Computer Freeze

[boxes100]

When I am using Xara and also PS6 my computer freezes from time to time, especially when I have a large amount of graphics on screen.

Does anyboy know if this is a fault of Win98 (which I am using) or if my graphics card is low on memory?

I have a AMD 256k memory computer but think there's a pretty ordinary graphics card in there. I would be prepared to upgrade my graphics card if this is the problem but don't want to outlay the money if Win98 is the problem.

If I need to upgrade the card, any suggestions as to what I need please? I don't need it to play games, just for my graphics programs.

Thanks all. J

[boxes100]

When I am using Xara and also PS6 my computer freezes from time to time, especially when I have a large amount of graphics on screen.

Does anyboy know if this is a fault of Win98 (which I am using) or if my graphics card is low on memory?

I have a AMD 256k memory computer but think there's a pretty ordinary graphics card in there. I would be prepared to upgrade my graphics card if this is the problem but don't want to outlay the money if Win98 is the problem.

If I need to upgrade the card, any suggestions as to what I need please? I don't need it to play games, just for my graphics programs.

Thanks all. J

[michaelward]

It's a difficult thing to judge, as performance bottlenecks can be in many different areas of your system.

How does your PC react when it freezes? Is there a lot of Hard Disk activity?

If there is, then it's likely that the problem is you don't have enough system RAM. You PC will then use your hard disk as temporary storage. For heavy duty graphics work, you should get at least 512mb of RAM.

If there is little hard disk activity whilst it freezes, then you could have two problems. It could either be a software problem or your processor is not fast enough (or both). I would reccomend that you upgrade to either Windows 2000 or Windows XP, as both handle memory and processor tasks much more efficiently than Windows 98 and are much more stable.

I wouldn't think your Graphics card would be the problem, though you would benefit from having a card with a high 2D graphics speed.



Michael Ward
http://www.metalandplastics.co.uk
http://www.leighcenturions.net

[gwpriester]

Certain operations are very resource intensive and can bring your computer to its knees gasping for air.

Having two applications at one time can also be a drain on system resources.

It does not really matter how much RAM you have because as an application is open, the system resources slowly drain away until sometimes when they get dangerously low, the application crashes.

I noticed that even though I have a pretty new machine running under Windows XP at 1.8GHz and 256MB of RAM and 64MB on my graphics card, that certain operations in Xara are slower than on my old computer which was 3 years older and running under Win 98.

So the short answer is, who knows??? :-)

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>


XaraXone

[ED]

Please provide two pieaces of info.

1. What are your system resources right after your boot and/or start up your computer. Right click on My Computer icon and choose Properties then choose the Performance tab. What do you see for %free?

2. Now load Xara and PS and do the same and tell me what your see for System Resources %free.

I'll be back!

The BEST is good enough!

[Gaussian]

Bios version, bios settings, AGP driver, video driver, DirectX version, operating system, motherboard, hardware failure etc etc, they can all cause problems with your graphics card. The changes that a correctly configured well functioning graphics card is crashing your system with 2D programs like Xara X and Photoshop running are quite small.
I would advise you to download at least the latest video drivers and direct x version. Another option would be to try this card in another Windows 98 machine. It’s important to localize the problem and these are just some ways to do it and I had great success with them in my 15 years at work as IT specialist.

To Gary: if some operations in Xara X are faster on your 3 years older machine, then there must be something wrong with your hard- and software.
So which operations are slower on your newer machine?

[RAMWolff44]

I myself don't have that problem any longer. I upgraded from Win98 to Win2000.

I know that may not be an option but it may help you.

Also, the video card is not always the culprit. I have a NEW Matrox G550, I have Service Pack 2 installed and most of my dll's are registered. It's just a Microsoft thing. Swap files should be implimented and RAM should only be accessed as a last resort. It's the other way around in the Windows platform it seems.

If I run PhotoPaint and XaraX at the same time and am on line checking E-Mails all at the same time I get freezes or a slow down of the system that is close enough to a freeze. So I make sure I run only **1** resource intensive applcation at a time.

Can't wait for a new Mandrake release. I know they just released 8.2 but I want KDE 3.X included not KDE 2.X included and I think I can get a copy of PhotoPaint for Linux from a friend and see how that works. Some say you can have 20 apps open at the same time with NO noticeable slow down of the system and if one crashes the system stays stable. That was the case SOMETIMES when I was running linux a year or so ago. But Windows wins hands down on apps. So it's a toss up. I know I will never give up Windows as long as I am using XaraX [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

RAMWolff [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[mckinney]

One feature of the Windows NT/2000/XP windows lineage that I have grown fond of is the "processes" tab in the task manager. The process viewer shows you all currently running processes and gives an estimate of the percent of CPU time occupied by each. It also allows one to sort the list by CPU time, so it is easy to spot programs or processes that hog CPU cycles.

While to the best of my knowledge Windows 98 does not include such a feature out of the box, you can get programs that will accomplish essentially the same thing. I used one a while back, but can't remember which one, so I'll list three here:

A command-line tool which may already be on your system is called "Wintop". You can check for it by clicking on Start / Run and then typing wintop. If it's not there, then you can get it from Microsoft's Windows 95 Kernel Toys Set. Wintop is apparently the only tool in the set that is compatible with Windows 98.

A second free option is the "Win9x / ME Task Manager" from http://www.coralsoftware.com/, which has a GUI that looks nearly identical to the Win NT/2000/XP tool. This may be the one that I used.

A third and supposedly very nice tool is the shareware program TaskInfo2002, available from http://www.iarsn.com/.

Good luck in solving your computer problems!

- Pete