Manual Update - REALLY Manual!

[BillGio]

Well, from what you wrote before, 776390 is the number of items it Spybot looking for, so I'm thinking that maybe the scan completed but ended poorly?

Oh, if the suspect computer is a Windows 98 computer, and if the HD has not been maintained, then there is a very good chance that the hard drive is horribly fragmented. It's been my experience that extreme fragmentation on Windows 98 FAT32 hard drives (especially older hard drives) can and will cause program crashes and general instability. And slow your computer to the point of where it's as slow as a herd of turtles stampeding through molasses!

If I were you, I'd check the Windows 98 hard drives for errors, with either CheckDisk or Norton Disk Doctor, and then defragment that bad boy. I had an old Windows 98 desktop that was so fragmented that every time it accessed the hard drive, it made a sound like a bicycle chain! Spybot took forever to run on that thing. I resurrected it by running Norton Disk Doctor from the CD (which found and fixed lots of hidden problems like various file errors and cross-linked files), then defragmented the HD (which took over 10 hours!).

You also might try installing Speedfan and use it to check the S.M.A.R.T. status on the hard drive, in case the HD is so old and tired it's causing data problems. But I'm betting that bad fragmentation is part of your problems.

-Bill.

[BillGio]

Oh, something else - to speed up the Spybot scan, defragmentation, system speed, etc. the VERY FIRST STEP on all computers (ESPECIALLY Windows 98 computers) is to completely delete all temp files. If you hold down the Shift key while you press DELete, the files will be permanently and completely deleted without going to the trash bin.

In this order:

1. Delete the cache on all browsers ("temporary files")
2. Delete all cookies
3. Search the entire hard drive for *.tmp. Do Control-A to select all and then Shift-Delete all these files
   On Win98, you might find the search will show hundreds or thousands of these .tmp files located in C:\WINDOWS
4. Shift-Delete all non-text files in the C:\WINDOWS\TEMP directory
   Only keep .log and .txt files because they can be useful in diagnosing problems
5. Empty the recycle bin

Here's to a successful resurrection...!

-Bill.

[JorgeA]

Well, from what you wrote before, 776390 is the number of items it Spybot looking for, so I'm thinking that maybe the scan completed but ended poorly?

Oh, if the suspect computer is a Windows 98 computer, and if the HD has not been maintained, then there is a very good chance that the hard drive is horribly fragmented. It's been my experience that extreme fragmentation on Windows 98 FAT32 hard drives (especially older hard drives) can and will cause program crashes and general instability. And slow your computer to the point of where it's as slow as a herd of turtles stampeding through molasses!

If I were you, I'd check the Windows 98 hard drives for errors, with either CheckDisk or Norton Disk Doctor, and then defragment that bad boy. I had an old Windows 98 desktop that was so fragmented that every time it accessed the hard drive, it made a sound like a bicycle chain! Spybot took forever to run on that thing. I resurrected it by running Norton Disk Doctor from the CD (which found and fixed lots of hidden problems like various file errors and cross-linked files), then defragmented the HD (which took over 10 hours!).

You also might try installing Speedfan and use it to check the S.M.A.R.T. status on the hard drive, in case the HD is so old and tired it's causing data problems. But I'm betting that bad fragmentation is part of your problems.

-Bill.

Hi Bill,

Funny you should mention a fragmented hard drive. Just last week I managed to get Norton Disk Doctor to complete the diagnostic/defrag process on my Win98 PC for the first time in over a year! Every time I tried it, it would keep restarting due to repeated "disk writes," and eventually it would just give up with a message about too many disk writes, or simply freeze the computer completely.

Last week I finally figured out how to close down enough processes (without disabling the system) that NDD was able to finish without complaint. According to Norton SystemWorks, now my hard drive (supposedly) is in tip-top shape. Although... I ran NDD from the hard disk itself rather than from the CD as you did, I don't know if that makes a difference.

In any case I'm not sure that I can trust NDD's verdict, as Spybot is once again having trouble even loading (taking forever to open, and ending with an "illegal operation" error), so I will look into getting Speedfan onto the sick computer and see what's up.

Thanks again!

--JorgeA

P.S. I should say that Spybot seems to be the ONLY program that's having trouble opening and running. Word and the Norton products seem to be working as well as ever.

[BillGio]

Hi Bill,

Funny you should mention a fragmented hard drive. Just last week I managed to get Norton Disk Doctor to complete the diagnostic/defrag process on my Win98 PC

Norton Disk Doctor does not defrag the hard drive - it only diagnoses and fixes file system errors. You need a separate application to defrag the hard drive. Norton has Speedisk to defrag the hard drive, but I've never used it and earlier versions were dangerously buggy.

[JorgeA]

Norton Disk Doctor does not defrag the hard drive - it only diagnoses and fixes file system errors. You need a separate application to defrag the hard drive. Norton has Speedisk to defrag the hard drive, but I've never used it and earlier versions were dangerously buggy.

Hi Bill,

Whoops! I meant Norton SystemWorks. Sorry about that. It was the "Speed Disk" option under Norton Utilities within SystemWorks. On the screen it looks just like Windows's Scandisk program. It was Speed Disk that kept restarting due to disk writes. In any case, the SystemWorks "One Button Checkup" says that the disk is now defragged (before, it was down to 76%) and didn't find any errors.

I did use NDD at one point last week, and everything seemed to be hunky-dory with the hard disk as far as it was concerned. Come to think of it, it too kept restarting until I shut down enough processes for it to stop complaining. But I did get to run both NDD and Speed Disk (defrag) till they finished successfully.

Hope this helps to provide useful info.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Just wanted to add that for good measure I did also run the Windows Disk Defragmenter last week.

Hopefully this and my previous post will provide enough information to continue....

--JorgeA

[BillGio]

Hi Bill,

Whoops! I meant Norton SystemWorks. Sorry about that. It was the "Speed Disk" option under Norton Utilities within SystemWorks. On the screen it looks just like Windows's Scandisk program...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They are two completely different programs that perform two completely different tasks, and on screen are only vaguely like each other.

Jorge, I can't help you if you don't even know what program you're using.

[JorgeA]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They are two completely different programs that perform two completely different tasks, and on screen are only vaguely like each other.

Jorge, I can't help you if you don't even know what program you're using.

Bill, c'mon -- I have not used these programs in more than a year as my old computer sat in the corner, basically ignored. And even back then I was strictly what we might call a "black box" user: My interest in learning the inner workings of computers and software, which was immense back when PCs first came out but had waned ever since the introduction of Windows, has only returned in the last couple of months. So my computer tech knowledge is more relevant to current systems than it is to anything that appeared after MS-DOS 3.3 and before Vista.

In addition to which, I have now done SO MANY things with and to that computer in recent days (including multiple installations and uninstallations of Spybot) that it has all become a blur, and it should not be surprising that I may have mistyped a name.

As I reported in the brief follow-up to my previous post to you, I did run the actual Windows defragmenter last week. I just ran it again tonight, after performing the maintenance work you suggested. Spybot is STILL taking an inordinate amount of time loading. (Been waiting for it now for 25 minutes.)

I did stipulate near the beginning of this thread that I am not a computer connoisseur. So please bear with me as I belatedly acquaint myself with my ten-year-old system. This is a learning opportunity for me, and I greatly appreciate your generous help.

--JorgeA