Sluggish performance problem

[Grumpyy]

Hi ! I'm running win '98 se 512 mb ram 1 ghz with tons of free hard drive space.
After an hour or two performance becomes sluggish. Particularly if I try to open a couple of windows at once.
I've played around with reducing start up progs and installed cacheman to
help with mem management which it has slightly.
It never shows more than a max of 350 mb free and if it drops below about 280mb
programmes stop opening.........which I find odd.
I have scanned for spyware etc with spybot and have used an online trojan scanner test which was negative.
I keep it defagmented every week or so and use tracks eraser pro to clean up after internet sessions.

Any further ideas I could try please ?

Regards grumpyyyyyyyy:)

ps. I also used jv16 powertools as suggested in another thread here, recently.

[AnnMarie]

Hi Grumpyy - it sounds as though you have covered most bases. Why dont you post your startup list. We may be able to make suggestions that might help.

Go here (http://www.spywareinfo.com/files/startuplist.zip) and download and run Startup List. It will generate a log file. Copy the log and paste it back into this thread

[Dom MD]

how many sticks of RAM do you have? and what mobo?
mayhaps it's not detecting one of the sticks of RAM if you have two 256 mb sticks. just a random guess out there. d:)

[Geezer]

Windows 98 can actually utilize up to 4GB of RAM. Where Windows 98 fails is in it's caching ability. Win98 cannot effectively cache above 256MB RAM. Uncached RAM actually slows your PC considerably.
Increasing over 256MB is negated by the fact that the excess is not being correctly cached.

[Grumpyy]

Thankyou for the assistance.
Windows recognises 512mb. It was originally 256, I added a 256 stick, which did help.
Altho' my wife uses Dragon speech recognition software, which is memory intensive, I don't.

Here's the start up list,
In the downloaded Program files section I'm surprised to see gator there as I've just searched and destroyed with spybot.
jv16 doesn't list it either.
I checked in explorer and the downloaded prog file folder itself is empty
Shutterfly is an online photo edit facility, I'd be happy to remove their plugin if you'd tell me how as I don't use it anymore.
I've clicked tools, internet options, settings, view objects......
nothing there except an empty folder called Conflict.
Where are they hiding LOL ?
_________________________________________________
StartupList report, 16/01/03, 16:31:59
StartupList version: 1.51
Started from : C:\WINDOWS\DESKTOP\STARTUPLIST.EXE
Detected: Windows 98 SE (Win9x 4.10.2222A)
Detected: Internet Explorer v5.51 SP2 (5.51.4807.2300)
* Using default options
==================================================

Running processes:

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\KERNEL32.DLL
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSGSRV32.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MPREXE.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\AGNITUM\OUTPOST FIREWALL 1.0\OUTPOST.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\mmtask.tsk
C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SYSTRAY.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\NORTON ANTIVIRUS\POPROXY.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\NORTON ANTIVIRUS\NAVAPW32.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\CACHEMAN\CACHEMAN.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WMIEXE.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SPOOL32.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\DDHELP.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\RNAAPP.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\TAPISRV.EXE
C:\PROGRAM FILES\INTERNET EXPLORER\IEXPLORE.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\DESKTOP\STARTUPLIST.EXE

--------------------------------------------------

Autorun entries from Registry:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

ScanRegistry = C:\WINDOWS\scanregw.exe /autorun
SystemTray = SysTray.Exe
Norton eMail Protect = C:\Program Files\Norton AntiVirus\POPROXY.EXE
NAV DefAlert = C:\PROGRA~1\NORTON~1\DEFALERT.EXE
Norton Auto-Protect = C:\PROGRA~1\NORTON~1\NAVAPW32.EXE /LOADQUIET
Outpost Firewall = C:\PROGRAM FILES\AGNITUM\OUTPOST FIREWALL 1.0\outpost.exe /waitservice

--------------------------------------------------

Autorun entries from Registry:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run Services

ScriptBlocking = "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\Script Blocking\SBServ.exe" -reg
Outpost Firewall = C:\PROGRAM FILES\AGNITUM\OUTPOST FIREWALL 1.0\outpost.exe /service

--------------------------------------------------

Autorun entries from Registry:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Cacheman = C:\PROGRA~1\CACHEMAN\Cacheman.exe

--------------------------------------------------

C:\WINDOWS\WININIT.BAK listing:
(Created 10/1/2003, 5:42:58)

