System resource low

[PeterTan]

Hi there

Can anyone help me on this. I am always running into "system resource low" error message when I have more than several applications running.

Even when I first start up without any programs running, my available resources is only 80%. I run one java based application with streaming data and usually open another 2 or 3 browsers and my available resources drop drastically to only 30% or less!

I am running on 256k RAM, WinsME, AMD Duron 700mHZ. I don't have this problem when running exactly the same applications on my dinosuar laptop (celeron300mHz, 128KRAM, Wins98SE), and I have more than 50% free resources on my laptop as compared to my PC.

Would appreciate if anyone can shed some light on my problem.

Thanks in advance.

Peter :confused:

[Budfred]

Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif

My first guess is that you have a lot of dreck running in the background. I would check in Task Manager to see what you have running and use msconfig to selectively reduce programs that startup automatically at boot. You could also have some malware running that takes up resources. Do you do AV and spyware scans with updated software regularly and do you use a firewall? If you don't, you may want to go here:

http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15179

and download some scanner and firewall software.

Good luck,
Budfred

[mjc]

First off the resources being talked about have nothing to do with RAM......

Second, by default ME uses more than 98.......

Third....like Budfred said, what you have running in the background is what matters.....


Fourth, did I mention background programs?

:D

[PeterTan]

Thanks guys for ur prompt reply.

I have indeed reduce background programs to the bare minimum using selective startup from msconfig. It did help release available resources by a small margin. However I am still intrigue as to why there's only 80% free resources on initial startup as compared to my laptop's 91% free resources. Also, each application I open seem to take up more resources as compared to running the same thing on my laptop.

Perhaps mjc u cud be rite that winsME does take up more resources than the other Wins o/s

I will try the AV and spyware scans as suggested by Budfred.

In any case, is there anyway I can improve the resource management system in WinsME or is this inherent in the o/s itself and there's nothing much I can do about it?

Again, thank you all for your kind assistance.

Cheers...peter

[kayofcircles]

I was browsing through my Favorites for another question, and found a link I thought might help you. Came rushing back here to re-read..and you have ME. Darn...so the Getting the most from 98 (http://www.flipchip.net/win98opt.htm) isn't totally on point, but you might glance through it because it reminded me of Safe Mode duplicates, and I am not certain as to how the duplicates effect performance...know they do something, but maybe only at bootup?

ME's Restore (http://www.windows-help.net/windowsMe/system-restore-pf.htm) is another article you might glance through because I believe the Restore feature is what makes ME a bit sluggish compared to 98, and there is some tweaking you can do to it to make it work better.

[mjc]

Good one, Kay, and yes the restore can slow it down, especically if there are a lot of restore points to contend with.

[PeterTan]

Thanks for the pointers guys! :) :) :)

[PeterTan]

Sori guys for being such a pain, but can I downgrade o/s from WinsME to say Wins2000 or Wins98SE? I am considering changing my o/s as WindME is really not efficient in resource management.

Thanks. :)

[Budfred]

You can certainly change OS if you want. Win98 will probably run more efficiently, but Win2000Pro will run more stable. You need to decide which you prefer.

BTW, did you run the spyware scan and find anything?

Budfred

[PeterTan]

Yes Budfred, I ran Adaware and there were something like 30 over spywares detected (where did that come from??)!

Can I change o/s without a clean re-format? That is, can I just run say Win98SE upgrade disk on my PC and it will just swap the o/s?

Someone told me that I cannot change a newer version of windows to an older version without having to re-install everything from scratch, unlike upgrades where everything else is left intact.

I really don't want to go thru the hassle of re-installing all those programs and hardware that is already residing on my PC.

Thanks!
Peter

[Budfred]

Nope, "you can never go back" as they say. You can wipe and install whatever you want, but not over. If you HD is big enough, you could partition and set up multiboot, but otherwise you will have to start over if you want to go back. It is a good idea to do that occasionally anyway to get rid of some of the collected dreck, just back up well first.

Budfred

[mjc]

Can't go backwards....... :(

The only way is with a reinstall of everything.

