Conventional memory is memory under the 640K. Everything above is either expanded or extended, also called high memory. It's old DOS terminology, from the time that a microprocessor like the Intel 8080 only could address 10 blocks of 64 kB, and I've never fully understood it, to be frank.

Conventional memory is used by drivers loaded from config.sys and by programs run in the autoexec.bat.
So the solution is to boot with a config.sys and an autoexec.bat that are minimal (but contain drivers for cd and drivers to access higher memory).

The best thing to do: go to www.bootdisk.com and download (a program to make) a suitable boot diskette to use when installing Windows ME. Then use that to boot from.

If still no luck, a more complex procedure is required:
- copy the whole ME CD to hard disk (after booting from the boot diskette with CD support)
- sys the c:-drive (put DOS on it)
- edit config.sys and autoexec.bat on the c:-drive to remove the cd-rom support and keep himem.sys etc
- boot from C and install Windows ME from the hard disk

Hope this helps.


Kees