PIII 866 MHz. works like a 486 machine. Please help???

[go4saket]

Hello friends!

I have a computer with a PIII 866 MHz. processor, 128 MB SDRAM, 20 GB Segate HDD, VIA VT8601T motherboard and Windows 98SE as the OS. The problem is that since the last few days my computer has become very very slow. My first thought was that a virus can be a reason and therefore I deleted all partitions, created two new partition with 4 GB and 16 GB respectively. After formatting it with FAT32, I reinstalled Windows 98SE, but still no gain. The system seems to work like a 486 machine and hangs everytime I try to open two or three application at a time. Bare Windows 98SE without any other softwares installed takes more than 4 to 5 minutes to start and a 20 MB file takes about 2 minutes to be copied to the HDD from a CD.

I just dont understand why the hell is the system working so very slow. This all started after I gave my CPU to a hardware engineer recently to replace my SMPS and I dont know why, but I have a feeling that my HDD has been changed.

Now, what can be the reason behind all this. Is such a kind of problem arise due to faulty HDD or SMPS. If not, what can be the other reasons behind it. Is there any way to solve this problem. As per my view, I see no problem with the software settings as it is the same as they always used to be.

Please help...

Thank you.

 

[aGreenAgent]

If load times are the issue, which they seem to be, my guess is hard drive. Maybe a bad cable, maybe the hard drive is going out.

On your device manager, go to your IDE controller, and make sure you're in DMA mode not PIO mode. If you're in PIO, it can definitely make your computer CHUG.


Check your event viewer (they had them in 98, right?) and see if your disk gives you any messages.

 

[bendixG15]

See that you got a VIA mobo.
Try finding the right VIA drivers for that mobo and reinstalling them.
Just make sure you kill the old ones first.

 

[go4saket]

The drivers that I have installed are the same that were installed before and things were absolutely fine that time. Its only after sending the comp to a comp engineer, this all problem started. By the way, how can I remove a driver completely...

 

[xgsound]

I once had a Fugitsu HD that had that problem after I did a low level format using Maxtor software (Figitsu not avail.). It worked poorly in PIO , but terrible in DMA. See if you can find Seagate software to low level format. What have you got to lose at this point?

If you get a replacement drive you'll be capacity limited by the weakest link of these three items; 1. bios limitations, 2. chipset, 3. OS - ?win98-32GB / win98se-127GB.

Storagereview.com has much info in thier reference section about drives from this era. I can't follow everything they talk about, but the Fugitsu was the only drive I couldn't get going using thier suggestions.


Jim

 

[alent1234]

check the fan on the case and heat sink

if the fan is broke it will get hot and work like grandma driving on the freeway

 

[Philippine Mango]

Your drive is failing, get a new drive stat. Same thing happened to my sister's laptop except it refused to boot into windows completely. So yea, thats the issue.

 

[daveybrat]

check the capacitors on the motherboard and make sure none of them are 'puffed' looking, which would mean they are going bad.

Bad caps can cause extreme slowdown, crashing, hanging, etc.

 

[birdpup]

Check for loose cables. What is an SMPS? Is this a Switching Mode Power Supply? Why do you call it an SMPS rather than a PSU? This is the first time I have seen this. Anyways, if the PSU was replaced then ensure all cables, are firmly connected, including the power connections.

Verify all your hardware is in place and connected properly.
Test the hard drive with the drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility. For Seagate that would be Seatools, if I remember correctly. It is possible the hard drive is failing. But check the PIO mode first as aGreenAgent mentioned above.

Seagate Diagnostic Utility

[*]UDMA, PIO, 40 & 80 pin cables

• Comparison between 40 & 80 pin cables
• udma2 = ata 33 speed
• udma5 = ata 100 speed
• udma6 = ata 133 speed
• 40 pin cables will only support udma2 (ata 133 speed)
• Check your hard drives within Device Manager to ensure proper settings.
• Hard drives should be set with udma 5or6 and not be set at PIO mode.

Interestingly, I am replying to you on a PIII 733MHz system, with 1GB RAM, 265GB hard drive space, and WinXP installed.