In need of help please.

Hi there,

I have a Packard Bell pentium 111, and running windows 98 on it.
As soon as i open up any programmes on my computer the system resources drops really low, especially if i have yahoo or msn messenger open, it dropped to 12% last night and a box opened telling me my computer was about to stop. my C drive is showing up as empty, which is quite puzzling in itself: confused I had to turn it off myself and then on again, scan disk started and then stopped with a message saying that they had found an extra large file but could not fix it and to try windows scan disk, which i did, but it couldn't start, another box came up saying that Windows or another programme has been writing to this drive :confused
I have tried defragging but it gets to 0% and thats as far as it gets, i have tried leaving it for quite a few hours but still nothing happens.

Please any advice welcome.

kriss.

 

Have you tried booting into DOS (like from a Win98 start up floppy) and running ScanDisk from there? You could also try using a 3rd party program to defrag. I could only find one defragger that will (hopefully) run on Win98: http://www.majorgeeks.com/Diskeeper_Lite_d1207.html I know that Win98 has a system file checker or verification type tool built-in, but I don't remember how to get there. I think it's in System Infornation and under the Tools tab.... maybe give that a shot....

...and Welcome to MajorGeeks! :major

 

help

 

Kriss,

Run ScanDisk in DOS by going to Start, Shut Down, Restart in DOS. At the C:\Windows prompt, type SCANDISK and press Enter. You can also select a hard-drive surface scan from here.


When finished running ScanDisk in DOS, type EXIT and press Enterr to return to Windows.

Let us know if that helps or not.

 

Hi, have just tried to run scandisk in Dos and it said that :

There is not enough Free Conventional memory to check the Drive and something about REM some device driver and may need to load EMM386.exe driver to load other device drivers into the upper memory blocks.

what does all that mean. :confused

any advice please.

kriss.

 

It means that there is not enough memory space for the program to run. The bit about REMing out device drivers refers to stuff in a couple of files called autoexec.bat and config.sys. The EMM386.exe file it talks about is an Extended Memory Manager. It's all a bit old fashioned (like me ) and I wouldn't worry about it.

Try booting to DOS again and typing CHKDSK/f

This will check the HD for errors and fix any it finds.

 

Hi

Have just tried putting CHKDSK/f into DOS and it refused to do it, saying that it had to be done by scandisk.

I have never been told off by a computer before. LOL

What can i do now.

kriss.

 

Don't you just hate PCs that answer back and refuse to do what you want.

Ok We'll try running scandisk but from Safe Mode. Reboot the PC and as it boots up tap on the F8 key (this needs to be done before Windows actually starts to load. You will see a menu. Select Safe Mode. Allow it to boot. The colours etc will look horrible but don't worry about that. Then run scandisk (Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Scandisk).

Hopefully it will run from there. rolleyes

 

Just another question, when I tried to run scandisk in dos mode and it said that i didn't have enouth Free conventional memory to check the drive.

Is there a way of getting more conventional memory - sorry if this question sounds thick. but just wondered what to do about that particular problem.

regards,

kriss

 

bump

 

Howdy, can you tell us how much memory this machine has? As in RAM?

The other thing is the size of the hard disk. I've had problems with both that cause similar symptoms.

You can find both numbers by right clicking the mouse over the "My Computer" icon on the desktop.

 

Unfortunately it matters not one jot how much RAM you actually have because conventional memory is just the first 640Kb. The only way to increase what conventional memory you have available is to load device drivers in high memory.

To find out how much conventional memory you have you boot to DOS and type MEM/C/P.

To load drivers in the high memory you need to edit the config.sys file.
You need to add the line DOS=HIGH,UMB at the start of the file and modify any line that starts with the word DEVICE to read DEVICEHIGH.

 

OMG that sounds really complicated, i am not very brave with electrics.
where do i find the config system file yarwell.

kriss

 

Hi all, I have just ran scan disk successfully although very slowly, and it didn't appear to find anything wrong, but its so very very slow, i have just one programme open at the moment, which is this one Majorgeeks, and i have only 48% system rescources, if i try to open messenger i get a message saying that I am using 90% of my resources.

Any suggestion as to what can i do to free up my system resources. it takes ages to open up a single page.:confused

Thanks,


kriss.

 

Actually it does matter, we are talking 98SE here. Minimum 16 Meg, but the RAM to hard drive size determines whether the built in utilities in windows such as scan disk or defrage work or not. The symptoms would indicate the hard drive is large, or the RAM is small, so I'm trying to get some baseline numbers here.

