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HeritageMinis

updated

25 years ago

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788

April 16th, 2002 11:00

Memory Allocation problems?

First, I'm a computer dummy so be gentle with me. The culprit: Dimension L866r. The problem: I'm getting "blue screened" to death. Oh, and if it doesn't "blue screen" me, the blasted thing just freezes up entirely and I can't even reboot...I'm ready to chunk the whole thing and go back to chisel and stone.

I'm not sure what y'all need to know to help me but here are a few tidbits I've managed to scribble on paper:

"mem" says the following -- TOT USED FREE
----- -------- --------
Conventional 640k 60k 580k
Upper 0k 0k 0k
Resident 0k 0k 0k
Extended (XMS) 65,535k ? 128,588k
----- -------- --------
Total Memory 66,175k ? 129,168k

Total Under 1MB 640k 60k 580k


"start box" - that thingy that lists programs running when you enter ctrl+alt+del one time --

Explorer
EM_exec
Poproxy
Navapw32
Systray
Wkdetect


When signing into AOHell, after connection and as "Welcome" window appears, the following dialogue box pops up: "An image on the upcoming window could not be displayed correctly due to low memory. For best results, try closing unused windows." There are no other open windows. At a friend's house this weekend, their old dinosaur loaded AOHell faster than my "megamachine"...again, I'm --><--
this close!

Basically, any time I try to do anything even remotely multi-tasking, the whole friggin' thing freezes up. After downloading some pics from the digicam, I can't even open the "My Pictures" folder...no blue screen, just freezes up. Completely.

Oh yeah, operating system is WinME (*gag*). Sorry guys, when the geeks tossed DOS in the corner, I got left behind...

I want the BLAZING SPEED and EFFORTLESS CONNECTIONS and all the other sunshine that my posterior was exposed to before I bought this thing!! Any and all suggestions are welcome.

--
Lisa

ps -- I show dogs for a living so I'm not the brightest crayon in the box...in Dummy-ese please?


  • Kanuk001

    472 Posts

    384

    0

    Posted April 16th, 2002 12:00

    With 128 megabytes of memory, you shouldn't be having memory shortage problems, even with ME. Agreeably, ME is probably not the strongest Operating System Microsoft ever produced, but it did (at least some of) the job.

    You may be short of "virtual" memory. If you Right-Click on "My Computer", and then click on Properties and then Advanced, you will see how large the "Paging File" is. That information is usefull.

    Also, on your blue screens, if you could copy down what is written on it and post that information.

    With a little more information, maybe we can help you.

    Charles,
    Tag # 6VMY111

    Dimension 8200, Bios A03
    1.8 ghz P4
    512 mb Rambus Ram
    80 gb HD primary, 20 gb HD secondary
    NVidia GEForce3 TI200
    Dell M991 monitor
    Samsung 308b DVD/CDRW combo
    Telephony modem
    Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound (4161 beta driver)
    Altec Lansing ADA995 (1BT)
    Windows XP Home
    (Multibooted with Win98, Win2000, OS/2, Linux)
    Roxio Easy CDCreator 5.1.0.104 (platinum)
    Office XP Pro (retail)
    Power DVD 4 (retail upgrade)
    Norton SystemWorks 2002 (retail)
  • Kanuk001

    472 Posts

    384

    0

    Posted April 16th, 2002 13:00

    Lisa.

    You do not have a virtual memory problem with 10gb available on your C drive.

    This type of problem (blue screen and hang) coulf be related to the drivers in your system (which cards you have.)

    If you could post your complete configuration, also. What is most important is which cards are installed in the machine: video, network, modem, etc.

    Charles,
    Tag # 6VMY111

    Dimension 8200, Bios A03
    1.8 ghz P4
    512 mb Rambus Ram
    80 gb HD primary, 20 gb HD secondary
    NVidia GEForce3 TI200
    Dell M991 monitor
    Samsung 308b DVD/CDRW combo
    Telephony modem
    Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound (4161 beta driver)
    Altec Lansing ADA995 (1BT)
    Windows XP Home
    (Multibooted with Win98, Win2000, OS/2, Linux)
    Roxio Easy CDCreator 5.1.0.104 (platinum)
    Office XP Pro (retail)
    Power DVD 4 (retail upgrade)
    Norton SystemWorks 2002 (retail)
  • 384

    0

    Posted April 16th, 2002 13:00


    Kanuk001 wrote:

    - You may be short of "virtual" memory. If you
    - Right-Click on "My Computer", and then click on
    - Properties and then Advanced, you will see how large
    - the "Paging File" is. That information is usefull.

    Well, I don't get the same screens/choices you have. When I click on Properties, I get a dialogue box with the following tabs: General, Device Manager, Hardware Profiles, Performance. I clicked on Performance and got the following status: Memory 127.0 MB of RAM; System Resources 70% free; File System 32-bit; Virtual Memory 32-bit; Disk Compression not installed; PC Cards (PCMCIA) no PC Card sockets are installed.

