I know this has been mentioned previously, but has there been any fixes put in place for the 4.8 beta build that fixes it so that the quick launch icons do not disappear from view when running a full scan?
I don’t know if that is related to any resource limitation of your system ?
That is something that I’ve heard in the forums. Win98 is susceptible to problems when resources get low, when I used to have win98, if resources got below 20% I usually rebooted so they didn’t get so low as to actually crash.
When using win98 I was very picky about what I allowed to run on boot and prior to running something resource intensive like a scan I would close al other non essential programs.
DavidR,
Thanks for your reply.
As you say about closing applications down, that’s what I think I will do, like first disconnecting from the internet then closing the firewall, and hopefully when running a scan the quick launch icons will remain viewable.
So when I do this I wont have anything in the system tray apart from Avast as I have done like you did yourself when running 98.
Do you think that come August time there will be a direct link to the 4.8 version for users of other AV programs that want to start using Avast?
I ask because at the moment users need to install 4.7 before they can go for 4.8.
I never went as far as disabling the firewall, only non-essential applications.
I would, say 4.8 will be much sooner than August. Though there is no firm date for release we have been beta testing it for a few weeks starting with 4.8.1137, 4.8.1147 and the third beta 4.8…1157 so things are progressing reasonably well IMHO. However, I’m just an avast user like yourself.
They don’t have to install 4.7 to get 4.8, that is for the beta version and for your average user I wouldn’t recommend beta testing on a non=test machine. They can get 4.7 install it and when 4.8 is released for regular release the auto update process will take care ot the update.
DavidR,
The only reason I would have preferred to upgrade to 4.8 was that I thought perhaps the resource 98 problem for the quick launch icons disappearing would have been resolved and fixed, looks like that is not the case.
I suppose disabling my firewall is ok if I disconnect the modem.
PS
I am actually using AVG at the moment, but I am preparing to use Avast as AVG is dropping support for 98 S.E
I don’t believe that win98 quick launch icons was addressed as I don’t believe it was established it was definitely an avast problem.
Yes disconnecting the modem would ensure no connection was made whilst the firewall was disabled.
But it must be an Avast problem as no other AV program that I have used in the past has ever given me this problem.
Can this be passed to tech support again perhaps?
If it were truly an avast problem then the forums would be full of it (and we don’t see that) as there are now very few AVs that support older OSes and it would effect every single win98/avast user and that simply isn’t the case.
I’m not saying you don’t have a problem, just that there is no clear evidence to say the problem is down to avast.
If someone from the Alwil team sees this forum, perhaps, there have been a few topics relating to this icon issue but it has never been resolved.
I can’t see a connection with avast ???
Would that not be because many users like myself use AVG at the moment, and the reason I am interested in going for the free edition of Avast is because AVG will soon be dropping support for Windows 98 S.E, therefore no updates etc
Also some users may not be too bothered about this problem so therefore they refrain from posting about it.
nightshade, we wish you have no problems with avast, I mean, if you need help, we can try to give you. I just can’t see a relationship between the icons on quick launch bar disappearing and avast… maybe a Windows 98 memory glitch… it won’t be the first one: Windows 98, when stressed, manages memory loaded programs very badly.
I am not the only one that has experienced this problem, although I cant remember if they were all 98 related or not.
Just to confirm that at least one other user has this problem… I have 5 PC’s on my home network. One is XP and the others are all Win98 SE. Two of the Win98’s have printers attached and typically run at 65% resources after boot-up. Occasionally they will decline into the twenties depending on the quantity of open apps as well as particular apps (Winword). The other two Win98 SE machines run in the mid 70% for resources and rarely go as low as 50%. All are AMD’s rangeing from 1.2 Ghtz/100 fsb to 2.083 Ghtz runnining a 333 fsb. All have 512 Mb of ram as they are only Win98 Se machines (error on the side of caution). My Quick Launch icons as well as Explorer icons disappear after using avast 4.7 on the Win98 SE machines. Of course a reboot fixes the problem. Read into it as you will, just reporting the facts!
Ah, so it’s not just me that has the problem.
Can this be passed to support so at the very least to have a look to see if anything can be done?
My old computer is on W98SE and I use to experience the same problem you 2 are reporting. It is a memory problem with W98. Increase the RAM over 512 mb and the problem will go away. I run my W98 computer with 640 mb of RAM.
I actually tried to add another 256 of ram but for some reason when I turned on the PC and hit the internet explorer icon I went into a loop with a message saying that explorer could not connect and to restart, but as I say this went into a loop so I took out the RAM and the problem went away.
One other thing I would like to add is when the new RAM was in it showed up as a total of 511 instead of 512.
nightshade, JwSmSmith, CharleyO:
I don’t doubt for a moment that you are experiencing this problem but I’ve not seen anything like what you describe on any of the 98SE machines I know of with avast! 4.7 Home, and I’ve been trying to reproduce it ???. None of these 98SE PCs have more than 256MB RAM.
Do you mean that Quicklaunch icons disappear during standard scan from standard skin.
98SE has big problems with GDI resources regardless of how much physical RAM you have so while increasing to 640MB may solve the problem in one case, another user may have no trouble with less.
You are right, Vladimyr.
I guess the actual problem they are experiencing is too many other programs running while avast is doing a scan. Perhaps they should first stop unneeded programs before starting a scan.
Your comment sparked a memory (excuse the pun) in that system resources aren’t entirely related to how much RAM you have. From the dim and distant past I recall something like each system resource is only 64KB, at least that is what is used for recording its use and that would reach capacity before actually running out of RAM.
So the more applications running the more information recorded in this 64KB space, so that could be the issue. Memory management wasn’t great in win98/98se with applications that have closed failing to give back any or all of the memory it was using. Memory leaks as I recall were also a concern when I was using win98 and win98se.
To be honest it was a while back as I currently use AVG, but not for much longer due to the the dropped support for 98 sometime soon.
But I am sure the icon problem occured when running a normal scan with the default skin.