Solve : New Motherboard + CPU = Ridiculously Sluggish?

1.	Solve : New Motherboard + CPU = Ridiculously Sluggish?
Answer» AMD Athlon 64 4000+ CPU Foxconn 761GXK8MB-RS motherboard Corsair 2x512MB RAM Sapphire RADEON X1950 XTX 512MB graphics card Windows XP Pro with SP2 and fully updated in every respect I bought the aforementioned motherboard as part of a double pack which also included AMD's Athlon 64 4000+ CPU. The two items of hardware were installed swiftly and correctly, replacing the two older items and a clean install of Windows XP was thusly undertaken. The first thing I did upon the initial bootup to the desktop (which I noticed was very fast) was pop in the included motherboard CD to install the necessary drivers. The menu instructed me to install each of the supplied drivers in sequence. This I did, with the exception of not installing the SiS RAID, VGA, DirectX 9.0 and USB 2.0 drivers. The former driver was not essential according to the included manual, so I left it out. The VGA driver failed to install due to an error message complaining that the relevant device was "not detected". DirextX 9.0c I installed manually via a burned copy of the latest installation file I made prior to the reinstall, so as to ensure I have the very latest version. I have Windows XP, therefore I opted to enable USB 2.0 support manually. The problem is that since the installation of the drivers (I suspect the IDE chipset driver is the culprit), my computer is remarkably slow for such a high-end machine. From switching on the power button to the desktop appearing, the overall time it takes to fully load up is just under three minutes. The WinFast splash screen at the very beginning of the startup process hangs for about twenty seconds, and the "Loading Windows XP" screen with the horizontally roving blue bar under the icon takes just under two minutes to complete its load. Also an annoyance is the lack of speed from within Windows, once everything has loaded. Programs such as Internet Explorer and games take a while to load (about five and ten seconds, respectively). Perhaps the most irritating flaw of all is that the computer MOMENTARILY freezes for about half a second every FULL second. This particular problem is easily witnessed when I slowly and smoothly move my mouse from one side of my desktop to another (moves, stops for a split second, moves, stops for a split second etc). The freezes are all at very regular one second intervals. It isn't just the mouse that freezes, THOUGH - the whole computer locks up too during this process. For instance, movement in 3D games is jerky and renders the games unplayable and virus scans take about twice as long as they should due to a short half-second pause every second. This does not happen constantly. Usually it only makes its presence known when there is at least two programs running that require substantial resources. As of typing this message, I have Comodo Personal Firewall Pro and Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 running. Even at this very moment, as I scroll up to view the first PARAGRAPH of this message, there are two pauses in the scrolling action. I have Service Pack 2 installed and also every single essential update for my copy of Windows XP. My graphics card drivers are up-to-date and they have also been installed correctly. There is no chance of them conflicting with others as my hard drive was formatted completely prior to the fresh install of Windows XP. It seems to me that the installation of the IDE driver for my motherboard (off the supplied CD) has impacted on my computer's performance greatly. Worth noting is that my current system is slower and more sluggish than my previous one, which included an Athlon 3000+ processor and a very basic Gigabyte motherboard, along with a 128mb graphics card (my current card is superior - see top of message). If somebody could provide me with any pointers which indicate what might be the problem here, I would be very grateful and more than willing to cooperate by trying every solution/method described in a reply. Thanks for your time, Jonathan Storey.Go to device manager --> IDE/ATA/ATAPI controllers, and right click all of them and look in the properties sheet. Ensure that DMA is enabled on every entry there, under Advanced Settings --> Transfer mode. Also, enable DMA in the BIOS if it is not enabled already. It could also be a virus - what protection do you have? How is it in safe mode?Thanks for the reply. All three of my controllers have DMA transfer mode enabled, and oddly enough I could not find any mention of DMA in my BIOS anywhere. I could be wrong, of course but I had a thorough search for about five minutes and could not seem to find any trace of it. I