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windows 3.1 error installing ie5

Posted: 2. Dec 2017, 20:23
by hintzsche
hello when I try to install internet explorer 5 on windows 3.1 I get the error that it need large config files larger than 4 MB and then I only have the option to exit the setup. I have 1 Gb of hard drive and 128 mb of ram in this virtual machine. I don't know what the error cause so please help me thanks.

Re: windows 3.1 error installing ie5

Posted: 2. Dec 2017, 22:38
by erdeslawe
You get that error if you have more than 64Mb RAM allocated to the Virtual Machine. There's one explanation in this link: https://christianliebel.com/2016/06/con ... oups-3-11/ about 3/4 of the way down the page.

Re: windows 3.1 error installing ie5

Posted: 3. Dec 2017, 00:08
by BillG
I doubt that IE5 would do much even if you managed to get it installed.

Re: windows 3.1 error installing ie5

Posted: 3. Dec 2017, 09:56
by hintzsche
Thanks that worked. I reduced the ram to 32 MB. But I don't get the soundblaster 16 driver to install. I get a similar error message that I have too less ram but even memmaker did not help.

Re: windows 3.1 error installing ie5

Posted: 3. Dec 2017, 10:27
by socratis
See if the following FAQ can be of any help: Tutorial: Installing Windows 3.11 with (working) drivers!.

Re: windows 3.1 error installing ie5

Posted: 3. Dec 2017, 11:58
by hintzsche
Thank you for the link but that wasn't really helpful because that is exactly what I did

Sound Card Installation:
Search the web for the Sound Blaster 16/AWE for DOS/Windows 3.1 drivers and Copy them to a CD-ROM disk image or floppy disk image, or use the CD-ROM disk image that I already made for you.
Start-up MS-DOS to a C:\ prompt. Load the floppy or CD image, access the SoundBlaster 16 drivers on the A: or D: drive, then type install.
Note: On my driver CDROM type CD sb16 at the command prompt and then install.

and this is the error message:

NOT ENOUGH COVENTIONAL MEMORY IS AVAILABLE.

REMOVE SOME OR ALL RESIDENT PROGRAMMS BEFORE RUNNING INSTALL

But I have a 1 GB harddrive and 32 MB of Ram

Re: windows 3.1 error installing ie5

Posted: 3. Dec 2017, 14:28
by mpack
hintzsche wrote: NOT ENOUGH COVENTIONAL MEMORY IS AVAILABLE.

REMOVE SOME OR ALL RESIDENT PROGRAMMS BEFORE RUNNING INSTALL

But I have a 1 GB harddrive and 32 MB of Ram
I suggest that you read up on what conventional, expanded and extended RAM meant in the DOS era. That said, I find it hard to see how you could have loaded up enough stuff to fill the conventional RAM area (<640KB), so my guess is that the real problem is that it can't find the memory manager HIMEM.SYS, meaning you didn't install DOS appropriately.

Prior to (let's say) Win98SE, operating system installers didn't really hold your hand as you ran them. You were expected to know what kind of environment you were setting up, and how to configure it. Or you paid someone to set it up for you. The fact that you got to install doesn't means it was installed correctly.

And, as Bill implies - this is all going to be a massive waste of time anyway. The IE6 browser built into XP doesn't work any more on todays Internet, so it's certain that IE5 on a 16bit OS will not be better.

Re: windows 3.1 error installing ie5

Posted: 3. Dec 2017, 14:47
by hintzsche
but dos is starting with himem is testing the expanded memory

Re: windows 3.1 error installing ie5

Posted: 3. Dec 2017, 15:08
by mpack
Well, you can read the error message as well as I can, so I suggest you treat it as an important clue at the very least. I.e. try hard to ensure that all of the 640KB DOS area is available for Windows to use.

IE5 seems to have been created in the Win98 era. I don't expect that making it work smoothly with Win3 was a huge priority.