900 Duron 256Ram 20HD Compaq Presario WinME

1.I cannot open my email
'Shelexecute Error on File C/program files/Outlook express the operating system is out of memory.

2.I went to open control panel
'The operating system is out of memory'

As far as i know i have closed all programs,but obviously not.How can i check to see if there are any running in the background.I'm sure just restarting it would work but i've had this 'not enough memory thing a few times' and i'd like to know how to check whats going on .
I never got this with my old pc with only 64 ram.

Thanks in advance
Paul.

 

Ctrl-Alt-Del will bring up the task list same as on W95/98.

How often do you usually reboot? If you leave it on for a long time it could be a "memory leak". An application/task that doesn't release all the memory it's allocated when it ends, so every time you use it the available memory gets less. Always a difficult one to track down.

 

OK...turned it off and all sorted.
However this 'not enough memory thing i've had quite a few times(as above).
I just checked whats ticked on startup

1.Webcamrt.exe
2.Scanregistry
3.Taskmonitor
4.PC health
5.System tray
6.Load Power profile
7.Hidserv
8.CPQEASYACC
9.EACLEAN
10.CPQlnet
11.Digital Dashboard
12.Gearbox
13.Alogserv
14.DXK6patch_981116
15.LV coms
16.Load power profile
17.Statemgr 18.Still image monitor
19.Description of shortcut
21.Adobe Gammer loader.exe
22.Epsom Background Monitor
23.Cal reminder shortcut
24.Microsoft office startup
25.Gearbox first startup


Do all these run in the background and is it safe to uncheck any of them.It does seem a bit of a long list.
Thanks.
Paul.

 

You really shouldn't have all that crap running everytime you start Windows, as most of them will allocate some memory to themselves.

Some of those apps may also leak memory - eg. they'll ask windows for some memory before they begin and don't give back all they've taken when they close down.

Try a process of elimination, systematically getting rid of each program each time you start windows and see if it helps.

 

Numbers 2 3 4 5 6 are Windows bits so ok to leave.

As above try closing some of the others to see if it effects anything. The worst that SHOULD happen is that a couple of bits n bobs work work till you reboot.

If one of these is your virus protection then don't close it.

Once you have worked out which you need and which you don't you can remove them from startup.

 

Increase the size of your virtual memory (pagefile.sys) if you are running Win2000/NT4/XP.
Win98/95 should automatically adjust the size for you, so you may be running low on disk space.


Callum

 

Ok...thanks for the advice.
I'll try unchecking some of the startup apps and see what happens,i'll make a note of what i do.

Thanks
Paul