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I have a friend running ME on a P3 800 Dell Dimension L series with 64mb of RAM. The problem we're having is this: the system has never been very fast loading programs (probably due to the low RAM) but after I installed Norton System Works and Zone Alarm on it it has slowed down really bad. The slowdown is there even if I boot into SafeMode bypassing all the Startup programs including the new install of Norton and ZoneAlarm. I went into msconfig and tried running in Diagnostic mode only to have it crash the computer (my guess because the system.ini wasn't loading) and then every time I tried to launch Word I'd get the message "Your system is dangerously low on resources" or "You do not have enough memory or hard drive space" (he has over 7 gigs of hard drive space free), and Word couldn't open but would hang and crash the computer so that I had to keep rebooting. (Finally I reinstalled Word in new directory which helped) Tried restoring but there were no restore points for this month except one which I created prior to install of both programs and the restore was unsuccessful.
When I run System Monitor for unused physical memory it reports only 6.2M free with no major programs open (swap file size was 22.5M). Dell's website configuration scan reported only 2MB available physical memory. But Resource Meter shows all is well with 83% resources available.
It looks like to me there is a memory management problem here. 64mb isn't a lot of memory but it should be enough not to get this severe of a slowdown. Any help wouild be appreciated.
I've heard about memory leaks and that's the sort of thing I suspect. What exactly is a memory leak, how do you isolate it and then get rid of it?
Probably I am just going to hose his system off and maybe install XP.
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Memory leaks are not the problem. ME requires at least 128 and should have 256 to operate effectively. I have even seen situations where that is not really enough. When I had 128MB it was necessary to use CacheMan to prevent all the crashes and problems. I don't think that will help with only 64 MB. RAM is very cheap, I recently installed 512 MB of Rambus RAM for $170 and that is about the most expensive. Anyway, get more RAM
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I HAVE AN HP PAVILION 7940 W/ WIN ME FOR ABOUT 6 MO. RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX IT WOULD RUN SLOOOOOOOOWWWWWW, HANG UP, AND CRASH. IT WAS EVEN WORSE AFTER UPGRADES FROM THE MS WEBSITE. AS A LAST RESORT I RESTORED THE SYSTEM (CLEAN WIPE) WITH THE CD DISK. WENT BACK TO MS SITE TO FIND SOME PREVIOUS DWNLOADS WERE CHANGED OR NO LONGER THERE.(THIS IS FROM MY MEMORY, SO I MIGHT BE MISTAKEN). AT ANY RATE, SINCE THEN IT HAS RUN GREAT WITH NO PROBLEMS
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I have Win ME (My Enemy) also and had the same probs. You can have a gig of gigs on the h/d, doesn't matter. I upped my RAM to 128 and things got a lot better, but 256 and up would be a better investment. Norton does a lot of stuff, and it needs those resources to operate smoothly. MS had the brilliant idea in ME that once a prog used resours and it was closed, it would leave a small amount allocated to that prog in case you opend it again. "Bad idea boys!"
You can have the biggest baddest monster truck, but with only one speed on the tranny it won't do very much. Got it? PS, I switched from ZAlarm Pro to BlackIce Defender and I'm a lot happier now.
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Which version of Norton? Did you install the entire bloody mess (system works) or just the antivirus software?
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Thanks everyone for the replies. It was System Works 2002 and I installed everything except the WinFax program. I now consider that a MISTAKE. I installed Sys Works on a Compaq laptop once upon a time that corrupted Command.com so bad the system wouldn't even boot. This Sys Works is a JOKE it's so buggy. I no longer think the problem is a memory leak because I'd think that if it was that booting into Safe Mode, bypassing all the programs running in the background, should make everything run a lot faster, and the weird thing is it doesn't run noticeably faster in safe mode at all. So it must be something got messed up in the OS. I'm searching Ebay right now for a 256mb stick. Have noticed that memory has gone WAY up in price recently.
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