Computer has become extremely slow. Pls Help!!!

[amheck]

Hi group.

Here's my setup:
Abit BE-6 r2
128Meg Crucial PC100
Celeron 433Mhz
Seagate Baracuda 13gig ATA66 7200 RPS drive
Voodoo 3 2000 video card
Monster sound MX400

I think that should be most of the important stuff. Overall, I am
very happy with this computer. It plays quake fine, I can do stuff in
photoshop. I admit it could be quicker, but it's good for now. 2
days ago I installed both a powered USB hub and a new Epson 875DC
Photo printer. Now, the computer seems to bog down quite easily. At
start-up, the music will skip and stutter, taking maybe twice as long
to complete the .wav file. I have also recently started to get the
msg "Your system is under 10% in avail. resources. Pls close some
programs." Things seems to really hose up when the HDD is being
accessed.

I just don't know how this could have happend all of a sudden. I used
to be able to leave the computer on for days and everything was fine.
Now, after 7-8 hours today I had to reboot. Programs were taking
forever to load and the mouse would get locked up for many seconds at
a time. Frustrating to say the least.

Any ideas? I ran scandisk and defrag last nite thinking that was the
problem. One thing to note: the Epson printer now loads 2 more
programs in the taskbar, but I can't believe a printer would bring my
system to its knees like this. Thinking about getting a 256meg
Crucial RAM stick soon, but I'd like to get most of the problem ironed
out before hand. Will also consider a CPU upgrade to 850Mhz or 1Ghz
once the P3's drop a bit in price.

Looking forward to your comments guys!!!!!!!

Thanks, Aaron

 

[Medea]

I have also recently started to get the msg "Your system is under 10% in avail. resources. Pls close some some programs."

..and the gods of the Computer said: "We need more memory, grasshopper. Wax on, wax off, and buy thee some memory."

Edit: How much free space do you have on your hard drive? If it's close to full, there's not enough left for the swap file.

 

[gittyup]

Did this performance downgrade happen over night or has it being getting slower for some time? What software has been installed lately?

 

[amheck]

Medea: Yeah, I know I need more memory. Well, I would have thought the 128 megs would be enough. It has been for the year and a hlaf I've had this computer, up until the other day. I have about 6 gigs of the 13gig free on the HDD.

GittyUP: Just installed the USB hub and Espon 875DC printer and software. Do you think that could have been the start of the problems? Why the "10% system resources error msg" all of a sudden? Why the slow overall performance when the HDD is being accessed?

I found a neat command: 'msconfig' on Win98. Let's you edit the startup programs. I stopped a few that I didn't need, so we'll leave the computer on today and see what happens. Will buy some more Crucial RAM at the begining of next month.

Thanks, Aaron

 

[HDRick]

I don't think you need more memory but it won't hurt.It sounds like you must have install a program that running your resoures down the program must have a mem leak in it if I was you I would turn on your resoures meter and close down all the program you have running and start them back up one at a time and see what the meter does.

 

[BadThad]

Here's what you do. Click START>RUN and type in MSCONFIG. Go over to the startup tab and disable all the crap you have running at startup. There's only like 2-3 things you need checked there like explorer, scanreg, and your antivirus. Uncheck all the other junk in there and reboot. I would bet money your problems go away.

 

[guardfish]

Make sure you keep Outlook 2000 closed if you run Office 2000. Sucks up resources.