WindowsMe is Dying

[Searcher7]

I have an old Compaq 350mhz, with 224mb of ram that I use for the
internet. I can only surf for several minutes when I'm using Windows
Explorer. It will then completely stop loading pages, and in order to
temporarily fix the problem I have to reboot. Firefox is not much
better.

Sometimes I can't even save an image or text because the system
"thinks" there is not enough room on my drive even though it is a 4g
that has 600-700mb free. I'm also having trouble opening apps. When I
try these things I get messages that either my disc is full or I am
low on memory. I can't stay signed in at a variety of sites, and the
display of pages is sometimes screwed up.(Once in a while I run the
"Disk Clean Up", but if it works, the fix is only temporary).

I have to keep trying signing in at Google Groups, and I was getting
the message, "Your browser's cookie functionality is turned off.
Please turn it on.

Key apps I have are as follows:
SpyBlaster
Zone Alarm(Always running)
Spybot
Lavasoft Ad-Aware
AVG Free Edition(Always running)

I was also using TrendMicro's free anti-virus software, but it now
needs components that will not instal on WindowsMe, because it is no
longer supported.

I'm waiting for my Flash drive to arrive so I can take what I need off
of this system and trash it before it goes completely .(My Zip drives
stopped working with this system a long time ago).

I has hoping someone can give me advice on what to check and do next
if it is my system itself.

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[Greegor]

Crossposted to: alt.windows-me,microsoft.public.windowsme.general

How much work are you willing to do to fix up a 9 year old PC?
At 350 MHz clock rate, it's awfully slow.
Can't run DVD, can't do ROM burning (with exceptions),
horrendously slow for internet use, etc.

I use castoff computers in the 500MHz range,
but the 350MHz I have in the basement (IBM)
would be consigned to be an MP3 player
jukebox and maybe for a photo archive (duplicate set).

If your community garbage haulers have a day
for spring cleaning where they don't charge
for disposal of tires and junk computers,
you could trade up to a 1GHz or better.

Corporations and colleges are getting rid of them.

Current PC's are up to about 3.4 GHz clock,
some aren't even described by clock rate any
more because better use OF each clock
cycle by the CPU can do more work than
simple clock rate can describe.

That's TEN TIMES the clock rate of your old Compaq.

The technology is approaching the point where
physics is slowing the advances in the chip
technology, so multiple processors are starting
to catch on. Dual and quad CPU's inside of
a single chip package, etc.

That's 20 to 40 times the performance of your
old Compaq, just in the processor alone.
(There are lots of other improvements also)

For the PERFORMANCE they are priced good,
but they do cost a bit more. The leading edge
of every wave of technology is like that.

If you're really trying to be thriftier than that, check out
Circuit City and Tiger Direct for computers in the 2 GHz range.
(Last years technology)

600 MB free space isn't much, though it should be enough.
Have you written down the Product Key or have readable
Product Key on a COA sticker attached to computer or
Compaq manual?
Do you have a restore disk from Compaq for the computer?

Do you think you need a "clean boot"?
Know what that is?
Do you know why a clean boot is good?
You do understand that removing programs
still leaves "stubs" and is NOT a clean boot?

Are you sure the many programs you described
aren't interacting badly with each other or ME?

SpyBlaster and Lavasoft Ad-Aware aren't needed on top
of the others you mentioned and just LOAD down the system.
(Avoid duplication of such programs, especially on a 350 MHz computer)

Some versions of Zone Alarm /CA / eTrust interact
badly with Windows ME.
I just removed eTrust (ZA) 5.5.109.000 and switched to
Tiny Personal Firewall from OLDVERSION.COM
and saw a huge performance increase.

Occasional BSOD's accessing Myspace (only) went away.

By process of elimination it has to be the ZA.

I miss the detail ZA provided though.
(What free OLD versions work bettter with WinME?)

I hope this all helps with your decisions.

