[michaelk87]

Please Help!

I am running:

AOpen AX4SPE-N Motherboard
Intel Pentium IV 2.4GHz Processor (not overclocked)
Dual 512 MB PC3200 DDR 400 MHz FSB
OS is Windows Me 4.90.300 with all critical updates current
Radeon 9200 128 MB

I have been fighting an issue with low resources, insufficient memory and processor overload for months now. When I boot, I start out somewhat OK, and available resources quickly erodes as I run things. For example, as I write this, system and user resources are shown at 16% each with GDI at 25%, and all I have open is two browser windows. To get this performance, I have to go into msconfig, and shut down all but the most essential start processes. Even so, I still eventually lock up if I don't reboot after a while. I have tried a variety of things.

This system should scream, but only whimpers. I have run a variety of spyware, adware, and trojan removal programs recommended in the 'read this before you post' posting in addition to several others. I have scanned for viruses with PC-Cillin, Norton Anti-Virus, and Panda. As a result, I have removed a lot of stuff from my computer, and seen some slight improvement, but not a fix.

One other thing that I've noticed is that 2 or 3 files keep getting created in my root directory. They don't have names, per se, but rather machine code symbols for names. They are like 'the files formerly known as Prince'. If I delete them, they come back named with different symbols. They show 0 kb in size, and when I try to read them with a text editor, they appear totally empty. There is also a file named W9XUNDO.DAT that is 1,074,832 KB in size that I can't copy anywhere without freezing up the system. Virus scans of this file show it to be clean, but the size seems very suspicious to me. There is also a file called W9XUNDO.INI that is 505 KB that appears to be associated with it. It shows that it was created on 12/22/2004, which roughly correlates with when I re-installed my Windows Me OS, so it might be OK, but I thought that I'd mention it.

I have another topic running on the HijackThis forum, but I don't feel that it is solving anything and am wondering if it can be a hardware problem. Anything out short of the cost of buying a new computer to there to test processor, RAM, ... etc?

[Advertisements]

Make sure the indexing service is disabled. I would check your virtual memory. Min. and max should be the same size. Others may know the apropriate size but I think it's supposed to be at least twice as much as the physical RAM. If it's all being used up I would increase it. Go into Task Manager and click on CPU. This will tell you what proceses are using the CPU. You may have to search the net to see what these proceses are.

As a P4 heats up it will slow down....but I don't think that's your problem. Good luck...

[macten]

Make sure the indexing service is disabled. I would check your virtual memory. Min. and max should be the same size. Others may know the apropriate size but I think it's supposed to be at least twice as much as the physical RAM. If it's all being used up I would increase it. Go into Task Manager and click on CPU. This will tell you what proceses are using the CPU. You may have to search the net to see what these proceses are.

As a P4 heats up it will slow down....but I don't think that's your problem. Good luck...

[michaelk87]

Thank you for your reply.

The task manager in Me is not like the one that you have in XP. There is no way that you can sort tasks in Me by memory or cpu usage like you can in XP. The only way that I understand what you are talking about is that I run Windows2000 at work, where I can do this. When I asked our resident IT expert in the office where I can do this in Me, he told me that you can't, it's only available in XP and 2000. Thanks for the suggestion though. Even 3rd party process viewers can't give you this info for Me. I've tried that route. It will give you the process that are running, and you can toggle separately to see each individual consumption of the modules that are running under them, but you can't filter or sort in any way that would be convenient or useful.

I also do not know what you mean by indexing service. I if have it, I don't know about it. Maybe this is an XP thing too. If not, please advise more detail of where and how to check for this.

I will look into your virtual memory suggestion, but most literature suggests that it is best to let windows decide optimum setting. I have 1 GB of RAM and am not even trying to run anything that is scratching the surface of this without having to go to virtual memory. I did notice that my swap file size is just short of 300 MB.

[macten]

I've never used ME. I guess most of what I said applies to W2000 and XP. ME probably doesn't have an indexing service.

What I said about the virtual memory is correct. I've got 256MB of RAM on my desktop and on my laptop. I just checked my virtual memory on my desktop and min and max are set to 625M. It runs well.

You've got a tough problem. I think you're going to have to backup you data, format and re-install. I suspect you have a lot of software on that machine. Something is running in the back ground....