Time for a new operating system??

Thanks for this heads up Mike,
I was planning to add a couple of gegs to my me puter this spring..
Might save me asking the same question later.. :-)

RTS


"Mike M" wrote in message
...
Ogg wrote:

Ever since I added 512meg ram to my previous 256meg, WinME has become
very unstable. My mobo is from year 2000, and can support a full
1gig, but WinME limits me to 256meg to be "reliable". That's not
progress, nor is that acceptable.

Have you limited the amount of RAM that can be used for the virtual cache
to 512MB? If not then it is not surprising that the system is unstable as
you will be running out of upper memory address space.

For details see MS KB 253912 - ""Out of Memory" Error Messages with Large
Amounts of RAM Installed" (http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=253912). The
reason is that allocating more than 512MB of RAM to vcache will exhaust
all available upper memory addresses and thus prevent them being used for
other purposes. Note that this will still mean that all memory is
available to applications but is simply limiting the amount used as
virtual cache memory.
--
Mike Maltby

Ogg wrote:
Mike M wrote:
|| Have you limited the amount of RAM that can be used for the virtual
|| cache to 512MB? If not then it is not surprising that the system is
|| unstable as you will be running out of upper memory address space.
||
|| For details see MS KB 253912 - ""Out of Memory" Error Messages with
|| Large Amounts of RAM Installed"
|| (http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=253912). ..


Yes.... I did the vcache limit setting. I investigated all the various
helps regarding all that. Still get unpredictable and random problems. I
could probably remove the 256meg module, and just run with 512. But I don't
like the idea of "downgrading" my hardware just to accomodate WinME. I'd
rather move to an OS that can handle the hardware, even though it's old
hardware from year 2000. WinME itself doesn't provide anything
extraordinary to compel me to stay with it. I've tested Ubuntu and a few
other distro's with the pc (and the full 756meg), and the results are much
more satisfactory.

If you liked Ubuntu OK then do consider trying PcLinux minime. It
installs in I'd say around 5 minutes and isn't packed with a bunch of
programs that try to fit into every persons attraction.

You simply use the synaptic package manager to install programs. Which
is another
nice thing, you don't have to go to different web sites to download
and then install programs. The package manager does it all for you.

I have a processor of 733 Mhz and 318MB of ram and it works great.
Also the current version was just released in January.

Ogg wrote:
Mike M wrote:
|| Have you limited the amount of RAM that can be used for the virtual
|| cache to 512MB? If not then it is not surprising that the system is
|| unstable as you will be running out of upper memory address space.
||
|| For details see MS KB 253912 - ""Out of Memory" Error Messages with
|| Large Amounts of RAM Installed"
|| (http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=253912). ..


Yes.... I did the vcache limit setting. I investigated all the various
helps regarding all that. Still get unpredictable and random problems. I
could probably remove the 256meg module, and just run with 512. But I don't
like the idea of "downgrading" my hardware just to accomodate WinME. I'd
rather move to an OS that can handle the hardware, even though it's old
hardware from year 2000. WinME itself doesn't provide anything
extraordinary to compel me to stay with it. I've tested Ubuntu and a few
other distro's with the pc (and the full 756meg), and the results are much
more satisfactory.

ME is OK but Windows2000 works waaay better, at least for me, the way
an operating system should act and feel when using it.

Also compared to XP I would rather use 2000.

I can install Linux distributions and versions that are getting close
to ten years old and aren't supported anymore and they would still be
far more worthwhile to use than ME.

wrote:
|| Ogg wrote:
||| 2000. WinME itself doesn't provide anything extraordinary to
||| compel me to stay with it. I've tested Ubuntu and a few other
||| distro's with the pc (and the full 756meg), and the results are
||| much more satisfactory.
||
|| If you liked Ubuntu OK then do consider trying PcLinux minime. It
|| installs in I'd say around 5 minutes and isn't packed with a bunch of
|| programs that try to fit into every persons attraction.


Thanks for the heads-up on that. I had heard about PcLinux elsewhere. I'm
not sure if I would settle for the minime version, but I'm going to take a
look.


|| You simply use the synaptic package manager to install programs.
|| Which is another
|| nice thing, you don't have to go to different web sites to download
|| and then install programs. The package manager does it all for you.


