Postby George on Wed Jan 18, 2006 1:26 pm
Hi everybody from up in Canada.
I’m happily using WordPerfect 7.0 with Windows 98 even though (I know it makes me a Neanderthal). I’m maintaining a membership database with about 215 records, each with 13 fields.
Lately, the Merge feature has gotten extremely slow. And when the “Update record list” button is clicked (to, e.g. shift from 1 – 100 to 1 – 250) things seem to freeze.
Previously, everything worked pretty fast. I don’t have too powerful a processor (Intel Celeron 400 mhertz, 32 kb primary memory cache and 128 kb secondary memory cache). Could this be the problem. The database size hasn’t increased very much from when Merge was very fast.
Any suggestions much appreciated. GeorgeGeorge
Postby Graphcat on Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:20 pm
If you mean 32 Mb system memory (and not 32 Kb CPU cache, built into the chip), then that’s the problem. Win98 with WP7 can’t do much with less than 128 Mb. That amount (128 Mb) would have been a lot when 400 Mhz machines were being built. 32 or 64 Mb was typical.
To find the memory, look in My Computer, Control Panel, System, and you’ll see the actual installed memory in the bottom right of the main page, on the “General” tab.
Memory is still available for 400 Mhz systems, and is just barely worthwhile, if you’re going to keep the system at least another year, and if it’s otherwise OK. Machines that age are well into retirement age, so don’t try to teach them any new tricks or load any new (bigger) software.
George wrote:Could this be the problem. The database size hasn’t increased very much from when Merge was very fast.
Any suggestions much appreciated. George
Well, startupware or spyware is also a big possibility. If so, everything will be slower, not just merges. When in doubt, scan. The easiest free online scan is at http://www.trendmicro.com, and that can check for both viruses and spyware. It won’t check for startupware–that’s just any software that autostarts–some of that is good, some is evil, some is useful, and more than a little bit is a doorstop. (See my other site, http://www.startupware.com for more information.) Take a look at what’s loading with Windows (look in the system tray, by the clock, for starters) and uninstall from Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel anything there that you’re not actually getting a benefit from.
Jerry Stern
Moderator and Webmaster
Author of Graphcat and FileTiger
http://www.startupware.com
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