I have a recently purchased Dell 4100 PIII 933 with 256MB of PC-133 SDRAM and when I check the System Performance tab in the Device Manager it says that I have 63% of system resources free. Does this mean that something is using memory or does it refer to the IRQ's, DMA channels, etc? I'm running Win98SE.

Hi B. K.

Your pc uses resources to run every program...including the operating system and anything in the startup.

A good way to free up some more resources would be to click start in the lower left hand corner, go to run and type in MSCONFIG. Go to the startup tab and remove checks from things that you don't need at startup. This will free up resources and should spee you boot time.

You obviously need some programs at startup, but many of these are not used regularly (in some cases not at all).

Here (http://www.3dspotlight.com/tweaks/startup/index.shtml) is a guide if you need help.

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"Ooooh, They have the
internet on computers now!" - Homer Simpson

Hi;

Yes, depending on how many installed programs that you have, such as office suites, virus detection software, some Windows components and many others, these programs are in the startup menu when you turn on the machine, so that the programs load/start faster when you invoke the programs to use them. If you are satisfied with how the machine is running, then leave it alone. However, be aware that the more programs you install, the more memory resources may be used up. Basically, the higher the resources not being used (higher % of resouces free), the better in terms of system performance. You can set up the system so that fewer of these programs load on start-up with a minimal effect, some programs may start-up slightly slower. If you feel comfortable making changes to the system to free up more resouces, post and let this forum know.

here (http://www2.whidbey.net/djdenham/Uncheck.htm) is another about system resoures

buck

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just hav'n fun

Cheers for the advice, folks. I followed Bailey's advice and removed a pile of stuff from the Start menu. This resulted in a 30% increase in free resources. This forum is definitely one of the best on the Net. Thanks for the help.

Brian.