That's a plus. I am basically planning to retire my WinME system to do
just www, email, some basic photo editing, and music collections. I feel
much more comfortable doing all that in a Linux environment than the current
tempermental WinME.

wrote:
|| ME is OK but Windows2000 works waaay better, at least for me, the way
|| an operating system should act and feel when using it.
||
|| Also compared to XP I would rather use 2000.
||
|| I can install Linux distributions and versions that are getting close
|| to ten years old and aren't supported anymore and they would still be
|| far more worthwhile to use than ME.


I'd rather move away from WinAnything at this point if I had a choice. I
currently use a laptop pre-installed with XPp and that's fine. If I have
to spend the time and energy to work with a new OS, I'd rather it be
something more reliable like Linux.

I'm really fed up with the way WinME sometimes refreshes the desktop icons
and the icons end up with different images! That used to be "cute", and not
much of a bother since the problem would go away until the next reboot. But
now it has become a stupid WinME behaviour. And Window's occassional
insistence to do a Scandisk (even though the computer shut down normally
just fine) has driven me to the limits of my patience; my ME pc has a 120gig
harddrive, and the scandisk just takes w-a-y too long to complete. Add the
extra time needed to do defrags, and ME is just too maintenance intensive to
be worthwhile anymore.

Do you have more than one partition on that drive or are you running it as
a single C: drive? If so, then delays are to be expected. Regardless of
the OS keep the system drive clean and lean and place the date elsewhere.
Scandisk and defrags take but a few seconds on my Win Me system where the
partition containing the OS is about 2.5GB.
--
Mike Maltby



Ogg wrote:

I'd rather move away from WinAnything at this point if I had a
choice. I currently use a laptop pre-installed with XPp and that's
fine. If I have to spend the time and energy to work with a new OS,
I'd rather it be something more reliable like Linux.

I'm really fed up with the way WinME sometimes refreshes the desktop
icons and the icons end up with different images! That used to be
"cute", and not much of a bother since the problem would go away
until the next reboot. But now it has become a stupid WinME
behaviour. And Window's occassional insistence to do a Scandisk
(even though the computer shut down normally just fine) has driven me
to the limits of my patience; my ME pc has a 120gig harddrive, and
the scandisk just takes w-a-y too long to complete. Add the extra
time needed to do defrags, and ME is just too maintenance intensive
to be worthwhile anymore.

Ogg wrote:
wrote:
|| Ogg wrote:
||| 2000. WinME itself doesn't provide anything extraordinary to
||| compel me to stay with it. I've tested Ubuntu and a few other
||| distro's with the pc (and the full 756meg), and the results are
||| much more satisfactory.
||
|| If you liked Ubuntu OK then do consider trying PcLinux minime. It
|| installs in I'd say around 5 minutes and isn't packed with a bunch of
|| programs that try to fit into every persons attraction.


Thanks for the heads-up on that. I had heard about PcLinux elsewhere. I'm
not sure if I would settle for the minime version, but I'm going to take a
look.

Well the full version has a bunch of stuff that I would never use.
With synaptic you can
say a description of what you want, like email, media player or web
browser then click on a program and it will give you a description of
what it is and does.

|| You simply use the synaptic package manager to install programs.
|| Which is another
|| nice thing, you don't have to go to different web sites to download
|| and then install programs. The package manager does it all for you.


That's a plus. I am basically planning to retire my WinME system to do
just www, email, some basic photo editing, and music collections. I feel
much more comfortable doing all that in a Linux environment than the current
tempermental WinME.

Amarok is great for music.

Do consider making about 5 to 10 gigs for your / and maybe 1 gig for
your /swap and maybe the rest for your /home

You likely know all this but

The home is where you store all your music and downloads, ect, and if
the system
fails then you can simply reinstall it back to the / and don't format
your /home and you will still have all your music ,etc

"Ogg" wrote in message
...
wrote:
|| ME is OK but Windows2000 works waaay better, at least for me, the way
|| an operating system should act and feel when using it.
||
|| Also compared to XP I would rather use 2000.
||
|| I can install Linux distributions and versions that are getting close
|| to ten years old and aren't supported anymore and they would still be
|| far more worthwhile to use than ME.


