System Bottleneck

[stimpy1]

I've replaced my hard drive, done a fresh install of Windows, installed numerous drivers, yet my computer is still incredibly slow for some reason. 512mb x2 RAM, 3000+ Athlon 64, MSI RS480M2-IL (this isn't the MSI Lock Box problem because I've done a fresh install of windows on a new drive), no video card (using integrated video), Seagate SATA drive, Mitsumi 7 in 1 floppy/card reader, DVD burner.

The CPU usage is always near 100% in Task Manager. I can't seem to figure out what the bottleneck is, but I'm leaning towards something with the motherboard. Any Ideas? Thanks.

 

[Eeezee]

That's very strange, it might be something wrong with the CPU or motherboard. If you have a different CPU available, give it a whirl.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: stimpy1
I've replaced my hard drive, done a fresh install of Windows, installed numerous drivers, yet my computer is still incredibly slow for some reason. 512mb x2 RAM, 3000+ Athlon 64, MSI RS480M2-IL (this isn't the MSI Lock Box problem because I've done a fresh install of windows on a new drive), no video card (using integrated video), Seagate SATA drive, Mitsumi 7 in 1 floppy/card reader, DVD burner.

The CPU usage is always near 100% in Task Manager. I can't seem to figure out what the bottleneck is, but I'm leaning towards something with the motherboard. Any Ideas? Thanks.

You say CPU utilization is 100%. So, what program is using that 100%? At what is it 'incredibly slow'?

 

[stimpy1]

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: stimpy1
I've replaced my hard drive, done a fresh install of Windows, installed numerous drivers, yet my computer is still incredibly slow for some reason. 512mb x2 RAM, 3000+ Athlon 64, MSI RS480M2-IL (this isn't the MSI Lock Box problem because I've done a fresh install of windows on a new drive), no video card (using integrated video), Seagate SATA drive, Mitsumi 7 in 1 floppy/card reader, DVD burner.

The CPU usage is always near 100% in Task Manager. I can't seem to figure out what the bottleneck is, but I'm leaning towards something with the motherboard. Any Ideas? Thanks.

You say CPU utilization is 100%. So, what program is using that 100%? At what is it 'incredibly slow'?

Basically, whenever it executes any function, the CPU goes to 100% and it is extremelly slow to cary out any task. It stays at 100% for a while. It wasn't like this before the problem. It's kind of like the Pentium 2 with 64 megs of ram that I sometimes use.

I've looked through all the programs, and there is nothing out of the ordinary. There's plenty of memory that isn't being utilized. It is very slow at any type of games, web surfing, basically everything.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: stimpy1

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: stimpy1
I've replaced my hard drive, done a fresh install of Windows, installed numerous drivers, yet my computer is still incredibly slow for some reason. 512mb x2 RAM, 3000+ Athlon 64, MSI RS480M2-IL (this isn't the MSI Lock Box problem because I've done a fresh install of windows on a new drive), no video card (using integrated video), Seagate SATA drive, Mitsumi 7 in 1 floppy/card reader, DVD burner.

The CPU usage is always near 100% in Task Manager. I can't seem to figure out what the bottleneck is, but I'm leaning towards something with the motherboard. Any Ideas? Thanks.

You say CPU utilization is 100%. So, what program is using that 100%? At what is it 'incredibly slow'?

Basically, whenever it executes any function, the CPU goes to 100% and it is extremelly slow to cary out any task. It stays at 100% for a while. It wasn't like this before the problem. It's kind of like the Pentium 2 with 64 megs of ram that I sometimes use.

I've looked through all the programs, and there is nothing out of the ordinary. There's plenty of memory that isn't being utilized. It is very slow at any type of games, web surfing, basically everything.

In the processes list can you tell me what program is at 100%?

 

[Fern]

Run Everest Home Edition (get it at majorgeeks.com) and maybe the performance wizard in sissoft sandra (also available at majorgeeks.com). See what pops up.

Fern

 

[unholy414]

This is the first thing I'd look at. Check your BIOS settings, sometimes after a major component swap your system will throw your cpu and fsb settings way down to ensure a safe hardware install.

Even though you told us that you installed your system drivers, this sounds like you didn't install the chipset drivers. Need confirmation.

I've found that Windows also acts sluggish after a reinstall and a defrag would fix it up.

Another could be your pagefile, increase the size of it and see if anything improves.

 

[stimpy1]

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: stimpy1

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: stimpy1
I've replaced my hard drive, done a fresh install of Windows, installed numerous drivers, yet my computer is still incredibly slow for some reason. 512mb x2 RAM, 3000+ Athlon 64, MSI RS480M2-IL (this isn't the MSI Lock Box problem because I've done a fresh install of windows on a new drive), no video card (using integrated video), Seagate SATA drive, Mitsumi 7 in 1 floppy/card reader, DVD burner.

