Installing software on Win95 guest doesn't recognize specs

[tjdickinson]

I'm brand new to Virtualbox and I've just set up a Windows 95 VM in order to run an old piece of 16-bit software that won't run on Windows 11 (host). However, when I try to install it, the pre-installation system check doesn't seem to recognize the correct specs.

• Processor is OK.

• It says it needs 8 Mb memory, and it identifies 0 Mb, with the warning 'You need more memory'. When setting up the VM, I assigned it 256 Mb memory.

• It says it needs 256 colors. It says I have 0 colors, but it says 'OK'. The color setting is True Color (32 Colors).

• Sound, DOS, and WIN are OK.

I have no idea what to do in order to fix the memory problem. I'm grateful for any advice you can give me.

[scottgus1]

There may be some things to try here: Tutorial: Windows 95/98 guest OSes

[tjdickinson]

There may be some things to try here: Tutorial: Windows 95/98 guest OSes

Thanks, Scottgus1. I'd had a look at that, but nothing seems to fit the bill. In the meantime, while trying to get full resolution, I seem to have screwed something up... First, it no longer shuts down; when it gets to the 'Windows is shutting down' screen, it just sits there and doesn't change. Then, whenever I boot the guest, it gets to the desktop, gives me the hourglass, and then goes to a black screen with a blinking cursor in the upper left, and towards the lower right, there's a horizontal red rectangle with 7 or 8 blinking black-outlined squares, and a grey cursor on the right of it. I'm not able to do anything but power off via VirtualBox.

I'm going to try reinstalling Windows to see if that'll fix this problem. But still not sure what to do about the RAM issue in the software I was trying to install.

[mpack]

It says it needs 8 Mb memory, and it identifies 0 Mb, with the warning 'You need more memory'. When setting up the VM, I assigned it 256 Mb memory.

That sounds like a classic numerical overflow. If it says it wants 8MB RAM, give it 8MB, definitely not 256MB. Win95 PCs did not have 256MB RAM.

[tjdickinson]

Thanks, mpack. Lots to update here, so bear with me.

Because of the other problems I just had with the display, I've set up a new vm running Windows 98SE (just because it's easier than setting up Win95), and I installed the HD display driver provided by FranceBB in the thread scottgus1 pointed me to. I did that before you replied, so I set it up with 512 Mb RAM (as instructed here https://i12bretro.github.io/tutorials/0070.html) and I gave the video card 64 Mb (as instructed by FranceBB.) The display settings are True Color 32 and 1920x1080.

I then installed the software and it gave me the same error: expecting 8 Mb RAM, it finds 0 Mb. However, the installation was able to continue successfully. The only issue is that when the program runs, it's a bit slow/laggy, and the audio starts and stops, like it's buffering on a really slow connection (which is problematic because the program contains narration). Additionally, the program goes full screen, but the display of the program is limited to a small area in the centre of the screen. (So there's a large black border surrounding it.)

Having seen your reply, I then changed the VM RAM to 16 Mb. It does something a little weird when starting up now (after the Win98 splash screen, there's a glitchy-looking partial Oracle logo in the upper right), but then the OS runs normally. When I launch the software, it's exactly as described before (laggy/skipping audio/small display).

My next thought was that maybe the lag is caused by the software running from a physical CD-ROM attached to the host and fed in to the guest, so I used AnyBurn to copy the CD-ROM to an ISO file which I can attach directly to the virtual CD drive. Unfortunately, that didn't resolve any of the problems, either.

Then I uninstalled the software and reinstalled it. This time, when it ran the system check, it asked for 8 Mb RAM and it found 16, so your advice works for that issue. Nevertheless, when running the software, it's the same as before... laggy, skipping, small display.

In summary, reducing the available RAM on the VM did solve the installation system check issue, yet there are still some other problems preventing the software from running correctly. I realize that those issues, and the fact that I'm now working in Windows 98, go beyond the topic of this thread, but perhaps for continuity it's better not to start a new thread. (Or should I?)

Thanks again for your help.