• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Pentium D question. Need help!

H

Hunter1942

n00b
Joined
Nov 30, 2006
Messages
9
Hey,

I recently bought a new pc. It has a Pentium D 840 3.2 GHz, 1 GB of pc3200 ram, an XFX Geforce 6200 and an ASUS P5V800-MX motherboard. My problem is when I try to switch programs or multitask. Let’s say I’m playing a game and I want to alt-tab to check my email. It will take a while to get to my desktop and my pc would have slow response time. I click on Outlook and it takes forever to come up and my pc freezes up for a couple seconds. It just seems like there is such a slow response time for a dual core pc. I would expect that from my old 1.6 GHz Pentium 4 processor but not this one. It just seems ridiculous:mad: ! I have tried the Microsoft hotfix and some other things like making sure it’s enabled in the BOIS. I checked but I already know it is enabled because in the Task Manager it shows both cores and Affinity etc. For games I can see a big difference and dual core works great. But the promised ability to multitasking isn’t holding out. Reviews and such say it is great for multitasking but this doesn’t seem to be true for me. Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions please post them. Thanks!
 
Does the PC just freeze, or does the HDD spin like mad when it's not responding?
If the HDD spins, you might want to install more memory, to reduce swapping (I know that is my problem with my C2D with 1 gb of memory... my brother uses a Pentium D with 2 gb, and it's much smoother, even though my CPU is much faster).

If it's not the HDD, then there's something not working right... overheating perhaps, or the PSU not stable?
 
I am going to try right now. I need to have something system heavy like games (Dark Messiah etc.) running for a while for this to happen. Which leads me to believe it has something to do with heat. I am in a small room that doesn't get a lot of ventilation and the fan air getting blown out of my pc is somewhat warm. If it turns out to be heat, I will definately get some more fans. If it isn't i'll wait for a sale on RAM so I get get at least 1.5 gb. I want to find a 1 GB chip for around $50, because right now it is expensive. (I'm not paying $100 for one) I will check the hard drive thing right now.
 
Can sometimes get to the desktop faster if you set the resolution, color mode, refresh rate, etc... the same in the game as on the desktop. Wont help with the speed after you get there though.
 
Probably need more ram. If you're alt-tab'ing out of a game (especially BF2!) thats definitely your problem.

Hit CTRL-ALT-DEL and look at your PF Usage, if its close to or over 1000 MB, thats your problem. (need more ram)

Edit: P.S. use Outlook Express its faster. Outlook always takes forever to load & unload.
 
My hard drive is fine. But my pc case has a fan on the side and the air coming out seems very warm to me. Perhaps too warm. It might be overheated, im not sure. My GPU temp is 55 C. My PF is 609 mb. I'm still leaning towards the fact that it is getting way too hot. More RAM could always help too. But i'm still not 100% sure about this.
 
You'd probably notice a slow down in the game if it was overheating and throttling.

You can download throttlewatch & Orthos, to check for throttling. Run Orthos stability test and watch to make sure your CPU doesn't throttle.

And you might try some temp programs (like Speed Fan) hopefully should give you a CPU temp.
 
Hmm.. I"ve never heard of the Swap Problem before. I've got 1gb of RAM and a PD950 and it feels fine. Check your processor temps. If you're using the thermal pad that came with the Cpu heatsink, I'd recommend you scrape that off, get some isopropyl alcohol and clean the residue off your heatsink and CPU, and replace it with AS5 or some other thermal compound. If you do have third-party thermal compound already set, then I'd recommend reseating or reapplying the thermal paste.

I don't think getting more fans will really help. You really gotta just put them into a position where they'll remove the most air and push air into the most crucial areas to cool parts down and keep ambient temps down within the case.

Also, another program you could use to push your comp to full load (for temps and for stability) is Toast. Run 2 instances of it and it should get your computer running full blast in a couple of minutes.
 
1 gig is definitely not enough for current games at high settings and you alt-tabbing out of a game to check email is definitely no no...

1.5gig is the sweet spot... 2gigs is better...
 
