Stupid question...

Format. Install 98 (if you insist on Windoze). Run AdAware regularly. Don't forget to update if you use an antivirus.

I dread defragging lol...I have 280 gigs of HD space. I haven't done it in months. I'm so lazy.

Why buy complete systems? If you're computer-illiterate, get a friend to assemble it for you. What stick of ram costs $120? A Samsung 512MB PC2100 266MHz DDR, but I don't think someone needs that for net browsing and word processing. Don't upgrade a POS (unless you include the mobo), just save the floppy drive and such, but don't buy a new POS.

Originally Posted by Weatherlight

Format. Install 98 (if you insist on Windoze). Run AdAware regularly. Don't forget to update if you use an antivirus.

I dread defragging lol...I have 280 gigs of HD space. I haven't done it in months. I'm so lazy.

Why buy complete systems? If you're computer-illiterate, get a friend to assemble it for you. What stick of ram costs $120? A Samsung 512MB PC2100 266MHz DDR, but I don't think someone needs that for net browsing and word processing. Don't upgrade a POS (unless you include the mobo), just save the floppy drive and such, but don't buy a new POS.

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Format and install 98??

This operating system is not even supported by Microsoft anymore, this would be a total waste of time and money...not to mention the FORMAT would completely erase all her information.

Weatherlight, we're all trying to help Debby, why would you make such a counteractive suggestion?

http://www.crucial.com Prices are easy to find but they do vary drastically due to the variety of types available these days. Very few are interchangable either. DDR and SDR are two completely different animals, so are the subclasses of each.

Spotz

Originally Posted by mzjazz2u

I'm just going from my experience with my 6 year old computer which runs better then my brand new Dell at work! I find RAM all over the place for inexpensive and recently did my own. Maybe I just get really lucky all the time. I do all my own installations too, which helps a lot. It's just not always an option to plunk down $400-500 and I know Debby is going to school now and things are a bit tighter.

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Glad to hear you're having such good luck with your system, and I understand the money issue. But I also know that even on a tight budget, if you can take a little longer and save some money, you can usually make wiser investments.

Curiosity:

What's your current system vs the dell at work?

Spotz

Originally Posted by Debby

... I have tons of "favorites" saved to My Favorites...how do you save these? Is there a way to copy them to a disk without having to go each and every one, or do you have to manually go through and write all the links down, or what? Has anyone been through this and have any tips??? I can't possibly write down all the links in my favorites, it would take forever to do and forever to put them back on the new computer. I'm probably just out of luck, and that's fine...noit a huge big deal, but of anyone knows a way...please let me know!

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Debby,

You can copy your Favorites to a floppy, to then use them with a new computer. We just did this a couple of days ago to send our desktop favorites to our new laptop.

We are doing this from memory, so if the chain we give you breaks down because we miss something, send us a PM and we will sort it out.

First, put a new properly formatted floppy disk in your floppy drive. (If you have a gillion favorites you may need more than one floppy to do this).

Then get out of anything you have running which gobbles up memory. That is, your should see only your desktop on the screen. This is not theoretically necessary, but as you define your situation it is possible that you might be having a memory problem, and that could cause you a problem.

We are assuming that you are using Internet Explorer. If not, go no further. We will also assume you have a hard disk drive labeled “C,†and a floppy disk drive labeled “A.†If this latter assumption is incorrect you will have to adjust our disk designations.

("LC" = Left Click; "RC = Right Click)

(1)

 LC "Start," at the bottom left-hand corner of your screen, most likely
 Slide your cursor up to “Programsâ€
 Slide cursor to the right, and up or down, until you put it on “Windows Explorerâ€
 LC on “Windows Explorerâ€
 You should see two columns. In the left column move your cursor down to the “+†sign in a box next to the “Windows†folder.
 LC on the “+†sign
 The column to the left will change to display the folders in “Windowsâ€
 RC on the “Favorites†folder
 Move your cursor to “Send To â€
 Move your cursor to the right and LC on “3-1/2 Floppy (A)â€

You should see a window pop up reflecting that your Favorites are being copied to the floppy drive. If your computer asks for another floppy because it has filled up, just follow the script.

