98SE Tips & Techniques

[azagahl]

>Have you contacted the QDMA author?

Yes, about a year ago. Not very fruitful unfortunately

I'll try again. At least QDMA.SYS works some of the time now; though with only the /L option working, it actually slows things down.

Edit:

QHIMEM.SYS also appears useless. It eats up more memory than HIMEM.SYS, and attempting to use it with UMBPCI.SYS causes an instant crash loading IFSHLP.SYS. Without HIMEM.SYS, UMBPCI.SYS at least waits to your first LOADHIGH/DEVICEHIGH attempt before crashing.

So, basically, NONE of the "Q" programs work as advertised. I can use CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT full of VIDE-CDD, video utilities (e.g. ZENO), NANSI, CTMOUSE, XMSDSK, RECALL, SHSUCD..., SMARTCDX, SBEINIT, TCPIP drivers, DRVSPACE, and it works just fine and loads 98 SE.

Edited June 16, 2006 by azagahl

[KingAuther]

In topic "tweaking W98se".. I discovered that Macromedia software seriously messes up a W98 system...

If you are experiencing lockups and various shutdown irritating glitches, do a Find search for macromedia, and uninstall the whole thing... then do a regedt and destroy search for "macromedia", "shockwave", and "flash".. deleting everything associated with macromedia... careful to not delete flash items which are not macromedia...

Run Registry Mechanic, and CCleaner, Fast Defrag, and Spybot... Do a Registry Mechanic Registry backup and restart...

Run FastDefrag surface scan... (takes a long time)

I'm bets by now all those lockup problems have simply vanished...

It seems Macromedia software is too rough'n tough for little ole W98 systems...

I go through the registry, deleting all the Internet links which I don't want in my machine...

If you are using "Diskeeper".. it seems to seriously slow down these old "waterwheel, and steam and coal powered" W98 PC's.. Uninstal DK, and delete the whole thing from the registry.. and opt for "FastDefrag"...

If you are running "Norton AVS", and/or "ZoneAlarm", and/or anything "Mozilla" (fireFox, SeaMonkey), those three softwares are super, but are not compatable with each other... They'll cause weird glitches that even the experts still don't have names for.. but I sure do... though I am not permitted to publish them in this family forum...

For a super firewall for anything Mozilla you need BlackIce...

________________

To prevent softwares from contacting the Internet on the sly, install the freebee, "Tiny Personal Firewall", and set it to block everything from connecting to the Net.. even itself...

TPF is the first thing I install after a fresh systems reload... I keep it on a floppy...

For every software install, I ripout their links from the registry...

________________

I figure that the major cause of problems with lockups and glitches in W98, is impatient users blitzing the OS with a barrage of commands.. when the first command was too slow to complete... I've seen extremely highstrung users hammering and slamming the keyboards, and key buttons bouncing off things.. though I've never heard of a computer flying out over a highrise balchony yet...

I figure the violence causes "logjams" and lockups, and most likely damages the OS... Give ole W98 a chance to complete its last commands, before angrily hammering and pounding the stuffin' out of the keyboard, and ferrociously clicking, slapping, and slamming, the mouse, till its little mousie ball is bouncing on the floor, and rolling under the desk...

_______________

Make the PC a dream to use.. get yourself a Logitech Marble Mouse.. and a remote keyboard, and for sure a flat monitor... The marble mouse is super for long painfree hours of photo editing... The pen mouse gets you too close to the screen, and causes headaches... The Logitech mouse has "Smart Move" feature, which will tweak and reduce your using the mouse...

_______________

[LLXX]

Strange, I have the whole Macromedia Studio MX 2004 installed and everything works fine... maybe it's just the newer versions?

[eidenk]

Strange I have no problems with Zone Alarm and Mozilla, I have no problems with Diskeeper either.

Obviously the man has a very slow PC as he finds he's got to wait for OS commands to complete.

What are your hardware specs ? And are you sure your Logitech Mouse and cordless keyboard aren't at least partially responsible for those lags ?

