Is It A Memory Problem?

[Robyn8862]

I am having memory problems on my pc...I think! I am enclosing a copy of my pc details in the hopes that someone will be able to tell me what I can do to fix these problems. I have been getting a lot of Freezing, Kernel, Invalid Page Fault and out of Memory errors. I put a memory monitoring kit on my pc and it tells me that I am low on Free Memory but that Free Windows memory is at 60-78%. I have tried just about everything I can find to check and nothing is helping. Windows Help offers absolutely no help...I have a Western Digital Hard Drive and I thought I read somewhere that if I added memory to above 64mb that I have to enable O/S2 Warp and Disable Floppy Boot Protection but, I cannot find that information again from either their Floppy Disk or their web site. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Windows 98 SE
TriGem Computer, Inc.
400 megahertz Intel Celeron
32 kilobyte primary memory cache
128 kilobyte secondary memory cache
Board: TriGem Computer, Inc. COMO3 1.00
Bus Clock: 66 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 0631 04/19/99
WDC WD205BA (20.53 GB) [Hard drive] -- drive 0
20.51 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
11.47 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-408B [CD-ROM drive]
SAMSUNG CD-ROM SC-140
Generic floppy disk drive (3.5")
128 Megabytes Installed Memory
64 Megabyte Module Size - 2 Installed
c: (on drive 0) 20.51 GB 11.47 GB free
Standard Floppy Disk Controller
Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller
Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)
APOLLO P-1200 Series on LPT1:
RAGE PRO TURBO AGP 2X (English) ]
Plug and Play Monitor
Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
Crystal SoundFusion(tm) Game Device
Crystal SoundFusion(tm) Joystick
Crystal SoundFusion(tm) PCI Audio Accelerator
Wave Device for Voice Modem
Creative Modem Blaster V.90 DI5660-DI5665
Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
PS/2 Pointing Device [Mouse]
USB Root Hub
Microsoft - Internet Explorer
Microsoft - Windows 98 SE

[Leef]

It sounds too me like either a defective memory stick, or possible even your MB resources. Or maybe a memory problem with Windows.

I had the same problem once, and tried everything...different memory, RAM management programs, ect.... The only solution I found was a complete reinstall of Windows.

Try getting a new memory stick, brand name. If that don't work, reformatting has always been my preferred way of defragmenting and getting rid of all bugs.....temporarily

Maybe somebody has some other ideas besides me

[Cricket]

Hi Robyn8862,

Since your PC is a Celeron 400MHz, it's at least a few years old. Have you been performing the maintenance routines for your system on a regular basis? Running Disk Cleanup, Scandisk and Defrag regularly is important to keep your PC running smooth. I would also go through your Temp folders and delete all the .tmp files and folders you find there (actually, you can remove everything you find in a temp folder). Then start up Internet Explorer and go to Options> General Tab> Temporary Internet Files and click on the "Delete Files..." button. Then click on the "Settings" button and look in "Temporary Internet files folder" and reduce the "Amount of disk space to use" to 10MB or less.

Also, how many things do you have starting up along with Windows? Do you have a lot of icons next to the clock? You only want the programs you absolutely need when Windows starts up. Hit Ctrl Alt Del once and see if you have a lot of programs listed. It's possible one of these background programs is interferring with your system and making it unstable. You can use msconfig to control what starts up with Windows. Go to Start> Run> type in msconfig and hit Okay. Click on the Startup tab...you can uncheck all the boxes except for Scanreg and Systray, these you should leave.

Another thing to do is open up the case and blow out all the dust bunnies you find inside with compressed air. Clean the dust off the fans, power supply grills and the air openings on the front and back of the case. Take off the front face plate and make sure the front intake area for the fan is also clean. Also, make sure your fans are all spinning when the PC is on.

Cricket

[mike breck]

I think it's time you bit the bullet and put a nice clean install of Win98Se on your Hard Drive. Your system will run quicker and more efficiently. I usually do a clean install every 12-14 months. Mind you, I do it the easy way because I have Power Quest's Drive Image. Once you have made a clean install of Windows and added all the device drivers you just copy an image of the C: partition to another partition. If anything goes bad you can restore the full C: drive to pristine condition in five minutes. Cricket uses Norton Ghost, but it's the same principle.

Your stick of memory may or may not be defective, but with the current low price for memory you can cetainly afford to buy another 128mb stick and see if that works any better. But I would reinstall Windows first and see how you get on.

Unless this something peculiar to a Celeron setup, I don't see the advantage in enabling OS/2 in the bios. OS/2 is a completely different operating system to Windows. As far I as I know most mobo manuals advise leaving it disabled unless you are using OS/2.

[glc]

Trigem is a major clue here - this is an E-Machine with integrated audio and video, right?

E-Machines are notorious for having weak power supplies, this is another thing to look at besides what has already been mentioned. If the power supply is bad, it's proprietary and cannot be replaced with a standard unit, and E-Machines will not sell you a replacement.

[Carl Price]

Originally posted by glc Trigem is a major clue here - this is an E-Machine with integrated audio and video, right? E-Machines are notorious for having weak power supplies, this is another thing to look at besides what has already been mentioned. If the power supply is bad, it's proprietary and cannot be replaced with a standard unit, and E-Machines will not sell you a replacement.

Hp Pavillion power supplies are the same size and work fine for Emachines. Hp will sell them to you.

[mike breck]

Ah - you've mentioned this make before glc.

Does increasing the ram above 128mb help on these E-Machines with integrated sound and video?