Kind of Slow in the Tech Support..

[Genesis15]

Long Story Notice.....

2-3 Years ago during a christmas, I'd say 3 Christmas's ago me and my friend built a decent gaming computer at the time... it was built up of these parts:

Intel Celeron 2.20ghz Northwood
Nvidia Geforce4 Ti4200 128 4x AGP
ASRoCK P4AL-800 Motherboard
White Server Tower Aluminum Case
Windows 98
Sparkle 350w PSU
512MB DDR333 Convent RAM

About a year went buy until I finally bugged my mom enough to get my DSL or Cable, I got ADSL from Pivot.Net, While I was @ school they were scheduled to hook it up... But! Turns out they said I needed Windows 98 SE or higher for them to install it... So they went ahead and installed Windows 98 SE over my current OS... So for about 1 mo. maybe my computer ran great I was so happy, then the day came when my computer just kinda got tons of errors and nothing would work, I would click an icon or open a program and it said it didn't exist, sO I formatted many times with Windows 98 SE and the computer ran like crap so finally I said well I'm going to replace some parts since it's probably hardware....
So a year later christmas comes along, so I throw in a 300w Antec Solutions, still not working right... So now I throw in Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade SP1 now upgraded to SP2... Still no luck, so I take jurrastic measures and I installed another 512DDR333 Samsung and switch over the motherboard to a Nforce3-250 Chaintech and add a 64bit 3000+ newcastle, now we have minor improvements but nothing special... Finally I format again and again and again and again restting the CMOS messing around in the case to find aproblem... Nothing no trace of anything just a real slow computer.. Don't get me wrong, right after a format my computer runs pretty good... But about 5 programs in it takes 20 passes on the windows boot screen and 1 whole minute to startup.. My games also run horrid for the most part...
So.. Finally I get a new video card, a XFX 6600GT 8x AGP 128 and yes a major graphics increase but still nothing great and my computer still runs like dog poo... And to this day I still cannot figure out what's wrong, I ran Tests... Like... Spyware Search and Destroy, Adaware SE Pro, AVG Anti-Virus/Nortans, I havea firewall, I reset the CMOS, I ran 3dMark05 and scored pretty good... I havn't ran MeMtest but why should I? I switched over my RAM... So in dire need of a better system I think hey the HDD makes loud noises it's probably that... I was running a 60gig 7.2K Maxtor so I switched it to my current and got a 80gig Western Digital 7.2K 8MB Buffer... Again.. Helped a tiny but but still not back to normal... I have switched over and done everything I can think of.. IT's been a 2 year hell or disaster..
If anyone can help me or give me the link/email/IM of a person/site who knows the answer to my problems I would be thankful... I have posted @ a lot of forums for over a year or 2 and have found no luck... I have also never heard of this and any IT/Store experts I talk to have no clue eigther.. I turn to the ANANDTECH boards to help me out!

Thanks,
Jesse.

 

[zephyrprime]

You're doing this the wrong way. You're blindly putting in different hardware without any testing which is just a way to waste money.
Do this:

1. Consider if you might have some program installed that is causing your problems. I don't mean spyware, I mean one of your regular programs or drivers.
2. Check out your processor speed in the system control panel to make sure you're not thermally throttled.
3. Run the maxtor disk diagnostics.
4. Run prime 95 overnight
5. Run memtest or goldmem to test your memory

 

[Genesis15]

My drivers are installed correctly and my programs are too.

Whats the Prime Program do and whats thermally throttled mean?

 

[Genesis15]

CPU speed is 2.01ghz

 

[Genesis15]

I'll run those 2 programs tonight and check back here tommorow... Other then that your other questions have been answered.

 

[Genesis15]

Ok, I ran MemTest and it came back with no errors it did say:

167mhz(DDr335)
CAS: 2.5-3-3-7
Single Channel (64-Bits)

That doesn't sound right since it's suppose to be dual channel, 333DDR and 166Mhz.

 

[zephyrprime]

Originally posted by: Genesis15
My drivers are installed correctly and my programs are too.

Whats the Prime Program do and whats thermally throttled mean?

They may be installed correctly but even so one of them might be causing your problems. Prime95 is a program that is often used for stability testing. You can download it off the net.

 

[TWills]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
You're doing this the wrong way. You're blindly putting in different hardware without any testing which is just a way to waste money.
Do this:

1. Consider if you might have some program installed that is causing your problems. I don't mean spyware, I mean one of your regular programs or drivers.
2. Check out your processor speed in the system control panel to make sure you're not thermally throttled.
3. Run the maxtor disk diagnostics.
4. Run prime 95 overnight
5. Run memtest or goldmem to test your memory

QFT.



