computer slows the longer it's on

[Compubrian]

My computer slows down the longer it's on (w/o re-booting). I've also noticed that the clock is off during this time. When I re-boot, the clock resets to the correct time and it runs good again. If this is any clue, the pause at the "Checking DMI Pool" part of the boot seems to take unusually long. Here's the set-up:
Soltek SL-75DRV2 (Tom's recommended 266A board of course)
AMD 1.7 gig (O/C'd to just 1.8) w/256K DDR Antec Case w/300w p.s. Geforce2 MX400(woefully inatiquite)
Farallon 10/100(for cable)and a Intel phoneline net card.
Running w/ a clean install of Win98SE (OEM ver.)
I was thinking it was BIOS settings. Possibly related to the enery saving features, because it will occasionally not "wake up" either. But I don't know which ones to disable/modify. Please help.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by compubrian on 10/28/02 05:04 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[vetplus40]

Possible heat problem.Make sure your fans are running,and they are not covered in dust,and lint.Remove the cover from the case,and see if that helps.There are other suggestions as well,but these are the easiest to check intially.

If ya don't ask..How ya gonna know.

 

[Compubrian]

I was wondering if I should put that down too. Its got a top of the line heatsink & fan combo, 2 case fans and one came on the northbridge too. Plus, like most geeks, I still haven't put on the cover. But it's still relitively dust-free...

 

[snotling]

blame it on win98.

even with all the patches and updates, it's still a crappy OS go for win2k (or XP if you're not allergic). Your problem is most likely with virtual memory files getting messed up and processes hangging.

If you want to hang on with win98 try specifying your memory settings instead of having windows do it for you.

twice the amount of ram you have is a rough gess that has proven right in the past. It won't solve your problem but might lessen it!
-----------------
The price of a new CPU: 200$
The amount he spent on cooling stuff: 600$
the look on his face while I ran my Old Athlon 1ghz with an UNPLUGGED RETAIL BOX Heat sink... for 3 days of LAN partying...with no failure : Priceless!

 

[Compubrian]

It might be OS-related, but my old K7/750 didn't have this problem.It had all the same software (except for a few new progs)as this. Plus, this happens about every three days of my just surfing the net and playing a cheesy Yahtzee game. Wouldn't think that would be too taxing. Especially since theres just a few progs in the tray too.

 

[snotling]

If a win98 box only crashes every 3 days of being "always on" I think that can be considered "above average reliability"

on the other hand, you're mentioning that Yathzee game, would you know if it's a 16 bit program? 16 bit under win98 is at best functional.

Is your IExplorer up to date? (even if you use another browser IE goes deep enough in windows to make it an essential update)

 

[Compubrian]

Man, the ol' 750 was WAY above average then!
I'd assume the Yahtzee game is 32bit it's less than a year old.I hate to admit, but it was those ones that came free on a box of cereal. Hey it's a great way to burn some time while waiting for a slow page load. I believe I updated and it caused some problems.....brain stall....I just can't remember... I might of changed back to an earlier version.

 

[Crashman]

You need a memory manager like RamIdle to recover RAM that is no longer in use by programs. This program has allowed me to have uptimes of up to 2 months under 98SE. Which makes 98SE as reliable as XP...as long as you have a super stable system to run it on.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

 

[johnoh]

If its the fault of win98 its easy to fix. As said before it is probably memory loss. I like the freeware program memory.exe by Network DLS. I can't get the link to post but you can get it at download.com. I like it because it takes up almost no memory itself. All it does is tell you how much free memory you have. Just watch and see if your free memory decreases over a few days. If so, ram recoverers like Ramidle and FreeRamxp are in order.

Also make sure you use the setting

conservativeswapfileusage=1

as a line under [386enh] in system.ini. You can edit system.ini yourself or just run <A HREF="http://download.com.com/redir?pid=6965814&merid=74055&mfgid=74055<ype=dl_dlnow&lop=link&edId=3&siteId=4&oId=3002-20-6965814&ontId=20&destUrl=http://www.easycoolsoftware.com/software/Cmpro12.exe" target="_new">cachemaster.</A> Its on the options menu. This setting forces win98 to use up all ram before swapping to disk.







