Make sure DMA is enabled for the hard drive in the device manager.

Have you installed any unofficial updates or service packs for windows 98se ?

Have you installed the Intel INF chipset driver?

Sorry for the very late reply to you all, yesterday when i tried to login to check for any replies, i couldn't . Aparently i was Permanently Banned... and i got no clue why. But today i noticed i was unbanned, yay! all that was just weird.

Anyway here are some replies:

* I had no unofficial or service packs installed at all.

* I did installed the i810 INF drivers (the ones from Phil Computer Lab)

* I just tried enabling DMA on the HDD.

* I read on these same forums about the MS Windows Security Update CD from February 2004 and installed them.

I also set my swap/virtual Memory from "Win Managed" to 128 min and 128 max. Issue seemed to have been alleviated somewhat because i used the PC for about 3 hours straight, until the issue came back again. Stuff like opening the Start Menu or moving or deleting folders became insanely frustating and i had to restart. After the reboot issue seemed to be gone again, but i only used the PC for about half an hour afterwards.

Also i tried to check the HDD on my modern system, did a through File system check and found no errors and also Crystal Disk Info sees the drive health as "Good". But i got to mention i do sort of remember having this exact same issue back in the late 90's, so this must be some 98 thing.

I previously had WinXP installed and it worked like a charm, no issues whatsoever and i could even watch YouTube videos with K-Meleon Browser (version Goanna). But since the CPU is not fast enough for some DOSBox games, i decided to try Win98. So far it's been problem after problem with Win98SE... i already reinstalled it like 5 times in less than a month. So yeah the issue is still there, it just takes longer for it to appear.

Any more suggestions are appreciated.

Did you install IE6? I've been making sure to stay a IE5.5 on my 98SE installs to avoid the slow deletion issue.

Ricimer wrote on 2023-10-14, 18:06:

Did you install IE6? I've been making sure to stay a IE5.5 on my 98SE installs to avoid the slow deletion issue.

Yes, i believe i'm using 6.0. I also read this link before http://www.frankprovo.com/win98ie6filesproblem.htm which might be related.

That site also has some workaround, but it's feels "hacky". I guess i could just format again and stick to IE 5.5, unless there is a way to reinstall 5.5 without having to reinstall windows?

(Edit)

I got rid of IE 6.0 and it was surprisingly easy... i just selected it through Add/Remove programs and it was gone for good. IE reverted to V5.0 which i don't care to be honest, as long as that nasty bug is gone. I will use the PC for a day or two and report back.

I can confirm that sticking with IE 5.5 resolves the issue completely.

Hi. It might be old news, but Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer are kind of related.
Except for the original Windows 95 release, maybe.
That's also why the new IE4 with Active Desktop had caused such a controversy back then.
It was slower and more heavy than the old Explorer.
IE6 was more of the Windows 2k/XP days, all in all.
It's support on Windows 9x platform was more like an afterthought, maybe, thus.

Jo22 wrote on 2023-10-20, 15:35:

Hi. It might be old news, but Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer are kind of related. Except for the original Windows 95 rel […]
Show full quote

Hi. It might be old news, but Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer are kind of related.
Except for the original Windows 95 release, maybe.
That's also why the new IE4 with Active Desktop had caused such a controversy back then.
It was slower and more heavy than the old Explorer.
IE6 was more of the Windows 2k/XP days, all in all.
It's support on Windows 9x platform was more like an afterthought, maybe, thus.

Yep, integrating Internet Explorer into File/Windows Explorer was a big mistake for a variety of reasons. Thankfully, it is now decoupled in modern Windows versions (including Windows XP with IE7 installed).

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-10-20, 16:24:

Jo22 wrote on 2023-10-20, 15:35:

Hi. It might be old news, but Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer are kind of related. Except for the original Windows 95 rel […]
Show full quote

Hi. It might be old news, but Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer are kind of related.
Except for the original Windows 95 release, maybe.
That's also why the new IE4 with Active Desktop had caused such a controversy back then.
It was slower and more heavy than the old Explorer.
IE6 was more of the Windows 2k/XP days, all in all.
It's support on Windows 9x platform was more like an afterthought, maybe, thus.

Yep, integrating Internet Explorer into File/Windows Explorer was a big mistake for a variety of reasons. Thankfully, it is now decoupled in modern Windows versions (including Windows XP with IE7 installed).

But also a huge convenience. A full-fledged, and even multi-process transformer that allows you to abandon EXPLORER.EXE at all by completing it. Or vice versa, open websites, FTP servers, and watch YouTube directly in File Explorer. When I didn't find this useful feature in IE7, I deleted it and never came back. Yes, a little ahead of time, but the train of thought was correct - maximum freedom and a minimum of unnecessary code (Now everything is done exactly the opposite).

And as for the subject - the problem does not affect XP (SP2 at least and higher). In 9x, any version and with any IE, you can avoid the problem by deleting\moving\copying large numbers of files through TotalCommander.