I'm running win98se on a 475 amd k6 which had 64mb ram. I recently reformatted and for the last couple of weeks my system has been running reeeeaally slow (ie you have to wait for the mouse to get from one side of the screen to the other). I downloaded RAMIdle Pro which was telling me my system was going down to about 2mb free ram. Thinking there may be something wrong with my memory module, I have just purchased another 64mb to go alongside. When I boot up I am told 128mb is installed and after Nortons, Zonealarm etc have all loaded up I am running with around 80-90mb free. Trouble is, as I continue to use the PC the free RAM is continually decreasing. Tonight I have only been browsing and I'm now down to 8mb free and I've only one screen open. Anybody any ideas?

Mr G, this could be a few things...

Firstly Norton products tend to be very resource hungry but wouldn't be using the amounts you mention. A good place to start is searching for spyware on your system, You have recently formatted so this probbably isn't it but is always worth a try. Do a google search and download these pieces of software...

AdAware 6
Spybot Search and Destroy
HighJackThis

Then report back

OK, I've downloaded all 3 items and ran all 3. All came up with a few things but mostly tended to be tracking cookies. If you need me to mail the results please let me know.

One thing I have noticed tonight whilst working on somebody elses system is that, via a report from Belarc advisor, their system says:-
Processor 400 megahertz AMD K6-2 w/3DNow!
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache

whereas mine only says:
Processor 467 megahertz AMD K6-2 w/3DNow!
16 kilobyte primary memory cache

Could the memory cache have anything to do with my problems?

Thanks in advance

Yep, it will cause your system to run real slow.

Check your BIOS and see if its still 'enabled' ... if so, 'disable it', if you see no difference in performance then I would suggest you "test" the CPU in another system if possible.

If you've just reformatted your system i'd take a guess that its the MS Blast worm, this play havoc with your memory (i speak from experience, grr). However i'm not sure this worm affects 98SE, anyone know?

No 98 is not affected. :spin:

I've checked the BIOS and tried the external cache both ways but it hasn't seemed to make any difference. As for testing my CPU elsewhere, I think I'll have to give that one a miss as it's a task beyond my PC knowledge but thanks for the advice all the same.