AIM slowing down my computer

My family has just switched over to a different computer (1998 Gateway) with Windows 98 for internet surfing, school stuff, etc. (nothing heavy duty). I installed AIM a week or so ago, but a day or two later I noticed that things had slowed down noticeably, even when I wasn't signed onto AIM. Before the AIM installation, things were running pretty fast, but after AIM the mouse arrow acted like it wanted to freeze up and it took forever for new browsers to open. I uninstalled AIM and the problem immediately went away. Things are now back to the speed they were previously.

What caused that, and is there any way to get around the slowness other than using another messaging system? I'd really like to be able to install it again and use it without it slowing down my computer!

 

Loading the latest versions of programs such as AIM onto a 6-year old computer will definitely slow them down. Programs these days are written to work on P4 1.5GHz or greater computers with tons of RAM & stuff.

I'd recommend loading a version of AIM that corresponds to your vintage of computer. You can find many older versions of AIM here:

http://www.oldversion.com/program.php?n=aim

Because newer isn't always better! Good luck,

 

I use 5.2 anyways, I don't like the new aim 5.9. Also, if it persists, check out the stickys in the spyware forum, you might need to runs a spyware check.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try loading an older version and see how that goes.

I don't think it's an issue with our computer being older because my sister recently bought a brand new Dell and had similar problems. Anyway, I'll see if an older version does the trick.

 

Something else you can try, when you reinstall AIM, take the Desktop icon and drag it down to the Taskbar in the area next to the START button, if that box has more than 4 icons already then it will be hidden behind the double arrows, the icons CAN be rearranged too, then by using the RUN command from the START menu go to MSCONFIG, STARTUP, and uncheck the AIM entry, this will require a restart, AIM will NOT be starting up at boot up now and will only run when you click on the icon next to the START button - Win. 98 has a problem with limited System Resources, and with AIM starting at bootup you are adding to the drain on the Sys. Res., thereby SLOWWWWING down the OS. Hope this helps you

 

DELL '

no wonder she is haveing problems

sorry its the truth

and whats the specs on your gateway it maynot be the pc it may be spyware

50cal

 

Just because its a Dell doesn't mean shit. Dells are built just as well as any other computer out there. The hardware they use is what is used to build every other program. Quit making judgements.

 

Ahhhh, the lightbulb just went off. I checked and this computer only has 64 MB of RAM, and the requirements for downloading AIM are 128 MB. I rarely look at the requirements because I've never really had a problem before, but that must be it.

Sorry for asking a silly question that I could have answered myself. Thanks for your willingness to help, though!

 

if you get an older version of aim that just might work though like someone pointed out before. The requirements couldn't have been that high for say aim 4.8.