As for flat monitor, I certainly prefer CRT ones so far as they are IMO of superior image quality and also much cheaper.

[EAT MY DUST]

I figure that the major cause of problems with lockups and glitches in W98, is impatient users blitzing the OS with a barrage of commands.. when the first command was too slow to complete... I've seen extremely highstrung users hammering and slamming the keyboards, and key buttons bouncing off things.. though I've never heard of a computer flying out over a highrise balchony yet...

I figure the violence causes "logjams" and lockups, and most likely damages the OS... Give ole W98 a chance to complete its last commands, before angrily hammering and pounding the stuffin' out of the keyboard, and ferrociously clicking, slapping, and slamming, the mouse, till its little mousie ball is bouncing on the floor, and rolling under the desk...

I have no glitches or lockups, and 98 runs fast as hell.

Flash runs fine but I can't get my global settings to stay put anymore, I set them to block all junk and then I go back and it's right where it was again.

I have reg mech. 2.01 and window washer 5.0(5.1.0.2) with custom plug-ins for flash.

I have S&D too, I threw my ball mouse aross the parking lot a long time ago.

The facts are, nothing is going to last long these days, that's why I keep a copy of my drive, if things look funny I just format and copy the drive back, works everytime.

I use this Data Lifeguard Tools 11.2 for Windows I don't think it checks for a WD disk, I have maxtors

Edited June 17, 2006 by EAT MY DUST

[KingAuther]

Strange, I have the whole Macromedia Studio MX 2004 installed and everything works fine... maybe it's just the newer versions?

I think you're bang on right about "newer versions"...

The thing is, users see that popup telling them they need to load Shockwave or Flash, and they blindly jump into it, is when all the troubles start... It's obviously the W98 system can't handle the newest versions of macromedia softwares... but what is macromedia anyway?.. Just Ads Ads and more Ads... Who needs Ads in their faces every minute?.. It seems that macrmedia is connected to a few fun video games, to try to make their maxi grand daddy trojan an item people need and want in their machines...

I found after I loaded the drivers CD for my new HP 3 in 1, the first symtom was a much slower PC.. then a couple sudden lockups while the HP had just finished its install.. so I did a registry check, and there it was, with its macromedia tentacles everywhere in my machine again... HP included it in their CD... A couple days ago I wrote HP, asking for a clean bare-bones drivers CD... Haven't heard from them yet...

Surf Windows98 lockups, Windows98se lockups, W98se glitches, w98se shut down problems... That's all macromedia stuff in slower older machines, causing all that grief for thousands of W98 users...

I figure your PC may work fine, but if you tried an experiment, and unloaded all that Macro from your registry, you would find your machine running a lot faster...

Another item that ran me through the ringer, was Defrag-2... It came with a nasty downloads manager that got its tentacles into just about everything in the OS, like nothing else does, seriously slowing down the computer's running speed.. and was a heck of a job cleaning it out...

Thing is W98 machines are slow.. and we are trying squeeze every micro-second out of this system... To give you an idea the speed I've got it now.. SeaMonkey loads in 3.5 seconds... I'd like to make that 2 seconds... I don't know what else to do..?

In topic "tweaking W98se".. I discovered that Macromedia software seriously messes up a W98 system...

If you are experiencing lockups and various shutdown irritating glitches, do a Find search for macromedia, and uninstall the whole thing... then do a regedt and destroy search for "macromedia", "shockwave", and "flash".. deleting everything associated with macromedia... careful to not delete flash items which are not macromedia...

Run Registry Mechanic, and CCleaner, Fast Defrag, and Spybot... Do a Registry Mechanic Registry backup and restart...

Run FastDefrag surface scan... (takes a long time)

I'm bets by now all those lockup problems have simply vanished...

It seems Macromedia software is too rough'n tough for little ole W98 systems...

I go through the registry, deleting all the Internet links which I don't want in my machine...

If you are using "Diskeeper".. it seems to seriously slow down these old "waterwheel, and steam and coal powered" W98 PC's.. Uninstal DK, and delete the whole thing from the registry.. and opt for "FastDefrag"...

