Win98 machine teribly slow after startup

try to reduce your startup programs under msconfig utility or check your c:\windows\startup directory and delete those that you rarely use. also those items that are in your systray leave only those that are important to you.

That's a lot of tasks! I always try to keep the number of tasks running on startup to a minimum.

If a machine is running slow before you tell it to do anything, I find it's usually one of two things, 1) there's some monster service or task running in the background, or 2) it's trying to access a network resource which isn't there.

You don't mention how much RAM is available in your machine, could this be your problem?

Also check the free space available on your system partition, as Windows 9x likes to page to the the hard drive quite a lot. Ideally you want as much free space as possible, but at least 20-50mbs.

Make sure to check your temp directory, as too many files in here can aslo make a pc run dog-slow.

If that fails,try ending as many tasks as you can. I don't know from the names what each of the tasks listed do, but pettnserv, motmon and hppddir look kinda suspect to me.

HTH,
Gary

It looks as though you are on a network. I had this problem just recently and it was my network card. If it's possible, try replacing it with a cheap $20 10/100 card. It doesn't sound like you are but if your not booting across a network then don't get one with the wake-on-lan feature.

Hi, Go to system properties, click on performance tab. It should say: your system is configured for optimal performance. If it doesn't it will say what the problem is. Some times you have to reload windows to correct. Frank

To find out what went wrong, delete the tasks one by one except explorer, vshwin32, and systray. Then go to System Properties, click Performance tab and check the usage percentage of your system resources. Then run MSCONFIG. Click on Startup tab andstart the programs you have deleted one by one to isolate which one is using too much of your resources. If you find it, minimize running that program but if you need to, run it by itself. Hope this helps.

Have you installed anything that has alot of fonts? Coreldraw comes to mind. Fonts are loaded into RAM at startup and stay there...they are an incredible memory hog.
Good luck!

Mike

you have lots of applications and TSR loaded in your windows 98. if your memory is only 32mb then expect a very slow machine like 486 or pentium class. you can immediately uninstall or turn off some of your applications and TSR to get the performance in its good form.

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