Greg Hanson, Cedar Rapids Iowa

Post by Searcher7
I have an old Compaq 350mhz, with 224mb of ram that I use for the
internet. I can only surf for several minutes when I'm using Windows
Explorer. It will then completely stop loading pages, and in order to
temporarily fix the problem I have to reboot. Firefox is not much
better.
Sometimes I can't even save an image or text because the system
"thinks" there is not enough room on my drive even though it is a 4g
that has 600-700mb free. I'm also having trouble opening apps. When I
try these things I get messages that either my disc is full or I am
low on memory. I can't stay signed in at a variety of sites, and the
display of pages is sometimes screwed up.(Once in a while I run the
"Disk Clean Up", but if it works, the fix is only temporary).
I have to keep trying signing in at Google Groups, and I was getting
the message, "Your browser's cookie functionality is turned off.
Please turn it on.
SpyBlaster
Zone Alarm(Always running)
Spybot
Lavasoft Ad-Aware
AVG Free Edition(Always running)
I was also using TrendMicro's free anti-virus software, but it now
needs components that will not instal on WindowsMe, because it is no
longer supported.
I'm waiting for my Flash drive to arrive so I can take what I need off
of this system and trash it before it goes completely .(My Zip drives
stopped working with this system a long time ago).
I has hoping someone can give me advice on what to check and do next
if it is my system itself.
Thanks.
Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[Phred]

Post by Greegor
Crossposted to: alt.windows-me,microsoft.public.windowsme.general

G'day mate,

Just wondering -- does microsoft.public.windowsme.general really
exist? (Or, perhaps I should say, "still exist"?)

It doesn't seem to be carried by my newsserver (news.individual.net)
and, being a Microsoft-specific group for a now unsupported OS, I'm
wondering if it has simply vanished. NIN doesn't usually miss serious
technical groups; though I believe one does have to put up a case to
them requesting them to carry individual alt and regional groups.

Cheers, Phred.

[Mark Lloyd]

Post by Phred

Post by Greegor
Crossposted to: alt.windows-me,microsoft.public.windowsme.general

G'day mate,
Just wondering -- does microsoft.public.windowsme.general really
exist? (Or, perhaps I should say, "still exist"?)
It doesn't seem to be carried by my newsserver (news.individual.net)
and, being a Microsoft-specific group for a now unsupported OS, I'm
wondering if it has simply vanished. NIN doesn't usually miss serious
technical groups; though I believe one does have to put up a case to
them requesting them to carry individual alt and regional groups.
Cheers, Phred.

I just refreshed my newsgroup list, and see that group listed. I see
that group available from several different servers including aioe.org
and msnews.microsoft.com. I see 10 messages posted today.

[Phred]

Post by Mark Lloyd

Post by Phred

Post by Greegor
Crossposted to: alt.windows-me,microsoft.public.windowsme.general

G'day mate,
Just wondering -- does microsoft.public.windowsme.general really
exist? (Or, perhaps I should say, "still exist"?)
It doesn't seem to be carried by my newsserver (news.individual.net)
and, being a Microsoft-specific group for a now unsupported OS, I'm
wondering if it has simply vanished. NIN doesn't usually miss serious
technical groups; though I believe one does have to put up a case to
them requesting them to carry individual alt and regional groups.

I just refreshed my newsgroup list, and see that group listed. I see
that group available from several different servers including aioe.org
and msnews.microsoft.com. I see 10 messages posted today.

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply with that helpful info Mark.

Cheers, Phred.

[philo]

Post by Searcher7
I have an old Compaq 350mhz, with 224mb of ram that I use for the
internet. I can only surf for several minutes when I'm using Windows
Explorer. It will then completely stop loading pages, and in order to
temporarily fix the problem I have to reboot. Firefox is not much
better.
Sometimes I can't even save an image or text because the system
"thinks" there is not enough room on my drive even though it is a 4g
that has 600-700mb free. I'm also having trouble opening apps. When I
try these things I get messages that either my disc is full or I am
low on memory. I can't stay signed in at a variety of sites, and the
display of pages is sometimes screwed up.(Once in a while I run the
"Disk Clean Up", but if it works, the fix is only temporary).
I have to keep trying signing in at Google Groups, and I was getting
the message, "Your browser's cookie functionality is turned off.
Please turn it on.
SpyBlaster
Zone Alarm(Always running)
Spybot
Lavasoft Ad-Aware
AVG Free Edition(Always running)