[PeterTan]

Okay, just what I dread most, re-installing from scratch again :(

Maybe I shud just stay put. Like they say, if it ain't broken, don't fix it. ;)

Thanks and have a nice day!

Peter

[Whyzman]

You might want to have a look at THIS (http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/hal3.htm) article.

THIS (http://www.infinisource.com/techfiles/win-resources.html) article was also very instructional in how System Resources are "consumed!" ;)

As Kay pointed out, you might want to consider manually controlling your System Restore:

Follow these steps:

Select Start > Settings > Control Panel > System
Select the Performance tab
Click the File System button
On the Hard Disk tab, adjust the System Restore disk space use slider to the preferred size.

200MB is the Minimum. The Restore function will begin to purge restore points as the resources you allocate are used up.

[PeterTan]

Hi Whyzman

Great stuff! Now I have a good idea where the resources being used up and why.

Thank you....Peter

[kayofcircles]

Thanks, Whyzman for the links. Was about to post the one for whidbey, but your two links are better and I have added them to Favorites.

PeterTan : We have people here using ME still, and they have gotten it to run well, so imagine that they'd be glad to answer any questions you might have. Above you were wondering about 98SE or Windows 2000, and I just want to make sure that you understand that 98SE runs under the same resource limitations as ME, while 2000 and XP do not. I can't honestly say that I "understand" the resource stuff, but I do understand that 2000 and XP have a LOT more resources somehow!:D

[trapper]

Originally posted by PeterTan
Hi Whyzman

Great stuff! Now I have a good idea where the resources being used up and why.

Thank you....Peter

Mcafee and Norton are a couple of resource hogs. AVG uses a lot less system resources.

Perhaps you should do Google search for: Startup Problems

I have managed to get my resources to 94% on first starting by paring down startup.

Let us know how you make out.

trapper.

[PeterTan]

Hi trapper

I am still getting only about 85% (max) on startup with only the following running in background upon stratup:

.explorer
.loadqm
.hidserve
.pelmiced
.systray
.spdstrm


I know pelmiced is for my working my mouses' scroll button, spdstrm is my modem for the broadband connection. As for the rest, I am not sure if I can take them out as it may affect the o/s.

Any advise?

Thanks....Peter

[Budfred]

Check out this article:

http://www.infopackets.com/freenewsarticles/loadqm.exe.htm

Budfred

[kayofcircles]

If you go to Tasklist (http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm) , you can check out the loadqm and the hidserve. They recommend disabling the loadqm for sure..it's to do with MSN Messenger and they say it "gobbles up system resources". The hidserve is for USB keyboards and such..and, if you're not using that sort of thing, you can try disabling that too. Check out the list. There's also a comprehensive list at Pac's Portal (http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htm), but my connection is too slow to load all the list..so you can check it out on your broadband, and get a "second opinion."

[mjc]

Kay, don't know if you noticed, but the Pac's Protal list also come in a downloadable format........

and this official mirror for the main page may be a little quicker for you...it is a US based server, the other is UK.

http://www.spywareinfo.com/startup_content.htm

[trapper]

Originally posted by PeterTan
Hi trapper

I am still getting only about 85% (max) on startup with only the following running in background upon stratup:

.explorer
.loadqm
.hidserve
.pelmiced
.systray
.spdstrm


I know pelmiced is for my working my mouses' scroll button, spdstrm is my modem for the broadband connection. As for the rest, I am not sure if I can take them out as it may affect the o/s.

Any advise?
Thanks....Peter

Hi PeterTan:

I would take out Loadqm and Hidserve as well. You can always go back in and check them if you find you cant live without them.

Incidently, where is your anti-virus program? I dont see it in Startup list.

trapper.

[PeterTan]

Thanks all for your advise.

Trapper, I have disable my anti-virus as I find that it slows down the system when it scans in the background.

Budfred, thanks for that link. I will disable loadqm.

Kay, my keyboard uses USB port so I guess i will have to leave hidserve on than.

