Hi Tom Bitsky, Jr, you wrote on 10/7/04 2:06:30 PM:
>I do not believe that the FAT file system (which Windows 98 would use by
>default) can recognize the full capacity of an 80 GB hard drive.
running 98 first edition, 80g, 4 primary partitions, of which 2 are
windows: one primary and one extended partition. easy to format w/
*easier than fdisk*
bootit next generation (shareware) which also helps w/ backups (image file
and/or cdr). I have drives on the extended partition setup exclusively
for those image files btw, less fragmentation (delelte files then create
them).
Bios issues may be at fault if 80g cannot be recognized.
>
>Some customers have wanted to supply the computers for the equipment they
>buy from us (usually their IT guy is bored). A couple have sent brand new
>computers running Windows 98, and it has always been a disaster. If the
win98 does not have to be a disaster. there are many pertinent patches,
one can run spybot, ad-aware, AVANT browser, Firefox browser, the latter
w/ preferences toolbar (loading pages w/o images, quicker), adblock
extension, and even a cache > c:\cache setup (about:block in address bar,
add new string, something...)
Of course how stable it gets is how much work one puts into it.
I have a dos box everpresent on the desktop and batch files or
command line practically everything.
>machine is new, I would recommend Windows 2000 Pro. I have found Windows XP
>to be prettier than Win2K, but slower, buggier, and to have a local network
>lag when first accessing a network drive. Windows 2K running SP4, however,
>has been rather solid in my office, and you will find, excepting graphics,
>few useful additional features in Windows XP. Also, you can probably grab
>Win2K Pro at a good price these days.
>
>Good luck.
>
>At 03:13 AM 10/7/2004, you wrote:
>You say this is a "New" machine, yet it's running Win98. Do you mean new
>to
>you? Most new computers come with Windows XP, and my first suggestion
>would
>be to upgrade the OS.
>Slow start has lots of potential causes-what programs are being loaded at
>startup?
>Auto run can be deliberately turned off.
>You may have heat or memory or other hardware issues causing the re-start
>issue.
>The HD size problem os confusing. It's not likely to be a BIOS issue. I'm
>wondering if this wasn't originally an XP computer "downgraded" to 98?
>If the machine is still under warranty, take it back for service, and try
>to
>get an explanation of why XP is not installed.
>***************************************************************************
>*
>******************************************************
>I have just taken possession of a new computer.
>
>AMD Athlon XP3000+ (333MHz FSB)
>ASUS MB A7N8X-X Nforce2, DDR400 Audio/lan
Asus here too.
>Western Digital 80 Gig HDD 7200rpm 2M
>512 DDR PC3200 Ram
>350W case
>Samsung 52x CDrom
>AIP Floppy drive
>PColour V Radeon 9200TVDVI 128 graphics card
>
>running Win98SE
>
msconfig, startup, I have about 3 screens of stuff, most
unchecked. Some (antivirus etc) I have unchecked and
run them in a startup batch files instead, it crashes less
often that way.
>This outfit takes over 4 minutes to start up.
after the icons appear, one minute (here) elapses til 'ready'.
>
>I have tried to install a few games to test out the graphics (Need for
>Speed, Quiddich, Ghost Recon all original CDs) from the CD drive.
>
>Auto run does not work.
>
>The progs get part way through install routine, then the machine restarts.
>
>I tried to install a smaller game from a CD (3 meg exe file) The machine
>restarted part way through install routine.
>
>I copied the 3 meg exe file to desktop, managed to install and start the
>game to have the machine restart after less than a minute of play.
>
>The HDD shows as 19 gig instead of 80 (or reduced amount to allow for
>conversion to gig) when I look at MY Computer.
other utilities can further investigate the disk usage
maybe? including >hwinfo /ui
>
>I went to the DOS window through Start/ Program and tried to do DIR
>command.
>The machine restarted.
Safe mode 3 times, check device manager and properties of everything...
>
>Can anyone suggest a solution?
>
>I will be taking it back to the shop tomorrow, but if I can have some
>suggestions before hand, I will look as if I know more..
>
> Do you want to signoff PCBUILD or just change to
> Digest mode - visit our web site:
> http://freepctech.com/pcbuild.shtml
>
> Do you want to signoff PCBUILD or just change to
> Digest mode - visit our web site:
> http://freepctech.com/pcbuild.shtml
Sorry if any of this reply is in any way terse...
Something to consider...despite less hardware support for 98 than XP, many
new virus/etc affect only the latter.
BTW I was using a freeware C(unprintable)Cleaner, it would reboot, or
crash, took 30+ minutes,
but in safe mode, just seconds, and fixed a lot (I did not select it
to fix everything). It is now at version 1.14
(I have version 1.10)
Jeff Bouquet
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