Himem.sys is not the most reliable memory tester, but if it
does find an error, it usually does so before the POST process
does during a cold boot.  I typically assume Himem.sys is correct
in this case and try troubleshooting. It's possible
the memory pairs are not compatible, the CMOS settings are wrong
for the memory type you are using, or the module is not properly
seated in the socket.  The likelyhood of that depends on how well you trust
your memory, I expect mine to last forever so I suspect other things
besides outright chip failure.  Turning off your external cache
may allow himem.sys to pass its tests, but if you have a real
hardware error, windows will find it as it gobbles up all
available ram.  Then you will see 'illegal operation' or 'protection
fault' errors, maybe a blue screen or two.

The 'himem.sys is missing' message means himem.sys is missing from memory,
not from your drive.  The memory error is non-fatal, so some programs
may try to load after the error, expecting himem.sys to be in memory
already.  Fix the memory problem and the 'missing' error will clear as
well.

If you are loading win98 for the first time I would consider reports that
certain VIA chipsets using AMD cpus are flakey with win98 and require
particular install instructions.  i own two of these motherboard / cpu
combos, and my solution was to not upgrade them from win95.

Tom Turak

-----Original Message-----
From: Philip Mitchell
Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2000 10:11 AM

hi, my pc is experiencing a boot problem. on boot up, it tries to load boot
record from the floppy, which says not found. Then, it loads boot record
from from IDE-0, which says it is ok. HIMEM tests extended memory, says
done. The windows XMS driver then loads, but an error message then appears
that says ERROR: HIMEM.SYS has detected unreliable memory at address
02E02808 and XMS driver not installed.
To continue starting your computer press ENTER.
Once that is done, it says HIMEM.SYS is missing, and to make sure that file
is in my windows directory, Windows has stopped, restart the computer.

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