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[Jookia]

DOSBOX?

[Lord Shonus]

This computer is for running WINDOWS 98 games. WINDOWS 98 games do not run in DOSBOX. I tested in DOS to try to figure out why 98 and XP run so very slow.

[Hyperturtle]

Hmm my first guess would be malware from connecting a windows 98 box to a network without any basic patching done on it first--especially if you aren't running anything in particular and you are at 50% utilization.

Your best bet is to install as much of the service packs and hot fixes (that you can even locate) on the machine before connecting it to a network.  Or simply don't allow it to have internet access and pull the files off another machine on your local network.

With that said, you cannot install a modern browser like firefox 3 on it and expect it to run OK.  The same would be expected from a recent linux distro--these modern programs are used to more memory available, more cpu power, faster bus/io access... it can really mess things up.

I have a 133 mhz thinkpad with windows 98se on it and 104 megs of ram.  It runs ms office 97 and whatnot just FINE without any issues--but if you tried to run just about anything with flash or newer than 2001, 2002 etc, it just won't happen.  The laptop is from 1996.  I couldn't imagine how slow it would run if I installed a modern antivirus package on it and a new browser.   Firefox on my desktop here is using 279 megs of memory, and that laptop only has 104.  Just the memory swap to disk could be a major cause of slowdown if you have a similar situation.

[Lord Shonus]

That's a good point, but it's a cross-platform issue, so malware is unlikely.

[alway]

Just wondering, but do you have a vista and/or windows 7 machine? Because they have the option to run things in compatibility mode as far back as windows 95.

[Phmcw]

Maybe the heat? Are your fans clean? If the processor overheat, it will slow down or shut off.

[Lord Shonus]

Just wondering, but do you have a vista and/or windows 7 machine? Because they have the option to run things in compatibility mode as far back as windows 95.

XP also has compatibility mode for 95. It does not work.

Cleaning it did not solve the problem.

[Phmcw]

Try installing ubuntu and run memtest. I suppose you'll have hard time finding good win 98 equivalent.
Actually just burn a cd, you'll not have to install it to make the test.

[Lord Shonus]

There's a DOS tool for that that found no problems.

[Hyperturtle]

You're right, I didn't read XP was on it and running slowly as well.

I've had bad network cards take up a lot of CPU and generally muck things up--at least back when there wasn't much CPU to take up.  If the computer has a network card, try physically removing it and letting XP detect its gone and reboot again.  For the 98, I think you might need to remove it via the device manager first and then shut down and remove it, or it may still leave some "residue".

And lastly, if both are slow and the computer is old, how is the hard drive health?  Try getting the program.. hmm motherboard monitor I think, it does a scan of the drive looking for the SMART values on it and can tell you that the disk is failing.  Some computers back then would inform you of this at bootup.

[Lord Shonus]

I suppose that's a possiblity. I just pulled a spare out of my hard drive drawer and tossed it in. Not inconceivable that there's something wrong with it. And I found the network card on te side of the road, so it's more than possible.

[eerr]

upgrade your ram to modern standards?

[Phmcw]

Not even possible, DDR and DDR2 aren't compatible. And it way still be sdram. He could change the ram... if he find the right kind.
A very convoluted way would be to install a lightweight Linux distribution, then ask on their forum. Being lightweight Linux fans they will most probably have the same kind of issue and know something about it... Damn small Linux may do the trick.

[SolarShado]

I believe even Damn Small Linux recommends 128MB in GUI mode... look around for an older distro...

I used to run Red Hat 8 on a P1 w/32MB, X did alright if you didn't use GNOME, AfterStep (or was it LiteStep? something like that) worked fine.