Planetarion Forums

RexDrax · 14 Apr 2004, 19:20

I have this very strange problem which I cant figure out. But first my system.

I have a Pentium 850Mhz, 256MB Ram, 40GB HD, Win98 SE Fully patched.

I dont have anything really big running in the backround so keep that in mind, by big I mean kazaa, or any other p2p software.

Lately my computer has been saying its out of resources, freezing up and I had to give it the 3-finger solute or press the reset button. Its very strange, so I figured I had a trojan or something which has been taking all my resources. So update my virus definition, ran it, got some other trojan dectors and ran them, cleaned the system up, found 1 i think. But that didnt fix it, the problem is still occuring so checked msconfig file and removed unnecessary items from start up. No go there as well.

Dont know whats wrong, I been running System Monitor and some other resource monitoring applications and its very strange. One minute everything is fine, then next minute all my resouces disappear and the system freezes. This happens most commenly when I am running MSN messenger, pIRC, and have like 2-3 IE windows open and maybe outlook. Those programs shouldent be too intensive and its just been lately its been happening. I have no clue as to whats going on and any help would be apprciated.

One last thing, I havent defraged the HD in like 8 months, that could be it since I have installed a lot of software and removed a lot over that period so will run that and see what happens, but I dont think it will fix the problem.

Anyone got any advice or suggestions?

-RexDrax

PS: Yes I know upgrade to winXP, which I will do in the next 2 wks or so when I have time. Should I get more RAM too? If so what is compatible with SDRAM PC-133 because thats what I got in there now.

Flavius · 14 Apr 2004, 21:36

I have a P3 733Mhz with 256+128MB Ram, 200GB and WinXp

I leave it running for weeks without needing to reboot.

Your problem might be the OS, not the hardware

Luckeh!!!! · 15 Apr 2004, 00:27

Its Win98SE, I often ran out of resources, I had 384MB ram and it would drain out just by doing a bit of websurfing.

3rd party RAM reclaiming programs helped, but resistance is often futile and I would need to reboot.

Vodka · 15 Apr 2004, 02:49

First of all, check your cache settings for your browser. Make sure you have them set really low.
Second of all, check your RAM. See if thats a problem. If you need more info about going about this, just ask.
Third of all, these "3rd party RAM reclaiming programs" don't speed up your computer at all. All they do is force whats in your ram into the pagefile. Your computer then struggles to do the exact opposite, pulling the pagefile contents back into RAM. Both these processes use a lot of CPU, and you're also putting unnecessary strain on the hard drive. They do more harm than help.

Luckeh!!!! · 15 Apr 2004, 16:43

no, they empty what's in your RAM.

Cos some odd reason, the OS doesn't free it up.

Radical Edward · 16 Apr 2004, 09:00

I had huge problems running W98 (normal edition) using large amounts of ram. The computer ran better using 64Mb than it did with 512. I froget what the maximum RAM that W98 can cope with is now, but I suggest as a trial, removing as much as you can - so say run it with 64mb to see how it copes. When I ran XP it worked wonderfully. I think you might need to upgrade that OS.