The CPU usage is always near 100% in Task Manager. I can't seem to figure out what the bottleneck is, but I'm leaning towards something with the motherboard. Any Ideas? Thanks.

You say CPU utilization is 100%. So, what program is using that 100%? At what is it 'incredibly slow'?

Basically, whenever it executes any function, the CPU goes to 100% and it is extremelly slow to cary out any task. It stays at 100% for a while. It wasn't like this before the problem. It's kind of like the Pentium 2 with 64 megs of ram that I sometimes use.

I've looked through all the programs, and there is nothing out of the ordinary. There's plenty of memory that isn't being utilized. It is very slow at any type of games, web surfing, basically everything.

In the processes list can you tell me what program is at 100%?

System Idle Process is 99 percent for the CPU.

 

[blodhi74]

Format HD and write zeros to it. Reinstall window.

 

[stimpy1]

I got the following from Sisoft Sandra...

Warning 1206 - Device latency is high - the higher the latency, the more data a device can transfer in one go. The device may be hogging the bus for too long. Some video card drivers set the latency high in order to perform faster. The problem is that other devices (especially sound cards, network) won?t have enough time to transfer their data resulting in lower performance (e.g. sound drop outs, lockup). Generally, all devices should have latency of 32, with high performance devices (e.g. video card, disk, giga-LAN) with 64 and AGP to 128.

Fix: Go to BIOS Setup\Settings\PCI & AGP Devices and reduce PCI latency to 64 or 32. Contact the mainboard manufacturer or video card manufacturer for more details.



SiSoftware Sandra Help File

I deleted all ATI drivers and did a fresh install of the drivers, but that didn't help. Pagefile is where it should be.

 

[stimpy1]

Just took a tour of BIOS, and everything is where it should be. I restored optimized defaults. Sisoft Sandras diagnosis seems to be on the money though...the sound is crackly and stuttering. It seems that something is hogging the bus, but I don't see what it could be.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: stimpy1

In the processes list can you tell me what program is at 100%?

System Idle Process is 99 percent for the CPU.[/quote]


Then you have no issues at all - that's normal.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: stimpy1
Just took a tour of BIOS, and everything is where it should be. I restored optimized defaults. Sisoft Sandras diagnosis seems to be on the money though...the sound is crackly and stuttering. It seems that something is hogging the bus, but I don't see what it could be.

Easy to test - disable sound. Does the problem go away?

 

[stimpy1]

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: stimpy1
Just took a tour of BIOS, and everything is where it should be. I restored optimized defaults. Sisoft Sandras diagnosis seems to be on the money though...the sound is crackly and stuttering. It seems that something is hogging the bus, but I don't see what it could be.

Easy to test - disable sound. Does the problem go away?

I disabled Realtek AC'97 in device manager, but performance is the same.

 

[Malak]

When you right click My Computer and hit properties, what does it register as your CPU?

 

[stimpy1]

Originally posted by: Malak
When you right click My Computer and hit properties, what does it register as your CPU?

AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3000+
AT/AT COMPATIBLE
981, 488 KB RAM

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: stimpy1

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: stimpy1
Just took a tour of BIOS, and everything is where it should be. I restored optimized defaults. Sisoft Sandras diagnosis seems to be on the money though...the sound is crackly and stuttering. It seems that something is hogging the bus, but I don't see what it could be.

Easy to test - disable sound. Does the problem go away?

I disabled Realtek AC'97 in device manager, but performance is the same.

Uninstall the device, reinstall it.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: stimpy1

In the processes list can you tell me what program is at 100%?

System Idle Process is 99 percent for the CPU.

Then you have no issues at all - that's normal.[/quote]

I guess I still don't understand the problem. Per the task manager you have no issues at all, yet you say something is reporting 100% CPU usage. Task Manager isn't, so what is reporting all this CPU usage?

Go into your BIOS and disable sound if you think that's an issue - remove the software from the equation.

 

[Freejack2]

I doubt this is it, but another thing to check is to make sure your drive is running in DMA mode and not PIO only. I'm not sure if this can happen with SATA drives but with pata drives they can be forced into pio mode due to bios settings or a bad cable. You can check this by going to control panel, system, hardware, device manager, expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers and check the primary IDE channel's advanced settings.

 

[stimpy1]

I uninstalled and reinstalled the sound, checked the drive for PIO mode, and task manager looks good on the cpu usage. Slow performance remains. The only other time it was like this and it was new. Windows update instaled some sort of non critical driver that increased performance dramatically...it was an ATI related driver of some sort. Perhaps the south bridge?