VCache Error, Can't Boot into Windows 9x (95 or 98)

S

strickerje

Bit poster
I'm having a problem installing Windows 9x under Parallels 5. The installation process goes fine, but when I boot into the installed OS for the first time, I get a black screen with the message "While initializing device VCACHE: Windows protection error. You need to restart your system." I get the same result trying to boot in safe mode. A quick Google search reveals that if it boots in safe mode, it's probably a driver issue, but if safe mode also fails, it's usually hardware. But that's for users who encounter this problem on Windows PC's - this can't be hardware since it's just a virtual machine, right? (All my hardware works fine on the Mac side, and the other virtual machines work fine.)

I get the same problem with Windows 95 OSR2.5, 98, and 98SE. I've tried booting with just the minimum virtual hardware (no USB devices, network adapter, etc.), and it makes no difference. I'm running a current-gen (early 2009) 8-core Mac Pro, 10 GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 3870. The virtual machine (for Windows 98) has an 8 GB expanding virtual disk, 256 MB RAM, and 1 processor core.

Any help would be most appreciated!
 
Just an update...

I get a black screen on first boot after installing Windows 3.11 from floppy disk images. So far, I've had no success running Windows 3.11, 95, 98, or 98SE under Parallels 5. Fusion runs my copies of Windows 3.11 and 98SE (from the same installers as I used under Parallels), so I guess I'll be sticking with that for now. Oh, and I even tried importing my working Windows 98 installation from Fusion into Parallels - Parallels imports it successfully but gives me the VCACHE error upon booting. I'm guessing there's something about Parallels' hardware virtualization that Windows 9x isn't compatible with. I'd still very much like to figure this out - any insight would still be appreciated.
 
Hi strickerje,
you might need to reduce allocated recourses to Win 98 virtual machine. Please try allocating 64 MB RAM and 2 GB plane disk. Please also note that only Windows 98 SE is officially supported.
 
I'd tried reducing the RAM to 64 MB and also reducing the hard drive size, but I hadn't tried a plain disk... Anyway, I just reinstalled Win 98 SE on a 2 GB plain disk, and it still gave me the VCACHE error. Too bad, I was thinking that may have been it.
 
Sure, it's attached to this reply. This screen occurs right after the Windows 98 splash screen.
 

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I get the same error booting in safe mode as normally. I booted from a Windows 98 boot floppy image and modified the Vcache settings in the System.ini file - tried imposing a minimum of 16k and a maximum of 32768k (since there wasn't anything by default), and I even tried deleting the Vcache entry, all to no avail. I also read that it sometimes has issues with 48 MB of RAM or more, so I dropped the virtual machine RAM to 32 MB - still no difference. I think I'm giving up on running any Windows 9x in Parallels. Thanks for your help though.
 
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