propaganda

Havn't had many problems recently and almost none that I couldn't fix by myself or quick google searches but this one is just pissing me off.

My HDD has slowed to a ridiculously slow pace. An example is that it took 4 hours to install Windows XP. I have a 3GHz P4 with 512MB RAM and a decent Seagate drive which average specs but this lag I can't stop from coming back.

So far I have formatted 3 times and low-level formatted once. I tried turning off USB emulation in BIOS and running Windows with virtual memory at its highest setting but still slow speeds.

Anyone have any idea what the hell is going on? I'm desperate to play some damn games again...

Dragonlich

Could it be something else? I've had (similar) problems installing windows on another computer, which turned out to have a defective motherboard/memory combo.

Lasereth

I agree with Dragon. It sounds like a hardware issue. My old CD-RW fucked over right when I switched to Windows XP. I notice my PC had a HUGE lag on everything I did. Even clicking on icons was slow...during the same time, my CD-RW was actind odd as well. I formatted twice to fix the problem but it never helped. I figured out the problem accidently...when burning a bunch of data for my brother, I put his CD-RW in my PC (due to its faster burn speed) and noticed that my problem was fixed. My CD-RW was causing the lag! I took it outside and beat it with a sledge hammer appropriately.

I'd switch out hardware components (if you have them available to you) until the problem goes away. It's a pain, but it's really your only option.

-Lasereth

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propaganda

Thanks guys. I'll start switching out what I can today and get back the results as soon as I can.

propaganda

After gutting and replacing everything I could the problem seems to be with the RAM but I can't really make sure because I have no spare DDR RAM lying around or DDR RAM at all other this in this computer for that matter.

I run normal at 512MB RAM with dual-channel when I take out one stick it seems to run a little bit faster but that seems weird considering its half the RAM and not on dual channel. When I run with 2 sticks not on dual-channel it still has lag.

So if anything could reassure me that this is either a motherboard issue or a RAM issue that would be great.

Eh forgot to add that when I run with 2 RAM sticks the CPU seems to have 100% of it full to things like services and svchost really anything thats Windows oriented since I have nothing else installed.

MooseMan3000

Does it matter which stick of RAM is in when you only use one? If one stick runs fine and the other lags... well, you can probably figure that one out.

Or, if they both work fine alone but they start lagging when put together (which is my guess), then there's a pretty good chance it's the motherboard. It COULD be a setting in BIOS relating to memory (just look around and see if anything looks suspicious), but more likely if it just started happening, the motherboard is beginning to go.

Check if the two sticks of RAM perform any differently. Then you should be able to make a guess at your problem.

mikec

to test ram, download the .iso from www.memtest86.com and run boot off a cd. if there's a problem with your ram, memtest should find it.

if you've messed around in BIOS, it might not be a bad idea to reset it to defaults as well.

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Dragonlich

Story of that motherboard/memory combo I talked about:

A friend bought a brand new MSI motherboard with a VIA PT800 chipset (not bad, but I prefer Intel chipsets), along with a single 512 MB DDR400 module (should've got 2x256 modules, but whatever). We spend one whole day repeatedly trying to install Windows XP on the damn machine, but it took forever. The "39 minutes to go" took some 4 hours to complete. The strange thing was that when we put in one of my memory modules, we were finally able to finish the install. In the end, we had a relatively fast machine, but it was unstable as hell. A few days later, the friend brought his hardware back to the store, and got a replacement mobo and memory (2 x 256 this time). He hasn't had a problem since. The people at the shop thought the mobo was damaged, but one cannot be sure in this case...

Hope this helps someone, somewhere in some weird way.

propaganda

Well I tried memtest86. It was one of the first things I did and that found nothing. I guess I just have to get back to the manufacturer and get a replacement. Not bad considering its a Dell and still under warrenty. It just sucks having a major problem and having no damn idea what the hell is causing it. Thanks for the help anyway.

heyal256

I dunno, but i had a hd that started to run really slowly (but didn't give any errors, including using those hd tests from the manufacturer), but that drive eventually died (stopped using it because i upgraded to a larger drive).

so basically I'd say that you should try to see if you can replace it under warranty, or make sure you have backups for when the drive actually does start to show errors/dies.