Peter

[Lucias_Clay]

However I am still intrigue as to why there's only 80% free resources on initial startup Pardon me for butting in but I have Win ME and this is normal for me, at 75-80% you should hve no problem doing anything you want. I frequently run two or more windows while logged on at 75% resources without much noticible slow down.
I know you said you have already unchecked some things but you might go here to see what all is or is not needed. This is a very good site.
http://www2.whidbey.net/djdenham/Uncheck.htm

[PeterTan]

Thanks Lucias.

I ran exactly the same application on both my laptop (running on wins98SE) and my desktop (winsME) and guess what, my laptop utilise only 10% resources while desktop takes up more than 15%!

Running several identical appilcations on both systems, my laptop has more than 50% free resources left while desktop has less than 30% free resources.

Wonder where is the leak?

[trapper]

Originally posted by PeterTan
Thanks all for your advise.

Trapper, I have disable my anti-virus as I find that it slows down the system when it scans in the background.

Budfred, thanks for that link. I will disable loadqm.

Kay, my keyboard uses USB port so I guess i will have to leave hidserve on than.

Peter

Peter: It is not a good idea to have your Anti-virus Program disabled at startup. You probably have Norton or Mcafee (I'm guessing ), and they are real resource-hogs. If you had XP that wouldnt be a concern but we 98ers, etc, have to be concerned about system resources.

My suggestion would be to get rid of Norton or Mcafee, and download AVG Free Version anti-virus program from >www.grisoft.com<.

Then when you have AVG installed, just enable the Anti-virus program in Startup. Leave out the Automatic Updater in Startup, to conserve resources, and check for AVG Updates every couple of weeks---or watch on this forum for posts (by other AVG users ) of updates.

Let us know how you make out.

trapper.

[PeterTan]

Trapper, u r rite. I am using Mcafee. Will try the AVG version you mention. Thanks!

[mjc]

Running 98se, and after a boot I have 94% free resources....this includes running AVG! So it is possible to trim it down and still have AV. When I ran McAfee I did as you are doing, running with backlground diabled, but ran a full scan every day (well....I stopped that before I switched over to AVG). through the task scheduler.

[PeterTan]

Originally posted by trapper


Peter: It is not a good idea to have your Anti-virus Program disabled at startup. You probably have Norton or Mcafee (I'm guessing ), and they are real resource-hogs. If you had XP that wouldnt be a concern but we 98ers, etc, have to be concerned about system resources.

My suggestion would be to get rid of Norton or Mcafee, and download AVG Free Version anti-virus program from >www.grisoft.com<.

Then when you have AVG installed, just enable the Anti-virus program in Startup. Leave out the Automatic Updater in Startup, to conserve resources, and check for AVG Updates every couple of weeks---or watch on this forum for posts (by other AVG users ) of updates.

Let us know how you make out.

trapper.


Trapper

I have AVG installed. On the selective start-up, I have AVG_CC and Avgserv9.exe both selected. Which one can I disable to conserve resources?

Thanks....Peter

[kayofcircles]

I don't even have Avgserv9.exe listed on my StartUp list, BUT I don't use the AVG system monitor thing..too lazy to go and see what that's called. I didn't feel I needed it because I am careful with anything I "put in" my puter, and can scan it manually with AVG anyway. So, you need to check on the Avgserv9 file because might be that part of AVG and necessary if you're using that. I do have the AVG_CC checked on the list..and that's the part that checks email for me.

[trapper]

Originally posted by PeterTan



Trapper

I have AVG installed. On the selective start-up, I have AVG_CC and Avgserv9.exe both selected. Which one can I disable to conserve resources?

Thanks....Peter

Peter:

You can uncheck Avgserv9.exe in startup (like I have done) if you just want to check manually for updates.

Let us know how you make out.

trapper.:)

[Lucias_Clay]

explorer This is required for Windows.

Hidserv.exe.run This is the Human Interface Device Server, it is required if you are using USB Audio Devices

Loadqm Loads the MSN Explorer Query Manager--a waste of resources and bandwidth. (It is also used by MSN Explorer 6.x to check for updates.)

Systray Required for your clock and other items in the System Tray.