pc slower after reformat and clean windows installation?

[Frippo]

my computer is now slower than it was before I made a clean install of windows 2000pro, and then it hadnt been reformated in 11 months. and now I run my os on a maxtor sata diamondmax10 drive, before I used to run it on my ide maxtor drive.

I did have to use nlite to make my own modified windows cd that cotains sata drivers, can anything have went wrong there?

Other than that the only difference is that I run a few more AV/spyware protection apps, but then again probably many other apps that were loaded before has went away...

did also add 2 more sata drives and applied some new thermal paste onto the cpu core, and added new heatsinks on south and northbridge.

Any ideas about what could be causing the slowness? its so bad movies lags frequently every now and then, and after just about every hand on a online poker client, the client freezes for an instant.

I've been thinking a bit about it, I've been trying a few of my backup iso files and as of yet they have all been giving me a problem in one or another way, and all film clips I try to watch stutters every here and there, and computer is slow in general. The SATA drives should increase the performance a bit compared to my old IDE, but its the other way around. I've heard of lots of people having problems with with these new Maxtor drives, but I thought they havent ever given me any problems and they are most bang for the buck so why not... would u say its my hdd's that are bad?

specs:
1800+ @ 2.0ghz
abit nf7-s v2
512 mb ddr400 @ stock
9800np @ stock
2x300gb maxtor sata diamondmax10 (partition of this is OS drive)
2x200gb maxtor sata diamondmax9
1x120gb maxtor ide
OS: WIN 2K PRO SWE SP4

any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[montag451]

If you added more drives, did you update the psu?
Can you unplug all the drives and dvd etc except for the boot hdd.

What happens when you boot now?

 

[Frippo]

no i didnt upgrade the psu but i find it unlikely that that is the issue here, I have a 420W topower psu, I think it should be enough for my rather old system. I did have to modify my windows cd using nlite to integrate sata drivers as i have no floppy drive, but I dont see why that would affect it. Lately I've also been getting bsod and reboots upon those, it goes away so fast so its hard to see what it says, but it ends with ntoskrnl.exe...

I guess I will give it a try with unplugged drives later, but as I said I dont believe thats the issue, I havent found the system to be unstable in any other way.

 

[montag451]

Please post back with the results, either way.

 

[Frippo]

I just ran memtest86 for a few hours and found no errors, will see what happens when I unplug all other drives later tonight or tomorrow.

Is there any program that will test my hdd's for errors?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Fern]

Did you remember to re-install the mobo and gfx card drivers?

Fern

 

[montag451]

you can dl a yoot from the website of your hdd manufacturer.

 

[Frippo]

yes I've installed the latest chipset drives and the latest gfx drivers, I'll have a look around at maxtors website.

 

[Frippo]

ok i downloaded nero to burn a cd with that maxtor tool, but i couldnt even install nero... its extracts a few cab files to temp dirs on c: and in the middle of the installation it said it couldnt access one of them which really sounds like a hdd problem, doesnt it?

 

[montag451]

Where you streamlined some drivers into the xp instal cd, did you put in other drivers that weren't meant to be there?
Are you sure?
Are you positive?
What IDE drivers are you using? NV or Microsoft?

If you are using NV IDE drivers, then go into Device Manager, delete them, (DONT RESTART) reinstall MS IDE drivers.
Any luck?

 

[Frippo]

I did only add the silicon SATA drivers to my win 2k cd.

For IDE I was using nvidia drivers, now uninstalled and installed those original ms ones.

I have also burnt maxtools onto a cd to run tests to see if it comes up with any errors on the drives, I will post back results tomorrow.

montag, I REALLY appreciate your help, atm I just feel like throwing this box out of the window, so thanks a lot!

 

[Homerboy]

drives are in PIO mode

 

[daveybrat]

Remember, SATA drives are much more sensitive to overclocking than IDE is, so try running your cpu at stock speed and see if that fixes it.

 

[Frippo]

both are running in ultra DMA mode, I dont think running my cpu at stock speeds made any difference.

 

[Homerboy]

Originally posted by: daveybrat
Remember, SATA drives are much more sensitive to overclocking than IDE is, so try running your cpu at stock speed and see if that fixes it.

WTH are you talking about?