have Avast! Antivirus Pro and Ad-aware Pro/Spybot S&D running on my system currently and all three were run the day before yesterday, immediaterly after installing my drivers. Obviously I won't dispel the possibility of a virus, although I find it very unlikely I have one. Safe Mode behaves in the same manner as standard, although I notice the freezing is less common. It happens in Safe Mode only when programs are loading. In normal mode it occurs both when programs load and when they run. This freezing even happens when nothing is running, I have recently noticed.Sounds like it's not down to malware to me. In the BIOS, DMA can be hard to find. It may not even be there. In mine, I go to settings, then select the drive and choose DMA transfer mode. Like I say, it may not be there, don't worry about it. Safe Mode is usually a little slow, but the fact that it freezes less in safe mode suggests it is something you've done or that loads. Can you post a list of what runs at startup? Go to Start --> Run --> type msconfig and press enter, then choose startup. What is checked there? And do you have the latest Windows updates?Calum, Thanks for the help. I've just unexpectedly spent a fortnight in hospital, so I hope it didn't appear rude that your response to my problem was not recognised. Anyhow, I took the machine to a local computer shop today and was told that my power supply was to blame. The problem was with the video only, as music was playing fine, and my monster graphics card could not cope under the pressure of a mere 300W PSU. I've got a new one installed and everything seems to be okay. The only thing is... is it possible that I have damaged/degraded the overall performance of my graphics card by running it for about a month with an insufficient wattage (450 watt plus was required)? Once again, I really appreciate the feedback. Quote The problem was with the video only, as music was playing fine, and my monster graphics card could not cope under the pressure of a mere 300W PSU. I've got a new one installed and everything seems to be okay. 300 wats! Ouch! That is why it is important to include ALL details about a machine when seeking insight into a problem. The power supply is often neglected in an upgrade, or an "el cheapo" is used which can damage other components. Only time will tell. Quote Only time will tell. Oh God, don't say that. I'm in a state of threatening paranoia, believing that my games are performing not quite as fast as they would with a brand new and untouched model of my graphics card.300W is very low for such a highly mentioned machine. You would be much better off with a 450+ at least. 500+ with a bulky video card (or SLI/crossfire). Not saying you need to drop everything and run to the store, but I would never rely on a powersupply included in a case. My personal favorite is Antec. But go to Newegg.com and search around, they've got some awesome reviews about all of them. Then TRY your luck in the store, since high end powersupplies are a heavy thing to ship (the quality of a powersupply can be told, in most cases, by the heavier it is the more quality). Either way you get it, I'd recomend the upgrade. Quote Calum, Thanks for the help. I've just unexpectedly spent a fortnight in hospital, so I hope it didn't appear rude that your response to my problem was not recognised. Anyhow, I took the machine to a local computer shop today and was told that my power supply was to blame. The problem was with the video only, as music was playing fine, and my monster graphics card could not cope under the pressure of a mere 300W PSU. I've got a new one installed and everything seems to be okay. The only thing is... is it possible that I have damaged/degraded the overall performance of my graphics card by running it for about a month with an insufficient wattage (450 watt plus was required)? Once again, I really appreciate the feedback. That's fine, glad you got it sorted and thanks for posting back. That graphics card needed a much better PSU, where did you get that PC from? Your graphics card will probably not have been damaged by running it with an insufficient wattage, don't worry about it too much. Quote Quote Only time will tell. Oh God, don't say that. I'm in a state of threatening paranoia, believing that my games are performing not quite as fast as they would with a brand new and untouched model of my graphics card. I'd say it should be OK, as long as the PSU you had was good quality. So just keep an eye on it for the next few weeks/months, see how it's going. If you think it's not performing as it should, Google for benchmarks of the card and compare. lasherz - they already have a new PSU, so they don't need a new one. Nice post anyway though.