First...run msconfig and take everything out of startup but your firewall
and virus checker...then reboot.
Next:
I'd do a disk cleanup and defrag

[Searcher7]

Post by philo

Post by Searcher7
I have an old Compaq 350mhz, with 224mb of ram that I use for the
internet. I can only surf for several minutes when I'm using Windows
Explorer. It will then completely stop loading pages, and in order to
temporarily fix the problem I have to reboot. Firefox is not much
better.
Sometimes I can't even save an image or text because the system
"thinks" there is not enough room on my drive even though it is a 4g
that has 600-700mb free. I'm also having trouble opening apps. When I
try these things I get messages that either my disc is full or I am
low on memory. I can't stay signed in at a variety of sites, and the
display of pages is sometimes screwed up.(Once in a while I run the
"Disk Clean Up", but if it works, the fix is only temporary).
I have to keep trying signing in at Google Groups, and I was getting
the message, "Your browser's cookie functionality is turned off.
Please turn it on.
SpyBlaster
Zone Alarm(Always running)
Spybot
Lavasoft Ad-Aware
AVG Free Edition(Always running)

First...run msconfig and take everything out of startup but your firewall
and virus checker...then reboot.
I'd do a disk cleanup and defrag

I try that every now and then to no avail.

I took everything out of the start-up, but Scandisk still keeps
restarting. And until I can get a complete scan, I can't use Defrag.

As of now, my printer has been rendered completely useless, and the
4.0G Sandisk Cruzer I just picked up isn't being found by the system.

There is no way to transfer important files off my sysytem before it
goes completely.(Like the last two PCs I had).

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[John R. Copeland]

Post by Searcher7

Post by philo
I'd do a disk cleanup and defrag

I try that every now and then to no avail.
I took everything out of the start-up, but Scandisk still keeps
restarting. And until I can get a complete scan, I can't use Defrag.
As of now, my printer has been rendered completely useless, and the
4.0G Sandisk Cruzer I just picked up isn't being found by the system.
There is no way to transfer important files off my sysytem before it
goes completely.(Like the last two PCs I had).
Thanks.
Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Darren, one thing which can cause restarting in defrag and scandisk
is network activity.
Try unplugging the network from your network adaptor,
then run scandisk and defrag before reinserting your network connector.
There's no guarantee that's your restart problem, but it's a possibility.

I'd like to assume you've already disabled any screensavers,
but if not, be sure to do so.

[Paul]

To defrag your computer, restart the system and keep pressing the F8 key and
choose Safemode. Then click Start, Accessories, System tools, and defrag. It
should work OK. I have had to do it this way several times.

[Searcher7]

Post by Paul
To defrag your computer, restart the system and keep pressing the F8 key and
choose Safemode. Then click Start, Accessories, System tools, and defrag. It
should work OK. I have had to do it this way several times.

Even in safe mode the defrag and scan disk exhibit the same problem.

For some reason even though I have about 700mb of free space on the 4g
disk, the system "thinks" I have no room for anything. I can't
download apps. Install. Or load programs. I can barely load pages on
the internet, and only for a short while before I have to reboot.

I tend to get messages indicating that there is not enough hard disk
space and/or I'm out of memory.

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[Searcher7]

Post by John R. Copeland

Post by Searcher7

Post by philo
I'd do a disk cleanup and defrag

I try that every now and then to no avail.
I took everything out of the start-up, but Scandisk still keeps
restarting. And until I can get a complete scan, I can't use Defrag.
As of now, my printer has been rendered completely useless, and the
4.0G Sandisk Cruzer I just picked up isn't being found by the system.
There is no way to transfer important files off my sysytem before it
goes completely.(Like the last two PCs I had).
Thanks.
Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Darren, one thing which can cause restarting in defrag and scandisk
is network activity.
Try unplugging the network from your network adaptor,
then run scandisk and defrag before reinserting your network connector.
There's no guarantee that's your restart problem, but it's a possibility.
I'd like to assume you've already disabled any screensavers,
but if not, be sure to do so.

No screen savers, and no network. This is a stand alone computer.

