Desktop

Windows 98 and ME only support 512 MB of RAM. What memory configuration got you to 352 MB? In any case, that should be plenty for normal application use. You should also note that applications showing up in the system tray do not necessarily mean that those are the only processes running. Have you run a virus scan with a current pattern file? (http://housecall.trendmicro.com is free) Also, have you run spyware scanner on your PC? (Ad-Aware from www.lavasoftusa.com is also free)

I really need a little more information to answer your question. My question would be "Are you getting messages that you are low on system resources? If so, what are you doing when you get these messages?"

There is a "bug" in the core W9X code that can cause problems with more than 511MB of RAM installed.

The bug is VERY configuration dependant. Some systems work fine with 1GB of RAM.
Others will not boot, or slow to a crawl with 512MB installed.

Benchmark tests have shown "optimum" performance for W98 with 196MB of RAM.

I install no more than 384MB on my W9X boxes.

I would add at least 128MB of RAM, and see what that does.
I assume that your motherboard uses SDRAM DIMMs.
If so, make sure that you can return or exchange whatever memory you buy.
Many older motherboards have limits as to the SDRAM technology that will work in them.
The SDRAM specification has evolved over the years.
Your motherboard may require single density DIMMs, or a specific clock line configuration.

If the major vendors such as Crucial, Kingston, or PNY list your PC, you might want to go with there RAM.

Other causes of slow-downs:
Insufficient free hard drive space.
For virtual memory to function properly, you need a minimum of 512MB of free hard drive space.
You can free up space by deleting files that are over 2 weeks old from the C:\Windows|Temp folder.
And, by clearing your temporary internet files.

IE 6 or DirectX 9 with a video card that does NOT support DirectX 9.

Windows itself.
Over time, the registry and system files grow too large for the PC to function efficiently.
The answer, is to wipe the hard drive, and re-install Windows.
I usually re-install W98 every 2 to 3 years.
If you install a lot of software, you may see a benefit of re-installing W98 every 6 months.

Chas

Windows 9.x System Resources article:

Windows Memory & Resources are two entirely different things. Main memory or RAM (Random Access Memory) refers to physical memory that is internal to the computer.

System resources are areas of memory that are used by the input manager (USER.EXE) and the graphic display interface manager (GDI.EXE) for keeping track of all of the windows that are open in a session and for drawing objects on the screen. Owing to their fundamental nature, the performance of these programs has been improved by limiting their data to a single 64Kb segment of DOS memory (the Intel processors can access data from a 64Kb segment much faster than from a wider area). If either of these segments becomes full, programs may fail to load and Windows may become unstable - regardless of how much other free memory there is.

Each application that is loaded, and each window and child-window that is open, consumes system resources. Typically an application consumes 2-8% of system resources, and each child-window consumes 1-2%. Certain programs (eg Print Manager and some TCP/IP communication programs are particularly bad culprits) are much more greedy for system resources than this. Closing an application should release its allocated system resources, but some software is not as well behaved as it should be and this release may not happen. If the free resources fall below about 10-15%, serious problems may be encountered and Windows should be restarted as soon as possible. These problems are somewhat less severe than they used to be because Windows 9.x manages system resources more intelligently than 3.x But it is still a very common cause of memory error messages and program crashes.

See link for the full description and illustrated examples.

Link:

http://www.windows-help.net/techfiles/win-resources.html

or tiny:

http://tinyurl.com/wsip

Do not increase RAM!!!
That is not the problem.
Open the System Configuration Utility
SEQUENCE= Start,Programs,Accessories,System Tools, System Information,(Click Mouse), Tools (Menue Item), System Configuration Utility,(Click Mouse), now select the tab labled Startup. (It is in the upper right hand corner.)
You will find a list of programs.
To find the culprit, start disabling programs, and rebooting, until you regain your resources.
Once you find the culprit, reenable the other programs , and update the culprit to a newer version.
You are going to learn something about what is running on your PC, from this experience.
Regards, Chris

How does someone get 352MB of RAM?

Is this PC Tech 101?

384MB minus 32MB for onboard graphics.