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Terrible Performance - Still.

T

The Donut

2[H]4U
Joined
Jan 28, 2003
Messages
3,122
Hey guys,

I'm still getting horrible performance within Windows with this machine.

When games are loaded and playing it's fine, no problems, but in windows alot of the time it takes ages to do stuff and programs will just take forever to load, simple ones like IE, MSN Messenger, then they freeze for a minute then finish loading.

Something's going on, I know that, and i can't for the life of me figure it out.

Could it be not enough power? I mean is it possible that not enough power would cause sluggish performance, I didn't think it was.

Specs:

IC7 MAX3
P4 2.6C
AIW 9800 Pro
512MB DDR2700
Enermax300W PSU
40GB Maxtor 7200RPM

Sometimes, I swear, it runs worse and slower than my wifes PII-450.

I've tried memtest and prime, it runs stable, just SLOW. But as I said, in games it's fine, once they finally load.

Formatted, Defragged, Spywared, Virus'd, Help :confused:
 
format/defrag/spyware clean again...?
has the computer always performed like this?
you never specified which version of windows it is.
is it a legal copy of windows? ive heard complaints about unregistered copies being really slow (i dont know whether this is true or not, but its worth mentioning)
try resetting bios, maybe theres some type of a timing glitch, i donno.
 
How long was it connected to the net before you put antivirus/firewall/patches on it?

I know someone who set up a machine to see how long it would take to get hold. And it lasted a good 3 seconds. Of course this was when a virus was going nuts but still.
 
It's got no virus' or spyware, its been defragged enough, ive tried alot to get this thing, its always been like this since I got the new parts.

Windows XP, Retail, MSDN Edition. MSDN subscriber.
 
So you have checked ran an antivirus, checked for spyware, and defragmented??

Hmmmm Have you updated windows???
Are all your hardware drivers uodated?
Is you antivirus and spyware scanner updated?

Hell if none of that works or applies then I am going to say do a good old refromat.

EDIT: " its always been like this since I got the new parts."

What parts are new in that system MB, VIDEOCARD? You might have drivers from your old hardware conflicting with the new stuff.
 
Originally posted by Carnival Forces
one word.

tweak.
Click to expand...

I shouldn't have to tweak an IC7MAX3 and P4 2.6C to run better than a PII-450, period.

And no old drivers, i've tried reformatting and the usual stuff, I can only think perhaps theres something wrong with the mobo. Unless anyone else can state otherwise.
 
There is a new BIOS update for your mobo, i just flashed mine yesterday b/c of powering on problems which the flash fixed for me.
 
It is very possible that your PSU is not performing for you. I would borrow one from a friend to test. You might want to consider getting a new PSU anyway. You have a lot of power hungry components.
 
Originally posted by The Donut
I shouldn't have to tweak an IC7MAX3 and P4 2.6C to run better than a PII-450, period.

And no old drivers, i've tried reformatting and the usual stuff, I can only think perhaps theres something wrong with the mobo. Unless anyone else can state otherwise.
Click to expand...

yes you should, if the PII has been tweaked.

trust me, on the Tweak Thread it specifically talks about flashing BIOSes (MOBO Drivers), tweaking out your BIOS, and even www.windowsupdate.com ; something i haven't seen you mention.
 
Originally posted by The Donut
Latest updates are installed and the PII 450 isn't tweaked at all.
Click to expand...
lol, k , then it might be your PSU :D, or you just got REALLLLY unlucky and got crappy components for all of them... :(
 
Could the PSU really cause sluggish performance? Reboots and crashes I understand, but slowness?

:confused:
 
well, if it were really crappy and didn't deliver correct//delivers sporadic voltage to various components, then yeah, i think it could.

try swapping out parts individually to other computers and see what kind of a performance impact there is, then when you isolate the problem, RMA it.

EDIT: oi, that old pII system, it's not running XP, and all you're comparing is Windows performance (right?), Therefore, if the pII is running something *cough* godly *cough* like Win98SE it might seem to perform better than your current rig running WinXP (is it Pro or Home, btw?).

just a thought, (if this thought is right, then you gotta tweak :D)
 
just out of curiousity, did you leave your memory timings to be configured by SPD settings or did you change them manually?
 
Do you have all those silly graphical effects on in Windows XP? Like the pretty-colored taskbar, round buttons, menus dance-and-sing when you click on them, letters fading in when you type, windows exploding when you close them, etc.? Those really slow down a computer... Basically, is the p450 running a similarly set-up OS?

How full is your harddrive?
 
Ample amount of disk space and the thememing service is disabled, has been since install.

:confused:
 
Originally posted by The Donut
They're left to SPD and yes the PII450 is running XP, rather well infact. heh
Click to expand...

i suggest you permanently move to your pII system. If the shame invoked in your new system doesn't move it to perform better, nothing will.

EDIT: but you'll never know if the tweaks would have worked if you would have but tried them :D
 
DMA inabled?
Intel Chipset Drivers?
Intel Application Accelerator?