John A

 

[Crashman]

I think Ramidle works by trying to detect which memory addresses are taken up by inactive programs and sending those to the swap file, so physical RAM can be used by running processes.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

 

[Compubrian]

I used "CacheMaster" and all I can say is "WOW". Although it hasn't stood the test of time yet, the performance gain is definately noticeable. I guess that means I was posting "off topic". I thought for sure it was the BIOS or power management stuff. Thanks to all who contributed! I think this problem is solved. Nevertheless, I think I will get another 256 stick of memory some day soon...

 

[johnoh]

The only noteworthy difference between winxp and win98 that leading edge computer users need to be aware of is that winxp is the current method that Bill is using to control the world whereas win98 is a discarded method. That means we should jump on win98.

In 2002 win98 is the best freeware available. Long live the land of the free.

John A

 

[jihiggs]

2000 is far superior to 98.

how do you shoot the devil in the back? what happens if you miss? -verbal

 

[snotling]

Bill Gates is filthy rich, and if he thinks winXP is a better plan to conquer the world then I might as well use it myself and try conquer the world as well... worked for him might work for me.

Second, Win98 is in no way free if it is free to you then someone else paid it in your name or you are a pirate, a thief. That's hard fact.

third, from your point of view win2K sounds just as "free" (not copy protected) as win98. A much better product if you ask me.

Last but not least, people like you made Ms a monopoly. Plain and simply because no-one would PAY for a competing product when they ca "get" the most popular one "from a friend" so be it OS2 or any Linux Distribution BeOS... name it, Joe Average will not buy because he has windows "for free" why would he want anything else? It's what "Everyone" uses.

thank for your time.

 

[johnoh]

Win98 is in no way free if it is free to you then someone else paid it in your name or you are a pirate, a thief. That's hard fact.

I have made a mistake, I see now. My point was that we all paid for win98 at one time. I bought 4 licenses. I keep upgrading or replacing my systems with new harware and transferring the OS over for "free". I do the same with my keyboards and cases. I continue to have 4 systems, all with old, valid win98 licenses. I don't see a reason to buy a new case every 12 months when I get a new cpu, nor do I feel a need to get a new os. If Gates came out with a new case for $100 that did something new and neat that made everyone buy it, I probably would not.

third, from your point of view win2K sounds just as "free" (not copy protected) as win98. A much better product if you ask me.

Glad you are happy with winxp. My whole point is that software seems free if you never upgrade it, but yes, you should pay for it once. We are very much on the same page when it comes to software piracy.

Last but not least, people like you made Ms a monopoly. Plain and simply because no-one would PAY for a competing product when they ca "get" the most popular one "from a friend

As I said before, I have never stolen a penny from MS. But is your point is that piraters (pirators?) made MS a monopoly by increasing its popularity? Is that your point? Just want to make sure.

BTW - the reason I like win98 is that I can control it better than winxp. Once you've learned an os for a few years you learn to make it more stable and with better performance and have to devote a decreasing percentage of your capacity to it. Overclocking hardware is fun because it gives you a cost/performance advantage over the average user. For the same reason, its cool to have an old os that works like a champ while everyone else shells out $100 every 18 months.


John A

 

[snotling]

This topic is not Chipset related but I need to apologize, your statement mislead me to think you were a pirate.

this said, my point is in fact that Software Piracy was and remains at a lesser degree a factor in MS's success.

Way back when msdos 3.0 came out, the PC was a verry diffrent machine, and almost all machines sold for personal use came without software.

back then, the IBM PC itself had serious competitors, plateforms that could have captured the market and the world would be a lot different today. Apple for an example had it's product.

Only a small portion of the general public was a potential "home" PC buyer. the business PC was the main product.

