 98 should detect whether or not this setting is needed, so you should only enable this setting if there is a disk access problem. This adds the line "Doublebuffer=2" to the Msdos.sys file. This setting is unavailable if a Doublebuffer line already exists in the Msdos.sys file. Disable Scandisk After Bad Shutdown: This setting adds the line "Autoscan=0" to the Msdos.sys file. This can be useful when you troubleshoot shutdown issues, as it decreases startup time after a bad shutdown. Limit Memory to MB: This setting limits memory usage on your computer to the first MB, where is a number of megabytes. This setting adds the "MaxPhysPage=" line to the System.ini file, where is a hexidecimal value of the amount of memory to be used. If this setting is too low (16 MB or lower), it may prevent Windows 98 from starting normally. Disable Fast Shutdown: This setting disables Windows 98 shutdown performance enhancements. This can be useful to troubleshoot problems shutting down Windows 98. Disable UDF File System: This setting disables support for the Universal Disk Format (UDF) file system for all removable media. This setting can be used to troubleshoot problems with proprietary DVD players that may be incompatible with UDF. Enable Pentium F0 (Lock CmpXchg): This setting provides a method to work around an erratum in the Intel P5 series of processors (Pentium and Pentium MMX). The processor stops responding (hangs) if a particular illegal instruction sequence is issued. This issue should not occur with a normal program, it would have to be generated maliciously. If this setting is enabled, Windows 98 enables a protection routine to avoid hanging. This setting can interfere with some kernel mode applications (such as debuggers), so it should not be used while debugging programs. NOTE: Norton Utilities 3.0 SpeedDisk and UnErase Wizard tools lock the computer if used with this setting enabled. If you have Norton Utilities, Microsoft recommends that you do not use this setting, or disable Norton Utilities from startup. For additional information about Win.com command-line switches, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: ARTICLE-ID: 142544 TITLE : Windows 95 Win.com Command-Line Switches For additional information about file system troubleshooting settings, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: ARTICLE-ID: 165503 TITLE : Description of the File System Troubleshooting Options For additional information about troubleshooting memory issues, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: ARTICLE-ID: 134503 TITLE : Parity Error Messages May Indicate Bad Memory For additional information about the Msdos.sys file, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: ARTICLE-ID: 118579 TITLE : Contents of the Windows Msdos.sys File NOTE: If you are running Windows Millennium Edition (Me), the following options are available on the Advanced tab: Enable Startup menu Enable Deep Sleep The registry key for the S3 Deepsleep control implementation is: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\CONFIGMG The flag is named DeepSleep. "Deep Sleep" is defined as an S3 sleep state also known as Stand-by. For additional information about sleep states, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 197739 Description of the Different Advanced Power Management States Last Reviewed: 8/7/2002 Keywords: kbenv kbinfo KB181966

SO if I change to XP (Home or Professional) I wont get that problem. Thanx