If I open a program such as my ISP…and close the program. To use the same program again I have to reboot my computer. Any ideas what might be causing this?
AMD Duron 900
Win98SE
248 megs ram
Need more info. An ISP is an internet service provider, not a program - do you mean open your browser? Does it happen with every program, or just the one? What’s the error you get when you try to re-open it without rebooting?
This might be a silly question, but are you sure you have 248 M of RAM?? Since that number is 8 shy of 256, it’s possible to attain, but I doubt you’ve got an 8M chip in your motherboard that supports an AMD Duron 900.
Maybe you’ve got a bad RAM chip.
Another vote for more info. Does the computer freeze up?
When you say ISP, do you mean the program that dials and connects to the internet? If so, are you using the windows dial up networking, or a specific program provided by your ISP? I know mindspring does the latter…
I use AOL. But it doesn’t seem to matter what program. If I play a game…and I quit…to play it again I have to reboot. Is there a file holding on to some part of the program?
Many desktop and some notebook systems that have integrated onboard video chipsets that use a portion of the the system RAM (usually 2-4-8 megs) for video thus generating slightly smaller available system RAM numbers.
I use AOL. But it doesn’t seem to matter what program. If I play a game…and I quit…to play it again I have to reboot. Is there a file holding on to some part of the program?
Possible a windows file involved with memory management is hosed. Have you run scandisk on your windows files lately? Or installed anything lately that may have overwrote some DLL in windows?
Sometimes you can close a program’s window but the program still lurks in memory. If the program is the type that only allows a single instance of itself to be running at one time, an attempt to run the program again will just transfer control to the instance that is already running. But, because the program’s window is gone, it looks to the user as if nothing happened. I should point out, however, that the only program I know of that has this bug is one I wrote myself (but I blame a third-party control I’m using :D).
Anyway, if that is the problem, try bringing up the task list with Ctl-Alt-Del and see if the offending program is in the list. If it is, “End task” it and try running it again.
Why do you have to “I have to reboot” to play it again? What message are you getting?