How to fake the amount of RAM?

[Hulsbergen]

Not sure entirely if this is the right forum to ask, but will try anyway...


I'm using a pretty old program ((c)1998) and I've got the suspicion that it incorrectly determines the amount of RAM available (says "free memory: -1831" in the about screen ). If that were all that wouldn't be a problem, but whenever opening a file it first checks if there is enough RAM to open it and says I don't have it (while I have 1024 installed in fact...).

So my question is: How can I fool this program into thinking I have less RAM then I actually do?

I'm using Windows XP SP 1, have 2x512 MB of RAM and virtual memory handling set to auto.

Any help would be much appreciated, even when it involves yelling at me for posting in the wrong forum (though in that case a suggestion as to where I might be able to get an answer would be nice).

[VHockey86]

have u tried running the program in compatibility mode for an older OS? (should be in properties of the exe)

[DoctorReno]

Definately set the compatability mode as VHockey86 suggests.

[Hulsbergen]

Nope, tried all modes and they all give the same error.
The reason I believe it's the amount of RAM installed is that at the University the program does run on the older computer but gives the same error on the newer computer, while they all have the same OS.

I remember back in the old days that you sometimes had to slow your computer down to make even older programs run correctly, and was wondering if something like that exists today for RAM.

[MadMan2k]

You could underclock your RAM or take out a stick, maybe both...

[[Neo770]]

Well you could try VMware. With VMware you could set the ram to whatever you want the installed OS to see.

http://www.vmware.com/

[nukes]

It might be dependant on the himem driver, which 2k/NT/XP manage the paging differently.