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Q.  I have a Celeron 433, with 192 MB of SDRAM running Windows 98. Recently I am getting messages saying "There is not enough memory to run this program, try quitting one of your applications" even when I only have four windows open. I also have one of those "whiz-bang" keyboards with extra buttons. Is it possible that these buttons take up more memory? Is it also possible that when I load programs and then close them, that some of them stay in memory? If this is so, how can I clear the RAM without a reboot.

A machine with 192Mb of memory should be adequate for most tasks, which means that there must be something wrong with your software or configuration.

Your "whiz-bang" keyboard with the extra buttons may require a special driver program in order to be able to use these buttons, but this driver would not take up much more memory than the standard keyboard driver. For this reason, your keyboard is unlikely to be causing the problem.

Since the computer only recently started running out of memory, you should look at what changed around the time you started to experience problems. Perhaps you loaded some software that accidentally corrupted your machine or you changed some settings?

One of the most likely causes of memory problems is a badly behaved terminate and stay resident program. Screen savers, desktop applets such as sheep, the talking moose or other such "toys" may corrupt the system causing this type of error.

Computer viruses are another common cause of out of memory errors. As a first step, you should scan your computer with an up to date virus checker as you may find that a computer virus is corrupting the system and causing these errors!

If your computer is not infected with a virus, you should remove any desktop accessories and run the computer with as few applications as possible. If the problem goes away, gradually re-enable your desktop accessories one at a time until you find the one that is causing the problem

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