Why is this computer in slow motion?

nitro237 · Post by **nitro237** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 11:02 am

I have a friends computer that said it was running slow , had Win2000 on it . He wanted me to put XP on it . OK , I decide to format the hard drive , a 80 gig 7200 rpm hard drive . It seems like it takes longer than it should but I was busy doing other things too so I really didn't pay much attention to the time .

I stick his XP disk in and 2 hours later I have windows loaded . He's running an Athlon 2200+ , 512 MB ram . I didn't get any errors , it's just moving in slow motion . ?????

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 11:19 am

mebbe a virus/spyare eating up the cpu cycles?

nitro237 · Post by **nitro237** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 11:20 am

Even though I reformatted ?

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 11:26 am

While it's POSSIBLE you have a boot sector virus, it's doubtful. I'd look for hardware issues. Do you have SMART enabled in BIOS? Could be the HDD is suffering read errors. If you have SMART enabled, BIOS will warn you if the drive is failing.

- Replace the ribbon cable on the HDD.

- Make sure the HDD is jumpered properly. I've seen poor performance when a WD drive was jumpered as a single master, when it was sharing the ribbon with a CD Rom.

- Check POST dialog (if the computer has one) and note whether the drive is being detected as an ATA100 or ATA133 - maybe it's running in PIO mode.

- If Windows is already installed, then go to the device manager, IDE controller, Primary and check to see what the DMA mode is for the HDD or if it's running in PIO mode.

nitro237 · Post by **nitro237** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 11:35 am

OK , I in the middle of another 2 hour XP install on it

I built the computer about 2 years ago , so , I am positive it is not sharing the ribbon with a cdrom or anything . I make a point never to put anything on the same ribbon as the hard drive when possible . Not sure if it really matters , just one of my quirks .

I will check the PIO mode and ATA as soon as windows finishes loading again .

Thanks for the tips guys

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 12:13 pm

the pio thing seems most logical - unless it's a NHL Signature Series HD - in which case it's holding out for more $$

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 12:14 pm

the pio thing seems most logical - unless it's a NHL Signature Series HD - in which case it's holding out for more $$

onlly other idea is if it failsafed to bios settings with the wrong FSB, etc.

nitro237 · Post by **nitro237** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 12:16 pm

ok , I just got tired of waiting for windows to load . I put another hard drive in that machine and it's taking windows just as long to load on that hard drive . I changed CDRom's out too . It's like I'm trying to load windows on an old 486 machine ???

PHILO67 · Post by **PHILO67** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 12:42 pm

what kind of mobo u using does not xp need like certain levels to really open up cpu usage
maybe processor lagging not hd or cd when i had xp pro installed on mine it lagged for a while till i manipulated settings at points i dont remember lol then it seemed to get alot better but 2200 seems a little on the low end to really get the most out of xp and also try getting rid of windows update anyone know if its safe to remove that entire program sometimes i load up and look in processes and theres like 15 winupdate threads runnin al over the damn place and it really sucks
maybe on a new load like that xp is trying to update itself in a mad fashion and slowing ur sys down i dont know im a newbie but this seems to be a problem on my sys now and then xp update is taking over the world ahhhhhhhhhh just saw i-robot last night

dunno
philo

wpublic · Post by **wpublic** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 12:43 pm

is it showing up in POST as a 2200+ ? it could be what was mentioned earlier where it is running the wrong FSB. If it looks ok, try going into bios and "load optimized defaults"

nitro237 · Post by **nitro237** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 12:46 pm

It's showing as a 2200+ , I am going to go back over some of the bios setting and see if I can see if something is off .

nitro237 · Post by **nitro237** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 12:56 pm

ok , I found the problem . The FSB was fine , that's why it was showing 2200+ , but , all of the cpu cache was disabled . DOH !

Now I built this computer 2 years ago , he's never had 1 problem with it , now he brings it back because it's running "really slow" and he wants XP on it . Guess what , he fails to tell me he's been screwing around in the bios . I swear , I should password lock his bios .

Sorry for the rant .

I really appreciate all the help . You guys are why PCA rocks

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 1:07 pm

hehe glad you found out what is was!

one of my kids figured out a way to turn something on in windows which rendered here keyboard nonfunctional - that took me a while to figure out