I'd rather move away from WinAnything at this point if I had a choice. I
currently use a laptop pre-installed with XPp and that's fine. If I have
to spend the time and energy to work with a new OS, I'd rather it be
something more reliable like Linux.

I'm really fed up with the way WinME sometimes refreshes the desktop icons
and the icons end up with different images! That used to be "cute", and
not
much of a bother since the problem would go away until the next reboot.
But
now it has become a stupid WinME behaviour. And Window's occassional
insistence to do a Scandisk (even though the computer shut down normally
just fine) has driven me to the limits of my patience; my ME pc has a
120gig
harddrive, and the scandisk just takes w-a-y too long to complete. Add
the
extra time needed to do defrags, and ME is just too maintenance intensive
to
be worthwhile anymore.

I'm very sorry to see you have these problems with WinME, but it can't all
be ME's fault, because I surely don't have them with my system. There may be
little snags now and then, but so far Windows has corrected itself for me
with the help of Scandisk and Defrag. Also they don't take an unusual amount
of time either.
I have nothing set up for automatic run and do everything manually,
periodically.
Any of the free Linux systems, are probably a valid alternative.
Good luck,

Harry.

webster72n wrote:

|| I'm very sorry to see you have these problems with WinME, but it
|| can't all be ME's fault, because I surely don't have them with my
|| system. There may be little snags now and then, but so far Windows
|| has corrected itself for me with the help of Scandisk and Defrag.
|| Also they don't take an unusual amount of time either.
|| I have nothing set up for automatic run and do everything manually,
|| periodically.
|| Any of the free Linux systems, are probably a valid alternative.
|| Good luck,


I have several apps in the System tray, but I ruled them out by cancelling
their load at startup. The icon jumble-dance often occurs when there are no
other apps even running. Explorer (the directory viewer) would get stuck
with a "program not responding". That IS all WinME's fault.

ME seemed to perform well after 2 years of frustration before I learned
about this ng and disabling many OS features inorder to get a stable system.
Now it has been over 8 years since I've had this pc, but the added ram just
added new frustration and disappointment.

However, the existing hardware works very well with the various Linux
distros I've tried.

Therefore, it's not the fault of hardware nor any of my win apps. The
problem is WinME not being able to operate consistently well when I need to
rely on it. WinME can't keep up with I need to do.

I don't particularly like to mess around with a dramatic change like this.
But I really don't have much choice if I want to actually USE my computer
instead of babysitting it or be afraid to use it for fear of having it
stall.

Yes.. I do beleive that I will have a much better problem-free experience
with Linux.

"Ogg" wrote in message
...
webster72n wrote:

|| I'm very sorry to see you have these problems with WinME, but it
|| can't all be ME's fault, because I surely don't have them with my
|| system. There may be little snags now and then, but so far Windows
|| has corrected itself for me with the help of Scandisk and Defrag.
|| Also they don't take an unusual amount of time either.
|| I have nothing set up for automatic run and do everything manually,
|| periodically.
|| Any of the free Linux systems, are probably a valid alternative.
|| Good luck,


I have several apps in the System tray, but I ruled them out by cancelling
their load at startup. The icon jumble-dance often occurs when there are
no
other apps even running. Explorer (the directory viewer) would get stuck
with a "program not responding". That IS all WinME's fault.

Just for the record, these are 'minor' occurrences and can easily be fixed
by either using Tweak UI, or IE Repair in Add/Remove Programs.
Once the system is stabilized, it will most likely stay that way.


ME seemed to perform well after 2 years of frustration before I learned
about this ng and disabling many OS features inorder to get a stable
system.
Now it has been over 8 years since I've had this pc, but the added ram
just
added new frustration and disappointment.

However, the existing hardware works very well with the various Linux
distros I've tried.

Therefore, it's not the fault of hardware nor any of my win apps. The
problem is WinME not being able to operate consistently well when I need
to
rely on it. WinME can't keep up with I need to do.

I don't particularly like to mess around with a dramatic change like this.
But I really don't have much choice if I want to actually USE my computer
instead of babysitting it or be afraid to use it for fear of having it
stall.

Yes.. I do beleive that I will have a much better problem-free experience
with Linux.