4CoreDual-VSTA - Sluggish

GazzaMataz

GazzaMataz

GazzaMataz

Associate
Joined
2 Nov 2006
Posts
136
Location
Kent, UK
I turned my system on this morning and it booted up real slow like it was only loading little chunks of data at a time. Well, when finally in XP you could move the mouse then it would stick, then you could move it, then it would stick - same thing with the keyboard. Tried different keyboard and mouse same problem.

Ran and anti-virus test on it which took absolutely ages kept sticking again and no virus.

Booted up from another HD with XP and seemed fine, so I concluded that it was a duff HD. But know this HD is doing the same thing again - sticking. Gets in to XP slowly and keeps sticking.

Could this be a duff board? IDE controller? It's definitely not the mouse, keyboard or the HDs…

Anyone got any ideas?
 
GazzaMataz said:
I turned my system on this morning and it booted up real slow like it was only loading little chunks of data at a time. Well, when finally in XP you could move the mouse then it would stick, then you could move it, then it would stick - same thing with the keyboard. Tried different keyboard and mouse same problem.

Ran and anti-virus test on it which took absolutely ages kept sticking again and no virus.

Booted up from another HD with XP and seemed fine, so I concluded that it was a duff HD. But know this HD is doing the same thing again - sticking. Gets in to XP slowly and keeps sticking.

Could this be a duff board? IDE controller? It's definitely not the mouse, keyboard or the HDs…

Anyone got any ideas?
Click to expand...

Try load optimized defaults/reset your BIOS and suggested above, especially if you've changed hardware/overclocked.

It's possible your controller's a bit dodgy and is causing your hard drive to go into PIO mode. PIO mode only provides something like 2MB/s.

I had this problem a while back on my old PC and to this day I have to use a registry edit to stop it from going into PIO mode.

Right click "My Computer" > "Manage" > "Device Manager" > "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" > Right click the primary/seconday IDE channel there (depending on where your hard drive is plugged in) and click uninstall. Reboot.

If the controller is dodgy this will only be a temporary fix. If you have multiple controllers on your motherboard (e.g. ICH9R and a GIGABYTE controller) then try plug the drive into the other controller.

[Edit]
Actually, before you reinstall the controller check that it's actually running in PIO mode. Right click the controller the drive is running on, click Properties and under the advanced tab have a look at what mode it's using. It should be using DMA 5 as shown below:
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OK, tried a different cable reset the BIOS, and checked the IDE controllers.

Guess what?

Still no different…

I think the board has had it :mad::mad::mad:

It boots into XP but you can hear the HD chug and you have responsiveness, then it sticks for a minute or two, then it comes alive again then it sticks again…

Unbearably slow.

There is a newer version of the BIOS 2.3 I am tempted.
 
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Strangely enough both my SATA drive and DVD don't appear in Explorer anymore…

So I disconnected them both from the Motherboard and the machine seems fine now???

Has the SATA controller packed up?
 
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Yeah, I have tested both of those IDE drives and they are fine. With the SATA cables unplugged the machine works fine. It definitely seems to be something to do with SATA.

Am looking into drivers and updating the BIOS.

You can run IDE and SATA at the same time can't you? I mean I have been for the last seven months…
 
OK.

When I boot into the BIOS it says SATA devices not detected even though they are plugged in - does this mean new board?

This is the problem. So when they are plugged in the computer is obviously doing it's nut trying to identify the items plugged into the logic board making the machine crawl…
 
To be fair those Asrock boards aint the best, perhaps it's done you a favour as you can get some great skt775 boards for cracking prices at the mo. For example this
 
My apologies for swearing ;)

It is definitely the hard drive. Took it to the computer shop and they tried it for me and although the drive spins up and makes no peculiar noises it cannot be seen in the BIOS.

And what makes matters worse is that I didn't have a recent a back-up as I would have liked :rolleyes:

However, I am thinking that if this problem is with the HD controller board I could swap it out and get my data back. I have done this before, so it is do-able.

If anyone knows any recovery software, other than Acronis, then please let me know.

Many for everyone's help so far :D
 
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