Slow Computer

First, "meet the minimum requirements" means the program/game will run, not necessarily very well, but it will run. You also have to take into account that if a program/game asks for 128MB RAM, it needs that much FREE memory to run. If you have 128MB RAM total, Win98 and other processes can easily be using up half of that already which doesn't leave much for your game.

Since you're a gamer, you should upgrade your RAM to at least 256MB, preferably 512MB. Check your motherboard or computer documentation for specifics on upgrading your memory.

Check to see if you have a bunch of programs starting up with Windows. Check each program's options/preferences menues to see if you can tell them NOT to start with Windows. You can also use the System Configuration Utility
Start | Run... | msconfig
And uncheck any programs not needed on startup.

Also do a thorough virus scan and get Ad-aware 6 to get rid of any nasties that may be hindering your system performance.

URL's for Ad-aware and help with msconfig:
www.lavasoftusa.com
www.geocities.com/greyknight17/startup_list.htm

Hi,
Guard for static as you shut down and reseat all cards and your RAM. Just jiggle them in their slots a bit to freshen your connections and be sure they are seated properly.
I keep one hand on the case when I do this for my customersso I will not static anything.
??? When you formated and reinstalled did you remove the MBR [Master boot record ] from the HD or did youy use a 98se boot disk.
I use the HD manufacturers boot disk which you can download from their websites. I do so to get a full and clean format of a HD before I install or reinstall.
Install your OS [98se] and next install the Mother Board drivers from their disk. Then install the video drivers. Then install the sound drivers. Then any otherdrivers needed; Modem, LAN, USB, and so forth.
While you have the RAM out note the MFG and speed ie; pc133 by kingston as one of your best upgrades would be to boost the RAM to 192 mg which is what 98se benches best at.
Note that 98, 98se, and ME all have problems with more than 511 mg ram. I install 192 on my customers [data] and 384 on my customers [gamers].
I say double the spec requirements of programs and games. It helps alot.
If this does not help, post back in comment
and I will see it.
Have fun and enjoy.
fred

Updating DirectX, and installing the latest driver from nVidia may be what is needed.

DirectX comes from Microsoft either using Windows update, or as a separate download.

The GeForce driver can be found at www.nvidia.com

I recommend that you NOT update to IE6. I have seen IE6 slow down many W98 systems.

Next, boot into safe mode and run scandisk and defrag.
Even from the restore disks, your drive could be fragmented which can slow your PC down.

As far as extra RAM, have you tried the on-line stores at either www.crucial.com or www.kingston.com ?
While I know that many OEM computers use RAM that you cannot by at the local electronics store, both Crucial and Kingston usually have compatible RAM for most systems.

Keep in mind, that W98 can have a problem with too much RAM. I have seen W98 systems slow down with 512MB of RAM installed.
I limit my 9X PCs to 384MB of RAM.

Chas

All above is good, the only other suggestion I can make is to laod a memory management program like Memturbo (www.MemTurbo.com). I always load a memory management program on EVERY MS Windows machnie that I build as Windows suffers badly from memory leakage. When you open and close programs they do NOT always clear out all the memory spaces that they used, and thus less is available for the next program. Do this enough times and you have no memory available, despite having none in use.

A goodmemory management program can be set to automatically clear memory when it gets down to a certain point; I also have it run just before I switch to a game (to ensure I got plenty of RAm available). It will also tell you how much working RAM you haveand how much is avialable.

two other possible points:

1. One RAM chip may be slightly faulty and not have all its RAM available for use anymore.

2. The BIOS may have a setting that sets aside RAM for various purposes and one of those settings may have changed, thus reducing available RAM. This is a common problem with motherboards that have on-board capabilities for sound or video etc.

Part 1
Hi,

I will start with your age, 16. While this may not offer you much time for experience, it has been my experience that those of your age have adapted very quickly and very well to the computer environment. You lack the "fear" of doing something wrong as opposed to older computer users. This allows the freedom to "experiment" and thus enhance your knowledge that older users seem reluctant to try.

You are also a "gamer". Gamers, by nature, seek speed tweaks that get the most out of a system, stability sometimes sacrificed. Learning these "tweaks" usually allows the gamer to become vastly more knowledgeable about their system than the average user. I use these points to stress that your age may indicate a lack of experience, but not a lack of knowledge. This being said, let us see if we can correct your speed problems.
I have noted that your system and games gradually lost performance over time. This is normal. Reloading the OS improved the system performance. This too is normal. Since reloading cost you game performance as prior to the reload, I suspect that drivers and patches are your primary performance issue with games. You do not state what you have done regarding this and this is your most likely culprit. Try these suggestions, if you have not already done so:
..... continued

Part 2

1. Installed the motherboard chipset drivers and any updates. These are vital for system performance.
2. Download and install all the applicable Windows updates and patches. As TheChas has said, IE 6 will slow down a system with your present configuration. Use IE 5.5 instead. Also avoid any downlaods that slow system performance or are needed for your installation. There is a summary of what each download is used to correct or enhance. Get the latest DirectX, as suggested.
3. Ensurethat you have the correct drivers installed for all of your hardware. The correct video and sound drivers will be crucial for how you use your system. The latest drivers from nVidia should work fine for the video.
4. Get the latest updates and patches for your games and check their websites for any known issues with your system configuration and corrections for them.
5. Check the settings that your video card is using. Some games may want you to turn off harware acceleration or adjust other settings. Check these out.