If you are running "Norton AVS", and/or "ZoneAlarm", and/or anything "Mozilla" (fireFox, SeaMonkey), those three softwares are super, but are not compatable with each other... They'll cause weird glitches that even the experts still don't have names for.. but I sure do... though I am not permitted to publish them in this family forum...

For a super firewall for anything Mozilla you need BlackIce...

________________

To prevent softwares from contacting the Internet on the sly, install the freebee, "Tiny Personal Firewall", and set it to block everything from connecting to the Net.. even itself...

TPF is the first thing I install after a fresh systems reload... I keep it on a floppy...

For every software install, I ripout their links from the registry...

________________

I figure that the major cause of problems with lockups and glitches in W98, is impatient users blitzing the OS with a barrage of commands.. when the first command was too slow to complete... I've seen extremely highstrung users hammering and slamming the keyboards, and key buttons bouncing off things.. though I've never heard of a computer flying out over a highrise balchony yet...

I figure the violence causes "logjams" and lockups, and most likely damages the OS... Give ole W98 a chance to complete its last commands, before angrily hammering and pounding the stuffin' out of the keyboard, and ferrociously clicking, slapping, and slamming, the mouse, till its little mousie ball is bouncing on the floor, and rolling under the desk...

_______________

Make the PC a dream to use.. get yourself a Logitech Marble Mouse.. and a remote keyboard, and for sure a flat monitor... The marble mouse is super for long painfree hours of photo editing... The pen mouse gets you too close to the screen, and causes headaches... The Logitech mouse has "Smart Move" feature, which will tweak and reduce your using the mouse...

_______________

Edited June 18, 2006 by KingAuther

[KingAuther]

Strange I have no problems with Zone Alarm and Mozilla, I have no problems with Diskeeper either.

Obviously the man has a very slow PC as he finds he's got to wait for OS commands to complete.

What are your hardware specs ? And are you sure your Logitech Mouse and cordless keyboard aren't at least partially responsible for those lags ?

As for flat monitor, I certainly prefer CRT ones so far as they are IMO of superior image quality and also much cheaper.

If you do a serious test to your PC's Internet security, you Will find that ZoneAlarm doesn't protect Mozilla.. you just think it does... Surf: ZoneAlarm Mozilla contradictions... There are only two firewalls that work with Mozilla stuff... BlackIce is the best one, and it doesn't overload the OS...

I did some indepth scruteny into the Logitech stuff... It doesn't mess up anything... plus, it gives you that "Smartmove" option.. plus-two, there's no-more sore wrist, even after hours of photo pixel editing...

This PC doesn't have "lags".. it's running faster than I've ever seen a W98 OS run...

"Flat monitors vs CRT monitors"... I found when I first installed my flat new monitor, a couple months ago, that something big was missing... That blast of magnetic flux wasn't all over my face and head anymore, and it was easier to formulate new flowing thoughts, and easier to get into, and maintain a roll...

I think CRT's and their necessary extremely high voltages is very unhealthy for someone to be that close to all that magnetic flux... Try a flat monitor, and if you are a deep thinker, you'll find that now it's much easier to think at the computer... It'll be like changing from a wreck VW to a Rolls...

I had a little run-in with diskeeper executive software company second in command... his hit to my PC forced me to do a C-format and 15-hour reload.. so I opted for the freebie DK7.. but when I found "Power Defrag" I dumped DK, to find the PC running much faster the moment DK was cleaned out...

PD didn't slow it down in the slightest... If you are running DK.. give PD a try.. you'll be glad you did...

Agian, the whole point in all this is to get these W98 OS's running at tweak peak...

[KingAuther]

"I have no glitches or lockups, and 98 runs fast as hell."

What's your secret?..

"Flash runs fine but I can't get my global settings to stay put anymore, I set them to block all junk and then I go back and it's right where it was again."

Ther yah go... it's got to much control over your PC...