Answer» AMD Athlon 64 4000+ CPU
Foxconn 761GXK8MB-RS motherboard
Corsair 2x512MB RAM
Sapphire RADEON X1950 XTX 512MB graphics card

Windows XP Pro with SP2 and fully updated in every respect

I bought the aforementioned motherboard as part of a double pack which also included AMD's Athlon 64 4000+ CPU. The two items of hardware were installed swiftly and correctly, replacing the two older items and a clean install of Windows XP was thusly undertaken.

The first thing I did upon the initial bootup to the desktop (which I noticed was very fast) was pop in the included motherboard CD to install the necessary drivers. The menu instructed me to install each of the supplied drivers in sequence. This I did, with the exception of not installing the SiS RAID, VGA, DirectX 9.0 and USB 2.0 drivers.

The former driver was not essential according to the included manual, so I left it out. The VGA driver failed to install due to an error message complaining that the relevant device was "not detected". DirextX 9.0c I installed manually via a burned copy of the latest installation file I made prior to the reinstall, so as to ensure I have the very latest version. I have Windows XP, therefore I opted to enable USB 2.0 support manually.

The problem is that since the installation of the drivers (I suspect the IDE chipset driver is the culprit), my computer is remarkably slow for such a high-end machine.

From switching on the power button to the desktop appearing, the overall time it takes to fully load up is just under three minutes. The WinFast splash screen at the very beginning of the startup process hangs for about twenty seconds, and the "Loading Windows XP" screen with the horizontally roving blue bar under the icon takes just under two minutes to complete its load.

Also an annoyance is the lack of speed from within Windows, once everything has loaded. Programs such as Internet Explorer and games take a while to load (about five and ten seconds, respectively). Perhaps the most irritating flaw of all is that the computer MOMENTARILY freezes for about half a second every FULL second.

This particular problem is easily witnessed when I slowly and smoothly move my mouse from one side of my desktop to another (moves, stops for a split second, moves, stops for a split second etc). The freezes are all at very regular one second intervals.

It isn't just the mouse that freezes, THOUGH - the whole computer locks up too during this process. For instance, movement in 3D games is jerky and renders the games unplayable and virus scans take about twice as long as they should due to a short half-second pause every second.

This does not happen constantly. Usually it only makes its presence known when there is at least two programs running that require substantial resources. As of typing this message, I have Comodo Personal Firewall Pro and Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 running. Even at this very moment, as I scroll up to view the first PARAGRAPH of this message, there are two pauses in the scrolling action.

I have Service Pack 2 installed and also every single essential update for my copy of Windows XP. My graphics card drivers are up-to-date and they have also been installed correctly. There is no chance of them conflicting with others as my hard drive was formatted completely prior to the fresh install of Windows XP.

It seems to me that the installation of the IDE driver for my motherboard (off the supplied CD) has impacted on my computer's performance greatly. Worth noting is that my current system is slower and more sluggish than my previous one, which included an Athlon 3000+ processor and a very basic Gigabyte motherboard, along with a 128mb graphics card (my current card is superior - see top of message).

If somebody could provide me with any pointers which indicate what might be the problem here, I would be very grateful and more than willing to cooperate by trying every solution/method described in a reply.

Thanks for your time,
Jonathan Storey.Go to device manager --> IDE/ATA/ATAPI controllers, and right click all of them and look in the properties sheet.
Ensure that DMA is enabled on every entry there, under Advanced Settings --> Transfer mode.
Also, enable DMA in the BIOS if it is not enabled already.
It could also be a virus - what protection do you have?
How is it in safe mode?Thanks for the reply.

All three of my controllers have DMA transfer mode enabled, and oddly enough I could not find any mention of DMA in my BIOS anywhere. I could be wrong, of course but I had a thorough search for about five minutes and could not seem to find any trace of it.

I have Avast! Antivirus Pro and Ad-aware Pro/Spybot S&D running on my system currently and all three were run the day before yesterday, immediaterly after installing my drivers. Obviously I won't dispel the possibility of a virus, although I find it very unlikely I have one.

