Not exactly O/Cing

Y

yoni45

New member
yeah this isnt exactly O/Cing just yet, but i figure what better place to ask...

Anyway, I put together a machine, dont have all the specs with me, but its an A64 2800+, 512 RAM, vid card is a low end MX4000 (or MX400, i forget), HD is a 5200 RPM, and yeah i know the mobo is a big one but i dont remember what it was...

Anyway the issue is that the comp is just sluggish... like the mouse would skip at times, and at others the system would hang for an extended period of time altogether, as in completely hang, no ctrl-alt-delete or anything until it gets back into it... and I have absolutely no idea why, cpu is recognized correctly by windows, running at 1.8ghz, although underneath the clock speed it would say "Extended Physical Adress" or something along those lines, i did a quick google search on it and its apparently something to do with dealing with large amounts of RAM... and thats really the only thing i noticed out of the ordinary...

windows is XP pro 32 bit, SP2...

...and yes, this isnt exactly of the best systems, but not to the point of the mouse skipping fresh off of a windows installation... help?

thnx,

yoni
 
Hey mate can ya post full system specs including motherboard and RAM make? Get CPU-Z so we know what you've got.

Sounds perhaps like a software issue: is it a new install?

What are the timings/voltages on the RAM?
 
very possibly a hard drive problem mate. that 5400rpm must be old, and wouldnt be good as it is neway, it may be dying.

post ful specs and we will see about diagnosing your hdd
 
his computer wouldn't exhibit that type of behavior if it's a hard drive problem. the hard drive reads data into the buffer on the drive (which is faster than the drive itself) then the buffer on the drive reads the data into the buffer in the ram. Depending on what happens next, the data is read from the buffer and moved into an open chunk of ram, or its read from the buffer into the cache on the CPU where the ALU can toy with it. To back up what i'm saying, a professor at my school did a test to see when HD performance takes place and he said 91% HD use when booting into the OS. After that there's 1% to 5% use of the HD.

My guess is he's adjusted the wrong settings on his motherboard. I have a KT133 computer with a ton of ambigious bios options (meaning there's no real telling what effect they might have on system performance and reliability). Find out what motherboard you have and post your bios options and their corresponding settings. If picking the right choice for your BIOS options doesn't fix it then you might be looking at bad ram or a bad combination of parts (meaning your ram works fine by itself and will probably work in most PC3200 capable boards but when bundled with your CPU it fails). I've seen plenty of people complaining that the ram they bought didn't work with the motherboard and processor they have and that's why the manufacturer's forum has a list of all successful pairings of boards and ram with A64 processors.
 
RollerCam540 said:
his computer wouldn't exhibit that type of behavior if it's a hard drive problem. the hard drive reads data into the buffer on the drive (which is faster than the drive itself) then the buffer on the drive reads the data into the buffer in the ram. Depending on what happens next, the data is read from the buffer and moved into an open chunk of ram, or its read from the buffer into the cache on the CPU where the ALU can toy with it. To back up what i'm saying, a professor at my school did a test to see when HD performance takes place and he said 91% HD use when booting into the OS. After that there's 1% to 5% use of the HD.

My guess is he's adjusted the wrong settings on his motherboard. I have a KT133 computer with a ton of ambigious bios options (meaning there's no real telling what effect they might have on system performance and reliability). Find out what motherboard you have and post your bios options and their corresponding settings. If picking the right choice for your BIOS options doesn't fix it then you might be looking at bad ram or a bad combination of parts (meaning your ram works fine by itself and will probably work in most PC3200 capable boards but when bundled with your CPU it fails). I've seen plenty of people complaining that the ram they bought didn't work with the motherboard and processor they have and that's why the manufacturer's forum has a list of all successful pairings of boards and ram with A64 processors.
Click to expand...

im pretty famliar with how a hard drive works :)

but when mine was about to break, the comp would freeze up, getting more and more common.

speak to ffx on the forum and he was having same probs which we diagnosed as hdd.

its a common problem of drives overheating or about to die. using your info when the buffer is being filled, there can be a small lapse a bit later, where the os is accessing files.
 
for the record is a new hd, so i doubt its that :)

i'll try to get the details on the m/b and we'll go from there :D

thanks,

-Yoni
 
Alright! here we go...

we're looking at a Chaintech SK8-T800 motherboard, ram is ultra 512 pc 3200 (thats the 400 one right? its been a month or 2 heh)... ideas? :D

thanks again,

-Yoni
 
alright so, i'm probably going to get flamed for the double post heh, but its been over a week... noone has any ideas? :(
 
Hmmm. Have you tried memtest86+??

Maybe its a problem with the video card drivers. Rule one thing out after another so you can get down to the root of the problem :)

Try downloading a stress test from the manufactorer of your HDD :)
 
I already told you what I thought your problem was! :D

  1. Check your PSI rail ouput (You want atleast 25a on the 12v rail). I wouldn't be surprised if this problem was PSU related.
  2. Read this thread and follow the troubleshooting instructions. Don't overclock anything. Just test the memory as specified and when that passes test the CPU.
  3. POST every single BIOS setting (if a small insignificant settings is wrong it can cause all kinds of problems)
  4. Download your hard drive diagnostic CD. *Personally I think your Hard Drive is fine (sorry Dav0s) but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to test it.
  5. Try using only one stick of ram. Test with one stick of ram and when it passes all designated tests, try again with two sticks. the A64 is a picky processor when it comes to memory (read all the A64 stickies on MSI's forum, it's rife with users who chose incompatible memory). If your PSU functions properly I wouldn't be surprised if this was the problem.
  6. putting your ram in different slots (read the MB manual) sometimes dual channel acts wierd with certain slots. I've seen people solve their problems by changing slots.

There's more stuff we can do to help troubleshoot your problem but this should get the ball rolling.

RollerCam540

P.S. I suggested half of this stuff the first time -- why didn't you do it then? :bootyshak
 
name='RollerCam540' said:
P.S. I suggested half of this stuff the first time -- why didn't you do it then?
Click to expand...

you mentioned bios settings, which granted i didn't have a chance to check, and RAM incompatibility with motherboard, for which I got the m/b model :D

anyway thanks for those, i'll plow my way through them when i get the chance heh
 
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