"I have reg mech. 2.01 and window washer 5.0(5.1.0.2) with custom plug-ins for flash."

I have RegMech and PConPoint, and CCleaner.. I dumped WW for good.. it was way too slow, and didn't take out all the crap that Uninstaller and CCleaner does...

"I have S&D too, I threw my ball mouse aross the parking lot a long time ago."

Are you talking "little rubber-ball mouse" or "big red marble-mouse"?..

"The facts are, nothing is going to last long these days..."

When I lived in Vancouver, the Oriental neighbor had a set of hundred year old garden tools... When he was finished using them, he brought out a pail of warm light-soapy water, and cleaned each tool like it was a baby.. then buffed them dry, let them dry in the sun, then applied a light coating of wax to the wood, and oil to the metal, buffed them shiny, and stored them properly... which is why there are still thousand year old tools being used in China today...

The average shovel or rake used in North America lasts about ten years before it is ready for the trash... I've seen neighbor's brand new high-end power mowers last three years before they are set out in the trash at the curb, totally wrecked...

My neighbors switch gears in their vehicles from reverse to forward without giving the system a chance to stop.. and they bang on their computer keys with a vengeance... They have to replace transmissions and computers every three to five years...

"I keep a copy of my drive, if things look funny I just format and copy the drive back, works everytime."

I've been wanting to do that for years... What's your formula?..

"I use this Data Lifeguard Tools 11.2 for Windows I don't think it checks for a WD disk."

Never tried DLT..? Please explain...

Edited June 18, 2006 by KingAuther

[eidenk]

If you do a serious test to your PC's Internet security, you Will find that ZoneAlarm doesn't protect Mozilla.. you just think it does...

I don't get your point here. Mozilla is a web browser for going on the net. A firewal prevents unauthorized apps to go on the internet and certainly you don't want to block your web browser to go on the net, be it Mozilla, IE, Opera or else. I don't use mozilla usually but I have it on my disk so I just ran it and ZA asked me whether I wanted to allow it to access the net or not. What's wrong there ?

This PC doesn't have "lags".. it's running faster than I've ever seen a W98 OS run...

Why do you insist on explaining that people have got to wait for OS command to be processed before hitting the keyboard or mouse again otherwise it may lock up ? That's a problem I have personnally seen arising only on very slow hardware. Or on extremely poorly maintained faster machines maybe.

"Flat monitors vs CRT monitors"... I found when I first installed my flat new monitor, a couple months ago, that something big was missing... That blast of magnetic flux wasn't all over my face and head anymore, and it was easier to formulate new flowing thoughts, and easier to get into, and maintain a roll...

I think CRT's and their necessary extremely high voltages is very unhealthy for someone to be that close to all that magnetic flux... Try a flat monitor, and if you are a deep thinker, you'll find that now it's much easier to think at the computer... It'll be like changing from a wreck VW to a Rolls...

I am sorry to tell you this but there is no blast of magnetic flux all over your face with a CRT monitor. Really there isn't any. If there was any, the screen would attract or repell iron but it does not AFAIK. All a CRT monitor emits is light and maybe a few electrons AFAIK. And IMO, TFT is crap, quality and comfortwise. You must run some additional software layer called clear type if I am correct to be able to read text properly on them. You are also very limited as to how many different resolutions you can use. The angle at which you look at it also affects greatly the readabilty I have noticed. I think a Rolls Royce is actually a good quality 19 or 21 inch CRT and certainly not a TFT. Obviously I'd cope with it if I had a laptop but for a desktop machine, there is no way I will be using a TFT.

"I had a little run-in with diskeeper executive software company second in command... his hit to my PC forced me to do a C-format and 15-hour reload.. so I opted for the freebie DK7.. but when I found "Power Defrag" I dumped DK, to find the PC running much faster the moment DK was cleaned out...

PD didn't slow it down in the slightest... If you are running DK.. give PD a try.. you'll be glad you did...

I am perfectly happy with the copy of DK lite I have installed. It does not and cannot slow down my OS at all as it is not running (nor has it any hidden file running all the time such as dlls or vxds) when I do not defragment. You could maybe explain how it does slow down your OS so much permanently that you need to uninstall it.

