help needed with scandisk?

I really need help. and don't know if its hardware or software. Just a recap as I talked here 2 weeks ago but had to leave town. I have WinME, have fought with "Low Resources" for past year. put in full amount of RAM with a new motherboard that was the exact same as original (because it blew up). at startup I've taken off most all programs that could cause problem. I took off ZoneAlarm, took off IHateSpam, added a new Norton antivirus 2005 (yesterday)

Today I did a "repair" of IE and that lets me get this far. so thought I'd start at first grade and do a complete thorough scan disk then a defrag. When I do the scandisk it will only go 3 squares and stops, the dropdown menu says things are stopping it from going further - and that same thing will continue all night. (was up every 2 hrs checking on it)so how do I do a scandisk? and is that really the first step to get this computer back working?

I'll appreciate anyone that will help me get thru this as frustration is running rampant

thanks so much - Dar

 

Hi Dar, hopefully I can give you some guidance on this. Do a Ctrl + Alt + Del and look at the Processes which are running. Stop all but the absolutely essential ones and that includes your anti virus software.
Once you have done that, you should be able to run Scandisk OK

 

I'll certainly try that. and thanks so much. Dar

 

I ran ScanDisk all night after the 10 messages that "things aren't working" and it was still getting stuck this morning - so maybe the things I left running had something to do with it. I don't know what these items mean, so please advise if I can shut these down - Explorer, Ccapp, Directed, Mastat, Winmgmt, Lexpps, Loadqm, Lxbracmon, Lxbrabmon, Lsbrbmgr, Systray, Bxlrksk, Gnetmous.

these were the items left in the box when I did Ctrol, Alt, Del.

Thanks so much for trying to help me thru this. Dar

 

Dar, I would shutdown everything except Systray and Explorer. Lex and LX stuff relate to your Lexmark printer, that much I recognize.

Check out my reply on http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=46604
for possible assistance in getting more "free" Ram. Bazza

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Thanks so much Big. I'll do that now.

new things happening - I'm not able to get Outlook Express to connect with my ISP and then while reading some old e-mail, the font size all changed from regular to big big. I check my Options and it shows Regular. oh, and on my outlook express the tool bar only shows "send" button, no addressbook or delete button. I feel like I'm getting deeper in the mire all the time.

now back to Scandisk with only systray and explorer going. thanks. I'm not going away, I will get this fixed!!

Dar

 

I'll be logging off soon as it is 7.25am Saturday. Anyone else feel free to butt in with suggestions as I will not be back for 20 hours, or so. Baz

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Re: help needed with scandisk and more

The scandisk worked and "no errors found" so now I'm going to do a complete defrag.

I really appreciate all the help and you probably won't be hearing from me for a long time just for the defrag. Maybe I can get some suggestions as to what to do next. here's a small history: WinME 4.90.3000, Intel Pentium III, Dell dimension 4100, 256 RAM. Problem - always crashing "dangerously low on resources". so another 256 RAM was put into last slot, then motherboard fried because cleaned with canned air. Got another exact same type motherboard from Dell. now have 512 RAM. Had to remove Memturbo. Resources still about 36%. altho I can still use the new Lexmark 3 in 1, I ran AdAware (all OK) ran Spyhunter (OK). Norton expired so got a new one. now Outlook Express is acting up, removed ZoneAlarm and IHateSpam before loading Norton and haven't loaded them back, but OE still giving me fits by freezing, just hanging up, have to reboot. (I also have bySoft free Ram)

so now am off to do a defrag. Thanks again. Dar

 

Re: help needed with scandisk and more

Hi, back again. Don't run without a firewall or an anti virus program. Make sure you try MaxMem as posted earlier. This will free up your RAM. 512mb of RAM should be plenty but MaxMem will re-arrange the loading of your programs and better use the 512mb. Soft free RAM may do the same thing, but I have never used it. Bazza

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Re: help needed with scandisk and more

I finished the defrag. all went well. I put the Maxmem onto system and it perked right up. At this point I think Norton firewall is screaming at all the other firewalls. so think I'll start working on OExpress . Is there a way to fix the OE so I can get my Delete button back on the tool bar? and also I've lost my addressbook.

during course of all this testing, etc, I rebooted and then looked for the Maxmem. it seems to be gone, not in programs, nor in programs listing (Add/remove programs), nor search. but the old programs came back that I had recently deleted. Any clues?

thanks for all your help. I don't like to use the age factor but I'm 68 and good thing there are no guns around here with this computer. so I really need all the help I can get, and in a first grade manner. I'm newbie status. later - Dar

 

Re: help needed with scandisk and more

What do you mean? "Norton firewall is screaming at all the other firewalls"? You should only have one firewall operating at a time. Go to Start-->Run. Type in "msconfig", without quotes, if using W9x or ME. Press <enter>, then go to Startup tab and uncheck any firewalls you have running. Keep one checked and uncheck the rest, for the time being. If you use XP there is a more appropriate command then msconfig. XP users please step in.

As regards MaxMem, I don't know what you may have done. You may not have selected it to automatically run at startup. Check to see if there is an icon on your startup screen. If so, double click on it and a square black box should appear down near the time, bottom right of your screen. As a last resort, go to Start-->Find (or Search), enter maxmem.exe then <enter>. It will find MaxMem.exe, if loaded on your PC. Doubleclick when it finds maxmem.exe (probably only one entry). That will run it and black box should appear down by the time. Bazza.

PS: I'm getting close to 68 myself, but have an advantage. I've been using pC's for over 20 years. Baz

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Thanks for all your help Bigbazza

I seem to have my Outlook Express back and working. of course this has been the same 2 days that my server has been down for maintenance, or off and on.

so on MaxMem - I found it, doubleclicked and got the black box. when I rebooted it all disappears. then I have to find it again, double clikc and so on. so what's the next step to make that stay there? black box on corner. when it was up, it showed RAM at 49% and also 250 - which would be right.

Again, thanks for the courteous help. Dar www.afamilyjournal.com

 

Just to repeat part of my last post.

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As regards MaxMem, I don't know what you may have done. You may not have selected it to automatically run at startup. Check to see if there is an icon on your startup screen. If so, double click on it and a square black box should appear down near the time, bottom right of your screen. As a last resort, go to Start-->Find (or Search), enter maxmem.exe then <enter>. It will find MaxMem.exe, if loaded on your PC. Doubleclick when it finds maxmem.exe (probably only one entry). That will run it and black box should appear down by the time. Bazza

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2 ways to do it. Create a shortcut on your startup screen and click on it when start your PC, or set it up to start automatically each time you use your PC. I won't go into how to set it up here. May I suggest that if you don't know here to set up either way, ask someone who has a PC to help. If no help available let me know and I will detail how to.
Having someone looking over your shoulder whilst they explain to you how to do it is the best way of learning. Bazza

PS: I run MaxMem twice, one after the other, (this gives maximum free memory), then close it as it sometimes clashes with other running programs. Baz. I use W98SE.

 

Once more, thank you so much. Little by little I'm getting this fixed with your help.

My next problem seems to be Outlook Express. 1. There are no titles for Delete, Print, etc buttons on the tool bar at top of screen. I've checked all the options and can't seem to find anything that would replace those tool bar words. The buttons work, they just don't have words on them. 2. the computer hangs up each time I try to get out or close OE. sometimes error messages show, sometimes not. all messages seem to be different.

Is there somehow I can "repair" OE? OE is not listed in my "add/delete programs" listing, should it be?

Thank you. Dar www.afamilyjournal.com

 

Dar, I don't use OE so someone else please butt in. Baz

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