Tom, no offense intended, but to me all your specs and numbers are low. I suffered under dial-up with a comp that was a little more capable than what you have. I understand that MS no longer supports 98SE. I gave mine to a neighborhood kid and bought a new one and went with DSL. I came out of the stone age pretty quick. My down load speeds are 55-60 times faster. Someone may have some more info for you, but from my experience I would consider a new/newer computer with higher performance capacities and Hi-speed service if available to you. Grady

Tom, except for the mention of defrag "a few years ago", you make no mention of any regular maintenance that you do. How about spyware; do you have any anti spyware programs? Have you done disk cleanup? How about uninstalling old programs you no longer use? Windows 98 SHOULD run okay on 128MB of RAM, but it is notorious for not releasing memory after a program has been run, so regular reboots (at least one a day) are recommended. You need to run Scandisk prior to defrag and this should be done on a regular basis. If you haven't done this in several years, it WILL take a long time, but if done regularly it will take less time because there will be fewer fragmented files. So take a deep breath and do some housecleaning.

Run disk cleanup from your Start menu. This may also take a while, so be patient. Then run a couple of antispyware programs such as AdAware and Spybot Search and Destroy. Be sure you do not get AdAware 2007, since it will not run on Win 98, but the older AdAware SE is still available. Go to Control Panel/Add and Remove Programs and see if there are any programs that you no longer use. If so, click and uninstall them. Then run Scandisk and make sure you have checked for it to repair any errors. After that run the defrag. It may take forever, seemingly, because more than likely there are many, many fragmented files. You will need to do the cleanup and defrag on both partitions, if you use them both. After this you machine should run a little better, but with an old OS, it's not going to get a lot better. You could even, as a last resort, format and re-install Windows 98SE if you have the CD, but you'd have to do all the updates again, and whew!

Give the link below a try.
This stuff needs to be done on a regular schedule.

Pooh Bear

Here is a link that might be useful: Why Is My Computer Running So Slow

grady,

no offense taken, i know this pc is like driving a model t ford built in the teens, like 1913!! i know there is no support for win 98 se at this time, that makes running this pc all the more exciting! i do understand a new pc would eliminate these issues but i really don't want to buy one. i drive a 1991 civic with 280,852 miles on it so you can see i like to keep old stuff running. i also understand my car is like brand new compared to the ancient pc i use!

grandms,

i have no spyware. i have norton 2005 for virus protection. never did disk cleanup, never uninstalled old programs but that's a possibility that is easy to do, i shutdown the pc after every use so it doesn't run for day after day. never ran scandisk either. the time to run scandisk or defrag is moot, i'll just do it and come back in a couple of hours. my concern is i'll do something that totally messes up the pc or it'll ask me something that i don't know what to do, very frustrating really. i don't expect this machine to run like a new one, i just don't want it to take 8 seconds to launch mozilla or 2 minutes to launch ms word. i know download speeds are slow but i usually connect at 42k so i'm good as far as that goes. don't want to reinstall the os, i'd lose ie 6 and oe 6, those took hours to download and infected me with gohip tho i killed that quick!

thanks for you replies. the pc used to be at 90+% but 60% is just awefully slow doing anything. i haven't had dsl in my rural area until about a year ago but i need a new pc to use dsl as i don't have an ethernet card and the internal architecture of this pentium 5 is so archaic that it is just too old for anything other than a stand alone pc for word processing. like the car it doesn't owe me anything so i am trying to continue to use it.

tom

Almost all of the items suggested or linked by poohbear should help. I like to emphasize cleaning up your startup programs (Start/Run/misconfig/Startup) as a very good place to start. I had found out the hard way that Norton was a drag and even though I paid for it, I cleaned it out and use the freeware to protect my computer - firewall and virus protection.

LOL, no offense Tom but I sure hope you maintain your car better than you seem to look after the computer.

Do use the link poohbear provided it is a great list. There is one exception though. I would strongly suggest you do not install AdAware. Why? Because the old AdAwareSE has been replaced by AdAware2007 which is a far larger program and a terrible resource hog sadly, it was a great program before this update.