Agian, the whole point in all this is to get these W98 OS's running at tweak peak...

Mine does. Well not really, as I have WinME it's WinME that's running super well and fast here.

By the way, if you get headaches with CRTs, it is due to a wrong (too low) refresh rate IMO.

[LLXX]

I figure your PC may work fine, but if you tried an experiment, and unloaded all that Macro from your registry, you would find your machine running a lot faster...

I only have 3 processes running at idle: Explorer, Systray, and Proxomitron. It's not going to get any faster.

I figure that the major cause of problems with lockups and glitches in W98, is impatient users blitzing the OS with a barrage of commands.. when the first command was too slow to complete... I've seen extremely highstrung users hammering and slamming the keyboards, and key buttons bouncing off things.. though I've never heard of a computer flying out over a highrise balchony yet...

I figure the violence causes "logjams" and lockups, and most likely damages the OS... Give ole W98 a chance to complete its last commands, before angrily hammering and pounding the stuffin' out of the keyboard, and ferrociously clicking, slapping, and slamming, the mouse, till its little mousie ball is bouncing on the floor, and rolling under the desk...

There are things called "message queues" in almost every modern OS, ever since win 3.1. Giving it more commands while it's still processing will just cause them to be queued, and processed when the processor is free. BTW, keyboards have (internally) a 16-key typeahead buffer as well. (Some newer keyboards I've tested only have 4 - 8-key buffers... but almost all of the older ones are full-sized)

With regards to CRT vs LCD, I think it's more of a personal preference... all CRTs have a small amount of flicker no matter how high the refresh rate is, just some users are more sensitive to it than others. My own preference is LCD, since the pixels are exactly square and the image is very clear (at recommended resolution, of course). On a CRT, the pixels are more like indistinct blobs. But CRT vs LCD should really go into another thread.

You must run some additional software layer called clear type if I am correct to be able to read text properly on them.

No, "clear type" IMO makes the text *more* blurry, perhaps to make it easier for CRT users that are used to seeing blurry text. I'm using an LCD and the text is as clear as it can get - you can even see the single square pixel that makes up the dot of this "i". Edited June 18, 2006 by LLXX

[KingAuther]

In topic "tweaking W98se"..

A serious error in my post.. "Fast Defrag" should read "Power Defrag"...

"Fast Defrag" comes with a nasty downloads mgr which slows down your PC, nearly takes over your PC, and is a big chore to clean out...

The trial download of Power Defrag does Scandisk, Defrag, Surface Scan, and Registry Backup... Just honest tools from honest people.. without any bs in the install...

Edited June 25, 2006 by KingAuther

[KingAuther]

Quoting: "Here is a tip.. Steer clear of this software: UMBPCI, QDMA, and QCDROM."

Is there tiny chance that the problems you experience in that, might just be software conflicts between those softwares and macromedia, or with any other bad combinations you have in your PC..? given that Macromedia is so knitted and active into the OS.. about as bad as the aforementioned sneaky little downloads mgr...

Is there a software that 100% cleans out an unwanted install's registry set?..

Is there a software to determine if two softwares share conflict?.. like maybe a software that slams them two together, then tests a sensitive chain of commands..? I'd call that "TWEAKING!"...

When is someone gonna build an OS that can be downloaded in blocks off the Net..? ..so the user can build his own system from a thousand possibilities...

We will need this multifaceted OS when we've developed the required inert element plastics to grow PC's, and wear them as skin-grafts, fed by inerts added to the blood...

I figure a multifacet OS could be configured to learn.. and to build software on demand...

I would simply ask the software, "Is there a software that 100% cleans out an unwanted install's registry sets?", and it would work on growing the path..

Is there a software that adds a link symbol, to a sentence, in a letter, at a word, which the symbol link links-to a subheader, with links to pix, descriptions, tangents, and the like... to make creating a thesis informative as possible, and a lot of fun... and reading it even more fun...