Since you have all new parts now, how could you possibly be having the same problem? Here's what I would do in your current situation:
-Turn off all power saving features in the bios.
-Start at the very beginning with a 100% fresh install of windows. Do not connect to the internet. If it runs fine, the net is screwing things up.
-If the problem presents itself without internet access, the two most likely offenders in my book would be the ram or the hard drive. Swap them one at a time and see if it fixes the problem.
-Your only other option would be the motherboard. The CPU tends to cause wierder, more inconsistent problems, and the video card is completely unrelated to this type of issue.
-If the problem persists, it is time for you to buy a prebuilt a compy and stay away from building your own.

I hope I was helpful somewhere in there. Good luck :thumbsup:

 

[Genesis15]

Naw you weren't helpful, you basically put my computer knowledge down and repeated the problems I listed and allready said I replaced... The harddrive is new! omg lmao.. I just had a fresh install so it's not my internet, @ this current moment im running on a fresh install... The CPU is basically new but I had the problem before upgrading so obviously not... Why buy a pre-built when I can build my own? And yes they are basically new parts I was asking myself that same question... I allready stated I swapped the ram, don't read if your not going to read the whole thing and I also stated I ran a memtest and it came up fine... As far as I'm concerned I'm back @ square one.. Here are more up to date progress,

And it takes 40 PASSES! on the Boot Screen for Windows to load and an additional 20 or so secounds before/after to get to my desktop, that's about 100 Secounds to boot AFTER A FORMAT!...

All that I have installed (In Order):

Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade (sp1)
System Restore Point
Service Pack 2
Sygate Personal Firewall
AVG Anti-Virus
Motherboard Drivers Etc.
Connected to Internet
Video Card Drivers
FireFox

That's all I currently have on my computer right now....
AMD Athlon 64-BIT 754skt 3000+
512x2 PC2700 Samsung/Convent
Nforce3-250 Chaintech
80GB 7.2K RPM 2MB Buffer Ultra ATA-133 Western Digital
XFX 6600GT 8x 128MB 128BIT AGP
Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade /w SP2
300w Antec Solutions

I ran a memtest came up w/ 0 problems/errors, claims I'm only running single-channel though... I thought that was weird... Anywho... Anyone know what my problem is?

 

[ParatoOptimal]

It seems that you've swapped everything.
More power is always good.
Are your CPU and Memory timings matched?
Slow boot could be be spead-up by limiting searches/tests in BIOS.
Win slows when you have much in your My Documents and My Programs folders.
I use My Docs and My Progs folders for as much as I can.

I'm sure you've made sure your sys is grounded and all cards/cables/memory are seated and secured properly.
Do you get any random shutdowns or reboots?

Are your current probs limited to slow performance or are you still having problems clicking on icons that the system can't relate to?
I had similar probs ages ago. A PS swap from 300W to 450W solved the major problems. Later I encountered strangeness with icons/progs not being there that a reformat solved.

Good Luck!

 

[zephyrprime]

Take a look at the system event log in the control panel to see if that can shed any light on the situation.

Also, since you have a socket 754, you cannot run dual channel.

 

[Zarubable]

Originally posted by: Genesis15
Naw you weren't helpful, you basically put my computer knowledge down and repeated the problems I listed and allready said I replaced... The harddrive is new! omg lmao.. I just had a fresh install so it's not my internet, @ this current moment im running on a fresh install... The CPU is basically new but I had the problem before upgrading so obviously not... Why buy a pre-built when I can build my own? And yes they are basically new parts I was asking myself that same question... I allready stated I swapped the ram, don't read if your not going to read the whole thing and I also stated I ran a memtest and it came up fine... As far as I'm concerned I'm back @ square one.. Here are more up to date progress,

And it takes 40 PASSES! on the Boot Screen for Windows to load and an additional 20 or so secounds before/after to get to my desktop, that's about 100 Secounds to boot AFTER A FORMAT!...

All that I have installed (In Order):

Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade (sp1)
System Restore Point
Service Pack 2
Sygate Personal Firewall
AVG Anti-Virus
Motherboard Drivers Etc.
Connected to Internet
Video Card Drivers
FireFox

That's all I currently have on my computer right now....
AMD Athlon 64-BIT 754skt 3000+
512x2 PC2700 Samsung/Convent
Nforce3-250 Chaintech
80GB 7.2K RPM 2MB Buffer Ultra ATA-133 Western Digital
XFX 6600GT 8x 128MB 128BIT AGP
Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade /w SP2
300w Antec Solutions

I ran a memtest came up w/ 0 problems/errors, claims I'm only running single-channel though... I thought that was weird... Anywho... Anyone know what my problem is?

Naw you weren't helpful, you basically put my computer knowledge down and repeated the problems I listed and allready said I replaced

Well I think that if your still having issues sucvh as you are then probably your computer knowledge should be called into question.

Its obvious you have no clue whats wrong.
So what about your computer knowledge?

 

[Genesis15]

None of you know my problem, so whats your knowledge?