(2)
Now exit Windows Explorer and call up your desktop. Double-LC on “My Computer.â€

Double-LC on “3-1/2 Floppy (A).†You should now see a folder labeled “Favorites.†Double-LC on “Favorites,†and you will see a list of your Favorite Folders, which have been copied to the floppy. Double-LC on any one of these folders and you will see your Favorites which reside in that particular folder.

If you see them all, everything is cool. If not, not – then drop me a PM and let me know the problem.

If all is well, and you find your Favorite folders, with your Favorites in the folders, put this floppy away safe, away from your computer and any other source of magnetism. You will need it when you get your new computer up and running. At that point,

(3)
Get your new computer up on the Internet, and put the floppy you have made in your new floppy drive. Then go thru the drill just above in (2) again. Double-LC on any individual Favorite on the floppy and you will call up that web site. You can then save that web site as a Favorite on your new computer.

We suspect that there is a way of dumping them all on the new computer at once, possibly with Windows Explorer, but we have not been able to do that successfully. If a TCSâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]er knows how to do this, please share it with us. We always keep a list of favorites on a floppy in case of a computer crash, which can happen for any one of a multitude of reasons.

We are sure there must be other ways to do this, Debby. There always are several ways to do something in Windows, but this works for us, and we hope it works for you. If not, drop us a PM and we will work on it. Samwise promises he will do his best.

All the best,

Deb,

A quick addition. After you have copied your Favorites to the floppy or floppies, go on the Internet with your current computer, open up the floppy as in para. 3 of our earlier post, and see if it works when you call up a Favorite off the floppy. This will validate that all is well, then save the floppy.

Cheers,

Ann & Jim

There are other ways Jim/Ann...but they vary somewhat between the different versions of Windows.

Your method, and the previous Import/Export post are both valid though.

Spotz

Originally Posted by Spotz

Format and install 98??

This operating system is not even supported by Microsoft anymore, this would be a total waste of time and money

Click to expand...

Sorry, we beg to differ. All this and more from http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/.

There are many unsophisticated home users like us out there who feel that none of the newer versions of Windows (sp?) are worth the problems which are continually associated with them. M$ appears to have realized this when they received the grief they did upon their earlier announcement that they were discontinuing their support of 98, and they reversed their decision. We were very happy to install 98SE on our new laptop last week, and we are humming along with our unsophisticated applications while M$ cranks out fixes almost daily for their newer versions.

Bottom line: unsophisticated users should at least consider advice from other unsophisticated users. Sophisticated users can easily lead you astray with their technical sophistication. Their acronyms and unintelligible, to the lowly, abbreviations are not only not helpful, but they are often harmful.

Originally Posted by jcat

Debby, another problem might be "competing software" that starts automatically. My computer was crashing the other day, and I suspected the problem was that I was uploading pictures, and the various photo processing programs I had (3) were "competing" for the job. I deleted two of them, and the problem stopped. I had the same problem two years ago with instant messengers, and occasionally still have it with the various media players I use.

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I've seen this before too. Especially with Corel Photo programs.

Originally Posted by James Brown

Sorry, we beg to differ. All this and more from http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/.

There are many unsophisticated home users like us out there who feel that none of the newer versions of Windows (sp?) are worth the problems which are continually associated with them. M$ appears to have realized this when they received the grief they did upon their earlier announcement that they were discontinuing their support of 98, and they reversed their decision. We were very happy to install 98SE on our new laptop last week, and we are humming along with our unsophisticated applications while M$ cranks out fixes almost daily for their newer versions.

Bottom line: unsophisticated users should at least consider advice from other unsophisticated users. Sophisticated users can easily lead you astray with their technical sophistication. Their acronyms and unintelligible, to the lowly, abbreviations are not only not helpful, but they are often harmful.

Click to expand...

Windows 98 Support

Secondary Information on Windows Support

Paid Support will continue, limited support for other aspects.

They do not fully support this product.

Spotz

Originally Posted by Spotz

Glad to hear you're having such good luck with your system, and I understand the money issue. But I also know that even on a tight budget, if you can take a little longer and save some money, you can usually make wiser investments.

