Tech Support Gurus.....

Thunder

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 19, 2004
Messages
103
Nothings gone right in my first build. Now that the computter is assembled and starts, Its not on the level I feel it should be. I have a Dell Dimesions 2400 (cheapo) with 512MB Crucial Pc2700 ram with a 2.4P4. My new computer is a Asus P4S800 with a 3.0P4 and 512MB Crucial PC3700 Ram. The dell feels faster. I am using the stock motherboard settings, and tested my systrem on pc pitstop and everthing was fine, but the processor is below typical. 4196 (88% of 10103 similar) It compares systems aike, so I guess I can make of that that 12% of that 10,000 have over clocked or something? its like 500points off, but anyway, i dont care about pcpitstop, thats jsut some maybe useful info I have Sandra, and will run test as asked (I am new to all this and cant read most of it anyway), but the problems I am getting are like minor hangs. Such as opening dialogs, the dialog opens, but doesnt draw (has the windo under it visible) and frequent programs stop responding just to start. Like I said the mobo is "Stock" config (Auto?) Anything off the bat I should change? You guys know your shit, I dont, maybe you can help. Thanks,
John

Edit: It also takes a while to boot. And here is a pic of the redraw problems or whatever (Photoshop minimized while loading)...
hang.jpg
 
Did you install your drivers in the correct order?

BIOS Update
XP
ChipSet
SP
DirectX
VideoCard?
 
It appears correct, but I couldnt find any chipset drivers persay....On the Asus Cd they list all drivers, I believe 4 of then, LAN, onboard sound, mini-idi, and one other, the USB (according to the manual) is the XP default USB.
 
Anyone? I have reinstalled (format) XP and installed drivers in said order, and I still get frequent pauses and screen lockups when starting/switching between windows etc. My Sanda score for CPU was on par but for CPU Media or whatever it was below. Thanks,
John

If you want, ask and I can run the test and give results, like I said I dont know where to start.
 
Download the intel chipset drivers ... looks like they are not installed ... also ... how are the temps ...? you can download a hardware monitor in Intels website too ...
 
The tempratures:
CPU: 35c
Mobo: 35c
Idle.

Its actually a SiS chipset (could that be the prob ;) ). The system is just not performing how it should Lots of pauses,and I am ctrl-alt-del'ing apps more that I should have too. On SiS's website they list no drivers, and say to go get them from the MoBo mfg.
Here is a link to the Asus site: http://www.asus.com/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=P4S800&Type=Latest
They dont have chipset drivers listed (just and IDE, Integrated Sound, AGP, Lan) should I keep looking or are those them, just not together as one? I have downlaoded and installed all of them, and the motherboard is running latest BIOS.

One thing. My memory I believe is 3v, yet the motherboard, doesnt allow that voltage, i believe 2.5,2.6, and 2.7 or somewhere along those lines.
 
I don't see any relevance to an order, nor has it made a difference in any of the myriad of systems I have built, but whatever trips your trigger. :)
 
Anyone think it might be this $79 (retail :/ not online) BFG Asylum Geforce MX 4000. When I made the comp I didnt anticipate gaming, and my onboard graphics card on the Dell was fine, so I figured a $80 would more than cut it, was I wrong? I do use the PC alot and have a Apache/PHP/MySWL server setup for debugging, Photoshop, Dreamweaver etc. I think its these NVidia drivers that mess it over. I can still return this until the 14th. Any opinions?
 
I doubt its your vid card...might want to see if there's a flash for it. Did you check your AGP settings in your BIOS?
 
Aahhh, yeah, that card could be it. They can slow down systems like that.
 
In the Bios I switched the primary vid port to AGP from PCI and I set the Aperature or whatever :p between 64 and 128, and everything else is "stock", I'll check one more time. Thanks for replies.
 
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=785141

Try out all the tweaks there, esp. the BIOS tweaks. Also ceck out the RAM tweaks in the Memory forums. The latency timers are some of the best tweaks you can do. Increasing the aperture will increase the FPS in games and programs like that. The vid card is hobbling you though, its pretty slow and would be the most important part to upgrade in order to get top performance.
 
while back when i was doing a project photoshop would do that exact same stuff, reason being.. i had like 3,000 fonts installed trying to find a decent one for what i needed.. probably not it tho :eek:
 
Thanks guys, I know its kinda expected of photoshop, but my comp does it with EVERYTHING, not nonstop,but at least once every 5min.
The hard disk is a western digital 80 GB, with 20GB partition for OS, and its 7200RPM. I was thinking maybe HD to since I think my file copies take longer than they should. How can I test this?

