[blaise78]

Hi I'm new on here, and this is probably one of my last-ditch stops on a journey that I can only imagine will end with the murder of my computer, so if anybody can help, I would weep with gratitude. I'll try and make it as brief as possible, but in parts that may not be possible.
I have a laptop, a failr old Time model. I'm not in any way whatsoever good with computers, which has compounded all the problems I've had. Basically, it keep crashing and I just don't know why. It seems to have been one thing after another with it, problem after problem. When Windows 98 buggered up on it, a mate came and worked wonders on it and installed XP. He also installed Symantec anti-virus as well. Now I don't know anything about anti-virus 'updates' or any of that malarky, but for a while it was ok. But then things went haywire again. The auto-protect seems to only run when it feels like it, and for a very long time there was a virus it caught that just would not be removed. Now, like I say, it keeps crashing. Every time I start it up, a message comes up saying 'low disk space', then it gives me the option to remove stuff to free space on the C drive, then it says 'You only have so much space left and you need at least 200MB free to run properly', and this is even though I'm not adding or downloading anything. Every time I start up my disk space has gone even lower down (I'm onto 80MB), and there's nothing I can do to stop it!
I think this may lead to the way it crashes. It crashes almost every time I use it. What happens is it goes to a blue screen with various jargon oon that I don't have chance to read before it goes, but it mentions 'kernel error page' and suggests a driver may be at fault.
I would call someone in but I don't want to waste money. Can anybody make head nor tail of any of this
It's an absolute bloody misery.

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Click start then all programmes, accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, click more options then click clean up restore points

From system tools, run disc defragmenter, after this, reboot the PC then click start, my computer and hold the mouse over local disc C to see the free space, you may need to right click local disc C then click properties to see the free space

[Retired Tech]

Click start then all programmes, accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, click more options then click clean up restore points

From system tools, run disc defragmenter, after this, reboot the PC then click start, my computer and hold the mouse over local disc C to see the free space, you may need to right click local disc C then click properties to see the free space

[blaise78]

Ok, I'll try that when I get home later, thanks very much. If it presumably says 80MB or whatever, what should my next step be?
Thanks for the advice.

[Retired Tech]

There are a number of options after this but see how this goes first

[blaise78]

Ok, will do. Cheers again.

[SRX660]

Hope you don't mind me butting in. Depending on how old this computer is i see a couple of problems here. One is that if you only have 80 MB of free space on the computer you probably do not have enough for XP to run. A second thing is that for a laptop to be able to run XP it needs at least 256MB of memory installed otherwise it is very slow responding. That is because XP is using the swap file quite a lot for basic operations. Since you seem to have only 80MB of free space for the swap file i would think it would crash often. Basic swap file size for windows is equal to or 1.5 times your memory.

This AMD 2400 puter i am using right now is using 350MB of the 1 gig memory in it. It is also using 42 MB of swap files. I have only firefox running right now and nothing else except background programs. A total of 29 programs are runing in processes in task manager.

I tried running XP on a toshiba intel 1 gig laptop and gave up, wiped the drive and reinstalled Win 98SE back on the puter. I just could'nt handle how slow the computer was running. I even maxed out the memory it could hold at 256MB. It is something to think about.

SRX660