Windows 98 Ram Issue

[Les9452]

I have been running Windows 98 SE.
When I download files My Ram indicator go to 0 sometimes.
I installed 256 MB of additional RAM to the 256 MB of RAM that I had. This is DDR memory. This helped some but still did not cure the problem.
When Window finishs booting up, the indicator shows that I am using approx. 142 MB of RAM. Is this normal? I have cleaned up the Sartup Files and this is as good as I can get.
Is there a way of seeing what programs are running and possibly see any hidden programs or files that are running?
I am running a AMD Processor with a speed of 1000.
I have a 40 gig, 7200 RPM hard drive that is partioned to 18gig on C Drive, 18 gig on D Drive and the balance on E Drive. I am running 512 MB of DDR Ram.
When I boot up the screen flashes like I may have booted up twice is this possible? Is this the reason for using up approx. 142 MB of Ram while the computer is sitting idle after startup?
Please help me.
Thanks,
Les

 

[cdogg]

Using over 100MB of RAM at startup is not uncommon, even after you've minimized the amount of apps that are loading. When you have 64MB of RAM, for example, your setup might only cause Windows to use 30-40MB. As you add more RAM, you allow Windows to spread out more - more "breathing room" if you will. It's a good thing. Some of the 142MB has been set aside for caching reasons to help speed up simple commands (Start Menu, Windows Explorer indexing files, etc). With only 64MB, there wouldn't be as much cache set aside and the overall performance would be worse.

Resources is what you need to monitor, not the amount of available RAM. Go to "Control Panel -> System -> Performance" to see the % of free resources. You generally want it to be close to or above 90% at startup. Adding more RAM doesn't affect this rating once you have over 128MB.

Also read this article on why large amounts under Windows 9x/ME can actually hurt you:
faq615-2438


~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein