ND> I upgraded from Ver. 2 and am very frustrated!  The new program (CD
 ND> version) has slowed down my machine to a snail's pace and it takes me
 ND> 3 times longer to do anything!  I have a 486-33.  I don't know a whole
 ND> lot about hardware, but I'm interested in trying to make it faster.  Do
 ND> I need more RAM?  Hard disk space?  A faster chip?  Any advice anyone
 ND> can provide I'd appreciate it.  I don't do difficult tasks, just track
 ND> home spending.  Thanks.  NJD
I've had Win Version 1,2,3 and now 4.  The big slowdown was from Version
2 to 3.  The drop in speed was obvious.
I also have a 486-33 and the speed is really still ok for me.
It slows down more and more as the number of transactions in the accounts
increase.  It opens up ok for me.  I do have quite a bit of memory, 16meg.
Is your Windows environment configured as it should be?
Everyone should have a PERMANENT Swap file of about 2 to 4 meg.
If you have 4 meg of memory you should have a cache of about 500k, if
you have 8 meg of memory you can give 1 to 2 meg of memory to the cache.
Cache is also called 32bit FILE Access.
If your harddisk will allow it (an IDE drive with less than 504meg or
using the right driver to allow it), be sure 32bit DISK Access is turned
on.
The above options are all under Control Panel, Enhanced, Virtual Memory,
Change.
If you have only 4meg of memory (if you have less, oh my), an increase
to 8meg will give a significant speed increase to all windows applications,
especially if my above recommendations are followed.
Of course, our 486s are now 2 major chip releases in the past, I would
never recommend anyone buy a complete system with a 486 now (at least a
Pentium 90 with 16meg).  So you might want to consider carefully putting
any more money into your current machine.  It probably uses 30pin
memory which will not transfer to a Pentium machine which requires 72pin
memory.
But memory prices are down now, to about $30 a meg, and if you have 4
now you could get to 8 for $120 and see a significant speedup in
Windows.
 
--- GEcho 1.11+
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