and other Windows98 stuff...
I've been chasing some instability issues in my PIII Windows98 system. Some
of the instabilities were showing up as strange operation in Writelog.
Here's what I've learned so far.
I had installed Norton SystemWorks on my system. The SpeedDisk defragmenter
puts up a pretty picture, but there's some underlying problem that caused it
(my system at least) to not fully defragment a number of commonly invoked
programs and files. I think there is an interaction between Microsoft's
optimizer which collects it's info in the Windows\Applog directory, and
SpeedDisk. Turning off speed disk and running the Microsoft Defragmenter
brought the level of defragmentation of those frequently used files back to
a more normal level. (Speed Disk is good for letting you look at the
fragmentation level of individual files). I started seeing strange symptoms
in Writelog such as the modem dialer getting invoked about half the time
that I opened Writelog with my normal daily log. Haven't seen that in the
last couple of days. Other symptoms included loss of the ability to sort a
large database that had been working ok, and loss of ability to
modify/delete entries in my DayTimer program. Again, normal operation
returned following the switch back to the Microsoft defragmenter.
So, run defragmenter regularly, just like they say. Set up the scheduler to
do it automatically along with scandisk.
I would also suggest that you run the System File Verification program from
within the System Information program. It can show you which Windows files
have been replaced by other versions which may be older than what came on
the OS CD. It will also identify missing system files, and those that have
been corrupted.
I've seen a few postings concerning parts of Writelog that don't work for
some but do for most of us. I suspect that some system housekeeping might
improve things.
This is what has worked for me to lessen some frustration, hope it helps
you. And, I hope this post isn't too far afield from the major topic...
73 Bruce W1CSM
--
WWW: http://www.contesting.com/writelog
Submissions: writelog@contesting.com
Administrative requests: writelog-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-writelog@contesting.com
|