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Extremely slow from the start

I

imported_eddiebaby

Junior Member
I just built a new system and from the start, it is running slower than my PII 350MHz machine. The system is stable (no errors, freezes, etc.) but just really slow.

Here are the specs:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Chaintech VNF4 Ultra motherboard
Chaintech Geforce 6600GT PCIe 16x video card
PQI PC3200 RAM 512MB
Seagate Barracuda 80GB 7200.7 IDE hard drive (on secondary IDE channel, master, formatted NTFS)
Yamaha 24X CD-RW IDE (on primary IDE channel, master)
Windows 2000 SP4

I am running the BIOS with optimized defaults
Tried swapping the HDD and CD-RW in different IDE channels with no change.
Installed the MOBO drivers and video drivers with no change.
Cleared theCMOS several times.
I am pretty sure that DMA is enabled (in device manager, says "DMA if available")
Also when looking in Task Manager, it says that the CPU is running 100% when I haven't added any software other than the OS and drivers.

Any suggestions?

 
well the obvious is to check for virus and malware.
also all security patches and the firewall should be on.
had seen a fellow earlier with100% cpu usage a lot this can be from many causes/applications his was from a download called messenger plus you got that by chance?
good spyware programs free!! are microsofts adaware and spybot
if you have no av program yet there are several online scans you can try and free ones also such as avast and avg.

 
I haven't installed any software other than the OS and the drivers for the MB and video. The install of Win2K was also very slow and right after installing that on a freshly formatted drive (NTFS), it was extremely slow on boot and slow after that.
 
and your saying it has never been hooked up to the internet or another machine..cuz theze days just going online is enough to catch a virus
 
To emphasize that, you don't need to even "go" online, you just need a live network connection to your modem and in comes the bad guys, ready or not.

If that is what's happened, then start over. Format, install Windows, and don't plug in your network cable until you have a firewall running on the computer (I use ZoneAlarm: http://www.zonelabs.com ). Set strong passwords on your Administrator-class accounts, too. I also recommend Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer, it'll help you identify stuff like Restrict Anonymous = 0.
 
OK, it is running at 100%, now tell us what process is utilizing the CPU ?

Tried any benchmark software such as Sandra or AIDA32 to see what they say is the bottleneck?
 
Another thing to check would be your BIOS settings, If something is not set right
it will cause your system to load slow..
 
any updates for today? I also want to see exactly what program throttling ur cpu to 100%.

task manager > processes tab > cpu column

should tell you which program is the culprit
 
also notice you have your harddrive in the secondary ide that is a little odd I would run it on the primary. have yor tried it on cable select just out of curiosity and is your data cable the one that came with the harddrive?
 
Use separate cables for your hard drive and CD drive. It's much faster. Also put the HDD on primary IDE, with CD on secondary.
 
Update:
I reformatted the HDD (NTFS) and reinstalled Win2K without the network connected at all. It was still slow, even through the installation. I tried the HDD on primary and CD on secondary with no change. The HDD started on cable select and I changed it to master with no change. I don't know yet what process is keeping the CPU at 100%. I will try running AIDA32 in a few minutes. In the DMA settings, the CD drive is automatically set to PIO and the HDD is set to Ultra DMA 100. I tried changing the CD drive to DMA 2 but no change.
 
Originally posted by: eddiebaby
Update:
I reformatted the HDD (NTFS) and reinstalled Win2K without the network connected at all. It was still slow, even through the installation. I tried the HDD on primary and CD on secondary with no change. The HDD started on cable select and I changed it to master with no change. I don't know yet what process is keeping the CPU at 100%. I will try running AIDA32 in a few minutes. In the DMA settings, the CD drive is automatically set to PIO and the HDD is set to Ultra DMA 100. I tried changing the CD drive to DMA 2 but no change.
Click to expand...

heres a page talks about being stuck in pio maybe you can glean some info from it.
 
I think that a new hard drive is what I have to do next. I just tried installing windows 98 on the hard drive and after copying the data to the hard drive and booting to it, I waited about 10 minutes on the "starting up windows 98 for the first time" and turned the machine off.
 
end the process thats got the highest memory usage in task manager (unless its explorere.exe (which it should be)) dont forget to tell us what it is and how much ram it was using
 
The process using the most memory was Apache, using 13MB of memory, and in the services screen it said "starting" but never changed from that. However I disabled it and restarted and the problem persisted. I have also booted to safe mode with the same issue.
 
It seems like the processor isn't even running at full speed or something else is screwed up in the BIOS. Did you run CPUID.exe to verify your processor speed? HD tach to verify your HD speed? Is your FSB and voltage for memory and processor set correctly in bios? Something is definitely amiss. That system should be be smoking fast although it is crying out for a SATA hard drive.
 
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