Curiosity:

What's your current system vs the dell at work?

Spotz

Click to expand...

Well I think I've made very wise investments in my PC. I guess we just don't all have the same priorities and that's ok. Some of us have families or other responsibilities and it would take a while to save for a new PC. In the meantime, RAM is a cheap, cheap, cheap investment! And if you can clean the PC up, as I suggested, and put around $50-60 into it and get good performance until you can save for a new one, then there's nothing wrong with that! I'm not a technical professional but I like to think I have common sense!

Costco has 256 of RAM for around $49. Here are a few other places I found inexpensive RAM. There are many more. Of course you can spend more if you want better quality. But even I wouldn't do that to an older system. My PC is upgraded out. Once it gets to the point my motherboard is bad I'll build a new PC and include some of my newer hardware (depending how long before I do this) such as my CD RW and maybe my new WD 120 GB hard drive. I even got that for about $58 after a rebate!

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Almost forgot to answer your question... I use Windows 2000 both at home and work (and love it). Upgraded my home PC from Win98 about a year ago and it's much more stable. I have no problems with it whatsoever.

BTW, Win98 is still supported. They were going to stop supporting it a while back but changed their minds because so many still have it and are happy with it.

Spotz>>>If she now knows how to back up what she wants saved, there's no reason to not format, is there?

98 is much less of a resource hog and more stable than ME. And why buy it? There's bound to be someone around with an old CD they don't want...to do it legally...

So get a "good type" of all parts and assemble them. It's really not impossible, I swear. I bought all of Mirri's parts last Jan/Feb/around there for about 800,000KRW and it cost 20k to pay a pro to assemble her (although my friend could have come over after a few days and done it for free). I don't know her exact specs, but she was decent for playing Warcraft3 and the like on--Iwill mobo, Athlon XP 2000, 512 DDR RAM, 80gb Seagate, GeForce4 ti4200 128mb, and so on. When moving last November, she needed her mobo and CPU replaced (we got her some ASUS and an XP 2400), and we later added some RAM to 640mb. Blue (the computer I'm on now--I like him, he's an Athlon 64 3000 and quite fast despite being the cheapest 64 system my friend could throw together at the time--hardly brag-worthy lol, but he's quite nice and I like War3 on him with the Radeon 9800) we got this Feb and he cost under $600...find a preassembled system with anything close to his specs that's cheaper, please. Someone I know was telling me in March that she wanted a Dell that would cost $600-700; looking up the parts quickly, it would have costed her about $450 at the time, and probably with better stuff of the same specs.

Just figure out what you want, find stuff that fits (ie a mobo that will support what you want, stuff that will work with that mobo), buy it, and put it together. It's not rocket science.

I've addressed the support issue previously.

I meant no insult or otherwise in my original post responding to you, if any was taken please accecpt my apologies.

[Edited out due to a mis-read of the previous post]

Computers are very complex machines and because of that there is an amazing amount of variables that can affect each individual system.

I can only offer suggestions as I have done for the past 10 years of providing technical support. Computers have dropped drastically in cost in recent times. As is common in American society, it is cheaper to replace products rather than repair/modify them in virtually every single instance.

My suggestion is to try any free and/or low cost solutions first, and if those yeild minimal improvements to consider saving up and investing in a newer computer. It may be a little more $$ short term, but will last at least another 3 years. Something I cannot say for any upgrade that can be done to the current computer.

Spotz

Originally Posted by Spotz

Windows 98 Support

Secondary Information on Windows Support

Paid Support will continue, limited support for other aspects.

They do not fully support this product.

Spotz

Click to expand...

"Fully"??

From your referenced link:

"Critical security updates [for Windows 98] will be provided on the Windows Update site through June 30, 2006." (That is more than 2 years from now, and then we shall see).

Meanwhile, have we not all recognized how the cost of these black boxes goes down, and their performance goes up, as each year goes by?

A query for our dear TCS'ers:

Has anyone out there, amongst those whom we collegially call in our earlier posting "unsophisticated users," ever, in any one single case, obtained any "support" from M$ other than for critical security updates on the Windows Update site? If that?