I'm not sure if it is the Pentium D or what, but when I upgraded my 530J to a Pentium D 915 it felt a lot slower and sluggish, then I went for a Pentium D 945, felt a lot better than the 915, but definitely not the performance I wanted. So I ended up getting a Conroe. I had plently of RAM 2gb, so that didn't seem to be the problem, maybe your temps or the throttling
 
I checked my temps with the Speedfan. It says temp1 is hot temp2 is good. temp3 is cold and HD is good. What is temp1, 2 and 3?? In the screenshots on their site it shows CPU etc. I'm thinking that Temp1 is my cpu, Temp2 is my GPU(I know this because my NVIDIA control panel says about the same temp) but I have no clue what temp 3 is. While i'm sitting here typing this right now, Speedfan says my cpu is about 50-52 C which is considered hot(the little flame on the side). Is throttling for example when the cpu is under no load and the cpu usage bar jumps from about 0% to like 15% and and goes back down? This is my journal from throttlewatch. For some reason it wasn't showing the throttling bar. See how it goes from about 2 load to 13 then back down they up again? is that throttling??? If it is, how can I fix it??

ThrottleWatch Journal file
--------------------------

Time Load Clock VCore

305 2 3201 1.420
798 2 3200 1.420
1302 0 3200 1.420
1797 2 3200 1.420
2302 0 3200 1.420
2798 11 3200 1.420
3302 0 3200 1.420
3805 2 3183 1.420
4298 0 3183 1.420
4802 11 3200 1.420
5297 0 3200 1.420
5802 3 3200 1.420
6298 3 3200 1.420
6802 13 3200 1.420
7305 0 3200 1.420
7798 2 3199 1.420
8302 0 3199 1.420
8797 11 3200 1.420
9302 0 3200 1.420
9798 2 3200 1.420
10302 2 3200 1.420
10805 2 3218 1.420
11298 0 3218 1.420
11802 0 3200 1.420
12297 0 3200 1.420
12902 0 3200 1.420
13298 11 3200 1.420
13802 0 3200 1.420
14305 13 3200 1.420
14798 0 3200 1.420
15302 2 3200 1.420
15797 0 3200 1.420
16302 11 3200 1.420

Average load 3%


 
Temp 1 is the CPU
Temp 2 is probably a northbridge or other temp probe
Temp 3 is broken / incorrect reading

Temp 1 looks high unless thats with dual Prime 95 or Orthos running.

If thats with 100% load on both CPU's thats not bad at all.

Did you run speedfan & throttlewatch while running Orthos?
http://sp2004.fre3.com/beta/beta2.htm <-- Orthos
 
Looks like your CPU is running 58deg C at Idle.... That's HOT.... :eek:
I'm sure that under load it goes up to 70~75deg C easy... Try running ORTHOS for 5min and capture the Speedfan readouts then....
 
i have a question i'm new on here and i just wanted to know wether cedarmill is better than smithfield processor although the specs say its better i don't know if it will perform it is .65 nm process technology compared to .90nm process technologgy although i have built 8 computers and i know stuff about computers but i am just trying to get a second opinion before I buy.
 
uvmaster said:
i have a question i'm new on here and i just wanted to know wether cedarmill is better than smithfield processor although the specs say its better i don't know if it will perform it is .65 nm process technology compared to .90nm process technologgy although i have built 8 computers and i know stuff about computers but i am just trying to get a second opinion before I buy.
Click to expand...

Smithfeild and Cedar Mill are two different things. Smithfield is a dual core processor Cedar Mill is a single core processor.

Pentium 4 series: Willamette --> Northwood --> Prescott --> Cedar Mill
Pentium D (two Pentium 4 cores) series: Smithfield (two Prescott cores) --> Presler (two Cedar Mill cores)

To the OP. Don't look at PF usage. It won't tell you anything useful. Run your game for a while, alt-tab out and check your email. Alt-tab back in to the game play some mroe then exit. Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and switch to the Performance tab. Look at the "Commit Charge (K)" panel and see what "Peak" says. If i'ts more than 1,000,000K you need more RAM.
 
ryan_975 said:
Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and switch to the Performance tab. Look at the "Commit Charge (K)" panel and see what "Peak" says. If i'ts more than 1,000,000K you need more RAM.
Click to expand...

QFT

It will probably be about 1,300,000-1,500,000

Which is just enough over 1Gb to make your performance funky, and when you get out of a game it takes a while for windows components or other apps to get reloaded from harddrive to ram, etc.

Where if you have 2Gb of ram, as soon as you alt-tab out or completely close the game. Your windows is almost instantly back to normal.
 
