Still Running Like Crap

D

DeadlyAura

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
4,849
So my C3 system hasn't gotten any better.

I assumed that it was a bad Windows install after having talked with a few people on here. So today, I reformatted and I'm still having the same problems.

Video files won't play correctly, the video jumps and skips, no smooth playback.

At first I thought it was just Windows Media Player being a resource hog, so I tried Media Player Classic and it still lags. I even tried YouTube, (Flash Player) and it too lagged on me.

Before the install, I also had a problem where upon booting, the PC would get locked in a boot cycle, as soon as Windows started, it automatically rebooted. I haven't experienced this since the re-install, but I'm still nervous it will happen again.

Also, the machine likes to lock up for no reason. At any point, doing anything, at any time. Again, this hasn't happened since the reinstall either.

This only started happening to me after my previous Windows install. Before that it worked great, the reason I reinstalled that one is because it was running a pirated version of Windows and I had to reformat with a clean version.

All drivers are installed and working properly.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Specs:
Proc: VIA C3 Samuel 2
Mobo: M789CG
NB: CLE266
SB: VT8235
Mem: 1Gb G.Skill DDR400
HDD: WD 80Gb ATA133
PSU: AOpen 300W Micro ATX
 
To be honest, my C3 is on the shelf now for that exact reason. I couldn't get that stupid thing to perform good on anything - it even struggled with a super-light Linux router distro! I got a C7 and never looked back.
 
=/

It used to work great. I dunno what happened.

I'm going to assume that Windows has just become a real resource hog over the years and the C3 wants no part of it.

Maybe time to upgrade to a C7. :(
 
DeadlyAura said:
=/

It used to work great. I dunno what happened.

I'm going to assume that Windows has just become a real resource hog over the years and the C3 wants no part of it.

Maybe time to upgrade to a C7. :(
Click to expand...

Why don't you try out Ubuntu?

Also, make sure you've properly installed the latest drivers for XP.
 
These sound exactly like my problems. Video plays like crap and so does everything when there are more than one process that is taking more than 10% of the CPU power. But my CPU is an AMD 754. My NFORCE3 board was giving me a ton of memory errors. It would have Windows crash at least once a week. Of course the only thing you can find for a 754 nowdays are these cheap basement bargain VIA boards.
 
From personal experience I can say that VIA's integrated video is scandalously awful and the source of a large percentage of the platform's instability. Unless I'm mistaken, it's still based on some weird hybridization of the Savage2000's 2D core married to the 3D core of the Savage4. Now the 3D being outdated isn't punch-in-the-nuts bad for what most of these systems are used for, but there's no excuse for technology now fully eight years old to be so unstable. Make certain you're running the latest motherboard chipset and video drivers, and keep your fingers crossed. If all else fails, find a trustworthy PCI video card, slap that in there, disable the onboard video (if possible), and see how that fares.

If you're attempting to run Linux on one of these cheeky bastards, be sure to recompile the kernel with appropriate optimizations. In my experience Ubuntu offers download and automatic configuration of optimized kernels for different architectures; see if they offer one for the C3. If you roll your own kernel, there should be an option to optimize for the C3 natively. Good luck on getting this thing to work properly.
 
Just a couple notes on Linux on the C3 - just got done rebuilding my EPIA-5000 system this weekend, and figured I'd save you some time.

http://heelix.multiply.com/journal/item/53/Ordered_a_walmart_special..._gOS_dev_board

Short version, the C3 is an i586 - and most of the 'modern' distros are rigged for i686, which will cause all sorts of weirdness. Ubuntu 7.10 (and variants thereof) will figure out you have a C3 under the covers. Centos/RHEL/OEL/Gentoo don't... OOTB.
 
and sits idle most of the time. Runs openbsd as a firewall just dandy for ages.

Switch os ? :)
 
heelix said:
Just a couple notes on Linux on the C3 - just got done rebuilding my EPIA-5000 system this weekend, and figured I'd save you some time.

http://heelix.multiply.com/journal/item/53/Ordered_a_walmart_special..._gOS_dev_board

Short version, the C3 is an i586 - and most of the 'modern' distros are rigged for i686, which will cause all sorts of weirdness. Ubuntu 7.10 (and variants thereof) will figure out you have a C3 under the covers. Centos/RHEL/OEL/Gentoo don't... OOTB.
Click to expand...
Interesting. I wonder if over they years Windows has assumed i686 and above as well, leading to the problems in this thread.

On another note, someone should start a new thread. Something more positive. The only thing to show for VIA for the past two weeks or more has been this thread saying they run like crap :D:p
 
I have seen this thread countless times but its less then a page long :p
 
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