not enough memory

[Drenner]

I have a pc that boots up fine , but when you click to go somewere I get the message "not enough memory". The H.D. has plenty of room and the 256 of ram is plenty. Could it be that there are to many programs running on startup? The pc is running win 9x. I'm open for any suggestions.

[GaryRouth]

Try starting the computer in Safe Mode, and running a full system Virus scan with up-to-date definitions. If you don't already have an antispyware program, download one and run it from Safe Mode also. Some viruses and spyware can consume a lot of conventional memory as they load in at startup. Both AdAware and Search&Destroy are good antispy tools, available at places like download.com

To enter Safe Mode, either tap the F8 key at startup, or hold down either the CTRL key or the SHIFT key (start pressing the key before you see the Win98 splash screen).

If you can access the Internet from the problem machine, you can also try HouseCall as an online antivirus scan. It's a free service, available at http://housecall.trendmicro.com

Another thing to check is what is loading at startup. You can go to Start/Programs/Accessories/SystemTools/System Information ... and look under the "Software Environment/Startup" section on the left. To help identify what is truly necessary and what is a problem, you can check the list at http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php

And for the full background on the resources situation in Win9x, you can research at http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm

. . . if you right-click on "My Computer", then left-click on "Properties", and then select "Performance" - what percentage of resources does it report?

This should get you started
. . . Gary