Help! I am losing my memory

[Stan Sted]

When my computer started crashing regularly I bought Norton Utilities to try to trace the problem. The System Doctor and other diagnostic systems found 119 problems and fixed them automatically.

I thought my problems were over, but of course nothing can be simple with me and computers. When my son's new Battlefield 42 game refused to run at any more than snail's pace before freezing up (at very low graphics and scenery levels) I did all the Norton checks again, this time paying attention to the memory checker.

I then found these readings: User Memory free 41% GDI free 65% Virtual Memory free 1602MB and finally and most worryingly Physical Memory free 8.5MB!!!

The PM level goes down to about 3MB free if I run Zone Alarm as a firewall. I have also quit all other applications running in the background to get the PM up to 8.5MB.

My computer has a 1Gig Duron, 256 MB of RAM and a 20G hard drive. I have tried putting a stick of 512MB RAM but this was unbalanced alongside a stick of 128MB and did not work at all well .

Anyone got any ideas on how I can improve things ( apart from buying a new computer)

cheers

SS

[Ridley]

It sounds like you have a number of problems, but lets try and diagnose this.

What kind of video card do you have? An in-board video card is the worst, they use up a lot of GDI, and graphics heavy programs usually slow everything down. (a third party graphics card for any computer is a must, at least 32 megs)

Have you run all your virus programs and downloaded the latest signatures? It sounds like you might have a spiral or worm virus thats eating up your memory. A lot of viruses do this, and certain types of programs make them eat up more memory than normal. I remember the Back.Office virus did this to me a few years back.

Have you changed anything in the CMOS settings? (the settings you can access when your computer first boots up) You may want to go back to the factory settings. There may be a system conflict somewhere.

Download all the latest OS service packs, and your computer systems software upgrades. Windows has system upgrades for your OS, Dell has them for the system software and so do the rest of them. When you buy a computer they often install a tremendous amount of useless programs into your system tray.
If these are buggy they can eat up memory too.

Well thats all the diagnosis I can give at this point.

Good luck.

[Stan Sted]

Thanks for your advice R.

I should have mentioned that the video card is a NVida GeForce 2 MMX 400 and the operating system is Windows 98.

I don't think I do have a virus problem because I run Norton Anti Virus which updates itself. I also do a full virus check every week.

I will check the Microsoft service packs and update immediately.

Will report back later.

By the way, what sort of memory figures should I really except from Norton Doc's analysis?

cheers

SS


added at 20.35


I have just downloaded 12.5MB of Win98 upgrades and service packs (yes it has been a VERY long time since I did check) and my free PM memory is now down to 0.1MB as I write this. USER free is 43% VM free is 1612.9MB and GDI free is 68% Mem load is 70%.
C free is 8510MB and swap file size is 654,764. What do these figures mean, other than that I am heading for another crash?
Zone Alarm is turned off. The broadband link and Norton Anti Virus are the only programmes running (that I know of)

cheers

SS

[Stan Sted]

Having just run Flight Sim 2002 ( which works OK on the computer as long as we used low level graphics etc) for 30 mins the PM reading has shot up to 69.4MB GDI free is 52% USER free is only 26 % and VM free is 1608MB. Zone Alarm is also on. If I switch off Zone Alarm the readings go to 75.8MB PM free, 59% GDI free, 37% USER free and VM free is 1619MB.

What does it all mean????

I think I need a beer

[25F]

Stan Sted, what were the figures immediately after rebooting?
You did reboot, didn't you?

As your VM figure is fairly stable it looks to me like it isn't really being used - which should be the case with 256MB, unless you're running something really memory-hungry.

I don't know how Norton calculates PM usage in Win 9x: and I've tried other utilities that come up with wildly differing figures. The best I've come up with is Human Ear (Mark 1). If the hard disk is thrashing, you've run out of physical memory.

My guess is that Norton is reporting the total memory used - which includes cached stuff from the disk. My next guess is that Flight Sim issues some sort of "flush to disk" command.

The following URL may be some help. In particular a lot of people set their own VM size rather than letting Windows "handle" it.
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/Win95_3x/Win95/Q_10045256.html

[stickyb]

Don't worry about the PM free figure, it doesn't mean anything.

Physical memory gets filled up all the time, and the overflow goes off to the swap file. All you are measuring is the amount of free space left before the next bit goes to the swap file.

[Stan Sted]

25F and Stickyb Thanks for the advice.

But what is causing the crashing, particularly when my son plays his memory-hungry games? Is it the lack of User memory? If so, how do I increase it? I have tried putting an extra stick of 512MB alongside a stick of 128MB but this caused more problems than it was worth. Perhaps the new stick was faulty, perhaps it was out of balance with the smaller stick?

Perhaps a new computer is the answer. I have spent five years fiddling around and adding bits to my present machine. Perhaps I should start afresh.

[gofer]

Been there and so junior got a new machine, and I upped the old machine to a newer version of windows and from then on at least all of the problems I created were my fault.

Win 2000 might make your life a bit smoother - I found when I moved there that the tilt factor dropped noticeably.

You seem to have enough memory and perhaps even too much VM. Not opening too many programs at the same time helps (how bad is your start-up logic). Rebooting after FS is also logical.

Otherwise can't see much - scan the web for tuning tools and online analysers - some of them are much better than Norton.

Good luck. Keep us posted. :cool:

[Stan Sted]

Errrrrmmmm

We have never rebooted after using FS or any similar heavy duty software. I had no idea you had to.

