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W98 system often accesses hard drive

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by sginsc

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I have two Win98 systems (Celeron/366--64MB RAM and PIII/550--128MB) that have been running fine for several years. Lately, both systems' hard drives start churning away for no apparent reason, sometimes slowing response time. Access of course occurs when apps are opened, but the access is going on much longer than usual.

In the past, I've seen this with systems with low disk space that have to use virtual memory, but I don't think it's the case here. I've checked the following possible causes:

- Both systems have at least 25% free space. Virtual memory settings are Windows default.
- No new programs in startup folder
- No viruses detected
- I've run system maintenance to clean out old files, check the disk, and defragment (with improve program load time activated)

I thought all of this would have eliminated or at least helped the problem. Either I don't understand something about virtual memory settings or I'm overlooking another possible cause.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

11 replies

by dklippert

Just a stab:
Depending on your setup, two things that can cause this are:
FastFind -- Disable or remove
Outlook Journaling -- turn off

by sginsc

Thanks for taking a stab, but I doubt those are responsible. I disable the MS-Office startup bar and FastFind on every PC I use because of the performance hit they make. I don't normally use Outlook, but I'll check the journaling settings to see if that leads anywhere.

by dpalsen

You might want to check to see if they're trying to resize the virtual memory file.
Start>Settings>Control Panel>System>Performance>Virtual Memory. Set the minimum and maximum size to the same size. This might help you some.

by sginsc

This is on the right track, but a later response gave me more detail about this. Thank you!

by paul d. masley

Since every one else is stabbing you, I might as well throw one your way.

First, do not let windows manage your virtual memory. It will not flush it, but keep on adding until you have a full drive. On the celeron, set your virtual (both min andmax) in the area 146 to 160. The lower number seems better. Set the PIII in the area of 280 to 320. Same as above.

Then clean out your temp files, both on the c: root and in windows. If these computers are on the internet, clean out your cookies, history and Temporary Internet Files. After doing this cleanout,

Use CTRL-ALT-DEL and shut down everything but Explorer and Systray. Now run your maintenance wizard.

This should get you back to speed.

Paul.

by sginsc

Paul gave a very thorough response to my follow-up question as well. Readers should also refer to Michael Freeman's article here on virtual memory for more info.

by centaurus

go to windows dir and edit system.ini, under the [386Enh] item type : ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1
Regards

by sginsc

This was helpful in conjunction with the tip from Paul D. Masley above. Thank you!

by ssukauskas

I don't know if your problem is resolved, but here are two suggestions:

-You can download from the internet a Registry Cleaner program. (RegCleaner) to clean that area.

-In the start menu go to:
Run
In the command line type:msconfig
At this point check all of the information on each screen. Check you autoexec.bat path and your system startup programs etc.. There is also diagnostics capabilities located there.

by sginsc

This was a good tip to follow up on, but a previous answer had already solved my problem. Thanks for your help, though.

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