 

[Frippo]

never heard about that either, oh well my cpu is far from pushed to its limit so I guess I shouldnt have no problems even if that was the case.

I ran maxtor tools to test the drives and it find no errors, I've also unplugged all other drives except these hdd's so its not the PSU either.

I uninstalled the nvidia IDE drivers and installed MS drivers instead and its still the same, movies lagging, even small applications freezing for an instant here and there...

any more ideas? what could be causing this?? according to maxtor tools my hardware should be alright, I dont see any other problem than a driver issue? any known issue with the latest nforce2 drivers?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Frippo
never heard about that either, oh well my cpu is far from pushed to its limit so I guess I shouldnt have no problems even if that was the case.

I ran maxtor tools to test the drives and it find no errors, I've also unplugged all other drives except these hdd's so its not the PSU either.

I uninstalled the nvidia IDE drivers and installed MS drivers instead and its still the same, movies lagging, even small applications freezing for an instant here and there...

any more ideas? what could be causing this?? according to maxtor tools my hardware should be alright, I dont see any other problem than a driver issue? any known issue with the latest nforce2 drivers?

What antivirus and antispyware apps are you using? Not multiple antiviruses at the same time, I presume?

 

[Frippo]

nod32, only 1 AV, a few antispyware apps such as spy sweeper, spyware doctor, adaware, spywareguard and windowswasher.

but that shouldnt be too much, should it?

when playing multiple tables at a online poker client, the client often freezes when the hands are mucked... so I watched task manager and cpu % raises drastically on the client when it comes up to speed again, but thats probably just because it has to catch up with the actions that has been going on while it freezed at my system. I had no probs running it on my IDE drive a few weeks ago... and sound sometimes sounds bad, doesnt it look like some kind of driver problem?

 

[Pr0d1gy]

I would go back to the old drive. It sounds like the drive is messed up. You could download Data Lifeguard & run it in BIOS by setting up your PC to boot from CD or floppy, whichever you burn the program to. This tool will test your hard drive for errors & let you knows for sure if that is the culprit.

 

[Frippo]

I googled Data Lifeguard, looks like its only for WD disks? or does it work fine with maxtor?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Frippo
nod32, only 1 AV, a few antispyware apps such as spy sweeper, spyware doctor, adaware, spywareguard and windowswasher.

but that shouldnt be too much, should it?

That's a darn lot of antispyware stuff, and the first two I know have real-time protection, which could create an impasse if they're both fighting for control of the same file. Suggestion: uninstall that stuff and use a Limited account for spyware protection

The other question, since it's a Win2000 system, is whether you exposed it to a network connection while it had no firewall installed/configured/running. If your computer is protected by a router and there aren't any other computers on the router, then you'd be safe, but otherwise Win2000, even with SP4 integrated, is still a major worm magnet. Firewall first, network connection second.

 

[Frippo]

I'm behind a router and no affects by anything local.

I like to keep my computer clean, what do you mean use a limited account?

What if I kept like 2 of them, and have the other not running all the time and just start them up once in a while to perform a full system scan`?

 

[mechBgon]

Here is a page explaining the Limited account and what it's got to offer you: http://www.mechbgon.com/build/Limited.html

With a Limited account, you basically set aside your power to install stuff, including spyware/adware. It's like taking the ammunition out of your firearms when you're not actually shooting. Anything you run from your Limited account will be inside a "safety cage," so to speak. This is the only spyware/adware prevention we use at my workplace, other than good general antivirus software and routine patching.

The Limited account won't protect people who, say, download warez and install it and whatever payload it's bearing. They have to run as an Administrator to do that, and that opens the door for the malware too. But if you're just trying to browse safely and etc, then Limited account > *. No need for signature updates, no need to pay for it, no performance impact. This option has been available since WindowsNT days and the *nix guys all know it, time for the Windows crew to get on the ball

 

[Frippo]

Thanks for your reply, but I still like the idea of running antispyware apps better. If I only run one during all time it shouldnt slow my system down that much, should it?

And still that doesnt explain the weird crc errors I get when I try to install, something else is definately wrong, I think I tried to shut down all protection I have and it was still the same speed.

 

[daveybrat]

The question you failed to answer earlier on was if you've ran your cpu at stock 1.53GHz for a while to see if that helps. All you've replied was "i think so". We can't help if you don't take our advice.

try it and report back!