Thanks,
 
somewhere there was an article talking about how installing videocard drivers then dx decreased videocard speed my 25%
 
Besides making sure that in the BIOS you have turned off video cacheing, video shadowing, BIOS shadowing, the agp is 1/4 to 1/2 of your system RAM (or set to same size as the video card mem size), reserving an IRQ to the agp, I'd make sure that the correct agpgart file is installed.

Then I would look into control panel -> system -> device manager. I bet you that you have a few devices with red or yellow exlamation marks.

Next I'd make sure that you have the memory in the correct slot.

I'd make sure that all my disc devices have DMA set.

Then i'd do certain things to the OS, like set the swap size to 1.5 - 2x the mem size, turn off simple file sharing, turn off file indexing, turn off all animations and help ballons, etc. I wouldn't even bother with a desktop picture and I'd tweak the usual suspects (turning off unnecessary services, system tray apps., task bar apps (quick launch), make sure there's nothing in the 'startup' folder (start -> programs -> start).

And the 'correct' order is:
OS
set swap space, trash bin space, recycler space
defrag
restore point
chipsets
restore point
SP
defrag
firewall
antivirus
updates (usually to the browser first)
restore point
system apps (Sun Java, antivirus updates, firewall updates)
defrag
video
restore point
dx
sound
restore point
applications
browsers
burning software
restore point
application updates (MSO, photoshop, etc).
defrag
system utilities (anti-spyware, anti-trojan)
restore point
create accounts
 
OK, I have more pics of whats the main problem. I dont really understand that hardware hierarchy, so maybe someone that does can interpret wahts causing it (software, graphics card, processor, motherboard, etc).
a.jpg

b.jpg

All that was just switching between two apps. It does it frequently, and doesnt seem to matter the load the proc. is under.
 
OK ... try this ...

Control panel >> System >> Advanced >> Performance Settings >> Select Adjust for best performance ...

This will turn off all the eye candy in XP ... then set your color quality to 16 bit ...

See if that helps a bit ... if not ... then it's not your video card ...
 
Will do. I do not recall the problems when the monitor was in 800X600 when xp was being setup (installing drivers). If this doesnt have any affect, what are my next options?
I am running a *gasp* stock case 350w, 12a 12v (running at 11.3-11.8v), and i know that needs to be removed, but could that be the cause of my problems? Maybe HD? Ill check back after I switch settings and use it a bit. Thanks again
John
 
Try this, before you try anything else... open up the side of the case, yank out the hard drive and make sure the Jumpers are in the right places. I also need to know if you're using IDE or SCSI drive/s. I was once working on a computer that had SCSI drives in it and he has the jumpers set so that the motherboard would instruct the drives when to start spinning. The problem was this motherboard didn't support this function, so it wouldn't boot. But more importantly, if you have a master drive with the jumper set as a slave, it will SEVERLY slow your computer down in everything it does. Check that and get back to me.
 
What size & make PSU you got, and has it a decent label on side showing the amp ratings for each rail ?
:mad:

If you look in Eventviewer, does the clues refer to one thing, or any clues ?
;)

If in Devicemanager, view everything as well as hidden stuff, see any problems ?
:p
Also, run DXDIAG, and what is the results..Do 3d tests on card.

Have you got onboard video & how set in BIOS ?

Are the displaydrivers you use up to date ?

Have you got Directx9c ?

Have you got Hyperthreading enabled in BIOS, if so, disable it and see ?

Write down all your BIOS settings from A-Z, then scrutinise the options for stuff on Motherboard thats not used and should be disabled ?
 
All the directx test passed, but under one I got the typical draw thing except it was the newegg banner from [H] on top.
The hard disk is IDE.
Its jumpers on the Hard disk are correct, there are no jumpers, and that is listed as Master no slave.
There is no onboard video.
The drivers are the latest from NVidia.
I have latest directx.
Ill also try disabling HT and see.

The PSU:
Stock Aspire 350
Exact Text:
Turbolink Switching Power Supply
Model LC-A350ATX
+3.3 24A
+5 35A
+12 12A
-12 .8A
-5 .5A
+5SB 2.0A
Supports P4
 
wallijonn said:
And the 'correct' order is:
OS
set swap space, trash bin space, recycler space
defrag
restore point
chipsets
restore point
SP
defrag
firewall
antivirus
updates (usually to the browser first)
restore point
system apps (Sun Java, antivirus updates, firewall updates)
defrag
video
restore point
dx
sound
restore point
applications
browsers
burning software
restore point
application updates (MSO, photoshop, etc).
defrag
system utilities (anti-spyware, anti-trojan)
restore point
create accounts

According to who? ;)
 
lol, sorry, what I meant, was look at the pictures where some windows overwrite onttop of each other, it had tyhe directx rectangle test, and i could see the newegg banner ONTOP of the Directx test, and it wasnt supposed to be.
 
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