    Also on this screen, "Your system is configured for optimal performance." Uh, not.

    More buttons on the "Performance" screen: File System, Graphics, Virtual Memory. Under Virtual Memory, my system is set to "Let Windows manage my virtual memory settings." It does allow for manual virtual memory settings based on the following: Hard Disk, c:\10992MB free; Minimum, 0; Maximum, No maximum. I can also elect to disable virtual memory. I changed nothing.

    - Also, on your blue screens, if you could copy down
    - what is written on it and post that information.

    Naturally, today there have been no blue screens (the day is still young!) but it has frozen up completely once (blank, beige screen).

    Thanks for your reply, Charles. I'll try to capture any information this blasted box will give me and promptly post it here.

    --
    Lisa


  • sonoffred

    141 Posts

    384

    0

    Posted April 16th, 2002 14:00

    Here is a convenient tool for doing this:
    http://www.belarc.com/Download.html
    It will create a report that you can paste into a message (you can probably leave out the info at the end about what applications you have).

    By the way, it sounds to me like you are headed toward reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling everything--I hope you have all your original cd's...
    HeritageMinis wrote:
    -
    - Kanuk001 wrote:
    -- If you could post your complete configuration, also.
    -- What is most important is which cards are installed
    -- in the machine: video, network, modem, etc.
    -
    - I'd be happy to. Where do I find this information?
    - When I said I was a computer dummy, I wasn't
    - joking...
    -
    ---
    - Lisa
    -
    -
    -
    -
    -



    Dimension L550r
    Win98 SE
    384 MB SDRAM
    80GB Seagate Barracuda IV HD
    40GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus HD
    Samsung SD-608 DVD-Rom
    ATI All-in-Wonder 128 32MB PCI
    Creative Sound Blaster AudioPCI 64V
    Aztech MDP3880-W 56k PCI Modem


    Message Edited on 04/16/02 08:34AM by sonoffred
  • 384

    0

    Posted April 16th, 2002 14:00


    Kanuk001 wrote:
    - If you could post your complete configuration, also.
    - What is most important is which cards are installed
    - in the machine: video, network, modem, etc.

    I'd be happy to. Where do I find this information? When I said I was a computer dummy, I wasn't joking...

    --
    Lisa



  • 384

    0

    Posted April 16th, 2002 19:00


    sonoffred wrote:
    - Here is a convenient tool for doing this:
    - http://www.belarc.com/Download.html

    Spiffy! I'm copying the pertinent parts below.

    - By the way, it sounds to me like you are headed
    - toward reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling
    - everything--I hope you have all your original
    - cd's...

    I do but it is still something I'd rather not think about tackling myself...sounds like it bites.

    --
    Lisa


    The report: (kinda jumbled -- hope you can make sense of it)

    Operating System System Model
    Windows Millennium Edition Dell Computer Corporation L866r
    System Service Tag: 5G2PB01
    Asset Tag: 5G2PB01
    Chassis Serial Number: 5G2PB01
    Processor a Main Circuit Board
    866 megahertz Intel Pentium III
    32 kilobyte primary memory cache
    256 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: Intel Corporation CA810E AAA01025-310
    Serial Number: 0007157X124610CO02DZ
    Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
    BIOS: Intel Corp. A09 11/13/2000
    Drives Memory Modules
    19.99 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
    11.54 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

    LG CD-RW CED-8080B [CD-ROM drive]
    Generic floppy disk drive (3.5")

    Maxtor 32049H2 (20.00 GB) [Hard drive] -- drive 0 128 Megabytes Installed Memory
    128 Megabyte Module Size - 1 Installed
    One Memory Socket is Empty
    Local Drive Volumes

    c: (on drive 0) 19.99 GB 11.54 GB free

    Network Drives


    Controllers Printers
    Standard Floppy Disk Controller
    Intel 82801AA Bus Master IDE Controller
    Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
    Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)Canon MultiPASS C555 Fax on USBPRN01
    Canon MultiPASS C555 Printer on USBPRN01
    Capture Mono Fax BVRP on FAX BVRP:

    Display
    Intel(r) 82810E Graphics Controller [Display adapter]
    Dell E770s [Monitor]
    Bus Adapters Multimedia
    Intel(r) 82801AA USB Universal Host Controller Creative Sound Blaster AudioPCI 64V (WDM)
    Communications Other Devices
    Conexant HCF V90 56K Data Fax PCI Modem
    Standard 28800 bps Modem
    AOL Adapter
    Microsoft Virtual Private Networking Adapter Conexant PCI Modem Enumerator
    Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
    WheelMouse1 (PS/2)
    Canon MultiPASS C555
    USB Root Hub