Curious performance problem
Discussion
Just before Xmas I tried upgrading my cpu and fried the motherboard. Just installed an identical motherboard and now everything is SLOW (ie 20 mins for windows to load).
I was meticulous when swapping the mobos and everything was labelled and went where it was before etc etc
The problem occurs in both windows and the install shell. The HDD inidicator is on almost always, but often I can't hear any activity. I've installed Windows on a 2nd HDD and the problem remains.
There's only one jumper on the mobo - and this is correctly set to 100MHz FSB.
Mobo is an Epox 8KHA+, with an AMD 1200 chip (running at 50oC). I've got 768MB of PC2100 DDR SDRAM which does run at 133MHz, but I had no problem with the previous mobo.
Any ideas?!
I was meticulous when swapping the mobos and everything was labelled and went where it was before etc etc
The problem occurs in both windows and the install shell. The HDD inidicator is on almost always, but often I can't hear any activity. I've installed Windows on a 2nd HDD and the problem remains.
There's only one jumper on the mobo - and this is correctly set to 100MHz FSB.
Mobo is an Epox 8KHA+, with an AMD 1200 chip (running at 50oC). I've got 768MB of PC2100 DDR SDRAM which does run at 133MHz, but I had no problem with the previous mobo.
Any ideas?!
Try to narrow it down. Is there any possibility to watch the boot process on a console in MS Windows?
If not, or if that doesn't reveal anything, download yourself a Linux ISO CD ROM from www.knoppix.org
Burn this on CD and boot your computer with it. You then can a) watch the boot process on the monitor, and see at which part it makes slow progress
b) if booting goes reasonable fast (remember this takes a little longer since a CD-ROM drive isn't as fast as a HDD), then it is no hardware trouble, but a software problem
If not, or if that doesn't reveal anything, download yourself a Linux ISO CD ROM from www.knoppix.org
Burn this on CD and boot your computer with it. You then can a) watch the boot process on the monitor, and see at which part it makes slow progress
b) if booting goes reasonable fast (remember this takes a little longer since a CD-ROM drive isn't as fast as a HDD), then it is no hardware trouble, but a software problem
Have a look in the bios settings and make sure that the hard drive pio mode is auto and that udma is enabled. Then when it boots before it accesses the hard drive most MBs will display what they detected /set. check pio mode 4 udma 66/100/133 has been set.
sounds like its stuck in pio mode 0
sounds like its stuck in pio mode 0
Right, got in to Windows and ran Sandra. No problems with memory or CPU (in fact they are performing better with new mobo).
Looking at Task Manager, explorer is creating tonnes of page faults.
Edited to say that Disk Manager is showing all disks with 'Online - Errors'.
I'm starting to think my replacement mobo is FUBAR
>> Edited by puggit on Tuesday 4th January 22:06
Looking at Task Manager, explorer is creating tonnes of page faults.
Edited to say that Disk Manager is showing all disks with 'Online - Errors'.
I'm starting to think my replacement mobo is FUBAR
>> Edited by puggit on Tuesday 4th January 22:06
what OS you running 2000/xp?
did you run the sandra disk tests? did they look ok performance wise?
Sounds like IDE problem somewhere. Do you have multiple drives and cd/dvd. If so time to start narrowing it down. Reduce the system down to just the Main HDD and no other drives. Disconnect power and Data cables from the others. Then try the system and see if it improves. If it does start adding drives back 1 at a time until it bring back the problem.
If it doesnt work with one drive you will need start looking at master/slave jumpers etc
did you run the sandra disk tests? did they look ok performance wise?
Sounds like IDE problem somewhere. Do you have multiple drives and cd/dvd. If so time to start narrowing it down. Reduce the system down to just the Main HDD and no other drives. Disconnect power and Data cables from the others. Then try the system and see if it improves. If it does start adding drives back 1 at a time until it bring back the problem.
If it doesnt work with one drive you will need start looking at master/slave jumpers etc
Thanks Malman - turns out the original HDD was totally screwed.
The mistake I made was that I kept it on the IDE1 chain when I installed on the 2nd HDD using IDE2.
Eventually worked it out using one of those mighty handy USB/IDE connectors plugged in to my laptop
Time to rebuild + run a restore
The mistake I made was that I kept it on the IDE1 chain when I installed on the 2nd HDD using IDE2.
Eventually worked it out using one of those mighty handy USB/IDE connectors plugged in to my laptop
Time to rebuild + run a restore
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