["links-to"; verb; therefore "links" & "to" must be combined, to establish the verb properly, in/to comply in the efficient form of the English Language... I propose, "linkths"...]

Still in topic, an OS that grows its own software would probably be about as "tweaked" as it gets...

Still in topic, but a little deeper into the computer OS.. "Extreme tweaks"...

...I was standing in a morning forest... when a small bumble-bee flew in my ear... and got stuck in the bend... and was trying desperately to backout.. each time digging in its now leaking stinger...

I figured, "digging it out with a tiny stick" was not an option... mean time, bug is pushing forward, then backing up and sticking me repeatedly... I needed to tell the bug that it needs to lift up the stinger, hold it up, and then backout... so I spoke it, but it didn't get the message... I had to take it up a notch...

Already it was the worst experience of my whole life... I needed telepathy... but I had to be relaxed to do it... When I closed my eyes, I saw a mental visual of a huge ball of electrical "wool" at my forehead... I had to quiet that huge mess to get relaxed... When I did.. I telepathed to the bee.. "We lift our bum as high as we can.. and hold it up, and backout.".. The bee lifted its bum, and backed out... I had to sit.. My ear feeling like a little fire was roaring inside.. and my face and brain feeling the venom's travel... My spine shooting wicked hot rushes/alternating icy cold chills... Half my face stinging in the veins... and very difficult to hold my head up... A most wicked experience... If you are curious to know they immensity and intensity of it.. stuff a bee in yer ear...

..The physics of that telepathy to the bug is what obsoletes the mouse and keyboard... Now That I'd call real TWEAKING!... which is probably about as tweaked as tweaks get... but then there's more....

I would really like to hear how to make a copy of the HD, to instantly reload, the moment the OS even "hicups"... That alone would be the greatest 21st century efficiency-tweak.. if most everybody could do it quick and easy... like if they could drop in a CD.. and it loads, and makes the necessary HD ghost...

Edited June 25, 2006 by KingAuther

[janus zeal]

I may be wrong, but ive seen LCDs look a heck of a lot better then CRTs.

cleartype is crap, it makes text fuzzy. and lcds are much sharper looking. maybe they dont have a wide viewing angle but i normally dont try to use my computer while sitting next to it. (as opposed to sitting in front of it)

[KingAuther]

Sit in front of a CRT for five years... then try a flat screen.. and suddenly you feel like what ever has been beating you up for five years has finally stopped trying to kill you...

[LLXX]

Is there a software to determine if two softwares share conflict?.. like maybe a software that slams them two together, then tests a sensitive chain of commands..? I'd call that "TWEAKING!"...

That would be the firmware in your brain

When is someone gonna build an OS that can be downloaded in blocks off the Net..? ..so the user can build his own system from a thousand possibilities...

When? In the early 1990s. It's called Linux.

I would simply ask the software, "Is there a software that 100% cleans out an unwanted install's registry sets?", and it would work on growing the path..

Looking for an install monitor? http://www.devhood.com/Tools/tool_details.aspx?tool_id=432 - run it before every installation, and you'll find out exactly what was added to your system.

Is there a software that adds a link symbol, to a sentence, in a letter, at a word, which the symbol link links-to a subheader, with links to pix, descriptions, tangents, and the like... to make creating a thesis informative as possible, and a lot of fun... and reading it even more fun...

["links-to"; verb; therefore "links" & "to" must be combined, to establish the verb properly, in/to comply in the efficient form of the English Language... I propose, "linkts"...]

I have heard of a software like this... "idea diagrammer" or similar.

Still in topic, an OS that grows its own software would probably be about as "tweaked" as it gets...

That wouldn't be an OS anymore, an OS is just a basic provider of services to applications.

I would really like to hear how to make a copy of the HD, to instantly reload, the moment the OS even "hicups"... That alone would be the greatest 21st century efficiency-tweak.. if most everybody could do it quick and easy...

Large RAM disk (actual hardware, not the driver that uses machine's own RAM) and Ghost