Get em if you dont have em
 
All installed.

The PII-450 is looking tempting, but, seriously this is silly! Could a faulty motherboard cause the sluggish results?

Note: I just formatted to Windows 2000 and so far it's faster, although still sluggish at certian points.
 
This is sickening me. Try the damn tweaks, if they don't work, RMA EVERYTHING (b/c you just got shitty components on ALL of them...i'm so sorry man :()
 
I want you to run sisoft sandra, 3dmark 2003, etc and post me screenies of your scores
 
Ok - I'll get and run those progs, then i'll run the tweaks. But as I said, a man shouldn't have to tweak the shit out of a system to make IE load up in less than 3 minutes or MSN. It's ridiculous.
 
im thinking you disabled someting in the bios you shouldnt have or something...
 
Try reducing your swap file size, or disabling it altogether.

Personally, I have a P4-C processor, IC7 mobo, and decent PC3500 RAM at CAS2, and this thing flies with no swap file. Absolutely no hesitation in ANYTHING (even starting up something like Photoshop). I couldn't be happier with the regular Windows performance of this machine.

First, disable the swap file. It may current;y be unnecessarily large and fragmented. Secondly, benchmark your HDD using Sandra and confirm that that is not your weak link. Thirdly, make sure your RAM isn't in CAS3 mode.

Really, your system should be flying!
 
Originally posted by The Donut
Ok - I'll get and run those progs, then i'll run the tweaks. But as I said, a man shouldn't have to tweak the shit out of a system to make IE load up in less than 3 minutes or MSN. It's ridiculous.
Click to expand...

If it's taking more than two seconds for IE to pop up on your system, something's terribly wrong. On my system, IE pops up a split-second after the double-click.
 
Try reducing your swap file size, or disabling it altogether.

Personally, I have a P4-C processor, IC7 mobo, and decent PC3500 RAM at CAS2, and this thing flies with no swap file. Absolutely no hesitation in ANYTHING (even starting up something like Photoshop). I couldn't be happier with the regular Windows performance of this machine.

First, disable the swap file. It may current;y be unnecessarily large and fragmented. Secondly, benchmark your HDD using Sandra and confirm that that is not your weak link. Thirdly, make sure your RAM isn't in CAS3 mode.

Really, your system should be flying.
 
Here are the Sandra results, the filesystem is troubling, could this be the weak link?


CPU Arithmetic
cpu_arithmetic.jpg


CPU Multimedia
cpu_multimedia.jpg


Memory
memory.jpg


File System
filesyste.jpg


Cache
cache.jpg


ATA
ata.jpg


the harddrive/filesystemATA seems to be a weak link, is it?
 
do you have Hyperthreading enabled?
also, are you sure you have Intel Application Accelerator? becuase it is optomized storage drivers that help more than 100%
 
Originally posted by onetwo
Try reducing your swap file size, or disabling it altogether.

Personally, I have a P4-C processor, IC7 mobo, and decent PC3500 RAM at CAS2, and this thing flies with no swap file. Absolutely no hesitation in ANYTHING (even starting up something like Photoshop). I couldn't be happier with the regular Windows performance of this machine.

First, disable the swap file. It may current;y be unnecessarily large and fragmented. Secondly, benchmark your HDD using Sandra and confirm that that is not your weak link. Thirdly, make sure your RAM isn't in CAS3 mode.

Really, your system should be flying!
Click to expand...

no offence, but don't listen to what he's saying about the Swap File Size.

just go read the Tweak Guide, and read the more than excellent advice Phoenix86 was kind enough to bestow upon us all.
 
Originally posted by Carnival Forces
no offence, but don't listen to what he's saying about the Swap File Size.

just go read the Tweak Guide, and read the more than excellent advice Phoenix86 was kind enough to bestow upon us all.
Click to expand...

Er, WTF? I just read the thread that you're talking about, and Phoenix himself has disabled the swap file on his own systems:

"Now I eat my own food, so I'm talking from experience here. I have 2 main machine I run, a home and work PC. Both have the PF disabled and I have not seen the negative effects the 'naysayers' always seem to bring up. The worse thing you will see with a PF disabled is 'not enough memory' error when you try to launch an app and you know exactly why that is." - Phoenix86

Again, WTF are you talking about???

The Donut,

Looking at your benchmark scores, every single one of them seems in line with the norm -- even the HDD benchmarks (note that your HDD score is compared to that of SCSI HDDs and RAID 0 setups). Your numbers are fine there.
 
I don't know if this has bee mentioned yet, but how are you formatting your drive? I have fount that if I use the "quick format" option using the XP cd I have problems. Also, I ran into a problem with AVG7. It would slow my machine down to a crawl. Reminded me of my 166 back in the day. I think you really need to consider a software conflict as well.
 
I wouldnt disable your page file unless you have 2GB or more of ram...

plus i never use stupid anti virus software.. it always makes my system slow... i am a careful user, and a smart one, so i dont get viri
 
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