In our opinion one is foolish to purchase things one does not need, be that a Hummer or a computer that can solve all the world's computing needs. We would think that one might better relate one's acquisitions to one's needs. Bells and whistles are extravagances when only one bell is needed.

Cheers,

This happend to me this morning(Taking an age to connect)

It took a good couple of hours before a was able to get on properly, i was blaming the new computers we've just got.

Run "Scandisk" and your "Defrag" utilities to compact your files on your hard drive. Windows ME is not that bad of a software system if you keep your hard drive defragged, at least once a month. Also eliminate the utilities running in the background that turn on automatically as your computer boots up. To turn off the utilities, click on "Start" in the lower left hand corner of the screen, click "Run" and type in "msconfig". In the drop-down box, click the "Startup" tab. Then unclick what you don't want to automatically startup. Since you have MSOffice, you don't need "MSOffice to automatically statup. There are others as well. You be the judge. You can do all of this before even updating with new memory or a hard drive. You can also place a faster processor on your motherboard and even a faster video card. I will keep a computer for about 7 years and exhaust all the possibilities for upgrade until I can upgrade no more.

Above all, if you do not know how to do these things outlined, do not try to do this yourself. Consult a friend who knows what to do or take it to a "reputable" computer repair facility. Do not let them talk you into building you a new computer when you can tweak your present computer to run just as fast.

Originally Posted by Caspar

Also eliminate the utilities running in the background that turn on automatically as your computer boots up. To turn off the utilities, click on "Start" in the lower left hand corner of the screen, click "Run" and type in "msconfig". In the drop-down box, click the "Startup" tab. Then unclick what you don't want to automatically startup.

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We have tried this before, but we haven't a clue as to what most of the items are that show up on the startup list when we run msconfig, and we are scared that we might turn something off which should remain on.

Is there a handy-dandy source somewhere which can help us with this dilemma?

Thanx much,

You could try to reformat your hard-disk. Save what you want then do a clean wipe of the disk. After a reinstall, things should move faster.

Actually, before deciding on whether to buy a new computer the question to be asked is how good or obsolete your current computer is.

Click on programs > Run > Tye "DxDiag"

Then show us your specifications.

WOW! My head is just swimming with information, and I first want to say how very much I appreciate the help and advice from every single one of you!!!

I don't even know where to begin with my questions and comments...I tried to write down or print off alot of the advice here, some of it was way over my head. But I thank you so much for trying to help! I am going to do a disk clean up and defragment tonight when I go to bed, so it can run all night since I have heard it takes a long time. I am extremely emabarrassed to say that I have never defragmented and I have had this computer for 3 1/2 years!!! Maybe that is the problem!!!!
As far as adding RAM, it sounds like a great idea, but I have no idea how to install it once I buy it. I have a Compaq, I know someone asked. As far as putting XP on it, the support tech I talked to (if he knows what he is talking about) said putting XP on a computer with my RAM would be like trying to turn a Model T into a corvette...a disaster. James Brown...I printed off your instructions on how to save my favorites and put them on a new computer...I hope it doesn't come to that, but if it does...I really appreciate the instructions! Thank you!
Casper..if I could somehow figure out how to set the MSOffice programs not to automatically start up, (which I am so ignorant, I didn't even know they did), will I have problems then when I do want to use them? I am just pretty much clueless what to do other than try the disk clean up and defrag...I am praying that maybe this will solve the problem. I crashed 3 times just trying to read this whole thread. And I don't have a virus, I have Norton and have ran a full system scan. Bumpy, you said to go to programs > Run > Tye "DxDiag"...I don't have "run" anywhere in my programs menu. ??? I am so lost. I am ready to pull out every single hair on my head, and believe me...I have alot!!!

Ah, Compaq...I can share a bit of your pain. My mom bought one for me when I was younger, and we resorted to buying one last year before we could replace Mirri's parts (very overpriced pos). The only thing left of it now is the annoyingly slow 40gb HD. It just stopped working. Even I laughed seeing how it was inside, too...

Not having programs on startup means they don't automatically start when your computer boots up. You can start them whenever you want.

If you click on your Start menu, it should be...I forget exactly for your OS, but near the bottom (below Programs, Documents, and such).