Extremely Slow Performance On Windows 98 Second Edition

[rwaters]

Hi,

I may well be missing something but why not connect to the Internet using your newer machine and (so that you need not use Avast) only run any extra program(s) you already have on your old faithful?

My regards

That certainly is an option. If I don't connect to the Internet with this old machine, then the need for an on-access antivirus scanner goes way down. The problem, though, is that I only keep this PC around so that guests can go on line for a brief time to check email, etc. So an antivirus program really is useful. As far as I can tell, avast! is the only mainstream antivirus application that will even run under Windows 98 or ME.

Still, if I can't solve the problem with poor performance on this old laptop, I will either retire it altogether or do as you recommend and uninstall avast!, resorting only to an on-demand tool like ClamWin.

[Mike Buxton]

Hi again,

Thanks for your reply. However, if solely for guests perhaps you could clone its hard drive and even perhaps buy "GoBack" or something similar (so you could reset e.g. daily to a clean and original state). Then you would not need Avast.

My regards

Addendum:

Of course, if you can get Avast working well and quickly that would be ideal.

[Lisandro]

I'm not sure GoBack is for sale yet... specially for Windows 98.
Anyway, a clone of the hard disk could do the job. Better more than one clone, as you can accidentally clone an infected disk

[Mike Buxton]

Tech,

I've had GoBack (the old Roxio version) for about 6 years. It works well with W98SE. I still have it though I no longer use it. It takes me about 8 minutes to clone back my W98SE partitions but GoBack, as I recollect, could revert much quicker than that.

Googling is good.

My regards

[Lisandro]

I've had GoBack (the old Roxio version)

But it's not available for buying anymore, is it?

[Mike Buxton]

Tech,

Why ask me? You can google as easily as I can.

My regards

[Lisandro]

Tech,

Why ask me? You can google as easily as I can.

My regards

Sorry... just that I was thinking it was not for sale anymore...
Seems I'm wrong http://www.symantec.com/region/br/home_homeoffice/products/backup_recovery/ngb40/sysreq.html

[Go Pack Go]

@ OP

Not sure if this is one that would fit, they are 168 pin and a speed of PC100 or PC133 for ~$15.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2000170147%201052307855&name=128MB

Could you post the number of pins it uses and the speed(s) it supports?

[rwaters]

@ OP

Not sure if this is one that would fit, they are 168 pin and a speed of PC100 or PC133 for ~$15.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2000170147%201052307855&name=128MB

Could you post the number of pins it uses and the speed(s) it supports?

The correct card is a 60 ns 144 pin SO DIMM model, which may have been common back when this laptop came out. I've found it a little cheaper elsewhere, but this is what I would need:

http://stores.channeladvisor.com/Arch-Memory-Electronics/items/item.aspx?itemid=2566462

The following source is as cheap as I have found the 128 MB module, short of looking on eBay:

http://www.impactcomputers.com/ktt650-128.html

But thanks for the suggestion.

[Go Pack Go]

Here is Crucial RAM that fits the specs: http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT16M64S4W7E

Here is the same thing on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/128MB-Sync-PC133-144PIN-Sodimm/dp/B00068UJIY. but it says there is only one left in stock at the time of this posting.

At Amazon it is $27, but with free shipping, at Crucial's site it is $24, but shipping does cost you something so check to see if it would be cheaper at Amazon after shipping is added.

[rwaters]

Here is Crucial RAM that fits the specs: http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT16M64S4W7E

Here is the same thing on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/128MB-Sync-PC133-144PIN-Sodimm/dp/B00068UJIY. but it says there is only one left in stock at the time of this posting.

At Amazon it is $27, but with free shipping, at Crucial's site it is $24, but shipping does cost you something so check to see if it would be cheaper at Amazon after shipping is added.

Great find! Thanks!

[alanrf]

For anyone else wondering about "Goback" it was sold by Roxio to Symantec years ago, given one brief update and then consigned to the warehouse of products bought by Symantec and then allowed to die - it is no longer sold.  For any that have the last release from Symantec (like me), it still works just great on older single processor systems.  It has issues on multiprocessor systems (though I discovered that running on this dual processor system with asymmetric memory the problems go away) it must be considered for the future, to all intents and purposes, a defunct product.

[Vladimyr]

Did anyone mention Ghost 2001?

[Lisandro]

Did anyone mention Ghost 2001?

I think the technology is different.
GoBack is a sector to sector backup/restore tool.
Ghost is a partition/disk/file backup tool.

[rwaters]

Here is Crucial RAM that fits the specs: http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT16M64S4W7E

Here is the same thing on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/128MB-Sync-PC133-144PIN-Sodimm/dp/B00068UJIY. but it says there is only one left in stock at the time of this posting.

At Amazon it is $27, but with free shipping, at Crucial's site it is $24, but shipping does cost you something so check to see if it would be cheaper at Amazon after shipping is added.

After taking a second look at this module, I noticed that it is SDRAM while the laptop specs call for EDO RAM. It might work, but in general I think it is not a good idea to mix different memory technologies in the same machine. So I still think I'm stuck with the more expensive memory I located earlier, which does match the EDO requirement.

Thanks anyway.