Windows 98 SE Headache, again!

Right now I can tell you it's a 850Mhz PIII with 40G (G is that right?) memory, 128 SD RAM, 32 bit video card and aside from that, I have to go to my sister's and look it up and get back to you tomorrow night.

This computer has had problem after problem since we got it. Programs stepping all over each other and she has a ton of stuff in her Startup files and I'm not sure what needs to stay and what needs to go. It's like every program you load into it goes into the startup file.

I've been searching for the OEMcomputer thing all day and haven't found a thing either. It seems like running the utility to make a backup disk triggers the whole crash. I'm wondering if the locked file is somehow still running in the memory and eating it up cause she really shouldn't be getting a low memory message, I've been running Simply on a computer with half as much memory for 5 years and have never encountered this problem.

Anyway, I will get back to you tomorrow with the info. I'm going to load the accounting program onto my laptop and let her do her books on that and then I can have free range to delete whatever I have to off of her computer. Something's definitly screwy.

Thanks,

~Christine.

I've removed some files from startup, here's what's left that I don't know whether they should stay or go:

Taskbar Display Controls
Microsoft Intellitype Pro
Country Selection
Still Image Monitor
eventmgr.exe
Lexstart
LexmarkPrinTray
Attunediscovery
Attunesystray
AttuneContentUpdater
CorelCentralAlarms
DesktopApplicationDirector9
EventReminder
InterVideoWinDVD Starter

Not sure which of these I can delete. Some of them are for the Lexmark printer, I'm sure one of them is for the scanner and the other is the DVD drive. Can any of these go?

Hi stiney,check your power supply,make sure its making a good connection.Also try the repair IE option.Go to Start>Settings>control panel>add and remove programs>Highlight IE and tools>click on remove tab>window will open,put a tick in repair IE.Let us know if you get a clean repair.Then go to Start>Shutdown>Restart in ms-dos>At the c:\prompt type

Smartdrv (then hit enter)
Deltree/y Tempor~1 (hit enter)
Deltree/y history (hit enter)
Deltree/y cookies (hit enter)

Exit (hit enter)

After the computer reboots back to windows,go back into dos and type

Scanreg /fix Hit enter. Notice the space between the g and /

after that runs just type

exit (hit enter)

Let us know if this helps

Don’t uncheck Still Image Monitor if you have a HP scanner. You probably don’t need more RAM in Win98 for running primarily accounting and office type programs.

Go to www.updates.com and sign up. It interrogates your computer and tells you what needs updating in both software and drivers. The kinds of problems you are having is often the result of something butting heads and updating everything often fixes known problems. I had an instance in Win95 where my backup software was butting heads with my Intellimouse drivers and another where my scanner driver was really screwing up Win98. Other times updating my stuff fixed little glitches I never did associate with what in particular fixed the problem.

Make sure you have all of your Win98Se service packs and updates and do the same for IE. If you are using IE 5.5 it would not be necessary to go to IE6, but you should install all of the updates and service packs for IE 5.5. IE 4 was a resource hog on my computer until I installed the first service pack. I’m sticking with 5.5 until the first service pack comes out for version 6. Go here and select product updates: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/default.htm

My all time favorite diagnostic tool is TclockEX. You can configure it to display a two digit user resources to the left of the clock: http://users.iafrica.com/d/da/dalen/tclockex.htm

I eliminated the year and seconds to make it more compact and added the user resources. The bar across the top is CPU use which can be significant. It should be near zero most of the time unless you have recently told the computer to do something. If it consistently sits at a third of the way across or further you have a problem. The green bar across the bottom is your RAM use which is about useless with 128Mb RAM. After you use the computer a while it should be all the way across as Windows caches stuff.

Right now my clock reads: 73 Thu 22 Nov 1:08: The 75 is showing 75% user resources available and the colon at the end is to keep the last digit of the minutes off the edge. My clock format is: U ddd d MMM h:mm: to get this readout. You can configure it any way you want by right clicking on the clock and choosing TclockEX Properties.

It is the user resources you really want to keep an eye on. It is part of my regular cross check. Know how many resources each program takes when you open it and how much it gives back when you close it. It is not uncommon to have a program not give back 1% and at most 2%. More than that and you have a resource hog you have to update or replace. The digital readout is more convenient than the Windows resource meter with which you have to use the tooltips every time to get an accurate digital readout.

You don’t usually have resource problems until they get below 20%. Don’t allow them to get anywhere near that low as it is also an indication you have too much stuff running in the background.