Instead you could consider one or both of these free programs
AVG Anti spyware
Spywareblaster

tom-
I, too, am a strong believer in keeping things going until they don't work anymore...except for computers. While some of the fixes mentioned above may help a little, they probably won't make much more difference in performance than if you put fuzzy dice in your Honda Civic. You really need to start valuing your time and spend the relatively small amount of money necessary to get a new, fast computer. I have a friend like you who spends approximately 1-2 hours a day with an old computer and dialup doing things that would take me less than 5 minutes on my computer. She says she'll make the changes when she gets the time!

I really can't add anything more than what has already been reported. However, I do wish to comment on one issue for the benefit of those reading this thread.

A new computer will not increase your DUN connection speed. The speed is the speed and in most instances short of perhaps replacing a modem it will not be effected. However, a new up-to-date system can give the appearance of increased speed. It recently happened to me. I went from a P2 400 Mhz Win98 OE to a new dual core Vista. The internal processing power of the new system processes the data so much faster that the Internet appears to operate faster when in reality the connection speed is still the same.

DA

I'd probably be looking at the resources that Norton and other programs are using. I can guess you'd be able to free up somethings.
More ram would be nice too for quicker opening of programs, many of the likes of computers from that decade maxed out at 256mb ram and it would likely be a fairly inexpensive upgrade for a diy install.

Also I'd make sure my swap file was a happy size and maybe fiddle with increasing its size, provided of course you have plenty of hard drive free space. How much hard drive free space do you have ? It gets too small things slow down.

thanks this has made a difference.

i started at 9 am and finshed at 3:30! but i was doing other stuff and the scan disk on the d drive was done when i came in from the garden so it took less than 2 hours.

scan disk on the c drive took 2 1/2 hours

scan disk on the d drive was done at 2 hours but may have
finished 20-30 min earlier, not sure

disk cleanup took seconds for c & d drives

defrag on c drive took 50 min

defrag on d drive less than 15 min

so i shut down and booted the pc

with just the desk top loaded 77% free, yikes i expecepted 90% or better. btw, i was able to remove only ms money and maps. too many other things look like i'd better leave them be.

i connected to the internet (the IE browser NZ opens opened fast then i closed it) and opened 1 mozilla browser. performance showed 66% free, yikes not much better than yesterday at 60% :(

so i launched outlook express and it loaded faster, noticeably faster!

i launched a real PIG for time to load - ms word and it loaded a LOT faster :) :)

owbist yes i do take much better care of my car because i know what to do in the way of maintenance. my pc has been just use it, i don't know the correct things to do to keep it running properly other than antivirus software which i keep up to date.

kudzu9 you sure hit the nail on the head when you said "I have a friend like you who spends approximately 1-2 hours a day with an old computer and dialup doing things that would take me less than 5 minutes on my computer.", yes i could spend 20 minutes doing what takes me 3 hours. i just retired and i was using the pc at work so my home pc seldom was used. now it's all i have and it is really difficult to adjust. i rationalize this by saying i don't want to spend $900-1000 for a pc and $20/month for dsl when i pay $10 for netzero. i have extra time that when i was working i did not have so the frugal side of me says just keep using this setup. sooner or later i'll just have to give up and get a new pc with dsl, possibly cable but dsl will be so fast compared to dialup that going to cable would not be appreciated.

anyway this did help thanks for your help everyone. now i have another problem... new post.

tom

mikie

c drive
capacity 5.52 GB
used space 1.25 GB
free space 4.27 GB

d drive
capacity 3.89 GB
used space 231 MB
free space 3.66 GB

seems like i have a lot of free space, no?

tom

Glad to know that things are going better. Now keep up the good work!

By the way, you can buy a pretty decent desktop computer these days for quite a bit under $1000. Prices have definitely come down, and you got lots more for your money.

tig911 -- no mention of resources being consumed by Norton or checking for cleanout of statup programs. In one of your comments: "...with the desk top loaded 77% free....." you implied or stated that you cleaned off of the desktop (ms Money and maps). Cleaning off an icon from the desktop will get you virtually no increased resources. An icon on the desktop doesn't mean that the program is running. Check the programs that are running when you boot the computer -- Start/Run/type in msconfig/then look into the Startup tab that appears (along with other tabs). You will find a list of program files, some of which have check marks - those are running at boot time.

