computer slows down every 10mins, pls help

[Alex]

I have just formatted my computer and installed chinese Win98se, and it seems to be running fine when I'm using ie5 for browsing through websites. But now when I play final fantasy VIII or run photoshop, the computer seems to slow down every 10 mins. I had been playing ff8 and using photoshop in Win98se before my computer was formatted, and this problem didn't exist.

[bassvax]

Not sure if it will help, but there is an option to adjust the quantity of data used for file system optimization located in the file system's tab in the device manager/performance (in other words...right-click on "My Computer", select "Properties", select "Performance", on the bottom of the box select "File System", then select the tab "CD-ROM") you can use the slide bar to change to a lower cache-ing. I saw that this worked on some computers while playing FFVIII. I tried it on mine and had no luck with the movies from Final Fantasy VIII...they still stutter and I'm really upset with the pc software version because of this. Worth a shot I guess...

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Jerry

[Alex]

Thanks for the suggestion, I've tried it, but it doesn't help.
Just want to add some more information to my problem. Sometimes a message appeared saying I've run out of virtual memory, and I look at My Computer/Properties/Virtual memory. The first option is selected. When I look at the scroll bar in the second option, I can see the two options C:/751MB and D:/12512MB.
Note...this problem occurs after I've formatted and partioned my computer into two hard drives - C http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif1.2GB) and D http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif12.2GB)

[Paleo Pete]

Sounds like maybe something in the background may be trying to run every few minutes. Try shutting down everything running except Explorer and Systray, using the 3 finger salute, [Ctrl] [Alt] [Del] before you start the game, and see if it still happens.

Anything in the tool tray at bottom right of the start menu bar can be closed by right clicking, everything that's left has to be done through the Task Monitor, see above.

Explorer and Systray MUST be left running, everything else can usually go.

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines!
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

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[Randy_tx]

If you have less than 96 MB Ram........you may not have enough RAM to do all of the things you want to at once........Additionally, if you are running the programs that are causing the slowdown in drive "C"...which is the small partition, you may be out of swap file space and Win 98 is working itself to death trying to keep up with you!

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I sometimes think like a 286

[Alex]

I've got 128Mb Ram in my computer, so I think it's sufficient to run the game. If it is the swap file space that causes the problem, is there anything I can do about it?

[jon]

question 1:
Did you change settings in "virtual memory"

contrl panel\system\performance\virtual memory\ ???

[Alex]

no.
Some additional information:
I've formatted my computer again, making the partition bigger, now my c: is 4GB
The game is still suddenly slows down but better than before.
Would changing my virtual memory setting helps? If yes, how?

[Paleo Pete]

I'm not sure if changing Virtual Memory settings would make a great difference. Check the settings, if you have at least 500MB available, you should have enough. More would be better. Usually Windows does a fairly decent job of managing memory, I normally leave it set that way, and sometimes redirect it to an empty partition. Either way I usually let Windows handle it and don't have any problems.

Check the Final Fantasy website, or the readme and help files in the game's folder, and see if they have anything listed in a troubleshooting section, or a FAQ on the website.



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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines!
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[Alex]

I've tried everything to stop the slowing down, but nothing works, so I've decided to format my computer, reinstall window and use one hard drive. But the problem of slowing down still exsists, which means it is not due to the partioning of my hard disk or program running in background. Let me repeat my problem again^^:
My computer slows down regularly in win98 no matter what I'm running(very slow when I'm playing games or using Photoshop)It's running very smoothly for 10 mins or so, then suddenly it slows down for 1 min, then back to normal speed again, after 10 mins, it again slows down...

[Paleo Pete]

I got it, it's gremlins!!

Ok seriously, the only thing I can think of is something has to be running in the background, and it ties up resources. Go to Start\Run and type msconfig, click OK, and click the Start Up tab. Uncheck everything but

Scan Registry
Task Monitor
System Tray
Load Power Profile

If you have the display settings icon in your taskbar you might want to leave Taskbar Display Controls. Everything else can be shut off, then use [Ctrl] [Alt] [Del] to see if anything else is running. Everything there except Explorer and Systray can go.

Go to Start\Settings\Taskbar and Start Menu, click the Start Up [b]Programs tab, then the Advanced button. Click the + beside Programs and find the Start Up folder. Remove Microsoft Find Fast and anything else, by creating a Temporary folder somewhere else and dragging them to that folder.

That should leave nothing running but Explorer and Systray, which both should be running, after you reboot, of course, which will disable anything that was in the Start Up folder. Run [Ctrl] [Alt] [Del] again to be sure those are the only two things showing. Then try the programs that have been giving you trouble, and see how they act.

Add one thing at a time back to msconfig, then the Start Up folder, if you need anything in it at all, and see if you can find out what was causing it.

It's a tedious process, but it should single out what is causing the slowdowns. Soon as you add one certain thing back to msconfig or Start Up folder, it will start to slow down again and you'll know.

I normally leave my antivirus running in msconfig, but it could be that as well, scanning the drive periodically. If you tried setting defrag to run at certain times it could be continuously restarting, if it never finished the first time, because of antivirus or something else still running (usually it's antivirus).


There is also a chance that you have a virus that's been transferred along with the new install, possibly from a Start Up disk that was not write protected, or a boot sector virus.


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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines!
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[Alex]

Thanks very much, this really helps, now there's no slowing down.

[Randy_tx]

But..............Pete, which program in the background WAS it......my bet is Scheduled Maintenence(scandisk).......whattya think???

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"As hard as a rock & dumb as a brick"...Windows CEMeNT

[Paleo Pete]

Randy: My guess is either scandisk or defrag, more likely defrag. It's the one usually started by Task Scheduler that restarts at 10% or so, and mine continued to try and run after rebooting at least 20 times. Task Scheduler sees an unfinished task, and restarts it, and the loop continues. Took me over a week to figure out what it was, and finally found it when I tried to run defrag manually...I've never used Task Scheduler since...

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines!
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[Randy_tx]

I disable it on every new system I build or work on http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif It was a good idea with no viable way to implement using Scandisk & Defrag.

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"As hard as a rock & dumb as a brick"...Windows CEMeNT

[Paleo Pete]

Yep, same here. It would be great if it also gave you an option to automatically disable all programs that might access the hard drive and cause scandisk or defrag to restart, but no such option is available, so I live without it and run them manually when necessary...that's assuming I remember to do it... http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines!
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[Alex]

Hi, it's me again.
I noticed My problem come back again even though I've disabled the startup programs. For example, when I was listening music with Real Jukebox while I browse with IE5, the slowing down occurs again. So I run Tweak-Me and every now and again, the computer slows down, when it reads: "CPU Usage 100%"(while RAM has not changed) this value remains for about 1 min then drop back to 40% and it's running fine again...
can you explain to me what CPU usage is and what can cause the increase?
Thanks

[Reid]

You might try running Wintop (http://newlife-98.server101.com/wintop_info.htm), which is one of the Microsoft Kernel Toys. It will show what tasks are running and what percentage of the CPU's time is taken by each. It may help determine if a program is the problem.

A program I recommend for terminating all background tasks (except Explorer and Systray) is EndItAll (http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stories/info/0,,0011NB,.html). Run it, then use your computer for a while and see if the slowdown goes away.

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reido@my-deja.com

Friends don't let friends install Windows ME



[This message has been edited by Reid (edited 02-25-2001).]