Help! New computer running VERY choppy!!!

[MrDudeMan]

i built a new computer for my friend, and its running very choppy...ive never had this problem...see what you think

ECS K7S5A 1.333 gHz T-Bird
256mb Kingston PC133 Ram
40 gb Maxtor Hard Drive (i think this thing is a piece of crap like most maxtors)
Sound Blaster Live
OCZ Goliath (i think maybe its getting too hot...this thing is a piece of crap also)
38cfm Sunon fan w/ 60mm to 80mm converter on HSF
38cfm Sunon fan rear exhaust
some weird case, its not bad and its got a decent path for airflow
and a 4x burner which apparently will not work as a burner anymore..maybe its the cd-burning software, i dunno

ok this is the problem...my duron 800@1000 is a lot faster than this thing
do i need to run some burn in programs on it to get it nicely broken it and running smooth?
my computer boots faster, opens programs faster, etc.

when i open MS word, i dont have time to read ANYTHING on the box that shows the info on it
on his computer, i have time to read most of the writing, and there is quite a bit

i cant figure out why it is getting so hot...maybe the HSF sucks, which i think it does
cpu temp idle is 42 celcius and 49 celcius under load
system temp is 29-31 celcius all the time
and the computer is cooler when the side of the case is off....

any ideas?

 

[Oyeve]

Sounds like the HS is not on properly or you have to little or maybe even too much thermal compound. Check that out.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

if the heatsink was on wrong, your cpu would be hot, which it is not. the cpu is fine, 42-49C is fine for a Tbird. what OS are you running? how fast is the hard drive? if its win2k, make sure to get sp2 so DMA is enabled on the hard drive.

try running 3dmark and see how it does there. get sandra and try to do some tests to find out which component is running slowly.

edit: try pulling out the burner and sb live and anything else not needed, see if that helps anything, try to narrow it down to one specific piece of hardware.

 

[MrDudeMan]

awesome...thanks so much guys

where can i get sandra and 3dmark2000?


does sp2 really make a diff? and yes its win2k


and i think its still a little hot...i mean i know that temp is ok, but cpu's run better when they are cooler im pretty sure, i dunno

 

[Rhombuss]

At stock speeds, any temperature below a CPU's critical breach point is irrelevant to how it performs. You can have it minus 100 celsius, or 60 celsius - if they're running stock it doesn't matter.

I think you have one of the following problems:

IRQ conflict - check your soundcard and make sure it's not sharing an IRQ address with another device
Make sure you're using an 80pin IDE cable for that Maxtor harddrive
Win2K has a crapload of background services running that you're unaware of

This is most likely a software related problem, I know some burning programs can slow systems down with the ASPI drivers no longer detect functioning burner devices. And like BingBong said, TB's usually run at those temperatures so it's nothing you should be worried about.

 

[Toro 45]

Yep,sounds like DMA on the hard drive.
Toro

 

[BFG10K]

Make sure your video card is not running in PCI mode.

 

[MrDudeMan]

guys you are giving me great information, but i dont know how to check or change some of this stuff...

how do i make sure my vcard is in AGP not PCI

how do i check and make sure there is not an IRQ conflict

i dont have sp2 on this computer but DMA is enabled..is sp2 necessary for DMA? if so, how is mine working? this computer is really fast, and its a duron 800@1000...and i mean its fast. i built a computer for my friend...iwill xp333, athlon 2000+, 512mb pc2700 OCZ ram, 32x burner, the works...and it isnt a ton faster than mine. does the fact that i have had mine forever and it is "worked in" or something...that it could be pretty fast and this new one might be having that problem? it just isnt "broken in?"

maybe that was stupid, if so, disregard it and help me with my questions right before it please


thanks

 

[MrDudeMan]

one other thing..when i select shutdown from the menu, it restarts...it USED to turn off, but now it just restarts....wtf is that all about?



ok and it just restarted for no reason right in the middle of the OS...what is going on with this POS?

 

[MrDudeMan]

i just thought of something else...could the onboard sound be causing a problem?