It could easily be a RAM issue, that would be my first guess. Second guess is a corrupted OS. Like I've said, I've fought similar problems in the past, for me it was the hard drive was too large for the total amount of RAM.

It's not hard to look up, right click the mouse on the "My Computer" icon on the desktop. Both numbers will be displayed.

 

Hi

As requested I have checked the details in properties and it says that:-

RAM - 128
File system - FAT32
Capacity - 12.1 GB
Used space - 5.13 GB
Free Space - 6.96 GB

Regards,

kriss.

 

Those were the numbers we were looking for. They look good here, nothing wrong with you technical specs. Let me digest on them a while.

Do you have a virus scanner, and have you run a scan lately?

 

OK bill, thank you so much.

kriss.

 

I'll agree to disagree with you on that point I've just run scandisk on a system with just 5Mb of RAM and a 1Gb HD with only 60Mb of free disk space but with all device drivers loaded high so there was 603Kb of conventional memory.

If too small a cluster size has been allocated to the HD that can make a difference though.

 

I know their here, but could you suggest a RAM diagnostic. My current thought is a block of bad RAM somewhere.

@Kriss The reason I'm bringing this up is the computer is completely dependent on it's RAM, where it stores the programs it's running. I've never heard of bad ram not crashing with a blue screen of death, but there is always a first time.

 

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4226

Should work.

Get the floppy version.

 

Hi Adrynalyne.

Have just clicked on the link that you sent and tried to download the memory test, but it says its not free via the author site, and the only other dowloads are american and australian, does this matter ? are they free.

BILL and Yarwell

It also says that Drive C is not compressed and that the physical drive is 2.00 GB

Free space is 2.00 GB
used space is OK

Is this normal and should it be compressed or not.
kriss

 

Not sure what you are looking at, but memtest is open source and free.

The floppy link is at the bottom of the description at the link I gave you.

 

Two things to do

Firstly I would be suprised if a pc of that age had a single 128M memory stick.
This means that you can take them out, on at a time to see if there is a bad one.
To find this out download Everest, save the scan to a text file and post here.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

Secondly to check for bad drivers/malware

start>run>typein
msconfig

go the the startup tab and disable all

restart your pc

Does this make any difference?

(You can reverse this to re enable)

If it does, post a list of the things on your startup list.

 

View attachment Report.txt

Hope this is what you asked for studiot.

Also i had already disable a few items in startup, but wasn't sure about these so i left them on startup. they are
Scan registry
system tray
Loadpowerprofile 2
AVG7-CC
AVG7-EMC
AVG7-AMSVR
Zonelabs client
True vector

my system resources are at 47% and i have nothing open, only majorgeeks.

regards,

kriss.

 

Memory Module Properties:
Socket Designation BANK_0
Type DIMM, SDRAM
Speed 70 ns
Installed Size 128 MB
Enabled Size 128 MB

Sorry you are out of luck with the modules test. Any chance of a friend with a spare?

Do you have a Windows CD to go with this computer?

 

If that is a full list it is a very short one.

I see you have both AVG and Zone Alarm.

Older versions of these programs worked well with win98, how new are they.

In fact how did the problem arise? Is it recent? Did it happen after you installed something?

Try temporarily stopping first Zone Alarm then AVG.

 

Hiya,

What do you mean i am out of luck with the module test, and you ask if a friend has a spare What exactly are you referring too :confused

So what does it all mean - please explain.

Also which list are you referring too exactly, the text report or startup list.

Regards,

kriss.

 

OK Kriss, bathtime over,

I posted an extract from the everest report which shows you have a single 128M memory module. I was thinking that perhaps you had ,say, two 64M modules.
The simplest way to test anything is by substituting another. If you have two modules you can take one out, then the other and see if the problem disappears.
Of course since you can't do that I asked if you have any friends with a similar module you could borrow to perform the test.

My other comment was with reference to your startup list. It is commendably short.
You can't hurt Windows by disabling everything on the msconfig list - you don't get the option to disable any core system files.
In win 98 some of the configuration is contained in sys.ini and win.ini so the startup list is not as revealing as with XP.

You didn't say if you have or can borrow a 98 CD?

 

Hi and thanks for explaining things for me, yes i do have the original windows cd that came with the system.

I dont know of anyone who would let me borrow there Ram memory module.

my startup list as i said, obviously have a lot more on there, but I have disabled them to try to get more system resources.

Just one more thing. i did download yahoo messenger a couple of weeks ago, does that take a lot of resources, i have msn messenger too (neither one on startup though) and never run them both together, could it be to much for my system do you think.

Would more memory solve things if i could get some.

kriss.