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[Jim Higgins]

On Sun, 21 Oct 2007 21:39:35 -0700, Searcher7

Post by Searcher7
No screen savers, and no network. This is a stand alone computer.

Line up a capable local friend who is willing to help. Then pull the
hard drive from your machine, take it to your friend's house and
install it as a second drive on his machine and transfer your files
from it to your thumb drive, to a CD or whatever. Burn a CD even if
your machine doesn't have a CD drive. Call it an insurance policy
that can be used to reload your thumb drive just in case. Run
Scandisk and Defrag on the old hard drive while you're at it.

If you intend to keep using your old hardware and WinMe, then buy a
new larger hard drive, install it in your old machine and reload WinMe
on it. Go from there. Before doing so, figure out where you're going
to get the assorted WinMe service packs and fixes.

[Searcher7]

On Sun, 21 Oct 2007 21:39:35 -0700,Searcher7

Post by Searcher7
No screen savers, and no network. This is a stand alone computer.

Line up a capable local friend who is willing to help. Then pull the
hard drive from your machine, take it to your friend's house and
install it as a second drive on his machine and transfer your files
from it to your thumb drive, to a CD or whatever. Burn a CD even if
your machine doesn't have a CD drive. Call it an insurance policy
that can be used to reload your thumb drive just in case. Run
Scandisk and Defrag on the old hard drive while you're at it.
If you intend to keep using your old hardware and WinMe, then buy a
new larger hard drive, install it in your old machine and reload WinMe
on it. Go from there. Before doing so, figure out where you're going
to get the assorted WinMe service packs and fixes.

Like I mentioned I want to get rid of this piece of garbage after I
get all my important files off it.

In fact it is a replica of the pc I had before it. That one was giving
me problems, so I thought that I'd pick this one up and put the hard
drive of the other Compaq into it to try to get my important files
off. In desperation I tried Restoring the default settings(F10) and
that killed it completely.

Darren Harris
staten Island, New York.

[JAD]

Post by Searcher7

Post by John R. Copeland

Post by Searcher7

Post by philo
I'd do a disk cleanup and defrag

I try that every now and then to no avail.
I took everything out of the start-up, but Scandisk still keeps
restarting. And until I can get a complete scan, I can't use Defrag.
As of now, my printer has been rendered completely useless, and the
4.0G Sandisk Cruzer I just picked up isn't being found by the system.
There is no way to transfer important files off my sysytem before it
goes completely.(Like the last two PCs I had).
Thanks.
Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Darren, one thing which can cause restarting in defrag and scandisk
is network activity.
Try unplugging the network from your network adaptor,
then run scandisk and defrag before reinserting your network connector.
There's no guarantee that's your restart problem, but it's a possibility.
I'd like to assume you've already disabled any screensavers,
but if not, be sure to do so.

No screen savers, and no network. This is a stand alone computer.

1. What updates have you done from ms?
2 Does your bios hold the correct time? Does everything look proper in the
POST screen?
3. Have you tried Restore?
4. Scan disk and defrag rarely fix anything.
5. Do you have a ME install disk?. or does the hard drive contain the
'options/stall' folder?\
6 Do you have an ESTUD (boot floppy disk)?

[Searcher7]

Post by JAD

Post by Searcher7

Post by John R. Copeland

Post by Searcher7

Post by philo
I'd do a disk cleanup and defrag

I try that every now and then to no avail.
I took everything out of the start-up, but Scandisk still keeps
restarting. And until I can get a complete scan, I can't use Defrag.
As of now, my printer has been rendered completely useless, and the
4.0G Sandisk Cruzer I just picked up isn't being found by the system.
There is no way to transfer important files off my sysytem before it
goes completely.(Like the last two PCs I had).
Thanks.
Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Darren, one thing which can cause restarting in defrag and scandisk
is network activity.
Try unplugging the network from your network adaptor,
then run scandisk and defrag before reinserting your network connector.
There's no guarantee that's your restart problem, but it's a possibility.
I'd like to assume you've already disabled any screensavers,
but if not, be sure to do so.

No screen savers, and no network. This is a stand alone computer.

