OS crash on real Amiga, but works fine on WinUAE

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Not sure if it helps, but if you use the "make emergency disk" option off the 3.9 CD, you can install 3.9 directly onto a blank hard drive, without having to install 3.1 first.  At least it'll let you skip a step!  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Also I am curious....do I really need 3.9 after all, or is enough to have just 3.1 with ClassicWB? I know that it is a matter of preferences, but I wonder if it is just a waste of time to use 3.9

I don't like ClassicWB, feel like it's too bloated.  With enough trial & error I can typically build in only the customizations that I want onto a clean OS install, and I feel like it's more fun and you learn more about your system that way.  Re: 3.1 vs 3.9, that depends on what you want to do with the system?  3.9 does require more horsepower but it also rolls up a lot of the updates you'd otherwise need to find hacks and patches for to do in 3.1.  Still, a 3.9 system will probably need a fair amount of updating, also, if you're looking for a more "modern" experience.

Or if you just want to play games and use WHDLoad, 3.1 is fine, LOL.  

This is a pretty good list here, there's also a list on the same site to "make 3.9 like 4.1".  Whatever else you do, make sure you start with Peter K.'s icon library.  It's a little tricky to get into 3.1, but well worth it.

http://lilliput.amiga-projects.net/TechDetails3.htm

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Mike: thanks for your suggestions...once I used to put my hands anywhere in the OS and write custom startup sequences...but that was various decades ago Nowadays I need to start from scratch and re-learn how did I used to do all that stuff so easily

I've reached the point that I really don't want 3.9....I had it for few hours on my real miggy, and it was a pain...even with 32 Mb it is slow, the chip memory went down to 400K (but the fast ram was untouched...not sure why, since I remember that the chip ram was just used for chipset work, and the Amiga is simply running the OS).

I have also noticed that with ClassicWB, nothing WHDLoad works....I get the tedious error 205, which seems legit, since the chip memory available, once everything is running, is down to 1.6 mb, while from my understanding, WHDLoad wants the full 2 mb to run most of the games.

I hear that!  I took a 10-year break from actively owning any Amiga systems, but it came back to me... slowly.  

There are a couple settings in 3.9 that need to be changed to tell it to use fast memory (or "other" memory) instead of chip memory.  On a typical setup for me I've got about 75% of my chip mem free, this after loading a high-res laced + overscan 16-color Workbench with lots of utilities, and haven't had any problems running WHDLoad games.  Before I had a Megachip in both my systems the only game I found that wouldn't run was Cannon Fodder (required 1.1MB chip).  Maybe try posting some specific games you're having issues with, see if anyone else has the same?  Also the docs (included, depending on where you're downloading your games from) usually list the chip ram requirements.