I hope this helps.

Hi and Let me see if I have this correct.
After about 20 minutes of fine playing you are experiencing a slowdown and "chattering" on your game??
If the above is true then I would look to a heat problem from a faulty fan on the CPU or Power Supply.
If you are running good to fine for 20 minutes and then your problems are starting PLEASE close this question and post a new question that states the amount of time before your problem starts. It truly makes a difference in troubleshooting fo know any time lags within the problem as it sets forth a different solution.
When you close this one add in each responders comment the name of the new question.
Thank You, fred

The symptoms you are describing sound like alot of files, logs, and cache that are not getting cleaned out. When you allow log files and such to accumalate this will slow your system down as it reads everyone of them as the program is loaded. By running a program like Window Washer, this will clean out these file, next defrag your system on a regular basis. And as mentioned before increase your RAM the least you want for what you're doing is 512 meg. 256 will do but not as well.
Good Luck

Yes, the root cause of your performance problems may be IE6.

Here is a link to a Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

http://tinyurl.com/bzd0

If that does not work, check out the additional information in FAQ 1 at this site:

http://www.mvps.org/inetexplorer/

To download IE5.5, go to the browser archive at www.evolt.org

If you use Outlook Express for e-mail, make sure to back up your messages and address book before un-installing IE6.
It seams that you can only export the messages to Outlook or Exchange.

You might want to give the Mozilla browser a try. It is less of a download than any version of IE.

A memory manager can help keep your PC running if you have further problems.
What it does, is clean up the left over files that are in memory from memory leaks.

You must have a PC that uses some very unique RAM modules if the sites I gave you do not have any options for you.
I have yet to find a PC that I could not upgrade the RAM on. But, I have several boxes of RAM to choose from.

Chas

Point value changed by question poster.

a few things i didnt notice mentioned... how much hard drive space are you using at the moment? if you are filled up to less then 2 - 3 gigs it could definately cause a slowdown if you have not defragmented in a while. you can find a lot of defragmenters at zdnet.com. next you mentioned freelancer and neverwinter nights so im assuming you play online? if thats the case what kind of a connection do you have? the drivers for your modem or network card could also cause slowdown. as noted before update your drivers for audio, video, and all windows drivers. www.nvidia.com will work for your Geforce. You didnt mention the audiocard but id assume its creative which can be found at creative.com. that should help a bit until you can boostyour ram up with the new motherboard. also if you are running online games what programs do you run in the background? id close any instant messengers etc.

To make defrag work, start your computer in safe mode and run it from there...it will be very slow, but it will work. Since you've recently formatted and installed from scratch though I really doubt defrag will net you any noticable gains.

Make sure you have all your critical updates from windows update.

Make sure you have all the correct drivers.

Your computer is 4 years old, you can work fine for awhile, but it seems to slow down whenever things get hectic and your computer has to do alot of porcessing. Your enemy in this situation is heat. Your processor fan (or possibly case fan, maybe even GPU fan if you have one) is dead or dying...when things get intense processing increases, thus heat increases...not being able to pull the heat away quickly enough causes a heat buildup which slows processing down...fortunately you haven't roasted your CPU yet.

Crack open the case and start up the PC...see if any of the fans are not moving or are moving slowly. Replace whatever is broken. You could test this by setting a box fan on the floor next to your tower and blow cool air right into the open side (your room will probably get dusty initially...might want to clean the dust out first), then go beat on it...see if the problem is lessned...this is not a fix, merely a way to test it.

being on a cable modem i would most definately update your network card drivers. not knowing what card you have i cant give you a specific site for them. do you notice the slowdown if you play in single player mode? after you defrag check single player mode in a couple games. then if you know your network card check its site for updated drivers. if you dont pop your case open take a look at it and write down the name and model. it might be built into your motherboard in which case you mayneed to go to the motherboards website to find the correct drivers...

Check hard drive.

I want this resolved so ive boosted the points

If you have a 4-year old hard drive, the drive is most likely starting to fail. When it is sitting cold and you first start it up, it works great. After it starts to heat up, performance slows, sometimes so bad that you can't even play. If you rebuilt and re-installed everything from scratch and you still have performance problems, I can't see how it's anything but aging hardware. (I know this isn't the answer you wanted to hear!) Try this: unplug your box and open up the case. You will be amazed at the amount of dust that has built up! Ground yourself and get out the vacuum and clean out all that dust. Too much dust in the system can jam up the CPU fan, power supply fan, and generally restrict your airflow around the components like the video card and the hard drive. Leave the cover off and fire it back up. (Point a house fan at it if you can.) If you STILL have problems, it's not heat and almost for sure an aging hard drive. Try running checkdisk (right-click 'C',|properties|tools|error checking) and set it to 'automatically fix file system errors' and 'scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors'. Then run de-frag after that. If it still hangs on de-frag, you may have un-reparable drive sector errors. But after 3-4years, the drive just isn't going to give you the performance it once did when it was new. You may just need a new drive.

This question was closed by the author