1. What updates have you done from ms?
2 Does your bios hold the correct time? Does everything look proper in the
POST screen?
3. Have you tried Restore?
4. Scan disk and defrag rarely fix anything.
5. Do you have a ME install disk?. or does the hard drive contain the
'options/stall' folder?\
6 Do you have an ESTUD (boot floppy disk)?

The BIOS has the correct time. And saince windows Me is no longer
supported, I have no idea what updates youy are referring to.(Not that
I could download and install anything anyway).

This is just a stand alone pc with no documentation that I got thanks
to Craigslist. Pretty much nothing at all works. And to try would be
dangerous.

I probably have the worst luck of anyone in history when it comes to
anyhting associated with Microsoft.

My first two computers when down taking everything with them. My
secondary harddrives, my Jazz drives, my Zip drives, my other apps for
transferring data between systems have all failed me when I needed
them.

This is the third pc, and I just need to get all the graphic and text
files off. My surfing times after booting are dropping fast and I can
barely get back here to Google Groups to post this.

Thanks.

Darren Harris
staten Island, New York.

[Elly Byrne]

That is a totally inadequate system to run winME. Not enough disk
space and not enough ram. A PC needs extra disk space to use as it is
running. The swap file needs extra disk space.

Can you get a cheap version of windows 98? That might work for you.

I liken an OS on a small machine to having an elephant in the
backyard. There is enough room for the beast to stand. There is not
enough room to turn around and walk.

Elly.

Post by Searcher7
I have an old Compaq 350mhz, with 224mb of ram that I use for the
internet. I can only surf for several minutes when I'm using Windows
Explorer. It will then completely stop loading pages, and in order to
temporarily fix the problem I have to reboot. Firefox is not much
better.
Sometimes I can't even save an image or text because the system
"thinks" there is not enough room on my drive even though it is a 4g
that has 600-700mb free. I'm also having trouble opening apps. When I
try these things I get messages that either my disc is full or I am
low on memory. I can't stay signed in at a variety of sites, and the
display of pages is sometimes screwed up.(Once in a while I run the
"Disk Clean Up", but if it works, the fix is only temporary).
I have to keep trying signing in at Google Groups, and I was getting
the message, "Your browser's cookie functionality is turned off.
Please turn it on.
SpyBlaster
Zone Alarm(Always running)
Spybot
Lavasoft Ad-Aware
AVG Free Edition(Always running)
I was also using TrendMicro's free anti-virus software, but it now
needs components that will not instal on WindowsMe, because it is no
longer supported.
I'm waiting for my Flash drive to arrive so I can take what I need off
of this system and trash it before it goes completely .(My Zip drives
stopped working with this system a long time ago).
I has hoping someone can give me advice on what to check and do next
if it is my system itself.
Thanks.
Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[Searcher7]

Post by Elly Byrne
That is a totally inadequate system to run winME. Not enough disk
space and not enough ram. A PC needs extra disk space to use as it is
running. The swap file needs extra disk space.
Can you get a cheap version of windows 98? That might work for you.
I liken an OS on a small machine to having an elephant in the
backyard. There is enough room for the beast to stand. There is not
enough room to turn around and walk.
Elly.

Post by Searcher7
I have an old Compaq 350mhz, with 224mb of ram that I use for the
internet. I can only surf for several minutes when I'm using Windows
Explorer. It will then completely stop loading pages, and in order to
temporarily fix the problem I have to reboot. Firefox is not much
better.
Sometimes I can't even save an image or text because the system
"thinks" there is not enough room on my drive even though it is a 4g
that has 600-700mb free. I'm also having trouble opening apps. When I
try these things I get messages that either my disc is full or I am
low on memory. I can't stay signed in at a variety of sites, and the
display of pages is sometimes screwed up.(Once in a while I run the
"Disk Clean Up", but if it works, the fix is only temporary).
I have to keep trying signing in at Google Groups, and I was getting
the message, "Your browser's cookie functionality is turned off.
Please turn it on.
SpyBlaster
Zone Alarm(Always running)
Spybot
Lavasoft Ad-Aware
AVG Free Edition(Always running)
I was also using TrendMicro's free anti-virus software, but it now
needs components that will not instal on WindowsMe, because it is no
longer supported.
I'm waiting for my Flash drive to arrive so I can take what I need off
of this system and trash it before it goes completely .(My Zip drives
stopped working with this system a long time ago).
I has hoping someone can give me advice on what to check and do next
if it is my system itself.
Thanks.
Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account fromhttp://www.teranews.com

This is the way Compaq sold the system, so I'm assuming it wasn't
considered inadequate then.

