WindowsMe is Dying
 

Crossposted to: alt.windows-me,microsoft.public.windowsme.general

How much work are you willing to do to fix up a 9 year old PC?
At 350 MHz clock rate, it's awfully slow.
Can't run DVD, can't do ROM burning (with exceptions),
horrendously slow for internet use, etc.

I use castoff computers in the 500MHz range,
but the 350MHz I have in the basement (IBM)
would be consigned to be an MP3 player
jukebox and maybe for a photo archive (duplicate set).

If your community garbage haulers have a day
for spring cleaning where they don't charge
for disposal of tires and junk computers,
you could trade up to a 1GHz or better.

Corporations and colleges are getting rid of them.

Current PC's are up to about 3.4 GHz clock,
some aren't even described by clock rate any
more because better use OF each clock
cycle by the CPU can do more work than
simple clock rate can describe.

That's TEN TIMES the clock rate of your old Compaq.

The technology is approaching the point where
physics is slowing the advances in the chip
technology, so multiple processors are starting
to catch on. Dual and quad CPU's inside of
a single chip package, etc.

That's 20 to 40 times the performance of your
old Compaq, just in the processor alone.
(There are lots of other improvements also)

For the PERFORMANCE they are priced good,
but they do cost a bit more. The leading edge
of every wave of technology is like that.

If you're really trying to be thriftier than that, check out
Circuit City and Tiger Direct for computers in the 2 GHz range.
(Last years technology)

600 MB free space isn't much, though it should be enough.
Have you written down the Product Key or have readable
Product Key on a COA sticker attached to computer or
Compaq manual?
Do you have a restore disk from Compaq for the computer?

Do you think you need a "clean boot"?
Know what that is?
Do you know why a clean boot is good?
You do understand that removing programs
still leaves "stubs" and is NOT a clean boot?

Are you sure the many programs you described
aren't interacting badly with each other or ME?

SpyBlaster and Lavasoft Ad-Aware aren't needed on top
of the others you mentioned and just LOAD down the system.
(Avoid duplication of such programs, especially on a 350 MHz computer)

Some versions of Zone Alarm /CA / eTrust interact
badly with Windows ME.
I just removed eTrust (ZA) 5.5.109.000 and switched to
Tiny Personal Firewall from OLDVERSION.COM
and saw a huge performance increase.

Occasional BSOD's accessing Myspace (only) went away.

By process of elimination it has to be the ZA.

I miss the detail ZA provided though.
(What free OLD versions work bettter with WinME?)

I hope this all helps with your decisions.

Greg Hanson, Cedar Rapids Iowa



On Oct 12, 7:41 pm, Searcher7 wrote:
I have an old Compaq 350mhz, with 224mb of ram that I use for the
internet. I can only surf for several minutes when I'm using Windows
Explorer. It will then completely stop loading pages, and in order to
temporarily fix the problem I have to reboot. Firefox is not much
better.

Sometimes I can't even save an image or text because the system
"thinks" there is not enough room on my drive even though it is a 4g
that has 600-700mb free. I'm also having trouble opening apps. When I
try these things I get messages that either my disc is full or I am
low on memory. I can't stay signed in at a variety of sites, and the
display of pages is sometimes screwed up.(Once in a while I run the
"Disk Clean Up", but if it works, the fix is only temporary).

I have to keep trying signing in at Google Groups, and I was getting
the message, "Your browser's cookie functionality is turned off.
Please turn it on.

Key apps I have are as follows:
SpyBlaster
Zone Alarm(Always running)
Spybot
Lavasoft Ad-Aware
AVG Free Edition(Always running)

I was also using TrendMicro's free anti-virus software, but it now
needs components that will not instal on WindowsMe, because it is no
longer supported.

I'm waiting for my Flash drive to arrive so I can take what I need off
of this system and trash it before it goes completely .(My Zip drives
stopped working with this system a long time ago).

I has hoping someone can give me advice on what to check and do next
if it is my system itself.

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.