any cure for Win98?

[LeafWind]

So we got this new computer, and it was working great. Got the LAN set up, after the cable modem b0rked on us briefly.[nbsp][nbsp]So everything should be peachy, right?

Well, the darn puter won't stay running worth a d*mn![nbsp][nbsp]Every ten minutes, I swear, it locks up solid.[nbsp][nbsp]Even the old Ctrl-alt-del routine freezes.[nbsp][nbsp]

What is up with that?[nbsp][nbsp]Is this a Win98 problem?[nbsp][nbsp]I've never had problems like this with Win95.[nbsp][nbsp]Or might it be a hardware problem, or what?

one very frustrated customer
Shay
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[Bi4Be]

I know how you are feeling, my old puter did the same. :(

But now I have really freaky probs too. Whenever I do something the sound file (like a menu pooping up or when I select something from a menu) plays twice. ANd the computer will start processing something all by itself (no task manager or anything, it just works on something). It also checks for the A drive for abuot 2 minutes before shutdown, and alot of times freezes on the "Please wait while your computer shuts down" screen. First I thought it is some sort of virus or something, but my viral software (Command AntiVirus) doesn't pick up anything.

Have fun, tis' all the frustration that really gets to me...
-Bi4Be

[Stephen]

I too was pretty disappointed with Win98 when I got it a couple of weeks back. I had assumed it would work better than 95, so when it continued to crash (practically daily) I was cursing Microsoft even more than usual. Then someone pointed out to me that I should defrag the disk. I didn't even know what that meant (for the 3 Windows users out there who don't know, defrag means "to defragment your files"--fragmented files are written piecemeal to the disk in different places and it slows Windows down when they need to be read-to/written-to).

Fortunately there was a Norton utility called Speed Disk which defrags and the system now works considerably better--in the sense that it only crashes every other day now :) Well, I don't expect that a new computer would suffer from defragmentation, but for others who have been running Win95/98 for a while and haven't bothered to defrag recently, it might be time to check this out...

[Armand]

My biggest problems with Win98 tends to be I can't defrag (think Andrew mentioned a cure for that somewhere), themes don't work properly and causes gpf throughout my system.[nbsp][nbsp]Think the version I got has also some DLL problems, plus there's an intentional design flaw in the BIOS (cute!).[nbsp][nbsp]That's okay my sledgehammer just came in so I should have it fixed this coming week http://www.arcanumcafe.com/ubb/evilgrin.gif

[Justin]

I doubt it's a 98 issue, unless it's specifically incompatible with a piece of hardware or something... Mine rarely locks up - one thing to watch though - keep old software to a minimum, especially 16 bit stuff. You will want to avoid any DOS device drivers as most will force your hard disks into "compatability mode" slowing them down big time.

It's also a good idea to keep newer hardware - old non-PNP stuff can cause probs in 95 and 98, moreso in 98, as they dropped a lot of drivers that used to come with 95 so they could fit it on one CD and to make room for drivers for all the new hardware that's come out since 95. They also did away with some things all together - you may find it useful to dig through all the txt files that come on the CD, as this[nbsp][nbsp]is where they bury all the notes about what won't work with 98 that may have worked in 95. FAT 32 is to blame for a lot of it too, but I personally love FAT 32 - 4k clusters :)

Basically check with all of your hardware/software for 98 compatibility - some sound cards (especially creative labs cards) will need updated drivers - even if it was manufactured yesterday, because they still ship very old drivers with them (the CD's are already pressed). Network cards, modems (especially any HSP modem, such as a Winmodem), video cards, etc will all most likely have an updated driver or patch for 98 (which will improve performance from the device usually as well).

That's all I have for now - I'll think of more suggestions probably though :)[nbsp][nbsp]I hate problems that are hard to track - I am putting off upgrading because it took months to get Windows to behave the way I want her to, and now she actually does quite well - I reboot maybe once a week (had to replace a fan today though hehe) and run mp3's in the background all day :)

I'm probably the only one in the world that would say this, but I do love Win98 - sorry, but once I got her acting right she's way better than 95 :D

Justin

[Justin]

Ok, on the issue of defragging, here's my weekly routine (for which I'm about 2 or 3 months behind):

1) Reboot the computer
2) Run a Scandisk
3) Full virus scan
4) Defrag (after closing everything - ICQ, and anything in the system tray, etc)
5) Reboot again

Then all is fast and smooth again for another week of torture :)[nbsp][nbsp]It has been a while though, and I've been installing and uninstalling a lot of stuff lately - I think I'll do it tonight :D

If you have probs defragging, make sure EVERYTHING is closed - I don't know why the toolbar would cause problems, and I never close it (that's what Terra recomends) because when I do and bring it up later the buttons are then in alphabetical order. Just don't click on any of the buttons :)

Also, I think if you are really low on memory and Windows is using a swap file, that would ruin the defrag as well - which is why I reboot first to make sure any leaked memory, etc, is freed up... if nothing else, if you have more than one hard drive, you can set Windows swap file to D:\ and defrag C:\ and vice versa - but if this is necessary, better invest in some memory :)

Justin
- Pretty fly (for a white guy)
[This message has been edited by Justin (edited 05-13-99)]

[Jacob Stetser]

Jeepers.

You have to defrag every week?

Oh wait, you do a lot of music stuff and need to make sure things are spickety-span.

I just upgraded to Mac OS 8.6 and it's yet another solid release from those guys in Cupertino :)

Linux is a good cure for Win98, btw! ;)

I've been playing with a couple other things from Apple, now that I've got my developer membership- Mac OS X Server, which is a great BSD Unix-based system. According to benchmarks, it's better than Linux at serving web pages :) (although, we all know benchmarks can be manipulated, and I think Terra said it well when he said he could serve 1000s of clients off a single server if everything was static- as it was in the benchmarks)...

