PC Slows When Downloading Stuff.

[matrix2]

Hey Guys When I am downloading stuff from the net my pc runs very slow, I am using the integrated ethernet adapter. Could you suggest a solution ? thanks

pc specs

AMD XP 2500 Barton Unlocked

Asus® A7N8X-E Deluxe, Socket A, NVidia® nFORCE?2 w/ 8X AGP and Serial ATA (ATX) - Onboard Audio, SATA Raid, Dual Lan w/ Gigabit and Firewire

OCZ
2x 256Mb PC3500 DDR Enhanced Bandwith Dual Channel Platinum Edition

160 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 Plus ATA-100 7200RPM 8Mb 9.4ms OEM (Win XP on a 15 GB Partition)

 

[Yanagi]

have you a network at home? If so try transferring files between the computers in the network. Otherwise, try reinstalling/Upgrading the drivers. Might be the drivers for all I know.

 

[Deadtrees]

Well, it depends on what software you're using, how many files you're downloading, and what the speed is. When I used overnet on Full duplex 100 up/100 down VDSL connection, my computer used to get close-to-unusable status.

 

[brzrkr0]

IIRC, Bittorrent likes to eat up your CPU.

 

[vegetation]

Clarify what is "slow" and what you are downloading (ftp, bt, etc).

File sharing utilities can eat up a lot of cpu cycles, and along with it a ton of disk activity. This would make your system appear sluggish especially if you lack memory (512mb on winxp isn't really a whole lot for busy sessions).

 

[GregMal]

DSL or Cable????

 

[VirtualLarry]

Those cheapo Realtek Gigabit integrated ethernet chipsets have been known to be extreme CPU hogs. Try installing a decent Intel chipset NIC instead, or manually force speeds from gigabit to 100Mbit in the network adaptor's advanced properties page.

 

[mechBgon]

Antivirus software has to examine data that's written to the hard drive, and firewall software has to examine data that's coming in the door. If you look in Task Manager and those two are running high CPU loads... well... then you need more CPU or less data traffic

By the way, since you sound like a high-risk type, you may want to get Service Pack 2 installed and enable the Data Execution Protection for all programs. Right-click My Computer, choose Properties, then click Advanced on the System Properties panel. Now click the Settings button in the Performance box, and you'll see the DEP tab on the next panel, where you can enable DEP for all software. It may throw DiVX for a loop, in which case you can make an exception for DiVX there.

 

[matrix2]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Those cheapo Realtek Gigabit integrated ethernet chipsets have been known to be extreme CPU hogs. Try installing a decent Intel chipset NIC instead, or manually force speeds from gigabit to 100Mbit in the network adaptor's advanced properties page.

Thanks Guys, I realize the cause of the excessive slow downs, I used an integrated NIC which Hogs resources. Now Is there a 3 Com NIC that handle some of the cpu load ? Thanks

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: matrix2

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Those cheapo Realtek Gigabit integrated ethernet chipsets have been known to be extreme CPU hogs. Try installing a decent Intel chipset NIC instead, or manually force speeds from gigabit to 100Mbit in the network adaptor's advanced properties page.

Thanks Guys, I realize the cause of the excessive slow downs, I used an integrated NIC which Hogs resources. Now Is there a 3 Com NIC that handle some of the cpu load ? Thanks

Try your board's native nVidia 10/100 NIC. It's southbridge-based, not PCI-based. Of the two jacks, it's the one next to the round PS/2 mouse/keyboard ports.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Those cheapo Realtek Gigabit integrated ethernet chipsets have been known to be extreme CPU hogs. Try installing a decent Intel chipset NIC instead, or manually force speeds from gigabit to 100Mbit in the network adaptor's advanced properties page.

The -E doesn't use a complete Realtek solution, only their PHY for the Nvidia MAC. The physical layer in turn is basically nothing as far as performance goes, so it shouldn't be causing him an issue; I know I never encountered any such issues on my non-E Deluxe.