Hi LandSurvey,
Windows 98 is a poor operating system for AutoCAD 14. Your best bet is to switch to WindowsNT. If you're dead set against this, at least move to Windows 98 Second Edition. Finally, when it comes to working with AutoCAD, its usually never a question of "if" you have to reinstall AutoCAD its usually a question of "when". By reinstalling, I mean rebuilding the whole machine, from the operating system up.
A couple of things that may or may not prolong times between rebuild periods:
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[li]Direct AutoCAD to swap files in its own directory, I usually setup a directory directly underneath the AutoCAD install directory (called AcadTemp) and this is where I tell AutoCAD to create all swap files, temporary files, autosaves and temporary xref copies. This prevents AutoCAD from "bumping heads" with the operating systems swap files.[/li]
[li]In the options/preferences dialog box, change your Incremental Save Percentage to 0. This forces AutoCAD to perform a complete file recalculation (instead of just appending the changes to the file) - it's slower when saving, but lessens the likelyhood of corrupting files.[/li]
[li]If you don't already have one, purchase something like Norton Utilities or Speed Disk to keep your hard drive optimized.[/li]
[li]On NT, set your page file size to 3 times the amount of RAM you have (I'm not sure if this can be done on 98 or not), but you'll see not only a slight improvement in performance, but you'll see AutoCAD will become better behaved.[/li]
[li]Stay on top of temporary files especially in the system temp directory - do not let this directory become too full - delete files in this directory every so often and then reboot the machine. Once the OS starts having a hard time swapping files, AutoCAD has even more trouble, is more likely to corrupt drawing files.[/li]
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HTH
Todd
