Memory drop

Edited text of question

>> My problem is whenever I am using certain features I still get a out of memory error message.

Which features are doing this?

I have seen this before.  It may be the app itself unless you are editing large data files, and you would know this.  As was asked above, which apps?

You ask:

"Is there anywhere in the bios to check if memory is being used correctly?"

The easiest way to check your memory availablity and see what is going on is to run the system tool at My Computer > programs > accessories > system tools > system monitor.  Choose edit, add item, memory manager, disk cache size.  Windows manages the disk cache dynamically so when there is plenty of memory available you get huge disk caches.  Mine is 36MB at the moment.  When memory runs low, the cache will be reduced to make room for active programs.  I think you will find this never happens.  You can have some fun with this application looking at all kinds of system behavior.  If it is not on your system, you may have to install it from My Computer > Control Panel > add/remove software.  Select the middle tab for windows setup.  The CD will be required.

If you can give us more data, we can respond better.

Thanks,
RoseFire

I see this on ocassion when using DOS windows under windows. Windows only allocates 1MB of memory to a dos app (that can be changed, it's just the default) so it wouldn't matter how much memory or resources you have. As czpczp and rosefire have indicated, unless we know which apps are causing the memory problem, then all we can do is guess at the problem.

U can also check the memory usage in dos prompt.
type : mem /c /p
It will give a detailed list of the memory usage. Even I had this problem earlier, it was due to a memory resident virus. Although I had 64MB Ram, I couldn't run some applications. It is better U boot Ur system with a clean floppy and scan it with the latest available virus scanner. Hope this solves Ur problem,
Reply back Suresh

airbird, how about some feedback.

The most likely culprits causing the memory leak seem to be mainly MS apps such as Office 97 used in conjunction with Ms Publisher or Adode Illustrator used with Photoshop. If I open to many apps I get type that goes over any other type or windows that were previously open, even after closing out the app there are latent images from whatever was open. Tried Rosefires test-My Computer > programs > accessories > system tools > system  monitor. But this does not give any clue to apps causing the problem, although the kernal process seems to top out at 100% quite a bit. This was interesting but I have used this before. This is not so much a dos problem so I am not going to persue that at this time. Also scanned with Norton anti-virus, McAfee 4.1 and AVtool pro, all negative. BUT what evansj proposes might be a key to get to the bottom of all this. I will start on this tommorow. Also I can be just cruising the net with Netscape and once in awhile the same type over type situation happens. I can be printing with my epson 800 and try to open some other program and the system almost reverts back to a win3.1 Big black type in a generic font! Wow
   

This was a good enough fix to get most things working trouble free. But on top of this I used Reg Repair 2000 available at--http://members.aol.com/wcguy06/vb.htm
It's worth taking a look at simply because it allows a complete fix of the registry without reformating your hard drive. It found about 10 registry errors and it put everything back into tip top shape. I'm not sure if the answer or the program was better but things are cruising along normally now.