Safe Mode behaves in the same manner as standard, although I notice the freezing is less common. It happens in Safe Mode only when programs are loading. In normal mode it occurs both when programs load and when they run. This freezing even happens when nothing is running, I have recently noticed.Sounds like it's not down to malware to me.
In the BIOS, DMA can be hard to find.
It may not even be there.
In mine, I go to settings, then select the drive and choose DMA transfer mode.
Like I say, it may not be there, don't worry about it.
Safe Mode is usually a little slow, but the fact that it freezes less in safe mode suggests it is something you've done or that loads.
Can you post a list of what runs at startup?
Go to Start --> Run --> type msconfig and press enter, then choose startup.
What is checked there?
And do you have the latest Windows updates?Calum,

Thanks for the help. I've just unexpectedly spent a fortnight in hospital, so I hope it didn't appear rude that your response to my problem was not recognised.

Anyhow, I took the machine to a local computer shop today and was told that my power supply was to blame. The problem was with the video only, as music was playing fine, and my monster graphics card could not cope under the pressure of a mere 300W PSU. I've got a new one installed and everything seems to be okay.

The only thing is... is it possible that I have damaged/degraded the overall performance of my graphics card by running it for about a month with an insufficient wattage (450 watt plus was required)?

Once again, I really appreciate the feedback. Quote

The problem was with the video only, as music was playing fine, and my monster graphics card could not cope under the pressure of a mere 300W PSU. I've got a new one installed and everything seems to be okay.

300 wats! Ouch! That is why it is important to include ALL details about a machine when seeking insight into a problem. The power supply is often neglected in an upgrade, or an "el cheapo" is used which can damage other components.

Only time will tell.
Quote

Only time will tell.

Oh God, don't say that.

I'm in a state of threatening paranoia, believing that my games are performing not quite as fast as they would with a brand new and untouched model of my graphics card.300W is very low for such a highly mentioned machine. You would be much better off with a 450+ at least. 500+ with a bulky video card (or SLI/crossfire). Not saying you need to drop everything and run to the store, but I would never rely on a powersupply included in a case. My personal favorite is Antec. But go to Newegg.com and search around, they've got some awesome reviews about all of them. Then TRY your luck in the store, since high end powersupplies are a heavy thing to ship (the quality of a powersupply can be told, in most cases, by the heavier it is the more quality). Either way you get it, I'd recomend the upgrade. Quote

Calum,

Thanks for the help. I've just unexpectedly spent a fortnight in hospital, so I hope it didn't appear rude that your response to my problem was not recognised.

Anyhow, I took the machine to a local computer shop today and was told that my power supply was to blame. The problem was with the video only, as music was playing fine, and my monster graphics card could not cope under the pressure of a mere 300W PSU. I've got a new one installed and everything seems to be okay.

The only thing is... is it possible that I have damaged/degraded the overall performance of my graphics card by running it for about a month with an insufficient wattage (450 watt plus was required)?

Once again, I really appreciate the feedback.

That's fine, glad you got it sorted and thanks for posting back.
That graphics card needed a much better PSU, where did you get that PC from?
Your graphics card will probably not have been damaged by running it with an insufficient wattage, don't worry about it too much.
Quote

Quote
Only time will tell.

Oh God, don't say that.

I'm in a state of threatening paranoia, believing that my games are performing not quite as fast as they would with a brand new and untouched model of my graphics card.

I'd say it should be OK, as long as the PSU you had was good quality.
So just keep an eye on it for the next few weeks/months, see how it's going.
If you think it's not performing as it should, Google for benchmarks of the card and compare.
lasherz - they already have a new PSU, so they don't need a new one.
Nice post anyway though.

Solve : New Motherboard + CPU = Ridiculously Sluggish?

Discussion

No Comment Found

Related InterviewSolutions

Reply to Comment