Member Avatar for irhaven

My kids got a virus on their Windows XP desktop. I tried everything, including malwarebytes, to get rid of the infestation but no go. So I decided to fdisk, reformat and do a Win98 to Win2K upgrade...except when I started the Win98SE install, the pc said "Insufficient memory to initialize Windows."

This is a pre-made PC I bought from Discount Electronics, a fairly recent Dell Optiplex. Aside from the CDROM and possibly the floppy drive not working, it was functional.

Am I dealing with 2 issues here, a software (virus) and a hardware (possible RAM failure)? Or does this have more to do with it being a refurbished PC with perhaps some extensive issues we weren't told about? What do you think?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by irhaven
Member Avatar for sparkax

Forgive me if I am reading this wrongly,but you say the CD drive and possibly the Floppy drive are not functional.
How did you run fdisk and format?
How much RAM is fitted. ?
There may be too much for a Win98 installation.
For an explanation go to this site-
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/184447

Member Avatar for irhaven

Forgive me if I am reading this wrongly,but you say the CD drive and possibly the Floppy drive are not functional.
How did you run fdisk and format?
How much RAM is fitted. ?
There may be too much for a Win98 installation.
For an explanation go to this site-
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/184447

The CDROM is functional (I replaced it shortly after we bought the PC). However, the floppy drive is not functional. It acknowledges something is there but it does not access the data. I also attempted using a pen drive but I think the pen drive is not suitable for installing, even though the bios allows usb boot up.

I used the Win98SE CD to fdisk and reformat the C: drive.

I believe there is either 512MB or 1GB of RAM.

I'll check out that link. Thanks!

Looking forward to your reply.

Member Avatar for sparkax

Hi.
You should check how much RAM is installed.
If there is 1GB ,then remove some RAM if possible.
If the memory is on one module, then you will have to replace it with another module.
After installing Win98, follow the instructions in the Microsoft link and
then you should be able to replace the RAM you removed,

Edited by sparkax because: typo
Member Avatar for irhaven

Hi.
You should check how much RAM is installed.
If there is 1GB ,then remove some RAM if possible.
If the memory is on one module, then you will have to replace it with another module.
After installing Win98, follow the instructions in the Microsoft link and
then you should be able to replace the RAM you removed,

Thanks! I'll try that and let you know if it works.

Member Avatar for Bob_180_Bob

Hi,
On the Windows site that sparkax gave you there is a work around for your excess RAM, read about it there and follow the instructions, you should not have further problems. I assume that you only have a XP upgrade disc and therefore can not do a direct install of XP.

Member Avatar for irhaven

I solved the problem, with everyone's help. The Dell PC had 2 GB of RAM. Removing 1 GB helped but the Win98SE install could not deal with the onboard Intel video chipset.

Instead I replaced the 1 GB of RAM and used a Windows 2000 full installation CD and succeeded. I'd wanted to re-upgrade to Windows XP but 2000 will do.

Thanks again!

Hi,
On the Windows site that sparkax gave you there is a work around for your excess RAM, read about it there and follow the instructions, you should not have further problems. I assume that you only have a XP upgrade disc and therefore can not do a direct install of XP.

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