No free memory in Win98 but lots of free resources

[tomharries]

I recently got hold of an older computer with Win98 with windows media player 6.4 installed. I upgraded the media player to version 9 and at first it was ok. Then it suddenly told me that there was not enough free memory and I had to quit other programs. I removed pretty much everything else from my pc other than the OS and my video files, and also removed version 9 of wmp and went back to version 6.4.

According to the performance tab in system properties I've got 92% of my system resources free. But the media player still says there is not enough memory. I'm not a pc expert so what am I missing? (I'm assuming it's something simple!)

[glc]

How much physical memory (ram) do you have? How much free space is on the hard drive?

[GaryRouth]

. . . along with glc's questions, I'm also curious about your system's virtual memory settings (which are effected by 1) how much memory you have 2) how much free space on your hard drive you have & 3) Virtual Memory settings on your system.

To check your Virtual Memory settings, and to let Windows manage it:
1) Right-click on the My Computer icon on your desktop
2) Select (with a left-click) "Properties"
3) Select "Performance"
4) Select "Virtual Memory"
5) Make sure that there is a checkmark in the box next to "Let Windows manage my virtual memory settings (recommended)"
6) Select OK
7) Select Close.

Let Windows restart the computer.

Since the computer was previously owned by someone else, they might have set the Virtual Memory settings manually - which doesn't generally work all that well.

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[P.S. ... just noticed that this is your first post here. Welcome to the PC Mechanic forums! ]

[chuck4456]

If you're looking at the DEVICE MANAGER - the 92% System Resources Free is your RAM.
How old is that thing? What size hard drive?
I'll bet that old hard drive is chocked full.
Let us know.

[glc]

No, Chuck - resources in Win9x/ME are NOT RAM. Do a bit of research and you will find that resources are programming "heaps" within the operating system itself and are fixed in size and finite. All the free hard drive space and physical ram in the world cannot increase resources, if your resources get low, the only way to fix it is close programs and hope the closure will release resources back to the OS - or reboot. These are not issues with NT-based operating systems, they only depend on physical RAM and virtual memory. This problem as posted appears to be an opposite issue - plenty of resources but a problem with physical or virtual memory - possibly a full temp environment or insufficient disk space for a proper temp.

Your other questions have already been asked, please do not parrot with your posts.

[tomharries]

thanks for the advice.

the first thing is, it is an old pc (no idea how old, or how many previous owners!) and the hard drive is only 1.12GB (guess you guys could probably figure out how old it is from that!).

the hard drive is at the moment almost exactly half-full. i checked virtual memory and it was on automatic.

i can understand wmp9 not working on it if it is too much for the PC to handle, although it did work great for a couple of hours, but i'm curious (not to say annoyed) as to why the older version of wmp6 no longer works either. it was fine before i installed wmp9.

a full temp environment or insufficient disk space for a proper temp.

could you explain what this means? i know squat about pcs!

[glc]

How much physical ram memory does it have? Control panel, system, general - look at the lower right area.

In Windows Explorer or My Computer, go to the C drive, then Windows, then Temp - delete *everything* in the Temp folder - all files and folders.

[tomharries]

i deleted all the temp files. didnt have any effect (at least not straight away). then I installed Directx 8 and the wmp started to work. although it is very slow to start up.

the physical memory is 64MB (i think, i keep forgetting to check before i leave home).

although my media player is now working (just!) i'm still curious as to what was wrong in the first place, as i didn't have any problems playing PC games (which are surely more complex than mpeg files) and i'm fairly certain it never had directx 8 on the system before.

any ideas?