Pinging Computer Geniuses--VANITY

[jra]

Apologies in advance for the vanity.

I've got a computer prob. I've got an IBM Aptiva w/an AMD K6-2 (?) Running Win98.

The machine takes 3.5-4 min to boot up. Locks up occasionally (I know, they all do--there's more.), The hard drive has begun to fill up for no obvious reason (not properly deleting temp files???), It will NOT defrag...the defrag program will stay on for hours and never go beyond 0%, and now the computer's clock has begun to lose time, or at the very least, has lost time.

I'm on a cable modem, but I have ZoneAlarm to keep the hackers out...not as interested in how I got the prob as I am in what it is and how to fix it.

Help!

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[PokeyJoe]

Time to get a new computer and donate your old one to your local school.

[steve50]

The K2 is a fairly old system. I am having some similiar problems and was told it might be the motherboards cmos battery, which of course I can't find anywhere. Good luck

[Cultural Jihad]

Have you run scandisk to check the health of the hard drive? Barring that or a newer machine, you ought to consider reformating the thing and reloading all your software afresh.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Problems running ScanDisk and Defrag

Many people have problems running ScanDisk and/or Defrag, with the program running 10% or 30% and then stalling. Often with a message that Windows is trying to write to the drive. To run ScanDisk/Defrag successfully:

 

1. Go to Start > Run and type msconfig in the Open: box
2. On the General tab, uncheck all items listed under Selective startup (make sure that Selective startup is selected)
3. Hit apply and OK and restart Windows
4. This starts Windows with only the basics running; Insures nothing will interfere with ScanDisk and Defrag
5. Run ScanDisk and Defrag, when ready go into msconfig and select Normal startup and restart Windows

(If you use Windows 95, restart your system, when you see the Starting Windows 95... text on your screen, quickly press the F8 key. From the menu that follows, choose Safe mode, and run ScanDisk & Defrag. When ready, reboot.)

PS: My daughters computer had the same problem and the above solution worked. You may also consider installing an additional hard drive if you have an available drive bay. 30g drives are pretty cheap these days and access speeds for HDs have improved over the past few years. I'm not sure how old your system is, but you may find that a new HD improves the overall performance of the system and increases your available storage space at the same time. All it takes is a screwdriver, a few dollars, and an afternoon. Good luck!

[jeffc]

I would suggest doing a START/RUN/MSCONFIG, go to the Startup tab and uncheck anything that you don't want to run on startup (you can always run it later) or looks suspicious. All I have is Systray, Norton anti-virus and ZoneAlarm on my Startup.

I would suspect something runs on startup and chews alot of CPU cycles and disk I/O.

[jeffc]

OldEconomy buyer beat me to it. Do what he says . . . =:-)

[Cultural Jihad]

Odd to think that five years is considered the lifetime of most hard drives before they start to go bad. (After that, what? They turn to bank-robbery? ;)

[steplock]

Click on this link for Trend Micro On-Line virus scan/clean
CLICK HERE

Follow the directions, it will download a short scan program, it will not hurt any antivirus you have on your hard drive.

[steplock]

Links to a Secure Computer here on FreeRepublic.

Follow the link to instructions on cleaning and securing your computer from viruses!

[Oldeconomybuyer]

I don't know about their life of crime, but think HDs get written to and unwritten to so many times they just crap out.

[LandOfTheFreeHomeOfTheBrave]

Run an anti-virus program. You can download trial versions if you don't have one already installed. If you have an anti-virus program, make sure the signatures are up to date. One of the symtoms of having a virus is that your hard disk fills up quickly because the virus is creating files on your hard drive.

Also, some systems will not defrag if you have a screensaver. Disable any screensavers before starting to defrag.

Try Diskkeeper Lite from Executive Software (http://www.execsoft.com/diskeeper/diskeeper.asp). It is freeware and I have found that it works better and more reliably than the defrag utility included in Win98.

[rintense]

Diagnosis: Dump WIN 98. Icky poo.

[Vince Ferrer]

It will NOT defrag...the defrag program will stay on for hours and never go beyond 0%...

I have a win98, and I went for a couple of years without defragging my drive. When I finally did it, it took at least a day and a half, and the first day it stayed at 0%.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Sounds like you may have Klez virus on your machine, if the hard drive filled for no reason. Go HERE and click on the logo on the lower right side that says "Check for security risks". on the next page, click on "Scan For Viruses" (but first, disable any other virus scan or firewall protection you have running) Then go to HERE and download the 14 day trial on the upper right and run it, too. Let me know if you find anything, I'm interested.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Also it takes forever if you have antivirus running while defragging because as it defrag runs, the antivirus keeps reading it, and its a cycle that keeps going (same with a screen saver). Click Ctrl Alt Del and End Task any virus programs you have running before you do defrag. In fact the only two programs you need running are Explorer and Systray. So you can end Taks ALL the others except explorer and systray, then run defrag. Then reboot and you're good to go.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Did you have virus protection or screen saver enabled?

[DeFault User]

If all else fails, make a list of hardware drivers needed, make sure you have installation disks/programs, backup any data you want to keep,reformat the HD and load a fresh version of the OS.

This is drastic but cures a lot of problems.

[balrog666]

Diagnosis: Dump WIN 98. Icky poo.

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHA! Whoa, buddy, have you forgotten how slow a K6 is? Win2000 or XP almost certainly won't run with all his old hardware, presumably low memory, and small hard drive.

I have an old K5 running a dualboot Dos6.2/Win98 with 24M ram (mostly as a printer buffer). The Win98 partition needs to be cleaned out regularly.

So, delete all your temp files and subdirectories (under c:\windows\temp), all your internet history files and subdirectories (under c:\windows\history), check for any other overly full direcorties or old backups that you may not need anymore (particularly old games), and then run Oldeconomybuyer's directions in post#6.

Also, if you have it handy, Norton's DiskDoctor and Speedisk are much better than than Windows Scandisk and the ultraslow Defrag.