Next version of the Mac OS will be a true multi-user OS with file-level encryption and everything! I've been playing with that too, and though at alpha 3 it's **** buggy, I still like it.

But I'm waiting for Mac OS X. Not that I hate Windows- in fact, I'm running it in Virtual PC in the background right now- but I have used both and I work more efficiently on the Mac than I do in Windows.

I just wish Allaire HomeSite would port!

As for web stuff, Linux/UNIX is the way to go :)

Eh, anyhow, there's a cure for ya ;) Go Mac :o

I just wanted to babble. Got started because of wondering why Justin had to defrag so often. I do use a virus-checker... checks on every shutdown!

P.S. I am a complete and total BSD klutz and I haven't got Mac OS X Server to crash yet. hmph.
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[Mandi]

Not to cause panic . . . but I started having this exact same problem on my Dell Win98 laptop (after 3 months of perfect service) - the only way out of the freeze was to drop the battery.[nbsp][nbsp]Next symptom was frozen boots.[nbsp][nbsp]Cure was a new motherboard, which I SAID to the Dell folks about 30 seconds after I dropped it at their service desk (I lived near Austin) but it still took them 3 weeks to diagnose, order (uh, isn't THIS the factory???) and repair.

Someone please tell me their lack of belief in my original statement is NOT because I am short, female, and occasionally post dumb questions on FQ forums . . .

[pqwabbit]

arh man my prob with win98 is it keep needlessly fillinhup my ram grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!! and yes it does freeze and crash at time *#^$(#^$ and I do have an update for an OLE fix (for the freezing problem)that shows up on my Oil change screen but the link is bad -

You sure the system isnt overheating - cuz man thats what mine would do before I got the fan and heatsink.
I also found that its related to the ram eating - so if i keep an eye on the ram usage and free it up whe it gets low it doesnt happen - altough it;s really anoying - grrrr windows shouldnt do that (#$&&()#(# and I dont know how to fix it
:/

Lea
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[LeafWind]

Thanks everyone.

Shaytar didn't mention this, but when I first turned this on, after only doing a little to get my display the way I wanted (and yes, rebooting afterward), it kept freezing while I was playing Freecell and Solitaire![nbsp][nbsp]This was before installing anything on it.

Have since downloaded and installed new mouse drivers, since it kept asking me for them, but the problem has remained.

However, I have noticed that every time it freezes, is when I am moving the mouse accross the screen.[nbsp][nbsp]I am posting from the puter in question now, by not using the mouse at all.[nbsp][nbsp]When it started up, I just moved it to a corner and have been running everything via the windows keys on the keyboard, and lots of tabbing (do you know how many tabs it is to get from the top of this page down to the reply link??)

So far so good, but still, not good enough.[nbsp][nbsp]Once I've had my coffee (and finished this little mouse-less test), I'm going to call up the store and "talk" to them about it.[nbsp][nbsp]

It's a custom build, and we did reseach the various parts for compatibility before ordering.[nbsp][nbsp]AMD 400 chip, 4.3 Maxtor HD, ASUS Mainboard, 128 RAM, ATI Expert 98 8Mb Video Card, Creative Labs sound card, and yes, a fan and heatsink, too.

For what it's worth, I have defrag'ed, and run the resource monitor thing (it doesn't seem to get lower than 77% in any of the sections), and it doesn't change how much it crashes -- the mouse seems to be the culprit there.

Again, thanks everyone, and any more input is always welcome.

Bekariso[nbsp]
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Growing web sites that thrive in the winds of change.

[LeafWind]

Well, we took it in to the shop, and of course it wouldn't freeze there, so there wasn't much he could do to tell what the problem was.[nbsp][nbsp]However, he replaced the 400 AMD CPU with a 380 (cuz they didn't have another 400 in stock), and told us to try it with this.[nbsp][nbsp]

So far so good . . . if this is the problem, I'll just take it in next week and get the new 400 installed (it's on order).[nbsp][nbsp]If this one shows problems too, they'll replace the MB and RAM, too.[nbsp][nbsp]All under warranty, of course, but annoying none the less.

Well, here's hoping.[nbsp][nbsp]Guess it wasn't Win98 after all . . .

Bekariso



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www.LeafWind.com (http://www.LeafWind.com)
Growing web sites that thrive in the winds of change.

[Justin]

Jake,

Yeah, mp3's are my problem :)[nbsp][nbsp]When you extract raw wave files where 1 minute == 10 megs, you end up with about 400 megs or more of music for only like 7 or 8 songs. Then you compress them to mp3 and reduce it by about 10 fold or better, there's just a lot of data moving around. Add that to the fact that I have an old, small, slow hard drive and the need for defragmentation is pretty great.

That and I run a lot of little stuff constantly along with Apache/PHP/Perl/MySQL in the background all the time - I just like knowing that I am one of few people in the world using my CPU to it's fullest - I know people who go get a PII 450 and don't do anything with it - like people who drive a Corvette at 30 MPH - such a waste :)[nbsp][nbsp]I'm in my Buick but darnit it's floored hehe :)

Justin

[Daniel]

I was having a load of problems when I first started using win98 as well, tried reformatting and everything to no avail. I found a patch file someone wrote that puts some extra vxd files or something that win98 is supposed to install but usually doesn't, ran that, and have had very little problems for awhile now. The zipped file is only like 2k if anyone wants it email me (danielm@fast.net) and I will either mail it or post it somewhere.
good luck,
Daniel

[Terra]

like people who drive a Corvette at 30 MPH
Ummmm, Welcome to Florida -- they live in the left lane...

--
Terra
--Why yes officer, I do own the road - I have the paperwork in here somewhere--
FutureQuest