MSDOS disquettes went hand to hand, as did the ancestors of the software we use today and Many of the big names of the industry made themselves known to the home user while the money came from the businesses.

Then came Win95. So easy so cute that even the dumbest could learn to play solitaire on it. PC sales went up, the Home Pc was on its way to glory.

the picture quickly became the opposite of what it was:

the home user, still "borrowing" programs from the office and passing them on to his friends and family perpetuated the myth that software was acquired through contacts. Yet the USER made it clear to the BUSINESS that Win95 was the way to go.

Businesses bought new boxes and bought win95, MS made money almost every PC sold had a legal or illegal copy of win95. The wisest of us bought it without as we could borow it easily for FREE.

Given choice, between buying a compeeting OS, that you don't know how to use or having one you know for free, is it realy a choice? roughly 30% of win95 installations were illegal copies, but they made it popular, they made it go into large offices, the governments: everywhere.

then came the CD burners...

the point is at that time, piracy would have made any OS out with the right features and good marketting a must have for home and work alike. because it's timing was right, it.s features were present and it's Marketting was good MS gave to pirates The product that made them a monopoly.

How many of us Use an old version or a copy of an MS product instead of a legit or latest version of a competing product.

msOffice97 instead of wordperfect office 2002 (60% of the retail cost of msOffice2002) a copy of msOffice2000 instead of star Office 6.0 (20% of the retail cost of msOffice2002)

that's how big pirates have made MS

 

[Denzien]

Should we also explore the fact that Apple/Macintosh kept its OSs proprietary so that only their hardware could run their software? I believe the big catalyst to the success of MS-DOS is that Microsoft kept the rights to their software so that not ONLY IBM machines were allowed to use it as was the case with Apple/Macintosh and it's OS. This means that any processor with similar/identical instructions could run the MS-DOS OS and therefore could run the same software as the more expensive IBM machines. This broke down IBMs monopoly (if you consider them having had one) and made "IBM clones" very popular. IBM clones of course ran Microsoft's Disk Operating System (Which was derived from DOS 1.0, a FREEWARE OS whos rights were bought out by Friendly Mr. Gates). IBM tried to counter by developing their "PC-DOS", but MS-DOS was too well developed because all of Microsofts' resources were concentrated on the refinement and augmentation of their operating system, no hardware. When PC-DOS 4.0 was in use, Microsoft had MS-DOS 5.0. If you are a consumer, legit or pirate, which OS are you going to acquire? PC-DOS 4.0 or MS-DOS 5.0?

Furthermore, users who are rather computer illiterate that learn an operating system tend to stay with that operating system if at all possible because they don't understand computing in general; change is bad! That is a big factor in the failure of OS/2 and other operating systems.

Piracy may have helped MS to some small degree, but it hurts them just as much. Piracy is not moral and is more the root of any company's downfall than it ever has been a proponant for a company's success. If there never was the notion of software piracy, MS would still be a monopoly, I can guarantee you.

Sorry for the off-topicness

 

[snotling]

Like I said, Any other OS could have taken the market if it's timing had been right. MS had the best timing and all the features the public wanted.

Piracy was a big player in creating the monopoly because it amplified the spreading of win95. as there was no other OS good enough to be pirated. without piracy the market might have considered a cheaper choice or an alternate route. because there would havec been much less win95 boxes it would not have standarized the computing world as effectively as it did.

so much for hurting business, I would like to hurt like MS does... life seems so hard back there. If my biggest worry was to be juged a monopoly I might even sleep better!

but it does hurt others, those who's sales are low, because they are not alone in their worlds.

each copy of MS office that is pirated is a Corel (WP) suite that is not sold... who hurts the most here?

If Adobe started bundling a word processor and a spreadsheet program with photoshop and Acrobat, Pirates would cary the bundle further than adobe's own marketting and MSoffice sales would slowly got down as business buying the bundle might stop paying for ms office.

the more people use your product, the more you sell. but it's not a 1:1 ratio