Need Help w/ System Resources

S

SHORTY

I am currently running Windows 98 and constantly run low on system resources (< 4% available). Can one of the software gurus tell me which of the following programs that come up under task manager can be stopped to free up resources? They are:

Rnaapp
Msmsgs
Pdesk
Em_exec
Loadqm
Cpqeadm
Rundll
Motmon
Systray
Bttnserv
Sandicon
Imgicon
Vetmsg9x

Also, when I check memory (I'm running 448M) I get the following list. Is my memory configured properly and being used?

Modules using memory below 1 MB:

Name Total Conventional Upper Memory
-------- ---------------- ---------------- ----------------
SYSTEM 45,216 (44K) 13,120 (13K) 32,096 (31K)
HIMEM 1,168 (1K) 1,168 (1K) 0 (0K)
EMM386 4,320 (4K) 4,320 (4K) 0 (0K)
DBLBUFF 2,976 (3K) 2,976 (3K) 0 (0K)
WIN 3,760 (4K) 3,760 (4K) 0 (0K)
vmm32 113,456 (111K) 3,376 (3K) 110,080 (108K)
COMMAND 9,152 (9K) 9,152 (9K) 0 (0K)
CPQIDECD 9,168 (9K) 0 (0K) 9,168 (9K)
IFSHLP 2,864 (3K) 0 (0K) 2,864 (3K)
Free 617,184 (603K) 617,184 (603K) 0 (0K)

Memory Summary:

Type of Memory Total Used Free
---------------- ----------- ----------- -----------
Conventional 655,360 38,176 617,184
Upper 154,208 154,208 0
Reserved 0 0 0
Extended (XMS) 66,889,120 ? 459,603,968
---------------- ----------- ----------- -----------
Total memory 67,698,688 ? 460,221,152

Total under 1 MB 809,568 192,384 617,184

Largest executable program size 617,168 (603K)
Largest free upper memory block 0 (0K)
MS-DOS is resident in the high memory area.

Thanks for any assistance. I figured I'd try to improve system performance before I plop down a few hundred for Windows 2000 or a few thousand for a PIIII.

Good Luck and Big Profits!
 
You need more RAM. You can cut and dice what's running but the bottom line is you are short on capacity. I would suggest checking with someone reputable and maxing out the RAM on the motherboard. Other than that, get a new machine. For less than a grand, you can get state of the art compared to what you have now. The speed difference will be tremendous. I didn't think anyone could run with less than 4% free!!!!
 
One simple thing I'd do is start your computer and "end task" everything but "explorer" and "systray." Those are your must have programs. Then load your programs. Windows 98 likes to grab resources and not release them so don't know what to tell you about that. I've tried programs that free memory but they didn't seem to work. :mad:
 
I guess I'm putting off the inevitable. I can get an HP machine with a P4 @ 1,8 GHz, 512 RAM, 80G hard drive, R/W CD ROM, DVD, Win XP, and a 17" .25dpi Monitor for $1200. Is this machine going to handle two screens of QQL w/ about fifteen charts, L2, IB TWS, Datek, 5-6 T&S charts?

Any thoughts on HP?

Good Luck and Big Profits!
 
shorty, there are a couple of things you can do to help alleviate problem. With all due respect to others responses, 448 of ram is way more than I've ever needed. I run Q charts, IB's TWS, email, 2 browsers, scheduler, etc. all at the same time and have never been lower than 60%.

First off, if it's been more than a year since the operating system has been installed, format the hard drive and start over. This will do wonders.

Next, from the start up button click run and type in "msconfig". Click for the selective startup option. Go to the start tab and uncheck everything you think you can (maybe even experiment with what you think you can't). Now when you start up all that crap in the background won't be there unless you need it.

Now, make sure you reboot cold EVERY day, and run scan disk and defrag at least monthly.

Finally, a neat little utility is available for free at analogx.com. It's called MaxMem and makes sure that when you close a program the memory that was in use is released.

I think that should help a lot. Good luck$
 
shorty, most important is the video card. is it shared with mem?....no good if it is. you need a good video card (separate, not shared) with lots of mem. i still say you could build a better one for 3/4 the price. i know, i have done it.
 
Shorty -

Your basic problem is that you're still using Windows 98.

It's NOT a main memory issue. One of my PCs is an older one with only 128MB of RAM and it's still able to run a boat load of big apps simultaneously without problem because it's running WinNT.

W98 has a small fixed size page allocated for system resources. Even if you have a gigabyte of RAM, that's all you'd have available for system resources. W98 is intended for light duty home users (i.e., not trying to do commercial things like daytrading) who need backward compatability with older Windows software.

You may also have one or more misbehaving apps which are leaking system resources (i.e., allocated them and not freeing them).

Whether you upgrade your hardware or not, at least upgrade your operating system to W2000. For now, I'd suggest using XP only if you absolutely need some of the new XP-specific features (which you probably don't).

Good luck.
 
SHORTY,

A simple, stable solution is to install Win2000 and that will eliminate "resource" problems (and it sounds like you have plenty of ram). Recommend you don't install it over Win98 as the kernel is fundamentally different and often many unseen problems crop up. Best to either install it to a separate partition (which will give you the advantage of dual-boot capability), or if you prefer your HD as one large C: drive then reformat it and install Win2000 clean.
 
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