Is running to slow.

Have you downloaded any updates from Symantec for your version of Norton?

That may fix a few problems.

Installing SystemWorks may have triggered the large RAM bug on your system.

The core code of Windows 9X/Me has a bug where there can be numerous problems with more than 511MB of RAM installed.
This bug is VERY configuration dependant!

It would be worth the effort to reduce RAM to less than 512MB and see if your performance returns to normal.

You should take a look at how many services of SystemWorks run all the time.
You only need the anti-virus and possibly the firewall running all the time.

Chas

To reply to the first answer. Ive updated many times. As far as the large ram bug i had the norton before, just a diff. version without any problems. As far as the amount of things running at once, It has internet security, some ghost program, cleansweep smartsweep, and cleansweep internet sweep. So if anyone knows which ones i should disable and how to shut them down and when exactly i should have them running please let me know. Thanks again

I think your computer is rather old. All norton, specially NSW is large computer-time consumming.

Try to remove anything from nsw, except norton AV 2003, you will speed a little bit more.

Else, try another (light) AV program.

I believe the problem is related to too many programs running in the background. NSW default settings loads most things to run in the background. You can go to the NSW configuration settings and change them from'Runn when Windows start' to 'Run on demand' that way they don't open until you tell them to. The anti-virus is the only one I would runn all the time.

ou shouls also check what other programs are running in the background and confirm that they need to be or change them to 'demand start' only.

First place to check is the Control Panel >> Taskbar and Start menu >> Start Menu >> Customise >> Advanced -- Start menu -- Programs -- Start Up

Remove anything listed in there that is NOT needed to be running at all times.

There are quite a number of things you could try that may help. My main gripe, and I see it time and again and I do not understand it, is we are stuffing huge hard drives, huge memory sticks, modern high performance utilities and applications such as your Norton Utilities and we are trying to run all this on our WINDOWS 98 operating systems! Microsoft will stop providing assisted support on Windows 98 and NT 4.0 entirely on June 30, 2003. Your best start to optimize your computer would be to upgrade to Win 2000. Heck they are up to xp now, '98 is creaky and clunking along under the strain of modern programs needing lots of memory and complicated drivers.
My answer is do a win 2000 install over your 98 install if you want to preserve yourdata and applications. Better even to do a clean install. Then we can teak that for excellent performance.

Thanks eebywater, yours has been the closest to helpful at this point but as i went in to try and close down some of the programs only one was in the startup folder and it was the mindsweep nsw and there was no option to disable it only to delete itand i even tried that but to no avail as it wouldnt let me delete a part of the nsw. So i think that would be a solution to my problem but am unable to find nsw configuration tab so that i cant choose "run when windows starts" or "run on demand". Soif you know of another way to shut down the extras with the nsw please let me know.

Thanks eebywater, yours has been the closest to helpful at this point but as i went in to try and close down some of the programs only one was in the startup folder and it was the mindsweep nsw and there was no option to disable it only to delete itand i even tried that but to no avail as it wouldnt let me delete a part of the nsw. So i think that would be a solution to my problem but am unable to find nsw configuration tab so that i cant choose "run when windows starts" or "run on demand". Soif you know of another way to shut down the extras with the nsw please let me know.

These are the NSW applications that I would disable and only run as / when needed:

ghost,
cleansweep smartsweep,
cleansweep internet sweep.

Internet security depends on how you connect.
If DSL or Cable, LEAVE it on.

You should have a NSW icon in the system tray.
Right click on it, and you should have an option for settings, options, or preferences.
That is where you control what parts of NSW run all the time.

As to the large RAM bug that I referred to;
The new version of NSW may have installed a virtual device driver or increased a resource usage so that it crossed the threshold and triggered the slowdown.

I don't know your RAM configuration.
What I would do, is shut down and remove 1 or 2 RAM modules so that you endup with around 384MB of RAM installed.
Boot up.

If the PC runs faster, leave the extra RAM out.

Chas

As mentioned open virus scan and disable the extra features. For the firewall settings just use the default. If you're not connected to other computers the firewall doesn't have that much to do.

Then from the Start button select run and type in msconfig hit enter. Select the Startup tab this will allow you to uncheck startup items and see if it helps if not you can recheck them later.
You can experiment without actually changing any settings. If you select something that you need just run msconfig again and recheck the item.
You really only need systray and few others to run the computer from there everything else can be disabled. This is where you'll find all the things that Norton starts at bootup. Also if there's anything suspect it will be staring there aalso. You can experiment but don't disable the Norton virus protection or firewall.

How much room is available on the hard drive with 576 mb ram you need close to a gig of room just for the swapfile. If the drive is too full it may be an issue. Search the drive for .tmp files and delete them. They're usually in the Temp folder and the root of the C:\Windows directory. Don't delete all the contents in the temp folder because uninstall and other info may be in there.
There's no way you can have matching memory and have 576 MB ram. So you have a 64mb stick that should come out. Even though it may seem to work its not good to mix memory sticks. With Win 98/Me you'd be better off having 256 mb or 384 mb than over 512. Plus again the swap-file may be too large.

I think YOu get rid of norton.
Should solve your problem.

Remove Norton System Works, You do not need it on the system. Any time you feel like running it, run it from the CD--I'm a tech and its a good program, but its a waste of resources to have it on the system. Norton also has a ME patch for some problems--that should give you some idea of some of the problems floating around.