Also since Compaq, Hewlett Packard, ect. purposely made it difficult
to change operating systems on the machines they sold, attempting to
put Windows 98 on this pc would just be asking for even more
trouble(if that is possible).

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[Paul]

Try increasing the Virtual Memory.
Click Start, settings, system, Performance, Virtua memory.
I selected "Let Windows manage my virtual memory" (Recommended).
Hope this helps.

[JAD]

pull the drive and slave it in another system to get your files

Post by Searcher7

Post by Elly Byrne
That is a totally inadequate system to run winME. Not enough disk
space and not enough ram. A PC needs extra disk space to use as it is
running. The swap file needs extra disk space.
Can you get a cheap version of windows 98? That might work for you.
I liken an OS on a small machine to having an elephant in the
backyard. There is enough room for the beast to stand. There is not
enough room to turn around and walk.
Elly.

Post by Searcher7
I have an old Compaq 350mhz, with 224mb of ram that I use for the
internet. I can only surf for several minutes when I'm using Windows
Explorer. It will then completely stop loading pages, and in order to
temporarily fix the problem I have to reboot. Firefox is not much
better.
Sometimes I can't even save an image or text because the system
"thinks" there is not enough room on my drive even though it is a 4g
that has 600-700mb free. I'm also having trouble opening apps. When I
try these things I get messages that either my disc is full or I am
low on memory. I can't stay signed in at a variety of sites, and the
display of pages is sometimes screwed up.(Once in a while I run the
"Disk Clean Up", but if it works, the fix is only temporary).
I have to keep trying signing in at Google Groups, and I was getting
the message, "Your browser's cookie functionality is turned off.
Please turn it on.
SpyBlaster
Zone Alarm(Always running)
Spybot
Lavasoft Ad-Aware
AVG Free Edition(Always running)
I was also using TrendMicro's free anti-virus software, but it now
needs components that will not instal on WindowsMe, because it is no
longer supported.
I'm waiting for my Flash drive to arrive so I can take what I need off
of this system and trash it before it goes completely .(My Zip drives
stopped working with this system a long time ago).
I has hoping someone can give me advice on what to check and do next
if it is my system itself.
Thanks.
Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account fromhttp://www.teranews.com

This is the way Compaq sold the system, so I'm assuming it wasn't
considered inadequate then.
Also since Compaq, Hewlett Packard, ect. purposely made it difficult
to change operating systems on the machines they sold, attempting to
put Windows 98 on this pc would just be asking for even more
trouble(if that is possible).
Thanks.
Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[Elly Byrne]

Post by Searcher7
This is the way Compaq sold the system, so I'm assuming it wasn't
considered inadequate then.
Also since Compaq, Hewlett Packard, ect. purposely made it difficult
to change operating systems on the machines they sold, attempting to
put Windows 98 on this pc would just be asking for even more
trouble(if that is possible).
Thanks.
Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

I bought a DELL PC 500 mhz recently with WindowsXPPro on it. It was a
second hand machine. It was totally useless, pathetically slow.

I did manage to get that operating system off by finding a NTFSdos
program. Google for it. With that I could wipe the whole disc clean.
Then I installed a different operating system.

But you will need to find a way to get your information off that drive
first. You may need professional help if it is extremely important.

Elly.

[ClueLess]

Post by Elly Byrne
That is a totally inadequate system to run winME. Not enough disk
space and not enough ram. A PC needs extra disk space to use as it is
running. The swap file needs extra disk space.

I run ME on a AMD 450 MHz machine with just 192mb memory and 2gb
harddisk partition.

I have disabled swap file and limited the vcache to max 6144 kb

No PC Health and PC Restore

And ME sails wonderfully well. And on another larger machine I work
on music and video files, editing them and creating DVDs all without
any problem whatsoever.


ClueLess