Resolve Windows 98 low memory problems

Helpline Q&A Directory

My system has 256MB of RAM, but recently I've noticed a fall-off in available resources and I don't know where to start looking to resolve the problem. I run Windows 98 and right now the Resource Meter is only showing 43 percent System, 47 percent User and 43 percent GDI. Granted, I am on the internet and have Outlook Express, Word and the Resource Meter running.

In the System Tray, Task Scheduler, Nero CD writer and my internet connection monitor are ready and the computer has been switched on for about an hour. I recently purchased some software that uses Microsoft Excel and it crashes after about 10 minutes through lack of memory. How do I detect what may be causing the problem, and how do I fix it?

We suspect that in your case the only way to fix this would be to switch to Windows 2000. Windows 95, 98 and Me have inherent memory resource problems due to the fixed size tables that they use to keep track of certain types of memory allocation. This is a legacy from 16bit Windows 3.x, which Microsoft retained in order to make Windows 95 more compatible with older Windows programs.

Windows 2000 has no such problem. Some older programs won't run under it, but this is no hardship for the majority of users today. However, it also has limited support for older or games-oriented hardware, and it won't run some games and multimedia programs, so you should check those compatibility issues before forking out for an operating system upgrade.

If you want to try to solve the problem with Windows 98, you have to find the memory hog in your system by elimination. You can disable System Tray applications using the Startup tab of Msconfig to see if they are to blame.

However, chances are that you're experiencing the inevitable consequence of running software that makes heavy use of Excel charting. Graphics card and printer drivers have been known to leak memory, so it would certainly be worth ensuring that you have the latest drivers for your hardware. But even with the latest drivers and nothing else running on your system, it's still possible to use up all the resources running Windows 98.