I've been through the posts about memory loss, dll probs, etc.(basically all the problems I've been having). The thing is, I had these problems with Win '98 (not to the same extent as with ME), so ME isn't the problem. (at least not a major portion of the problem) I had: Micron Millinia Max 450 P3 Windows 98 Western Digital ATA 33 hard drive 32 bit Ultra ATA 33 hard drive controller SE440BX2 MB (three bios flashes)w/Intel chipset 256 MB SDRam 100 MB zip drive generic floppy DVD Atapi 6x/32x drive Sony CRX140E/CH2 RW Sony 19" Trinitron monitor Diamond Viper 550 Graphics 16 MG Legacy onboard sound (Yahama) HP Scanjet 4100c HP Photosmart P1000 printer Monsoon speakers w/subwoofer Almost every piece of hardware was replaced by Micron under warranty. Still had freeze ups, missing dlls, files would mysteriously move themselves to different locations or disappear altogether, errors of every variety up the kazoo, blue screen of death, etc. Sooooo... hello Win ME. (full version, format HD, clean install) Managed to work around all the driver problems, and everything but the scanner is up and running. HP's customer service is practically non-existant, and the scanner driver update won't even unzip because half the update is missing. Same problems 10x worse. New problem...system won't recognize the micrphone. tried new hardware search in control panel, etc. Soooo... New hardware: Asus A7M motherboard VIA chipset AMD Atalon 1400 processor 300W power supply 256MG DDR SDRam GeForce2 GTS V7700 Graphics 32MG D-Link Ethernet (I know it's not supported, but it works just fine with driver updates) floppy bit the dust, so, new generic floppy format, clean install of ME No change. So here's my questions: With all the new hardware, 2 days of updating everything, not to mention the money I spent essentially building a new system; Is the 33 hard drive too slow? Could this account for the memory loss? Is the hard drive sucking up the ram in order to keep up with the rest of the system? Or is the system sucking up the ram to compensate for the slow hard drive? I have tried memory turbo, cacheman, and every utility I could find and nothing works. I took everything off the startup menu and put the necessary ones back with barely a change in available ram. The thing starts up and ...Boom!.. 104 MG ram is gone. Not too bad, I still have 142 to work with. (ha!) The prob is, ANY program I run, scan disk, for an example, runs the ram to ZERO.ZERO. Zip. Zilch. Not a speck of ram left. I have not installed any programs yet.(oops! Norton antivirus, wouldn't consider turning on my machine without an anti-virus.) I was going to install them one per week to keep track of the changes, time to see if they caused any probs, etc., but I'm already having problems. Did I have a giant brain fart? I don't want to go buy another hard drive and find out that it wasn't at least PART of the problem. PLEASE!! If you are going to respond to this post, be someone who will give sound advice. I've read all the ME bashers posts and tried ALL of the suggested utilities, fixes,etc from other posts. I only need some other suggestion to try, to get my system running properly. Thank you in advance.

First, can the antivirus! Manually scan anything you download but full time antivirus is one of biggest drains on system resources there is. Does your new system recognize the microphone? You didn't mention what type of sound system you have on the new machine but if it is onboard audio, disable it and get yourself a good sound card. Your hard drive shouldn't use more memory because it is slow. Cacheman if configured properly will limit the size of vcache which is the biggest user of your memory. Did you install the latest 4-in-1 drivers for your motherboard. If they are not installed correctly, your entire system will run very slow. Is DMA on for your hard drive?

First of all, memory loss should have nothing to do with your actual hard drive, this memory loss is due to a leak in the OS. . .is this case, both windows 98 and Me have a memory leak in them. . .it was found I think just a couple of weeks ago so check microsofts homepage for the fix. Yes, can the anti-virus or only enable it when you are browsing, checking mail, downloading etc., but dont keep it running in the background because all anti-viruses are system hogs and this could also be the problem why you are experiencing errors. Enable DMA on your hard drive, you will see an increase in performance when you do this.

-what version of Norton are you running, not all are windows ME compatible.. dont use continuous AV protection, run AV program only on demand... my computer at work is 450 meg pentiumII and when runing AV i cant run anything else (very long coffee breaks...hehehe) -the memory management programs do more harm than good... they take themself resources away if running in the background - dont blame hp for the scanner not working... when they produced the scanner they could not know that microsoft will come out with an impotent OS that will not be able to handle it. Regards Miro

Go to www.pitstop.com to test your hard drive and the rest of the system. It's really good!

Ok, here's what I did. I went to pcpitstop.com (pitstop.com is a racing enthusiast site...lol...no insult intended here, Renaissance Man) :-) Says my hard drive is seriously crippled. I did, however adjust a couple of things like they suggested, and some improvement was made. They also say that my processor usage is btwn 50-60%. This is not normal is it? Seems dangerously high. I went to asus.com the 4 in 1 driver is already incorporated into my board (newest board out as of 2 weeks ago) The download is for A7V boards, mine is A7M board. Took antivirus off the startup menu. (2001 version, ME compatable) Enabled DMA on hard drive, but not sure if the drive supports it enabled. (seems it should be enabled by default if it's supported)Micron didn't send the manual with the system and only has a general description of the drive. I hate the MS site.(I spend hrs there to find one stupid thing) Couldn't find the memory leak plug. Please advise as to where I can find it. No, the system refuses to recognize the microphone and I tried everything I can think of with 2 different microphones (one fresh out of the package) and still can't find a way to get it recognized. Getting Blue Screen of Death on startup Error: OE: 0187; :BFF73F51 Any ideas on what I changed to cause this error to pop up? Some cache adjustments were made with IE. Thank you all for the help so far. Your ideas did help some.

I just got this from MS: ****** The patch you are referring to is labeled a hot fix which means it is not fully regression tested. To ensure it will resolve your issue, our support professionals will only release the file to you after they have determined it will resolve your issue. To consult with a support professional via the phone to receive the fix, please contact the appropriate phone number on this page: http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.asp To consult with a support professional via email about receiving this fix, you can submit a standard support issue by sending an e-mail message to msupport@microsoft.com with the following information: * Knowledge Base article number you are referencing: * Product name and version * Operating system and version # (for example: Windows 98) * Memory (RAM) * CPU type and speed * Error messages (if any) * Specifics of the problem * File Name(s), and passwords, as applicable * Contact information (name, telephone number, e-mail address) ******