RAM for 98

[DR]

My sister's computer is a generic PC,K5-133PR,16MB EDO RAM. She is currently running Win98 update version 4.10.1998.
My question is - Isn't this too little RAM for this system? She has trouble getting programs to install and run correctly. Since it is an older system I thought she might be better off dropping back to 95B.
Also has 1 gig HD, sound card, video card,modem and a ECP port with a HP400 Deskjet printer.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

[Sowulo]

If she's just running W98 and a word processor it will run decently (slow loading but fine for typing). Anything else, find more RAM (another 16Mb would make a big difference).

[ledrichard]

the min for 98 is 16mb. So this should still work fine. You need to double check the min. requirements of the programs though. Some SW requires for ram than the os itself. my 2cents

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hey its me again!

[DonJ]

Hi,

The 1GB hard drive is on the low side also. You might make sure that you/she runs ScanDisk and Defragmenter about every 30 days or so. You might also think about running DriveSpace which will just about double the available disk size. Otherwise, you will have to install a bigger disk drive and reinstall Win98 and apps.

Windows is not very happy with low memory and low disk free space.

Hope this helps out.

Good Luck!

DonJ

[Sowulo]

NOOOOOO, Don't use drivespace....
Well, ok, but only if you must. It can be a bear getting to data in the event of a crash...and will make this system with only 16Mb really slow down to a crawl.

[RedBeard]

Best thing that you could do for starters, is upgrade your memory in the system, the best would be 64 meg, if the mb will support that much, but 32 would be a big improvment for the system.

[DonJ]

Hi again,
Yes, DoubleSpace will slow her down somewhat...but if she is really hurting for disk space, this is one way of getting some more without having to replace the entire disk and reinstall Win98 plus apps. You might go over some of the files with her and see if there is anything that you don't need or use anymore.
Of course, more RAM would be ideal also.
Good Luck!
DonJ

[Sowulo]

It's not very often that Windows and Apps can't survive a transfer from one drive to another. Ghost, Drive Copy, EZ Disk, make it pretty easy. It only takes a little more knowledge and no extra time to manually transfer one drive to another as well. A used 3Gb HD should be available for around $50.

[fdisk]

Another 16 megs of RAM and a larger HD will certainly perk things up. Forget the drivespace though, outlived it's usefulness long ago as far as I'm concerned. If you really want to make a nice economy system out of it, find a used 200-233MMX Pentium and MB and 64 megs RAM on it. If you shop around on eBay, you could probably find the MB, CPU, HD and RAM for around $150.

[techs]

absolutely no doublespace as it will really slow you down. you might want to change to a pentium processor. the k5 was really a beefed up 486, and while it shows 133mhz really runs like a pentium 75.

[DonJ]

OK Guys,
I give up...I was just trying to help somebody out without shelling out any bucks. If she started out with a 1GB drive and has less than 100MB free, plus low in RAM, the system will bog down in lots of ways.
But hey, absolutely, DO NOT run DriveSpace. It would be so much better to shop on e-bay for $150 or so system.

[DR]

>Thanks for all the input. I have everything but the printer running well. We are going to swith with an old dot matrix printer to solve that. Sometimes you just reach a point where you quit spending and start saving for the newer system.
>No way she can have Photo Shop or play Quake on this one anyway.
>I have FAT 32 installed and even with all the apps she wants there is still 600 MB free.