[soaring_eagle]

my computer (running windows 98) is running really slowly at the moment, keeps crashing (esp. when i use big stuff like photoshop) and also keeps coming up with error messages just randomly when i'm on the internet.

Any ideas?

[Awesome Guy]

More ram is a possibility

maybe it is time for an upgrade,

what speed is the processor?

How big is the hard disk?

What are the errors you are getting?

[BlazeQ]

1) You may be maxing out your hard drive - See how much space you have left on your main HD
2) It could be a virus - Do you have a virus scanner?
3) A hacker - Do you have a firewall?
4) You could have Spyware - Download the free version of AdAware http://www.lavasoft.de and check your computer

[cmusicfan]

No, the real problem is windows 98. Windows 98 SUCKS. I had it for a while on this computer after i bought it off of ebay and it was so slow its not even funny. I got Windows 2000, and it runs seriously fast now.

I'd either stick with windows 95, or go for windows 2000.

XP bogs down your computer quite a bit, but if you're just using it for logging on the internet and listening to music it's ok.

[Art]

Originally posted by cmusicfan
No, the real problem is windows 98. Windows 98 SUCKS. I had it for a while on this computer after i bought it off of ebay and it was so slow its not even funny. I got Windows 2000, and it runs seriously fast now.

Windows 98 SE is a much better OS than Windows 95. I have very little problems with my OS, and as a whole, I've had very few problems with Win 98

[BlazeQ]

Originally posted by cmusicfan
No, the real problem is windows 98. Windows 98 SUCKS. I had it for a while on this computer after i bought it off of ebay and it was so slow its not even funny. I got Windows 2000, and it runs seriously fast now.

I'd either stick with windows 95, or go for windows 2000.

XP bogs down your computer quite a bit, but if you're just using it for logging on the internet and listening to music it's ok.

From what she put, it sounds like it's just running slow of late. Meaning that it was working fine before.

Windows 2000 is a better operating system, but the others certainly don't "suck".

edit: spealing currecsionz

[Jay Tea]

1) I would definitely look into AdAware. Or you can basically do it yourself by hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del and looking at what's running.
2) Have you defragmented your hard drive lately? That can help sometimes.
3) IIRC, Win98 does not handle memory problems very well, and it is good to turn your computer off when you go to bed to clear out the memory.

[soaring_eagle]

okay information overload!!!

Awesome Guy

More ram would prob be a good idea, but it was running fine about a week ago.

upgrade? yeah but not gunna happen

what speed is the processor - not a clue but was running fine before.

How big is the hard disk? ah something i can answer, 38.3GB, 19.2 free

What are the errors you are getting? in internet explorer

EXPLORER caused an invalid page fault in
module KERNEL32.DLL at 018f:bff87ed3.
Registers:
EAX=075001cc CS=018f EIP=bff87ed3 EFLGS=00010206
EBX=00000000 SS=0197 ESP=c4071024 EBP=00fce2f0
ECX=004afc00 DS=0197 ESI=82bf8354 FS=30af
EDX=00fce324 ES=0197 EDI=07610e90 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
55 a1 e0 9c fc bf 8b ec 83 ec 6c 53 56 57 8b 30
Stack dump:
ffecbad7 c4071054 c4071038 0000000e 00000007 c0000005 00000000 00000000 bff87ed3 00000002 00000001 c407112c 0001001f 00000000 00000000 00000000

most of the time, but usually (not ie) it just crashes no warning.


BlazeQ

) It could be a virus - Do you have a virus scanner? nope working on my dad on that one
3) A hacker - Do you have a firewall? - ditto
4) You could have Spyware - Download the free version of AdAware http://www.lavasoft.de and check your computer - i'll be doing that asap thanx


Jay Tea

1) I would definitely look into AdAware. Or you can basically do it yourself by hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del and looking at what's running. - okay only "save" possibly. a screen dump below
2) Have you defragmented your hard drive lately? That can help sometimes. - good plan and no i've not
3) IIRC, Win98 does not handle memory problems very well, and it is good to turn your computer off when you go to bed to clear out the memory. - i do that already thanx

thanx for all the help guys i'll try those ideas out.

[jbm222]

To keep your HD at optimal performance, it's a good idea to run defrag at least once every two weeks. I use task scheduler to do this automatically when I'm asleep. But what you should probably do is download a more recent version of defrag. I think the windowsME will work on 98.

About firewalls and antivirus... If you have a cable connection, you have with out a doubt been hacked before. Your computer is online constantly and it's just insane not to have a firewall & antivirus. If you're on dialup, you might be safe from hackers because you're not online as often, and you have a different IP address every time you connect. But you should still have an antivirus program. Check out Norton Antivirus (by Symantec) and ZoneAlarm firewall. Both offer free versions that are more than adequate for most casual users. If you do extensive banking dealing with large sums of money or run a home office, you might want to upgrade to the paid versions, but otherwise you should be okay.

And more RAM can never hurt. If you wait for Best Buy to run a sale, you could pick up an extra 128MB for 20$. I'd recomend having at least 256MB.

[Hickeroar]

www.lavasoftusa.com download ad-aware 6 and scan your HD. chences are you'll find about 200+ things to get rid of...

[Young Twig]

Yeah, my friend had like 700 spyware files on his computer... Kazaa, WeatherBug...

[soaring_eagle]

okay great, more stuff for me to try! thanx guys!

[Ryan]

You might consider formatting and reinstalling windows.

[soaring_eagle]

Originally posted by jbm222
To keep your HD at optimal performance, it's a good idea to run defrag at least once every two weeks. I use task scheduler to do this automatically when I'm asleep. But what you should probably do is download a more recent version of defrag. I think the windowsME will work on 98.

About firewalls and antivirus... If you have a cable connection, you have with out a doubt been hacked before. Your computer is online constantly and it's just insane not to have a firewall & antivirus. If you're on dialup, you might be safe from hackers because you're not online as often, and you have a different IP address every time you connect. But you should still have an antivirus program. Check out Norton Antivirus (by Symantec) and ZoneAlarm firewall. Both offer free versions that are more than adequate for most casual users. If you do extensive banking dealing with large sums of money or run a home office, you might want to upgrade to the paid versions, but otherwise you should be okay.

And more RAM can never hurt. If you wait for Best Buy to run a sale, you could pick up an extra 128MB for 20$. I'd recomend having at least 256MB.

where is the best place to get a better version of defrag? I've just done one today and it doesn't appear to be too much faster.

I'm on dialup so it's not too much of a problem, where did you get the free firewall and antivirus, i can only find a copy that works for 15 days.

Aside from this i removed over 400 files when i used that ad-aware 6 thing, that is great.

Is it really a good idea to format and reinstall windows, i'm okay with computers but i'm not brilliant, surely that could do more harm than good?

Thanx for the help!

[BlazeQ]

I think there's just a trial version for Symantec. Or he may have been talking about the free online scan: http://security.symantec.com/ssc/hom...VFWMFKPXKBQWNQ

Here's a free virus scanner program: http://www.grisoft.com/
I'm not sure how good it is, but it appears ito be the best free scanner.

Free firewall is here: http://www.zonelabs.com/store/conten...eeDownload.jsp