 

[dejacky]

it really does sound like an IRQ conflict to me. BTW, does anyone know how to change IRQ assignments in Win98se with the ECS K7S5A board? My sound card is sharing an IRQ with the onboard Lan and my video card. I'd like to get these all on separate IRQ's but don't know how. Yes, I get some of that choppy performance at times & I KNOW it's attributed to this IRQ sharing. Thanks in advance.

-dejacky

 

[MrDudeMan]

yeah i agree dejacky....

thank so much so far guys! i got sandra, tested my computer, ran the burn in, and i can notice some degree of improvement, but its still running very slow for how fast it should be!


how do i get this stuff on different IRQ settings??

my usb controller, onboard audio device, and onboard lan are all on IRQ 11 and that isnt good. i took out the sblive to see if that was the problem and it wasnt, so when i put it back in, how do i assign its IRQ? because i think it goes to another IRQ which already had a device on it.

basically, what i need is a way to change all of the IRQs on the computer and i think i can solve this problem, but i just dont know how to do what...

this is windows 2000 w/ sp2by the way

TIA!

 

[Mavrick007]

<< it really does sound like an IRQ conflict to me. BTW, does anyone know how to change IRQ assignments in Win98se with the ECS K7S5A board? My sound card is sharing an IRQ with the onboard Lan and my video card. I'd like to get these all on separate IRQ's but don't know how. Yes, I get some of that choppy performance at times & I KNOW it's attributed to this IRQ sharing. Thanks in advance. -dejacky >>


You can manually change any irq setting for your devices in Win98SE. Just go to the device manager, double click on the device you want to change, go to resources tab, uncheck the use automatic settings box and then you see the change settings button comes visible. Scroll down your list and when you get to the presently set irq you can click on change setting and it will pop up another box where you can change the irq. Make sure whatever you change can actually use that irq and you should be fine.

 

[MrDudeMan]

ok how do you change them in win2k?

 

[MrDudeMan]

help...this has to be done by tomorrow

 

[Amused]

Here's an idea. Pull everything out of the box except the vid card, one HDD, and a CD drive. Boot to CD, format and reload Windows. If you're still having problems, it's not an IRQ conflict and is probably related to a bad mobo, CPU, RAM, drives, or drive settings.

If everything is running smoothly, start adding componants one by one. I'd start with the NIC and D/L all your service packs from MS.

When you get to adding it, make sure your sound card is in a PCI slot that does not share an IRQ with anything. This usually rules out PCI 1 and PCI 3. In fact, the only thing I've ever had run smoothly in PCI 1 is a NIC, but even that's a crap shoot.

When ever I build a new box, I always do it this way. I never load Windows on a new box with anything that is not absolutely necessary to do so installed.

 

[MrDudeMan]

well see my problem is that the motherboard has built in audio/lan...so can i just disable it in the bios before formatting?

 

[acidvoodoo]

<< well see my problem is that the motherboard has built in audio/lan...so can i just disable it in the bios before formatting? >>



yea

 

[MrDudeMan]

oh alright, thanks guys

 

[dejacky]

Mavrick007, thanks for the information, I'll try it Sunday night.

-dejacky

 

[dejacky]

okay, i wasn't able to get my sound card on a different IRQ # but 5, i've tried all pci slots too. I think it's doing this since I installed the original OS with "acpi aware os" option in bios ON. After turning this option in the bios off, i still can't get my sound card on a different irq. :-(. it's the hercules muse XL. will reinstalling everything on my computer with he "acpi aware os" OFF enable me to manually choose irq's for my pci devices? thanks in advance.
OS = Win98se

-dejacky

 

[dejacky]

bump
pls help me

 

[DavemanUT]

Try upgrading all your drivers. I didn't read the whole post, so sorry if that has been mentioned. I got CRAPPY performance from my WinXP system, til I upgraded the video card drivers.

Good luck!

D.C.

P.S. Doesn't your board take DDR and SDR? If so, is there a jumper or selector for this?

 

[dejacky]

i'm using DDR.

 

[dejacky]