OK, I tried to install windows 98 on my PC because XP was giving me big problems. And everytime I install it nothing will boot I'll wait at the boot screen forever (literally). I then read an article that Windows 98SE doesn't support anything more than 512MB of RAM, well I've got 1024MB. Is there any way to get around this without pulling out memory sticks? (I've had really bad problems with RAM before and I don't want to mess this PC up.)Will it boot into safe mode?The article is misleading.

Win98 will run with up to 2G of RAM...however you may need to get back to 512M for it to act properly enough to configure it to handle your 1G.

Re-install with 512 and see if it starts....if so here's the info from MS:

Quote

SYMPTOMS
If a computer that is running any of the versions of Windows that are
listed above contains more than 512 megabytes (for example, 768
megabytes) of physical memory (RAM), you may experience one or more of
the following symptoms:
You may be unable to open an MS-DOS session (or command prompt) while
Windows is running. Attempts to do so may generate the following error
message:
There is not enough memory available to run this program.
Quit one or more programs, and then try again.
The computer may stop responding (hang) while Windows is starting, or
halt and display the following error message:

Insufficient memory to initialize windows. Quit one or more
memory-resident programs or remove unnecessary utilities from your
Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files, and restart your computer.
CAUSE
The Windows 32-bit protected-mode cache driver (Vcache) determines the
maximum cache size BASED on the amount of RAM that is present when
Windows starts. Vcache then reserves enough memory addresses to permit
it to access a cache of the maximum size so that it can increase the
cache to that size if needed. These addresses are allocated in a range
of virtual addresses from 0xC0000000 through 0xFFFFFFFF (3 to 4
gigabytes) known as the system arena.

On computers with large amounts of RAM, the maximum cache size can be
large enough that Vcache consumes all of the addresses in the system
arena, leaving no virtual memory addresses available for other
functions such as opening an MS-DOS prompt (creating a new virtual
machine).
WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, use one of the following methods:
Use the MaxFileCache setting in the System.ini file to REDUCE the
maximum amount of memory that Vcache uses to 512 megabytes (524,288
KB) or less. For additional information about how to use the
MaxFileCache setting, click the article number below to view the
article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
108079 32-Bit File Access Maximum Cache Size

Use the System Configuration utility to LIMIT the amount of memory
that Windows uses to 512 megabytes (MB) or less.For additional
information about how to use the System Configuration utility, click
the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base:
181966 System Configuration Utility Advanced Troubleshooting Settings

Reduce the amount of memory that is installed in your computer to 512 MB or less.
STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft
products that are listed at the beginning of this article.
MORE INFORMATION
Vcache is limited internally to a maximum cache size of 800 MB.

This problem may occur more readily with Advanced Graphics Port (AGP)
VIDEO adapters because the AGP aperture is also mapped to addresses in
the system arena. For example, if Vcache is using a maximum cache size
of 800 MB and an AGP video adapter has a 128-MB aperture mapped, there
is very little address space remaining for the other system code and
data that must occupy this range of virtual addresses. "
from:
Microsoft knowledge base
( http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;253912 )