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Memory leakage appears to be a problem, too.
About five or six times a day to re-boot is normal and I've come to accept it as a fact of computer life.
Am I getting off lightly, or do you have the same problem?
server - I don't try out new kernels so often. Not in the past 163 days, it seems, which is roughly how long I've lived here :)
Win2k box at work - I used to have to reboot it at least once, sometimes twice a day. (Work days are only four hours, not eight.) Now I shut it off when I leave and power it on again when I get in, and sometimes have to re-boot in the middle. It doesn't blue-screen, it just becomes so dog-slow that I don't see any result from a click for a full minute, and then it only *starts* rendering any change to the display. It might take a full five to bring a window to the top. If aynone else used the machine before I got in, I might as well reboot it before I bother logging in.
Can you please tell us wich browser is default for you?
I do shut my computer down though, electricity is expensive in California these days.
[edited by: littleman at 6:37 pm (utc) on Nov. 15, 2002]
But moving over your favourite programs (and e-commerce site/software) from Win 98 is an experience that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy - but if you can afford the private mental health aftercare - go for it!
For heaven's sake though, keep at least one 98/ME computer running - you'll need it to find the fixes on the INet
solved many of my problems.
(I have no affiliation whatsoever - it is a superb resource)
Go to a microsoft.public.relevant
newsgroup.
I run Win98 SE and it crashes like 3-4 times a year.
IE locks up sometimes but when i kill Explorer every browser window closes and all is fine again..
My machine stays on 16 hours a day and I restart only occasionly when needed to install software.
-Jon
-workstations: 2 total freezes in 4 years [and dunno if that was a software or hardware issue :)]
-server: 0 crashes/freezes/forced-reboots in 4 years.
cminblues
I run Linux (since kernel 0.99pl14) and I've been lucky - I just wish my Linux server at work was that stable, it's suffering from some kind of weird bug involving netatalk and an ethernet card driver.
Have you actually *installed* anything on your computer in the last ten years?
Do you keep it in the attic?
lawman
Under windows 98 / 2000 there are bugs with uninstalling software, which can render your system unstable.
Basically, if the creater of your software has done a good job of the installation (which actually requires knowledge and experience even when using installshield express), the uninstall facility should be ok. If not, well you know the rest......
Ingredients for a stable system:
1) Only EVER install software from a major reputable company
2) Even so, do not uninstall if you can help it
3) Always shut your machine down properly
When you purchase a PC, after installing your core applications do a backup (disk to disk with Norton ghost is best) - then you have stable environment which you can fall back on (have you noticed that systems are almost always totally stable until you've had them for a while).
Oh, and always do a backup BEFORE installing major microsoft system updates. These can cause horrendous problems, due to additional software which you have installed on your PC.
If your system is currently frequently bluescreening, I recommend you do the same as me - rebuild from scratch!
Have fun :)
at work with Win 2k...I've had to reboot around 5 times in the 9 months I've had the workstation...3 due to Easy CD Creator...2 due to badly set up web sites
Martinibuster is right - do the msconfig and empty your sys-tray at startup (non-esentials only of course), especially the MS Office Startup - it really robs resourses.
I also find cleaning out the RAM with the three-finger-salute after a lot of printing or other hardware related activities helps keep it stable and fast.
However, I have run across a clone that's running Win2K. I know there are issues about using hardware that is not supported. I'm still not sure if this is any hardware<==>software issue, but this thing just freezes about twice/day. I'm willing to bet it's the hardware. AMD processor.
Overall, with the advent of Win2K and XP, looks like BSOD is becoming less prevalent, even though there are a lot of security issues that haven't been taken care of.
I'll use the MS products here, but I still will only have my sites hosted on Unix/Linux servers.
FOO Charter:Posting Topics:
Miscellaneous topics (Especially computer and Internet-related!) not covered in other WebmasterWorld forums. A virtual back-corner cafe table for general net shop talk with fellow members.
Sometimes we even talk about whether frozen beer is ok to drink. :)
lawman
Virtually NEVER locks up. Maybe twice in three months. Never seen the blue screen though.
If you're dealing with that kind of mess, definitely plop down the $199, spend an afternoon, and upgrade to XP. It's worth the time and money.
Usually it is a memory problem, not a blue screen. In Windows 98, it was caused by MS Word and by IE. On Millenium, it's caused by IE I believe, because not using Word very much.
But there is a much more annoying thing which is sooner or later going to make me bite the bullet and port everything over to Linux: every 10th "get" or so, IE goes into hibernation and does nothing for 30-90 seconds. It's not busy chatting on the network or downloading pages or anything ... the little network icon sits patiently with no blinking lights. Then, the lights finally start blinking and the page loads. I have probably already lost more productive time than if I had taken the day or two to move everything to Linux!
I used to use NT 4.0 and it was rock solid... so I suspect Win 2K is as well.
Fair enough, last rebuild from scratch was about 5 months ago. So I'd go along with shady's advice.
if you don't need it, don't install it.
if you do need it, make sure you have a clean system backup from before the install.
clean up manually after uninstalls. the amount of garbage some of these programs leave behind in the registry is shameful.
