winxp ssslllllooowww on partition>format>re-install

[trenchfoot]

dell 8200, 512mb rdram, new 120gig wd1200jb, winxp

my friend asked me to help him get his pc running the way it should, so i went through the usual drill- checked for ad/spyware/virii, disabled all startup apps, defragged/ optimized with ace utilities, norton systemworks, tried safe mode etc., but the pc still ran really slow.

so i backed up what i could and did a partition/format re-install winxp.

to my surprise the re-install took more than 5 hrs. and the initial reboot had hung up mid-stride with hardly any activity on the hdd monitor light showing, with it finally fully booted after another 3 hrs.

i then started attacking the hardware by reseating cables, ram, checked fans and reseated cpu/heatsink with arctic silver and did a voltage check on the ps which checked out ok.

i'm thinking bad mobo or ram.

your thoughts please?

 

[amdskip]

Check the capacitors on the motherboard for signs of bulging/leaking.

 

[trenchfoot]

amdskip, thanks....will do. i'll get back to you on that.

 

[trenchfoot]

amdskip, i took the mobo out of the case to make sure i got a good look at all the caps. i didn't see anything unusual about any of them. good call though, i guess in my frustration i didn't think to check for the obvious. thanks.
i'd like to memtest the ram but with the box running so slow to begin with, might it not be a futile gesture? at any rate i did the switch-the-slot drill on the ram with the leave-one-in-and the other out but got no change in the lag.
i also took out all cards except graphics and unplugged optical drives with no joy there either....*sigh*.....next, anyone?

 

[KGB]

Is this machine bone-stock as it came from Dell?
Has any hardware been added / replaced?

It sounds like one or more of the drives are jumpered incorrectly.

 

[dremot]

I had a semi-bad hard dirve. I ran the full test at PCPitstop.com. My boot drive came back with 3MB/sec while my storage drive was tested at 45 MB/sec. I did a format and a reinstall of the slow drive. Loading windows took forever also in my case. I went out and bought a new drive and it solved my problems. I would suggest using PCPitstop.com or some other program to test the read/write speed of the drive.

It seemed the system just started slowing down over time. I thought that it was slowing down due to clutter on the system. I didn't take a serious look until it started taking long time for system to boot. The drive I had was probably 5-7 years old since I pulled it from an old system when I rebuilt in the summer of 2003.

Drew

 

[trenchfoot]

kgbman, dremot, the box is stock dell. it came with a western digital 80gig bb model that committed suicide. i ran the western digital data guard utility on it to confirm the drive was bad, and is currently rma'd. i replaced it with a new wd 120 gig jb model that i had as spare. the new drive is jumpered as cable select as the original one is and the bios sees the new hdd ok. the optical drives are jumpered cable select also.
thanks fellas, i appreciate the input.

 

[ZYFER]

I had an issue with a HP system I was working on with someone, booting into XP took forever and just as long to do anything, the XP install and format was so ridiculously slow, it ended up being the motherboard causing the issues on it. I ran memtest on it and the ram appeared to be bad, the big issue with the program is if the motherboard is bad other components can appear to seem as if they have issues, in the end, replaced the motherboard and it was back being tortured by its user

 

[trenchfoot]

thanks for the info zyfer. right now i wish i had another box that i could swap out intel/rambus' infamous rdram to confirm if it's the culprit or not.

other than that, anyone got a reliable motherboard diagnostic that you'd like to share?

 

[ZYFER]

other then using the software memtest, which is reliable, you would need a device designed to test it specifically, wish you were closer, I would let you borrow a machine to test the ram in, good luck

 

[KGB]

Tweak,

Try jumpering the the WD drive as single drive (remove all jumpers) and have it alone on the primary channel.

Also, for diagnostic purposes, disconnect the optical drives and try booting from the WD.

Let us know what happens.

 

[trenchfoot]

kgbman, well with crossed fingers i tried out what you suggested but no go. out of desperation i ran memtest as zyfer suggested. it took forever (which is why i haven't posted back in awhile), but the test showed no errors.
along with that, when i re-configged the box back to stock, i got a double beep on boot with message secondary hdd cannot be found and secondary ide drive not recognized even though secondary hdd call-out in the bios had it switched off and secondary ide had no change from stock.
i swapped positions on the optical drives and left them cable select jumpered, and the bios still had the secondary drive as unrecognized.
so i swapped in a new cable which didn't help. go figure.
just to be sure, i saved bios settings and installed a new cmos battery, re-configured the bios to factory spec and the error messages still showed up.
i called my friend and suggested to him that he should have the box either exorcised or that he ante up for a new mobo with no guarantee for a fix, and he told me right then and there that i just inherited a bunch of spare used dell parts.
still, out of curiosity i just might shell out for a replacement mobo just to see if that was the cause of the issue and if it worked, i'd sell the box to recoup my investment.
thanks to all who gave of their time helping me out here. fun!

 

[KGB]

Tweak,

I hate unresolved issues.
As a last-ditch effort, try another IDE cable and see if it makes a difference.

 

[trenchfoot]

kgbman, thanks for hangin in there with me...
changed all cables for new ones. i noticed that dell uses 80 pin cables for the optical drives too. wonder why?

results- the dell bios splash screen stares back at me for a coupl'a minutes, then posts that primary "0" and "1" hard disk drive not found. i made doubly sure that all pins were anchored ok and standing tall, and pins and cable lined up correctly on mobo and hard drive, then reconnected with another new cable with same error message.
for some unknown reason the bios doesn't report the secondary ide channel as having issues now, unless it will report it after the primary channel issue is resolved.

the trend i'm seeing here is the more i mess with this problem the worse it gets. sort'a like trying to clean up an arctic silver overload..hee-hee.
nothing like me getting biatch-slapped into humility by a frick'in dell of all things....

 

[trenchfoot]

Problem solved!.....for now.

i removed cmos battery and waited a minute, then re-installed. used default settings except adjusted date and time and no more slow boot, bios recognizes all drives, boots into winxp normally.
i'm going to check settings in bios against what i previouslyencountered on the first go-aroiund and see what the difference is. i think that should be the reason why it ran like a drunken slug. or maybe i didn't wait long enough the last time for hot charge to clear the board before installing the new battery.
i also need to ask my friend if he doodled with the bios before handing the mess over to me.
so, for now thanks guys, and thanks kgbman for pushing me along on this. i do admit i really felt like chucking it in awhile back.

 

[KGB]

Tweak,

No thanks required.
I've also had frustrating experiences with Dell machines that were connected to drive jumpering.

Just remember... "Dude, don't get a Dell". :laugh:

 

[ZYFER]

Originally posted by: KGBMAN

Just remember... "Dude, don't get a Dell". :laugh:

best advice anyone can give on this forum right there