[rename]
NUL=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\GLB1A2B.EXE

--------------------------------------------------

C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT listing:

mode con codepage prepare=((850) C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ega.cpi)
mode con codepage select=850
keyb uk,,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\keyboard.sys
C:\PROGRA~1\NORTON~1\NAVDX.EXE /startup

--------------------------------------------------


Enumerating Browser Helper Objects:

(no name) - C:\PROGRA~1\FRESHD~1\FRESHD~1\FDCATCH.DLL - {206E52E0-D52E-11D4-AD54-0000E86C26F6}
(no name) - C:\PROGRAM FILES\ADOBE\ACROBAT 5.0\READER\ACTIVEX\ACROIEHELPER.OCX - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3}
(no name) - C:\WINDOWS\SPEECH\DRAGON\WEB_IE.DLL - {2843DAC1-05EF-11D2-95BA-0060083493D6}
(no name) - C:\PROGRA~1\IDCIDE\IDCIDE~1\iDcide.dll - {00000285-B716-11D3-92F3-00D0B709A7D8}

--------------------------------------------------

Enumerating Task Scheduler jobs:

Symantec NetDetect.job

--------------------------------------------------

Enumerating Download Program Files:

[Shockwave Flash Object]
InProcServer32 = C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MACROMED\FLASH\FLASH.OCX
CODEBASE = http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab

[Shutterfly Picture Upload Plugin]
InProcServer32 = C:\WINDOWS\DOWNLOADED PROGRAM FILES\SFUPLOADPLUGIN.OCX
CODEBASE = http://web1.shutterfly.com/downloads/Uploader.cab

[{731918D2-517A-47E2-886A-3BC1380C591D}]
CODEBASE = http://webpdp.gator.com/v3/download/pdpplugin_4094_hd3ptdm.cab

--------------------------------------------------
End of report, 4,613 bytes
Report generated in 0.036 seconds

Command line options:
/verbose - to add additional info on each section
/complete - to include empty sections and unsuspicious data
/full - to include several rarely-important sections
/force9x - to include Win9x-only startups even if running on WinNT
/forcent - to include WinNT-only startups even if running on Win9x
/forceall - to include all Win9x and WinNT startups, regardless of platform
/history - to list version history only
___________________________________

regards grumpyy :)

[AnnMarie]

I checked in explorer and the downloaded prog file folder itself is empty

Hmmm, you should be able to see Shockwave even if the others are hiding. Try having a look on your browser via Tools > Internet Options and click on the General Tab. Click on Settings (next to Temporary Internet Files) and then click on View Objects.

What about this BHO? (no name) - C:\PROGRA~1\FRESHD~1\FRESHD~1\FDCATCH.DLL - {206E52E0-D52E-11D4-AD54-0000E86C26F6} Do you know what this is?

Everything else looks fine.

[Spider]

AnnMarie,

I have that down in my personal "bad reggies" list

{206e5e0-d5e-11d4-ad54-0000e86c26f6}: Fresh DEVICE - Fdiehlp.dll

[AnnMarie]

Ah, thanks Spider :D

[Grumpyy]

Thankyou Spider and AnneMarie:
I did as you suggested and only found this

[UniDist.ocx]
file-win32-x86=thiscab
clsid={E8EDB60C-951E-4130-93DC-FAF1AD25F8E7}
FileVersion=1,0,0,2
Flying Crocodile, Inc.

dated from june 2002
When I looked in there earlier today it was not on display.

Fresh baddie = Fresh download manager

I can only see shockwave if I follow the path into system/Macromedia etc in explorer

regards grumpyy :)

[Spider]

If your not an adult webmaster then Flying Crocodile should go.

[Grumpyy]

:D It's disappeared again

[AnnMarie]

Hi Grumpyy - download and run HijackThis (http://www.spywareinfo.com/files/hijackthis.zip) from here. It will find those entries and you will be able to check and "fix" them.

[Grumpyy]

Very neat little tool.......thanx AnneMarie :)
Am I correct in thinking that I leave all the entries that came up on scan that are to do with applications I know about like Fresh download, Dragonatspeak and IDcide etc or should I delete them too.

And is there a memory manager or whatever ......
which you recommend other than cacheman, preferably freeware :D

regards grumpyyyyyyyyy:)

[AnnMarie]

I'm glad that you like HijackThis, its quite useful and it sure beats searching through the registry :D

Am I correct in thinking that I leave all the entries that came up on scan that are to do with applications

Yes, leave those alone, just fix the download program files that we could not find.

Re a Memory Manager, I'm sorry Grumpyy, I have never used one. Perhaps someone else will jump in and help.