I recently formatted my PC, loaded Windows 98SE and now the pc is so slow that it is virtually unuasable. If I click on START, for instance, it takes about 30 seconds for the PC to act on the click. I have to assume it is a hardware problem. The PC is about 5 ½ years old.
Any suggestions would be a great help. :rolleyes:

5 and 1/2 years old sounds like it could be a pentium 2 possibly a pentium 3. I have no experience with AMD so if its AMD i'm not sure what it would be. But depending on much RAM (random access memory) and hard drive space you have I'd go out and buy a copy of XP and install it. XP would run nicely on a Pentium 3. the oldest machine I have put XP on is a Pentium 2 333mhz with 128 megs of ram. It runs great and fast. Its much more stable then 98. Format the drive again, repartion it, and re-install windows. let me know how you make out.

Not the AMD it's the operating system so buggy so old your trying to run news things on it. Dude spend $500 on a new PC or upgrade your OS to WinNT/2000 or XP. Seriously it is time.

I recently formatted my PC, loaded Windows 98SE and now the pc is so slow that it is virtually unuasable. If I click on START, for instance, it takes about 30 seconds for the PC to act on the click. I have to assume it is a hardware problem. The PC is about 5 ½ years old. Any suggestions would be

Jeez you might be right I don't know what to tell you let me the people say what they think I all ready gave you my two cents.

If your system is now slower than it was before it's quite possible you've neglected to load the device drivers it needs.

How much memory and how much disk space is in the system? C'mon, guys... 98SE is not that buggy :rolleyes:

I will get back to you on exact size etc. The PC is not mine but a friends and I forget all the fine details, but I know it has 128mb Ram and PLENTY of free space on the hard drive. I also know it is a Pentium ll. I did extactly the same thing to laptop of my own without the slightest problem. Someone else mentions that I may not have loaded all the drivers and yes, when I could eventually get into the device manager, it did show that there was stuff needed loading, but I was thinking it was modem, scanner drivers etc. I did not pay much heed to them as I intended sorting them once I managed to get the system running at a usable speed.

Suze, the drivers I was particularly referring to are your motherboard chipset drivers, which show up as 'System Devices' in Device Manager.

If your motherboard has a chipset which was released after Windows 98, your Windows installation may be using older, generic drivers to enable the various internal components to communicate with each other, rather than the manufacturer provided ones which are designed to enable that to happen more efficiently. If this is the case, your system performance could be hampered significantly.


If the system you refer to is a 'Name Brand' one such as a Dell, Gateway, Compaq etc, then you need to search the manufacturers website download area for the drivers for your particular model.

If the system is a 'White box' style, assembled locally, then you need to identify the make and model of the motherboard, and obtain the necessary drivers from the motherboard manufacturer's website.

Suze,

128MB is plenty for 98SE, and if there's more than 100MB worth of free space, then it ain't slowing due to a lack of hard drive space. Doesn't sould like you missed too much in terms of device drivers, either. So my questions: what else got installed besides 98SE? Was the speed okay immediately after 98SE was successfully installed, or did it slow down dramatically after something else was installed? How's the hard drive partitioned?

Bob