I'm getting a lot of stalling anytime i open programs and close things. Every time it seems to stall. I got 2.56 gig/8 free. I also defragged the drive and cleaned up some more programs. But it keeps stalling, i also cleaned the fan and dusted everything inside the computer because i thought perhaps it was overheating. Any help would be appreciated

How new is that installation?
If you have had it for awhile thats just what happens, Theres nothing better than a nice Format!

I've had Windows 98 for 3 years now, it came preloaded with the computer

Yup... time for a format!

PC's are kinda like an old man.. when its old you get it to go fast again. LOL

Go right click my computer and click properties, then click the performance tab and see what your system resources are running out without and applications open.

how do i format

30% free

Wait!........hold on a second. Did you say that you only have 8 megs free space on the drive? Good grief, then that's why it's freezing. It doesn't have enough space to write the swap file. Try to clear up some space and see what happens.

2.56 gig/ 8 gig

Oh I see. Well then, it's time for a format. First off, are there any documents or programs on the machine that need to be saved? Because formatting will totally erase everything on the drive.

If you dont know how to format and install the operating system then do not attempt it until you have all the directions on how to do it. If you get stuck on a problem then you will have no comptuer at all after the format is done. Do you have a rescue disk? Most new PC's come with one. If you have one its just a matter of formatting your drive and puttin in the cd and the comptuer will do everything by itself.

Take a look at his free resources: 30% :eek: No wonder it's freezing. Most Win98 systems get unstable if it drops below 60%. It sounds like there are a whole bunch of programs running in the background. Before you reformat and reinstall, try closing down some of the background tasks.

That's why i asked him about his resources. They are way to low. You need to go to your msconfig and clear some of those from starting.

More ram could help... but three years is a lot, reformatting is always a good performance boost. Make sure you have someone who knows what they're doing if you're going to get someone to reformat it.

More RAM seems to help alot of problems. Hell even Microsoft always says "add more ram". I think that is one of there favorite solutions. Especially in Exchange servers. I atleast would have 128. I have never recommended less for anything. Good luck man.

Ram is so cheap these days there is no reason why you shouldnt have at least 128 megs ... I have 512 megs of DDR ram matched up with a 1.4 gighz processor. I dont have any problems with this comtpuer slowing down at all.

I hae 512 SDRAM and it seems to be good. No probs here but I don't think he could put SD or DD in an older computer without changing out the motherboard because of the bus speed of this ram.

I got 96 meg

If his PC is older he probably has PC100. I just picked up a 256 meg stick of PC133 for $24 and i also picked up a stick of 128megs PC100 and paid $15 for it. PC100 is begining to get phased out and around here PC133 is cheaper to buy than PC100. You CAN use PC133 in a comptuer that calls for PC100. This is true for EVERY comptuer.

Its a 333mhz intel celeron compaq, is that old?

333 is very old
now they are up to ~ 1.8
yours is equivalent to a .333

Go to the <Control Panel> <system> <Performance> and make sure that you have Virtual memory turned on, and that you are letting Windows manage the memory.

If that is the case you may have a problem with your registry, especially since you have had the O/S for 3 years. Search http://www.cnet.com for a downloadable program called "System Mechanic", I believe they let you download a limited use version that can clean up your registry. If not, you can find it cheap. It is the absolute best utility (next to Kyodai) that I ever bought. I have it on every one of my 6 machines which have everything from W98 1st edition to Windows ME and it has never failed to find problems, fix them correctly, and behave.

In the "System" utilities it will scan and delete invalid entries in your directory. The directory is like a big data file that must be searched through numerous times by each program that is running. As you add programs, the registry grows, slowing down all of your programs. Ever try and "Delete" an application, and get a stupid message that the Uninstall could not properly delete all components, and that some must be manually deleted? Normally these are crappy programs that didn't know how to clean their stuff out of the registry.

One word of warning though... it has an option to delete unnecessary files. Do not let it delete all the files it identifies with the length of "0". :nono: A lot of those are needed by Windows. Do not try and delete "duplicate .dll" files unless you really know what you are doing.:nono: Same reason.

System Mechanic also lets you manage your start up files and diasble things you don't need anymore.
:shoot: It "can" also speed up your internet connection if you are using a modem, since most of the Windows settings are optimized for network connection to the internet.

...and no I don't own stock or know the guys that wrote System Mechanic, after 30 years of computers I just know a good utility when I see it.

333 is very old

There is nothing wrong with a P333... the 96megs are holding you back a little, but with Virtual memory, even that should be enough for W98.

Windows XP will run on the 333. Minimum recommended is 233mhz.

The new machines with ghz processors are needed if you are gaming or trying to compute the square root of pi in our lifetime, but they won't surf the internet any faster than a P200 with a good video card.

I have noticed that win98 and Millenium do not manage RAM as good as win2000. If you have Morpheus you can download a program called Free mem pro. That program has a few settings that you can control. It manages ram much better than windows ever could. When the ram reaches a "critical" point which you can set ... usually when you have a few megs left ... it allocates and frees it up so that your applications will have more ram available. If you download the program it is a 30 day trial but if you search you can find the registration code and register it .... but that is wrong and not nice. Or you could pay for it after the 30 days if you like it.

If you have a dial up modem then it will make minimal differance having a slow processor. But if you have a cable modem or DSL and do alot of downloading and surfing at the same time. The differance in performance is like night and day. It all depends on what you use your comtpuer for and what programs you use.

The human being is the best computer we can place in space, and it is the only one that can be mass-produced by unskilled labor.

Werner Von Braun

640k of RAM is all that anyone will ever need.

Bill Gates

If engineers that design buildings, designed them the way programmers write computer programs, the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.

My Coffee Cup

Hmm that last quote is wrong ... The building only has to be compatable with itself. Where as a comtpuer program has to be compatable with many differnt operating systems and differnt hardware. Simple programs can take years to write

But that would be somethign to watch a pecker destroy civilization. I mean woodpecker.