Toshiba laptop runs v-e-r-y slow

[Hans_Christian]

I wasnt quite sure wether to put this in the "hardware", "software" or "Windows" fora, but hopefully i will not have to enter it into  the "unknown" forum.
I have a Toshiba Satellite 2610 CDT laptop, with 64 MB ram, an Intel Celeron 433 Mhz processor. It runs on Windows 98 Second Edition. It is an old lady, and i have had a love-hate relationship with her, since i got her, but i am sentimental and a poor student, so i would really appreciate any help. Ever since i got the machine, it has been running slow, in the beginning it always froze on startup, i had to give it "the threefinger salute" ( CTRL+ALT+DEL), which almost never works on it, and then restart it with a ballpen. I learned how to remove unnessecary programs from the startup, and that facilitated the startup procedure. Then it just started crashing at any time, but not particularly on startup, and it was sloooww... I have always been carefull about removing temp. files,  running scan.disk and defragmenting, without any apparent effect, anything, absolutely anything i on it takes much much longer than it should. About two years ago it got Internet, first a 56 kbps modem, and then adsl, it doesnt run anymore slowly on the Internet, but it crashes much more frequently, actually, it  is usually quite well behaved, when i just use a text processing program on  it - i have an exellent program called Star Office 7, wich runs smoothly, as long as i stay off the Internet, so my initial problems of absolutely random crashes is gone. About every other month the crashes on the Internet become so frequent that the machine is absolutely useless, and i have to re-install Windows 98, but strangely it had been running smoothly for allmost half a year, or as smoothly as it could, untill the other day, when i suddenly got a message about a "stack overflow". I could only enter Windows in safe mode, and i had to re-install. Then, all *censored* broke loose. I get the message on startup, that REM386 is not installed, i dont understand this, because i can find it on C drive; i am then asked to press any button, but i moves on whether i do that or not, then i am told that there i an error in config.sys, on line 17; i checked, there is no line 17, but i had tried to edit the stack number and size, in sysedit, upon getting a blue screen with an error message again and again,  apparently to no awail, so that may be the reason for that; i know absolutely nothing about how to do anything in DOS, so please, if you reply with DOS advice, put it in plain English. There i am now, and i really dont know what to do, so any help will be greatly appreciated

[Computer Hope Admin]

I get the message on startup, that REM386 is not installed

It is likely the file the computer is referring to is EMM386.EXE, this file should be in the Windows directory.

there i an error in config.sys, on line 17

Make sure you are looking at the correct config.sys file. To help verify this you can click Start / Run / Type sysedit and press enter. This will open the System Configuration Editor and you can verify the lines in the config.sys.

Reguarding the random crashes, slow computer, etc. Unfortunately these issues are difficult to troubleshoot without having the exact error and because they are random. However, running through the below Windows 98 basic troubleshooting steps will commonly enable you to locate problems with your computer as well as help resolve issues.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chwin98.htm

We would especially recommend that you have all the Windows updates on the computer.

Appart from these recommendations, unless other users have additional recommendations if you are unable to resolve your issues it may be best to erase your computer and reinstall Windows and your software again to get a fresh copy of all your software.

[Hans Christian Rasmussen]

Dear Administrator

Thank you so much for your kind reply. The day before yesterday, i performed the monthly routine hard drive defragmentation, so the problem with  the REM 386, and the error in the nonexistent "line seventeen", doesnt exist anymore, so at least those details are taken care off, and my computer is up and crashing again.  Unfortunately, Windows 98 is now in " the extended support phase", as Microsoft so charmingly puts it, ie. no support and no updates again ever. I realise that it is hard to give specific advice on the kind of problems i have, which is why i gave exact information on the systems specifications, but as the problems are random, it is offcourse difficult to give just one answer, but my point is; dont you think it is entirely possible that i may be a hardware problem, f.instance heat related? My point is, whenever i have a fresh Windows 98 on it, there is temporary relief, for example i am writing this on it, and i hasnt crashed once while i have  been doing that.

Yours sincerely Hans Christian

[Pete]

Just a couple of things come to mind.........BIOS and re-installing windows after using FDISK, bear with me and I'll explain.

I'm not sure if it's easy/possible (on a laptop) to reset the BIOS/CMOS by temporarily switching the jumpers.  Then using a start up disk and FDISK to delete any old partition, make a fresh one, format the HDD and install Windows.

Could it be possible that you have registry errors or lots of spyware.  There are a number of programs available to search and destory spyware.

[size=13] "Don't mess with the system registry unless you know what you are doing!" [/size]

I hope this helps
Regards
Pete