When I was running Orthos and speedfan for 5 min. during the CPU stress test, when it hit 100% CPU Load it was 67 C. Thats hot! During the 5 min. CPU and RAM test it wouldn' reach 100% CPU load, but during about 16-20% it was about 58 C. Imagine 100%! That would be terrible. Amazingly, for a second during the test it hit a decent 47 C :cool: . Finally a cool temp! But it only lasted a second :( . On average while idle it is about 52-58 C. Any ideas? Anyway, I will check the commit charge thing now.

Results
Chris, you were right also. The commit charge was over 1,000,000. Crap! Now I need a better cooler, more fans and more ram. I'm gonna have to just get either 1.5 gb or 2gb. Right now my computer is freaking out. I was typing the word "but" and it wasn't coming up and then it came up twice, erased the second one wrote the second one again erased it then highlighted the first one. This is terrible. Unfortunately I probably won't be upgrading anytime soon. Things are way too pricey lately. I guess i'll have to deal with it for now unless anyone can come up with any ideas. Now my pc is writing like a typewriter with a delay. I type a letter and then it apears about a milisecond later. Weird.
 
Hunter1942 said:
When I was running Orthos and speedfan for 5 min. during the CPU stress test, when it hit 100% CPU Load it was 67 C. Thats hot! During the 5 min. CPU and RAM test it wouldn' reach 100% CPU load, but during about 16-20% it was about 58 C. Imagine 100%! That would be terrible. Amazingly, for a second during the test it hit a decent 47 C :cool: . Finally a cool temp! But it only lasted a second :( . On average while idle it is about 52-58 C. Any ideas? Anyway, I will check the commit charge thing now.
Click to expand...

67C is hot, but it's not completely unheard of for Smithfield (2xPrescotts) CPUs. Also, the % number you're seeing is just a percentage of CPU's clock ticks that are committed to doing work. For instance, a 16% load means that for 16% of the clock ticks in a second (MHz) the CPU executed an instruction, but for the other 84% the CPU was idle. 100% just means that the the CPU is doing something for every clock tick.
 
67C isn't THAT hot for a Pentium D.

My Pentium D 920 would hit 63C @ 4Ghz, but that was with 100% and a very nice Thermalright XP-90c all copper heatpipe heatsink (one of the best heatsinks available)

I've seen people hit like 80C+ with stock heatsinks on Pentium D's.
 
I'm starting to think that this has to do with RAM not heat. Being that your cpu is in the 60's when under 100% mine is that temp when 0.1% load. Did the people with 80+ have the same issue? If they didn't then I know for sure it is RAM.
 
thanks very much for your info but also i have the pentium d 820 and 1gb of ddr2 dual channel 533mhz ram also a geforce 7600gs graphics card overclocked to 410mhz and a 300gb maxtor sata hard drive.

When I run ghost recon advanced warfighter it is set at medium settings and the mouse skips around in the menus but not the game
also in need for speed carbon the mouse does the same thing when set on high settings but not in the actual gameplay. Can anybody tellme why or what i could do because i don't have the money to buy a 8800 or even a 7800
 
Hunter1942 said:
Maybe it has something to do with the mouse. Is it just those games or everything?
Click to expand...

my thoughts

What type of mouse? Interface? USB, PS2? did you install drivers for it (b/c I dont!)?

I've found some mouse drivers, screw things up!!
 
I just realized something. Sometimes when I'm doing regular tasks like browsing the internet or just at my desktop I hear a loud sqeaking or buzzing noise. Is that my harddrive? It happens for a little bit then goes away. It happens on and off at random times.
 
If it's a high-pitched. sorta whistling sound, it could be resonating coils. This often happens on videocards, eg when you scroll a page up and down quickly.
The coils will somehow resonate because of the magnetic effect from the current passing through them. Proper coils are waxpotted, where the wax keeps the coil from moving.
 
Hunter1942 said:
I just realized something. Sometimes when I'm doing regular tasks like browsing the internet or just at my desktop I hear a loud sqeaking or buzzing noise. Is that my harddrive? It happens for a little bit then goes away. It happens on and off at random times.
Click to expand...
Is this sound comming from the box or from the speakers? If it is comming from the speakers, it could be caused by a ground loop; move the speakers to an outlet closer to the one the box runs off of, or get a power filter. I've had this happen before, sounds odd. Anyways, you don't mention the speakers, so this is probably not your problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top