Tom-
I know that DSL is a lot more expensive than dialup, but your estimate for new computer cost is too high. You can get a new Dell computer with a 160GB hard drive, and 1 GB of RAM, a DVD player, etc. for about $350 without a monitor, or $520 with one.

Tom,
Do yourself a favor and remove Norton 2005 Virus Protection, which was the most bloated resource hog of all the NAV's
Get AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 7.5
Most of your performance problems will be solved.
Do as fruitjarfla said "Start/Run/type in msconfig/then look into the Startup tab

Deals on computers are out there, Fry's had a back to school sale last month, 3.2GHz 512MB DDR2 RAM 80GB harddrive $149.99 with a free Canon Printer.
The last used box I bought was a 2.1GHz 512MB RAM 80GB harddrive for $75

For newer used computers, you could check on http://nwct.craigslist.org/ which is northwest CT.
http://newlondon.craigslist.org/rts/ which is eastern CT,
or http://newhaven.craigslist.org/ which is new haven.

msconfig i run periodicly and check to be sure only programs i want are running.

i deleted the 2 ms products to free up disk space, they were not desktop icons.

several programs in startup are norton/symantec named. if i check them off then i won't have virus protection when going to web sites or downloading emails... no??? i am pretty nervous about viruses and worms etc so i would not normally consider not having nav 2005 running. is AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 7.5 free via download? effective against virus and such?

as far as costs, in january i was pricing a mac the one with the dual core processor (apparently many mfg now use dual core processors) and the price was $1700 to 1900 depending upon the monitor. nice system but way beyond what i really need and the price !!! so i assumed a descent pc for web surfing, word processing and email (all i care to do) would be $900 to $1200 again more than i want to spend. it seems (assumption) a pc less than $500 is just impractical and add 1 or 2 bells and you are at $900. 1 thing i could justify is a monitor at least 17".

dsl is just $18 vs $10 for netzero but i wanted to keep my email address, i know that's minor, the cost for the new pc is the bigger issue.

tom

Netzero offers addvertising supported 10hrs per month free dial up, with email. Maybe you can keep your same netzero email name/address with the free account. Download that free use software and try it maybe?

My next home network hard wired computer will be diy box with a mobile processor to save power... I might retire my existing laptop and put it to that use. Network controller/webservers. Idles around 20watts, runs around 55 watts at maximum current draw. My tower over there sucks 130watts at idle.

i used to used the free, IT"S REALLY BAD cuz they have popups and while i don't have 3g service i noticed a lot of differences with the $9.95 platinum service. no don't think i really want the email THAT bad!

tom

Tom, go to gmail and sign up for a free gmail account. Then you can use that no matter what ISP you use. It is POP3 and SMTP, so you can configure it to download into Outlook Express (which I assume you use?) I have even made it my default e-mail rather than the ISP mail service.

Tom-
What you want to do ("web surfing, word processing and email") does not require a fancy computer or a fancy processor. As I mentioned, you can get an entirely adequate one for less than 1/2 the price of what you've assumed. Or are you trying to talk yourself out of solving your problem...?

Google has a free spyware cleaner program that may help you. My daughter installed some "fun" icons and IM helpers that came with some extra baggage. The computer had AV and Firewall programs installed, but over time, the computer slowed to the point where even things like playing a CD became choppy (this is a PC with 2 gig of ram, a 300 gig hard drive, etc. I tried many other programs and wasn't able to disinfect enough to make a difference. When I ran Spyware Doctor, it found two instances of Gator and one other program that escapes me at the moment. None of these ever showed up in the tasklist or add/remove programs. I removed them and there was an immediate improvement.

The Google Pack has many programs, but you can choose which ones you want. Given your limited drive space, I would suggest starting with just the Spyware Doctor.

Here is a link that might be useful: Google pack

Randy is 200% correct about Norton 2005. In my opinion is was the worst ever release. What a resource hog. After a short time it was off my system and it opened the door to my AVG use. In fact still to this day I use the disk as a coaster for my drink (way over to the far edge of the computer desk, out of the way and safely away from the system and keyboard).

DA