 

Maybe I missed it, but why wasn't a ram test performed?

 

Hi Adrynalyne,

Yes i did a ram test and sent the text result here via attachment last night, look 6 posts down No. 1063996.

Kriss

 

I am beginning to get the impression that your system is just being overwhelmed by all you are asking of it.

Yes, Yahoo messenger, MSN messenger consume resources, do you also have the toolbars and google stuff?

Zone alarm with True Vector as well is another known resource hog.


Remember yours is a 600Mhz P3 pc with Win98. All this modern stuff is designed for five times that speed with better processors and later Windows.

Don't get me wrong, this is not a criticism. I am typing this on an 800Mhz P3 with Win 2000. I keep it 'lean and mean' by restricting the fluff stuff.

 

Well, see, memtest 86+ runs outside of windows, so I dont understnad how you could have saved results..?

Unless its an option Ive never seen before?

Edit: Thats simply a report from Everest about your hardware, not a memory test.

You also need to let it run several hours.

 

The picture you see posted by Adrynalyne is the result of me stepping on his corns.

I have just tested the Memtest86 download link he gave; here is a short extract with the full link for the floppy. It is only 69k - a bargain at $0.00 - So try it.

The download package is a bootable .iso file.
Floppy versions are available at the http://www.memtest.org/download/1.70/memtest86+-1.70.floppy.zip

 

Hiya,

When i click the link do i open or save it to computer ? and it says that winzip is not free but i can use the Evaluation version, is this correct and what do i do to start the test, which button do i press, sorry a bit confused with it all.

Do i click on the wizard to start it.

Regards,

kriss.

 

If you don't already use winzip I like this one (it's free)

http://www.extractnow.com/

You drag and drop the zip file into it and it unzips all the contens of the zip into a new folder.

:cool

 

Kriss,

Open a Dos Window, Type CHKDSk and then let me know it says is in each allocation unit please.

 

Hi Yarwell,, here is what you asked for:

12, 694, 968 kilobytes total disk space
7, 283, 824 kilobytes free

8, 192 bytes in each allocation unit
1, 586, 871 total allocation units on disk
910,478 available allocation units on disk

655,360 total bytes memory
392,272 total byes free

Kind Regards

Kriss.

PS. I had some more memory added but its not made that much difference.

 

So how did the memory test go?

 

Studiot,

I have the winzip memory test evaluation, but i don't know what or how to start the test. is it via the wizard :confused. it says, new, open, favourites,add, extract,view, checkout, and wizard, what do i do.

Could you make it novice clear please.

kriss.

 

In the screenshot below is a unzipped view of the contents of the zip file.

Note there is a file called readme.txt

Read it.
It contains the instructions. Unless you have access to Linux use the DOS instructions.

 

No surprise that the extra memory didn't do much in this instance.

It's those final couple of figures that are interesting. I've compared it with my Win98 system which has :
651,264 total bytes memory
611,072 total bytes free

You'll notice the difference in the second figure - this why you can't run scandisk.
On your hard drive in the top C:> directory do you have a file called autoexec.bat and a file called config.sys? If so what do they contain. Open them in Notepad to find out. Report back as to what you find.

Yargwel (that's with a "g" and only one "l")

 

Hi Yargwel,

I have opened C Drive, all i can see is autoexec.nav, autoexec001, autoexec 002, autoexe

Cannot see config systems

There is 64 items plus 17 hidden.

kriss.

 

You can also get to view and edit these crucial files by typing

sysedit into the run box

Another useful one for the run box is

msinfo

 

Studiot,

Thanks for the info, although i am not quite sure what i am looking for, i have typed sysedit in Run and its just brought up a few windows, its a little beyond me all of this.
and I also typed in
msinfo, it just made this terrible noise and then said that the path couldn't be found .

and the memory test needs some sort of floppy disk to start it. :confused

Thankyou anyway for your help.

kriss.

 

Yargy asked for your config.sys and autoexec.bat files. this will show them to you, amongst some others, called win.ini and sys.ini.

 

As studiot says the sysedit command will bring up the files I would like you to look at. If they are both empty (that is config.sys and autoexec.bat) then I would still like to know.

Yargwel

 

Hi yargwel,

Right not quite sure if they are empty, but following info

Config.sys

Files = 50
Buffers = 50
DOS = High umb
Lastdrive = Z
Device = c/windows HIMEM system/testmem.OFF

and

Autoexec.BAT

Bootup @ ECHO off
tv dumpflags = 8
tv dumpflags = 8

Clear as MUD to me. LOL

kriss