[comp.windows.ms] 286 w/1.5M ext mem won't run in standard mode

reinhard@tristar.samsung.com (Steven Reinhardt) (06/06/91)

I just added 1.5M of extended memory to my trusty 286 machine
just so I could run Windows in standard mode... so I was very
dismayed when, after adding the memory, windows gives up right
after displaying the banner saying:

 "Insufficient extended memory to run in standard mode;

  make more extended memory available or run in real mode."

(or something very similar).

Further clues:

 - smartdrive works fine with sizes up to 1.5M
 - windows does this whether smartdrive is installed or not
   (and with varying smartdrive sizes)
 - I don't have anything else that uses ext mem
 - windows is trying to run in standard mode, where before (when
   I only had 640K) it just automatically came up in real mode
 - I re-installed all of windows: no diff
 - "win /r" still works fine (with and w/o smartdrive)... 
 - using the himem.sys that came with windows or the newer
   one ftpd from cica makes no diff
 - it's a Sperry PC/IT which does have some oddities, but
   since smartdrive works I doubt that that's the problem

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Steve