explorer problems

[coog]

hal 9000, I get constant problems from explorer, usually lockups, where I have to use the ctrl/alt/del. Last night I got 17+ errors, it says" system is dangerously low on resources" and had to " end task" with all of them, and finally had to restart. I found out that win 98 is supposed to have a "resource meter" that can be installed from the win 98 se CD. it wasn't there, but it did have a resource kit that didn't have the meter. I cant seem to pinpoint the problem. what I'm starting to think is going on is my wife downloaded the callwave internet answering machine,[ which we dont need], which I uninstalled, I'm thinking it took a bunch of shared files with it when I did, this also happened on our dell....with almost the same after effects. last weekend when the problems started I ran the norton system works 2002, win docter and it showed something like 329 missing files !! I uninstalled almost everything down to windows , I left only the MS works suite in and reinstalled everything , the norton system works last, it helped out quite a bit, but occaisionally get the explorer problem now. I'm wondering if I should have uninstalled everything on the hard drive, windows included? have any suggestions? seems like it's allways on the verge of a good crash !! thanks, coog

[Cricket]

Hi coog,

Use Find (Start> Find> Files or Folders) and look for a file named RSRCMTR.EXE...that's the resource meter. If you find it, place a shortcut in your Startup folder (Windows Explorer> c:\Windows \Start Menu \Startup). The resource meter will then start up everytime Windows boots up. When the meter shows red bars, the resources are almost used up and it's time to save your work and shut down the programs. You'll recover some of the resources that way. Start the programs up again and continue working.

You can use msconfig (Start> Run> type in "msconfig" without the quotes and hit Okay> go to Startup tab) to control what starts up with Windows.

Don't run the Norton System Works utilities in background. Instead, run each utility when you need to. Saves on resources and your system will run faster.

You can try running the System File Checker utility (Start> Run> type in "sfc" and hit Okay) to see what system files you're missing. I don't like using it (it's sort of scary) but in your case, it might help. It will extract missing system files from the Win98 CD and replace them in the correct locations. Might be worth a shot.

Is the CD you have a true MS Windows98 CD or a DELL restore CD? 2 different things entirely.

If you have a way of saving your personal data (Zip disks, CD-R's, another hard drive), you can go ahead and re-install Windows on your hard drive. That way you're sure to get your system running like new.

But wait to hear from some of the other forum members first.

:) Cricket

[coog]

Cricket,I finally found out how to go about installing the resource meter. START, SETTINGS, CONTROL PANEL- double click ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS, click WINDOWS SETUP, and double click SYSTEM-- click SYSTEM RESOURCE METER, click OK, click OK again. then it can be found in the system tools, or start, run, type in RSRCMTR.EXE I tried the SFC and found setupx.dll missing and was able to restore it. thanks for the help, coog