Something hogging all my memory?

[JTH]

I am using Windows ME and recently have found that while listening to music in Win Media Player and running other programs (like Outlook, IE), the sound constantly skips as if I am running loads of tasks and it can't keep up. For example, I just opened four or five IE browsers to test it and the sound skipped MAJORLY and went on and off for several seconds. The computer freezes and slows up a lot too.

The only change I've made recently is to ADD 256mb of RAM (bringing it up to 384mb total). There is no visable performance increase at all so could this chip have somehow underclocked my PC?? ME detects the 384mb and the chip is good. It is a Crucial component that I have used to fine effect on another PC).

Thanks in advance for any help, JTH

[Force Flow]

Have you run spyware scans with adaware and spybot? That's the most common thing with lag problems recently.

[JTH]

I haven't got adaware but I scan with Spybot regularly. I think I'll download adaware tomorrow and give it a checkup.

JTH

[GaryRouth]

It probably has more to do with the way Win9x handles system resources (not the same as physically installed system memory), and what sort of sound card you have that leads to the skipping.

This is especially true if you are using either onboard sound, or an entry-level card that uses a lot of cpu time to help with the sound processing. C-Media cards need a background process to help out, for example. Cards with their own DSPs (processors) don't task your system's main cpu & won't skip much. You can try limiting unnecesary background processes to help with the Win9x/Me resource handling - you might find acceptable performance even with onboard sound if it's given a little help. [for more info on background processes and resources, see http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm]

The other cause for sound skipping would be if your sound source is streamed from the Internet, and your connection speed isn't steady enough to keep up a consistent stream.

[Win2k/XP don't have that resource issue]
. . . Gary

[p.s. ...this assumes, of course, that you've already cleaned any virus/spyware from the system]

[JTH]

Thing is that it NEVER skipped before with 128mb RAM, so I figured it definately shouldn't with 384mb. Just for the record that card is a Creative Labs Soundblaster PCI. I ran Adaware and whatever it did it seemed to fix the problem, the music is back to its consistency of old. But I still don't think there's any performance increase for having 300% more memory. Any reason why?

P.S. So was it cookies and bad registry enteries that caused my resources to be used up?

[TwoRails]

It could be compatibility issues. Pull the 128 and leave in the 256 and see what happens.

[GaryRouth]

I'd echo TwoRails suggestion - if the chipset on your current board is different that that of it's previous home (where the Crucial stick worked fine) - it might be that it prefers a particular speed or density [some boards will work with either PC100 or PC133, some only one or the other - the same is true for the varying speeds of DDR]. . . You could also try a quick MemTest on it just to rule out any module issues.

But it might be your needs are met with 128mb in Win98, and it was just background adware slowing you down [forceflow may well have pegged it right away!]. If there's no issue with the extra 256mb module, the extra memory will come in handy for things like defragging the hard drive, which likes to temporarily store large chunks of data in memory while shuffling things about.

. . . Gary

[p.s. -- regarding the resources: cookies don't really take up any resources, and the registry entries that would are those that would start background processes that you don't want or need - I'm a little surprised AdAware found some that SpyBot didn't, but then that's why it's nice to have both! They are both well-regarded & keep getting good reviews - visit the pacs-portal link if there are any things in your Startup List that you don't recognize & want to learn more about - you can get a nicely detailed list of your Startups in Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/SystemInformation ...and in the left-hand window, click on "Software Environment/Startup" to see the list. The nice thing about this list is that it has a column in the right-hand window that lists where it is "called from" or "started from" - so that you have the option of editing that .ini file or Registry key to permanently remove it]