System Crashes A Fact of Life.

This is a problem that plagues us all, but with proper care, you can stop most all of them.  

There are three reasons for most system crashes/lock ups.
Not enough memory, disk space, or understanding.

How Your Memory Works.

Windows manages your memory for you.  When your memory registers are full, it sends the new calls to a "swap" file.  This is called "virtual memory."  If you let windows manage this memory, (default, don't change it) it will send the new calls to a swap file it makes on your hard drive.  You can always tell because your hard drive is working like crazy, and you haven't really done anything to cause it.  It's your computers way of telling you your memory is gone.

By using the swap file, your system slows down considerably.  Windows has to look to the drive to find out what it needs to do, and what it was doing.  Now, take into account all the programs running at the same time, each calling from the disc, we're talking major slow here.

If you're running say a Pentium 2, with 64 megs of ram. OK?  You fire up the computer, god knows what programs start at boot up, (more about that later) and you go into Aol, (which can take almost all of it by itself) play music in the background, and say swap in and out of Windows paint, (which I do constantly) you can see how fast your memory is used up.  Windows normally will just go to the swap file to fix the shortage, but several factors can screw this up.

You need at least 400 megs of free disc space.  Why?  Well, your recycle bin reserves 200 megs of it.  You can disable your recycle bin completely:  But; that kills your ability to restore a file you really didn't want to delete.  Windows requires at least 200 megs for the swap file.  In theory; Windows can use a lot  more than that but no one I know, seems to know how much more.

Now, add to that, a drive that hasn't been defragged, and you force windows to search all over the drive to look for the bits and pieces of its swap file.  Windows/Dos, always fills the blank spaces first.  Beginning to understand now?  It's not Aol.  It's the basis of how every Win-Tel computer works.  (that's Windows, Intel architecture; always wondered what that meant, eh)?

OK, how do we fix this situation?  There are solutions;

Get more memory, I recommend at least 128 megs.  You can still run out of it, but it takes longer.  256 is better yet.  You can still run out of it you ask?  Well, repeat the above scenario, and add; you are on the web loading a full blown Java web site.  I recommend Crucial.com for Ram memory.  I recently picked up 256megs form 29.95; next day air free.  You'll learn that I like two major things:  Fast, and Free.

Yes, you can run out of it.  Quick.  But most of the problems associated with the crashes are on computers with 64 megs or less.  By it's nature, the smaller the memory core, the sooner Windows has to resort to the swap file.  And the sooner the "end" comes.  No pun intended to my Danny's Daily's subscribers.  LOL

Keep at least 400 megs of your drive free, I like to see a gig, yes, sorry folks, you heard it right, a gig.  Then you don't have to worry about what you did yesterday, know what I mean?  If you keep your drive pruned, and cut all the crap out you'll never use, it'll pretty much take care of itself.

Defrag often, at least BI weekly.  That will allow large blocks of free space on the drive, so Windows won't have to search all over trying to piece together its virtual memory.

And finally, have patience.  Yes, patience, Windows really never forgets, but if it's swapping, it takes time.  Some times a couple of minutes.  But what do we do?  We click, nothing happens, we click again, nothing happens, we start clicking all over the place, nothing happens, we click the "X" button about 20 times, anything!  Just something happen! (don't even tell me you don't do that, I don't believe you) Do you know what you just did?  You just multiplied the problem by 100.  How?  You just added 30 more commands on top of what a "crippled" Windows was already trying to sort out.  Not to mention what that Java web site is trying to do.

In short, you're doomed.  If you have patience, usually Windows will pop out of it and give you what you wanted.  If that happens, save your work and reboot.  Don't press your luck, you just got really lucky. If you have limited Ram, limit the number of programs you're running at any one time.  Some graphics programs like Photoshop can suck all your Ram by itself.  I have 640 megs of Ram on my system and Photoshop can eat it all quite quickly.

Ways to Save Memory;

Memory is the mothers milk to your computer, there are many ways to save it.  When I do a system wipe, the first thing I have to do is make my Compaq a computer, not a Compaq.  They stick so many start up programs on it, it's a miracle it works at all.  This may require work from the registry, not for the faint at heart.  Recently I heard of a conflict of Gateway having a proprietary program that won't run with Internet Explorer 5.  I would have never known about it, because anything "Gateway" would have already been gone.  Get the picture?  I don't give a sh*t what Gateway or Compaq thinks I should have.  I know what I should have!

Heck, Compaq wanted half of the drive for their quick restore feature.  Yes, if you have a crash, everything you had is still there, twice!  Just go to the other stuff, and POOF, you have it back.  Great, but I have a second hard drive for my backup, thank you very much.  Give me a break.  It's called, and repeat after me, BACKUP.  I don't have to give half of my hard drive to have backup.  And what if the hard drive itself crashes, I guess Compaq didn't think of that...If any of you  have this "feature" installed and running, and are backing up to a  zip drive, or any other backup device, Compaq stole half your hard drive and the memory that runs it!  And REMEMBER:  There are only two types of people with computers.  Those that have had hard drive crashes, and those that haven't...Yet.

So, prune your machine, know what programs are starting on the bootup.  All these programs set aside memory blocks that can't be used, except by them.  Know your system, defrag often, keep plenty of free space on your drive.  Keep your Aol fav places reasonable; one person told me he/she had 20,000 emails stored in favorite places.  I only have 22000 files on my entire computer!  So don't blame Aol.  Aol Fav's isn't even FOR emails!  It's for links!  My entire Aol, with everything I have for Danny's Daily's is only about 500 megs and most of you know what Danny's Daily's entails.  It's huge, complicated, and small by design.  When  I send a cartoon, I delete it.  When I send a link, I delete it:  When I send a joke, mostly, I delete it.  This comes from the DOS days when a custom built, ordered, took a month to get delivered, hard drive was 80 megs big.  I realize most of you think I'm crazy, but it's true.  Most computers only came with a 20 or 30 meg drive.  Hell, I have a GAME that takes 500!  My, how far we've come.  Old timers, get the tears out of your eyes.  LOL  Don't keep stuff you won't use again, even if you think you might.  You won't.  Who has the time?

I believe, if you follow these guide lines, most all your system crashes will stop.  Except for error crashes;

Error crashes occur, and Windows tells you so.  A couple of years ago, Aol crashes were, for the most part, caused by WinAmp.  This is why I never recommended letting WinAmp be your default CD player.

That was then, now is now.  I think WinAmp is the best player out there, and yes, it is my default player.  All software has bugs.  Don't believe me?  Send it to me, I'll get it to crash. LMAO.

I hope this helps you on your road.  Your Road?

Yes, Your Road To Computer Sanity

                              Danny