Start up logic? Well yes we do have a number of programmes starting up, but I usually shut them down if not required. However, my son might not do this. What is the best way to find out what is running?

You experts will have guessed by now that I have just been bumbling along with this perishing computer since I bought it five years ago.

A speedy new machine with Windows XP makes sense.

cheers

SS

[Cornish Jack]

Stan
To check (and modify) what's running, use Ctl-Alt-Del, select individual programmes from the list and Cancel those which you don't want. For most purposes, all you need to have running are Explorer and Systray.
To stop redundant programmes from starting, Select Start-Run and type "msconfig" (without the quotes) in the 'run' box and OK it. On the series of tabs in the resultant dialogue box, select Startup and remove ticks from the boxes of those programmes which you don't want.
"Speedy new machine" ?? - maybe
"XP"?? - not necessarily - see the thread re. XP upgrade on this forum and certainly check for compatibility before handing over any more dosh to MS.

[Stan Sted]

Thanks CJ

I found some advice on a Windows 98 site last night and did what you have just suggested.

Memory figures have zoomed up with USER free at 54% and GDI free at 78%

However I still have the following on the Start Up list.

Logitech Desktop Messenger agent (something to do with keyboard or mouse?)
Navapw32 (not a clue) CConnect (broadband link?) Rnathchk (no idea) Gmt (not a clue) Ptsnoop, Rundll32, CMesys, EM_exec, CSinject (all no idea, junk put on by my son, I suspect) Nprotect (Norton virus check?)

Can I safely dispose of the mystery files?

SS

[stickyb]

Have you checked out your swap file?

If you load a lot of programs at startup, followed by a memory hungry game and don't have a permanently set up swap file, the temporary file Windows uses as the swap file will grow and grow.
If your disc is badly fragmented, then the swap file will also be, and performance goes down the drain.

Make sure your disc is defragmented, and consider setting up a permanent swap file

[RomeoTangoFoxtrotMike]

If you 'puter has stopped crashng, then I doubt it's a physical memory problem. However, for info, you might want to checkout http://www.memtest86.com/.

[Cornish Jack]

Stan
Seems like it's getting there. Those active progs don't mean much to me, I'm afraid, although at a guess there's nothing there that's ESSENTIAL for normal ops. If you can get it back to Explorer and Systray only, and then see if anything is not operating correctly, it should indicate what needs to be on the Start selection. The Nprotect is almost certainly Norton so possibly worth keeping that active if you are going on the net. (On a personal basis, Norton has caused me more problems than it has solved so it's gone to the big Recycle bin)
For the defrag, if you haven't done one before, it's probably best done in Safe Mode so you don't have problems with screensavers etc. cutting in and stopping the action.

[Stan Sted]

Thanks for all your help folks

However, having got the bloody things running at a reasonable memory rate I have found that the screensaver is causing havoc.

Every time I walk away and return after a few minutes I find the screen is blank and cannot be activated again without rebooting.

Whenever I go into control panel, display etc and try to disable the screensaver the poxy thing cuts out and needs rebooting, again and again and...

I am seriously thinking of talking a 14lb sledgehammer to the thing and returning to ink and quill pen!

I think I need another beer

SS

[ORAC]

Navapw32 = Norton Anti-Virus Protection for Windows. Keep it.
CConnect = Camera Connect software. Deselect, start it when you need it.
Rnathchk = checks for RealPlayer notices. Deselect it.
Ptsnoop = Virus!! - kill it. ptsnoop (http://www.europe.f-secure.com/v-descs/ptsnoop.shtml)
Rundll32 = A Windows "Dynamic Link Library" file. Calls dll files when you open an application. Keep it.
CMesys = Advertising spyware. Part of Gator Kill it.
gmt = as above for CMesys.
EM_exec = Scanner driver. Keep it if you have the scanner connected.
CSinject = Part of CleanSweep. It loads the dll files. Keep it if you still run CleanSweep.

If you have power management turned on in bios and power management turned on in windows then when the screensaver kicks in the machine can hang. Turn them off and see what happens.

[Out Of Trim]

Stan Sted

GMT is part of Gator Spyware and I'm sure has caused me problems too in a similar way on Windows 98. It seems to be very difficult to get rid of.. Thought I had got rid of it once.. but, it returned and is indeed still with me but I think no longer runs anymore!

I believe the latest version of Adaware may get rid of it, but not tried it yet myself.

Good Luck..

[Stan Sted]

Cheers ORAC and OOT

Things are looking better already...but not too sure about PTsnoop being a virus...Norton says it is some file used by certain old modems, one of which I had until I switched to Broadband recently.

SS

[flysr4ever]

Hello,

Been having a bit of a computer problem for the past
while. Computer (roughly 1 year old, P4 - 1.5ghz -
256 mb ram) tends to be behave like if it was out of
ram.

-- Can hardly browse my folders. Some of them (which
might have 100+ files in them) don't open at all. However
if I open files though another programme (for example
pictures through MGI Photo Suite) or I reset all my folders, don't have a problem.

-- Can hardly run some of the programmes which are heavy
users of RAM. FS2002, FlyII etc just won't load.

-- Can't even run the system information. Get the message
that there isn't enough RAM to run WMI (windows
management instrumentation).

Also tends to crash a lot. Definitely isn't programmes running
in the background that are taking up the RAM. Ctrl-alt-deleted every programme and still have the same problem.

Been having that problem for the past 2-3 months but am lazy having my PC sent away for 2-3 weeks . :(

Jeremiah