[Slay]

I have Windows 98se and in my resources it says my memory is running at 48%. I have used msconfig and unchecked any unwanted Items and I have also ran spybot and fixed any spyware running in the back round. I have looked threw my regedit and deleted everything in run & runservices.
I have also taken out winamp and nothing seems to work. I am still running at 48%. If I try to use nero it fails due to lack of memory. I am also having problems when I do a restart it just locks up. I have downloaded the patch that fixes it and it still does it. I have also updated my nortan anti virus and did a system check. It came up with backdoor/sub7 trojan horse and I did everything I could find to nuke it, but everything it told me to do I couldn't find the horse. Its not in the system.Ini, win.ini, and registry. I have ran scandisk and it came up with no problems and I did a defrag.I ran the antivirus again and it didn't come up with the horse, so I figure that was taken care of. I do get a SB emmulation driver not loading ( I know this is the sound blaster sound card) and I did the new driver update but that didn't repair it either. So my question is, Do you think its a software issue or hardware? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Also I did do a dirty install on windows to. Thanks for any help, Slay.

[Silver-Dagger]

Good Job at explaining what is going on and what you have done. Just have a couple of questions...
How much RAM do you have?
Is your page file set for windows to handle?
How much free space do you have on your C: drive?

[Slay]

Quote:

Good Job at explaining what is going on and what you have done. Just have a couple of questions...
How much RAM do you have?
Is your page file set for windows to handle?
How much free space do you have on your C: drive?

Thanks,
On the ram I have 512 MB of PC-133
Is your page file set for windows to handle? Im sorry but I dont know what that means.
I have two hard drives, The first is a 30GB and it has 3Gb free (This is the one that has two OS's on it.) The second is 120 GB with 90 Gb free.

Im sorry I forgot to say that I do a dual boot with 98se and 2000.
Thanks again for any help, Slay.

[CyberGenX]

Being a hobbist coder I know of a way to make programs run in the background undetected. A few people use these methods to write ugly code like the suB7 and other advanced screWare I'm sure. 9.x is a crap OS when it comes to control, have you ever considered at least moving to XP or 2000? The fact that you did an overlay install doesn't ever help the situation, 9.x pretty much treats it as an upgrade(downgrade) and keeps a lot of your old registry settings.

[CyberGenX]

Did you check the HKEY_CURRENT_USER AND HKEY_USERS .....Sections of the registry?

[Slay]

Yeah I know 98se is crap but I need it right now since I am going to take my A+ test's soon and It goes threw alot of 98. 2000 and Xp are going to be the only one's in when Im done with the test's.

Yes I have checked all of my HKEY_local machine and all the other ones. I got a couple of way's to delete the sub7, but every where I looked (as they told me) I couldn't find the value string in the registry they said was associated with the sub7. Again I checked the win.Ini and the system.INI files and they were all clear too. The only reason I did a dirty install was I was getting need to re-install windows explorer.exe was not found. I tried to re-install it but I couln't get it to work, So I did a dirty install.

[CyberGenX]

Oh I see. 512MB is supposed to be the limit for 9.x Oses. And from what I have seen, similar to your problem, 512 is an issue on occasion. Who knows what is causing your case.

Did it ever work? Or better yet, when did this Start happening?

[ReadError]

I think the limit of RAM for 9x is lower than that, but I'm not sure. You should try to increase the size of the swapfile.

[CyberGenX]

Here are a few releated KB links

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;253912&Product=w98

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;311871&Product=w98

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304943&Product=w98

[Slay]

I am starting to think maybe its a swap file issue. I have the 30gb hard drive and I have 2.3 gig's left on it. I am wondering now if there isnt enough room on my hard drive? I dont know, worth a try though since I am running out of options fast.

[Don__1]

You tested your system and found sub7 or similar and then tried to remove it but couldn't find it ?

If you check your system now does it stiil say that you have a trojan ?

If you only have 48% resources free then you still have something running that shouldn't be.

Report back here.

[ViolentGreen]

Quote:

I am starting to think maybe its a swap file issue. I have the 30gb hard drive and I have 2.3 gig's left on it. I am wondering now if there isnt enough room on my hard drive? I dont know, worth a try though since I am running out of options fast.

That should be more then enough room for 98. 12 GB drives were very common in OEM machines with 98. 2.3 GB should be fine.

[Kriscoast]

I rebuild computers as a hobby, there are a couple things you can do. One thing you might want to do if you still have the windows disk is reinstall windows. But first (and you might not like it) is to make a startup disk and boot your computer with the disk. Then select boot with cdrom support. MAKE SURE you have the windows CD and you have your ID key. If you cant find the key, it is located in the registry. type FDISK at the command prompt. (A:\>FDISK) then select delete partition on C:\ Then create a new primary dos partition. (will erase all data including the virus and spyware. At the prompt type Format C:
(A:\>FORMAT C:) it will ask you are you sure say yes. Then reinstall windows after that. You will start off fresh.
The trojin horse you said about could have been programmed to change its name or copy itself to a diffrent file name. Some viruses are very difficult to deal with even with top Anti-virus software. The best way to ensure protection and complete elimination is to partition and reformat C:\ then reinstall windows.

Note on spyware- some spyware removal especially the free software may add in its own spyware even after removing current spyware. The best software should be bought at a retail store and not on the internet. (or downloded)

It is possible that your ram chip is damaged too. You could replace it easyly. But would always try fixing the software before fixing the hardware. Most computer problems are software related. A ram chip can be replaced at a very low price. (I have my own collection of ram chips from broken down computers) If this dosent solve your ploblem i would take the system to a professional.