98 SE to XP

I know it's recommended to do a clean install of XP, but wouldn't it be OK to upgrade from 98 SE to XP Pro if I didn't have any major problems with my Win98? 98 obviously can't utilize 512 MB RAM and still wants to run out of of resources when I'm trying to do stuff and I'm sick of that 64 kb limitation, but I don't want to go to the trouble of reinstalling all my apps.

 

Saying that there are no major problems and then saying that you run out of resources do not agree. Running out of resources IS a major system wide problem.

Resources have nothing to do with ram.

Resources are control by the number of programs loaded. You can run out of resources just as quick with 512meg of RAM as you can with 128meg.

Things like Norton Anti-Viurs and Internet security alone eat up about 4-6 resources.

I do not think re-installing APPs is going to fix the resource problem. But cutting down on the number of things loading at bootup will.

I'm sick of that 64 kb limitation

What 64k limitation ? That is something that I am not aware of.

We will discuss XP over exixting later. But right now I would say no.

BillyBob

 

The 64 kb limitation that comes with Win98. Win 9x only gives you 64 kb of system resources with the USER.EXE and GDI.EXE programs. The only program that gives me the resource problem is Mozilla, so unfortunately I had to go back to IE because that's not nearly as resource hungry. If I were to go to WinXP, there are no resource limitations and I can take advantage of all the RAM I installed and then I can use Mozilla without fear because that resource leak is only present in Win 9x.

 

Well that is a NEW one on me.

Someone else will ned to deal with that,

But again if you are having resource problems is is due to what is loaded an running in the background. Ot it may be a COMBINATION of things that are loading and conflicting.

I always found resource problems to be user created.

The biggest problem I ever had with 98SE was IRQ conflicts. ( until I got rid of an Internal Modem )

Have you tried using MSCONFIG and shutting down some things that are loading ? All that is really needed it Explore and SYSTRAY.

When I was still using SE I had 85 to 90+ resourecs available depending on what I allowed to load at bootup. 82 to 88 before I unloaded NAV & NIS.

BillyBob

 

The only things I allow to run at startup are my antivirus (EZantivirus) and my firewall (Kerio). The only program that gives me a resource leak is Mozilla, which has the problem with Win 9x. It's a well documented bug. I was hoping if I went to XP I could use it without fear of a leak.

 

OK. Now we are getting ot the bottom of the problem. Looks like it is a PROGRAM problem and not WIndows.

If you have NO OTHER PROBLEMS with anything other than that one program, It MIGHT BE ( always a gamble ) OK to put XP over SE.

But I would make VERY SURE that Mozilla was cleaned out of the system first.

I myself did but XP overtop of SE. But I had not problems ( and had not had for at least 6-8 months.

As to Mozilla and XP. That will been to come from someone that has that Combo.

As for myself I find XP to be no better than 98SE. Not a bit. But I had to go for it as newer stuff id being designed for XP.

BillyBob

 

A friend of mine has a PC that's a Celeron 991 MHz and 128 MB RAM and it runs XP great. XP can take full advantage of a machine's hardware whereas Win98 is limited by those stupid system resource files. XP doesn't even use those. It uses the machine's hardware in an intelligent way. I want to be able to have my web browser, MP3 player, email program and both instant messengers all running at the same time and not have any problems whatsoever. I usually don't have these in 98 except when spyware gets introduced to my machine. Other than that it runs exceedingly well. However my problem with Mozilla has gotten steadily worse. I used to be able to run it for a couple hours with no problems, but recently if I have it running at the same time as my instant messengers it gets unstable quicker and the icons go black so I'm assuming Mozilla likes to eat at the graphical resources and doesn't like to play nice with my instant messengers. If I had XP this wouldn't be a problem.

 

I myself can not say that. I NEVER had any problems with RAM, resources, hardware or software in 95, 98 or 98SE.

And the more you write the more I see the whole problem being realted to Mozilla and/or Messenger or the combination or the two at the same time. Which BTW. SE does have a problem with two things at once.

Or somthing esle that may be also running that you may not be aware of.

In fact in SE if I run brogram A before B than I got ptoblems. But if I run B before A then no problems. Same in XP. That is software problems not Windows.

But what ever you do I would suggest that you do not get the Idea that you will not have any of these problems in XP. There may be less chance but it can happen.

XP is not a cureall/fixall.

BillyBob

 

shawdowhawk

Netscape 7.1 and it's date release equivalent Mozilla have problems with resources. Understand there are two problems to these issues. Main memory was commited with no user overide interface. In addition, they also had "resource leak ". Due to poorly written code, little bits of memory are "committed" to a program process from this 64kb allocated memory (w9x's/ME only). After the process is completed they are not properly "returned/released" to this reserved memory pool (rebooting is generally required to get it back). XP is not as susceptible to this situation, but can not escape poorly written code (some XP's were locking up/slowing down with N7.1). Now I am under the impression these problems have been resolved in the current Mozilla 1.5 RC1 release.
With all of this said, if your hardware / drivers are all up to XP's demands... go to XP. As far as not doing a clean install, that is your decision. If it was mine, it would be clean... problems come by themselves, no need in creating them.

 

Dennis L

Thank you for the confirmation of my thoughts about XP and poorly written code.

That is why I had to run program B before A. And most of the time I did have to restart to get everything back in order. BTW program A has taken a permanent leave of absence.

The problem that shadowhawk is having is 3rd party software. Not Windows.

BillyBob

 

shadowhawk,

I run Mozilla 1.5b because the Resource Leak has been addressed in this Release. Why don't you give it a try before taking any extreme OS measures. In fact 1.5 RC1 is out now, and you may want to give it a try:
Mozilla .org - Releases
1.5RC1 Release Notes

Lots of good things going with Mozilla...

However, if you want to stay with Mozilla 1.4, then use the workaround on this page: Resource Leak Altho this is for Netscape 7.1, both Mozilla 1.4 and NS 7.1 have the same Gecko engine.

Workaround for Resource Leak:

Clear the Location Bar, then type in: about:config
Scroll down, and look for: browser.cache.memory.capacity
It shouldn't be there, but if it IS:
Right click, select: "Modify ", and change to 1024

If the preference isn't there:
Right click anywhere on the page, pick NEW, pick INTEGER, type in:
browser.cache.memory.capacity - click OK
In the next window: type in 1024 - click OK
Restart Netscape

This should eliminate your resource leak. This is what I use with Netscape 7.1, and it worked just fine in Windows 98SE.


Ramona

 

I'll get the new version only when it's an official release. I'm very skittish about beta programs on my computer. Have you tested the new one? Does it totally have no leak problems at all? Can you run it alongside your instant messengers with no graphics problems?

edit: I applied the fix you mentioned and will see how it goes when I'm runnning this browser alongside my instant messengers.

 

shadowhawk,

I understand your reluctance to install a Beta program. I've been running 1.5b since 8/27, the day it came out. It is my default browser and Mail program, and have had no problems. There is NO resource leak. Right now, my GDI is 83%, System and User 71%. This is pretty much the norm, and I have 14 tabs open. Now if I have been running 12 hours, then resources may drop to 67-68% and GDI in the high 70's. I don't use any instant messengers, so can't give you any info in that area.

Let us know on the Mozilla Forum, how it goes with the workaround... Hope Pete, Newt, and Bursley, don't mind that we strayed a bit off topic.

Ramona

 

I'll post anything else that comes up in the Netscape forum. I really love Mozilla because of the popup blocker and how it fills in forms for me and lets me block images I don't like.