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I just recently purchased a new Compaq Pentium 4 1.4 Ghz machine that was advertised as "Blazing speed and reliability" It runs Windows ME.
My first problem was major system slowdows (my machine came with 128 Megs or RAM which I upgraded to 512) and running my "System Monitor" showed me with only about 60 Megs available. This number drops from the high 300's down the longer I am using the machine. If I use the internet very much, I stall out completely after about an hour, and have to reboot.
Tech support at Compaq had me tweak some "Startup" programs and remove them from my startup - this makes the machine boot up faster, but not run faster in the long run. Since the machine functions, Compaq refuses to replace, and the store refuses to accept a return after 15 days.
I wouldn't be so ticked off about this except for the fact that my four year old Gateway 2000 Pentium I - 133Mhz machine zips by this new "Speedster" like it's a turtle.
There are no Win95 drivers for my system available-does anyone know if this is a Windows ME problem - and if so, are there any fixes for them?
Uscdoc: I don't know what problems may be creeping up on you with the computer. I have a friend who bought one, and hers is doing the exact same thing! I have reduced her start ups, deleted alot of registry entries from her constant downloading and deleting improperly, optimized her registry and on and on.
The only thing I can do, if no one can help you here, is point you to quadracalc . You can ask the web site owner for info and you may want to read his article on Compaq Computers also.
My Gateway Performance 500 PIII runs millions of circles around hers, while it tries to decide to load any window or program, so I know where your coming from there. I'm sure that I'm going to have to format her machine soon, and wanted to see what I was getting into doing this from Wayne at Quadracalc. He is very knowledgable and helpful and is also a educator in the computer science area.
Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces people into thinking they can't lose. -Bill Gates
the proprietary trap sucks, there needs to be open public recognition of these problems, Everyone rips on IBM or Packard bell, but i've had both, somewhat limited but i've been able to upgrade almost everything.
I'm running a clean install of ME on the Pack bell, but it is not something to be approached by someone who is not ready to mess with it some. Hopefully your p4 as i think many Compac pc's now has an external video card. My Compaq laptop i was also to get running on a clean install, but be prepared for long hours searching for drivers. Search for Compaq user bulletin boards, you may find some links to proprietary drivers.
One thing you may try is to remove some of the RAM, get yourself down to 256, ME doesn't perform well with over 256.
One thing you might try would be a memory cleaner program, the one from AnologX works very well and is free. This will flush the RAM.
Set your Virtual Memory Max and MIN to 256, this will also help
speaking of lightning strikes, that actually happened to me. blew out my cable modem, tv (which was brand new at the time),and a whole bunch of other appliances. including my computer. i didnt know it at first, but after a while during boot up i would hear thunder come out of my speakers!! no lie! it was rumbling thunder coming out during boot up! but i couldnt find anything else wrong with it. then my programs starting closing w/o notice. so i finally went and did a reformat with my compaq disks. thank goodness for those. now ive upgraded a lot and everything works great. just so long as i dont get hit again!
