Unresponsive system

[FatRakoon]

I just knocked up a cheap C2D box to replace my Opteron system ( Mistake ).

The trouble is, that I just cannot pin-point why it is so slow and unresponsive.

Basic specs are :-

E2180
Abit AB9
SATA =
C: = Maxtor 40GB
D: = Maxtor 120GB
E: = Seagate 400GB
F: = Seagate 80GB
IDE =
V: = Pioneer 111 DVDRW
W: = Pioneer 109 DVDRW

ATI X1800XT
SB Audigy 1 + SBLive 5.1 LiveDrive


All HDs are IDE but with SATA Adapters
This is EXACTLY as I had them with the ASUS A8N-SLI Board.

Fresh Install obviously, but I have opted for XP32 so I may be going back to XP64 instead... I only opted for XP32bit because I was tryign and failing to get any version of windows at all into the PC until I upped the BIOS to v16 but I just could not be arsed to swap the disk out.

Anyway, the PC is just so unresponsive and slow that it really cannot be used in any kind of serious capacity... I have to be honest but it feels as bad as a celeron and quite frankly I would rather do without.

Its running 4x512MB Geil. This RAM was used fo a while before in my DS3 and I have recently had it in the DS4 with the Q6600 and the RAM is fine.

The Mobo is an RMA'ed job. The first one failed to save the BIOS ( although an update went fine ) and that too also failed to install Windows.

I have an awful feeling that this board is just crappy too!

HD Tach shows me that the disks are accessing at a good pace, so the Disk is not to blame, SuperPI shows the CPU in itself is quick enough, so its not that, so, why is it just poor as hell to use?

Double clicking on the NotePad Icon I have just put onto the Desktop, takes it about 5 seconds to show up the NotePad window.

3DMark 03 gives me 19K so thats a fairly good result, so things do indeed seem to be running well, but its just unresponsive as hell.

Any clues to try out?

 

[FatRakoon]

Is the CPU Running Hot? (Doubtful with that 3dmark score) have you tried running Memtest86 overnight on the RAM?

CPU Temp idle is 14c and right after 3DMark it was 18c, so temps are more than good. ( Its in the LAN Room which is cold as hell in there )

I tested the RAM a short while ago, and the RAM has had about 4 or 5 hours use since.

I will re-test it for sure, but I really dont think the RAM can be blamed because I have just been toying about with it in the DS4&Q6600 before the replacement RAM got delivered... It was fine in that.

It's probably that ancient 40gb hard drive slowing it all down. Get hold of somthing like Symantec Ghost and get your OS on a more modern drive.

No way.

Sure, its an old HD, but it was used as the C: on the Opteron and it ran perfectly fine and more than fast enough... Plus its giving great HDTach scores 55-60 at start of drive down to 45-50 at end... Very quick for age.

So, no, it cannot possibly be the HDs age to blame.

 

[FatRakoon]

Drivers are all upped yes.

Im running it at stock ATM but its still waaaayyy slower than any PC I have knocked up for a fair while!

 

[FatRakoon]

I jsut a fresh install - XP64 onto a pair of Hitachi 80GB Drives.

Quicker, as expected, but the system overall is still VERY unresponsive.

Tonight, I will sit down with it properly and go through the lot... Fine tooth comb etc.

I must be missing something ??

If not, Ill just RMA it and not get that model cos I hate the bloody thing right now.

Thanks all.

 

[FatRakoon]

Well if you found that putting some new HDD's in made the pc quicker, whynot try a brand new hard drive...a fast one.

I see what you are saying, I really do.

But, the Disks that I have tried ( The 40GB Maxtor and these 2 Hitachis all run fast as hell in other systems, they are running perfectly fast now... The Disk access is fine, its got nothing to do with the disks - As I have already said ).
The improved speed is only down to the fact that it is now running a Striped RAID setup and nothign more.

id try running your system with 2 sticks of memory

some motherboards have issues with 4. May not be, but hey it costs nothing to try it with 2 removed

also what is it unresponsive in ? and how exactly does it manifest itself ? are you waiting ages for programmes to load etc.. or is the mouse cursor not responding to your input ??

also, have you got any process' in task manager taking more VM than maybe they should be ? to see VM usage (as opposed to real memory useage) go into task manager, then view >> select columns and tick v irtual memory size

as somebody has already said, might be an idea to get a temp monitoring solution going to check the CPU isnt throttling.

also, what does the performance counters show. Go into administrative tools in XP and load up performance. That will show you what the disks doing. If the disk has stopped thrashing and your programme hasnt loaded yet, its a memory issue.

If the disk is continuing to thrash while the programme is loading, its your disks.

2 Sticks - Good idea yes, I will try that.

What is unresponsive?
Good question. Ok, first off, if I double-click on My Computer, it does nothign for say 5 or 6 seconds, then the window opens, but its blank... a further few seconds and it fills the window.

Double clicking on say a drive, and it does nothign for 5 or 6 seconds thenthe windows clears and a few seconds later, fills up with the contents for the drive I clicked on... Does this into the folders too...

Directly entering the PATH into the address bar also does the same, whether its to a folder or a url.

RAM usage etc
No, good RAM useage. still over 1.7GB to play with, PageFile is 64K ( Its a very clean setup with no apps loaded up - NOD32 and SpeedFan is in, and a couple of Benchers, but nothing else, oh, and all updates are done, and only DOTNET2 of the optionals and thats for the CATALYSTS )

TEMPS
SpeedFan already on there... Not seen over 18c

Performance Counters etc
Yes, Im thinking that the RAM is incompatible with the Board perhaps?
Which kind of gets to me, because its GEIL and its good ram thats fine with other boards, and I know that GEIL should be ok with this board...

I will try the 2 sticks option first, then I will try some Corsair, and indeed I have a load of Kingston too, so I have a few options left.

I know for a fact the Disks are fine. They have served me well in other PCS and indeed I took the Maxtor40 from the A8N-SLI Setup, and thats now re-housed in another case and its gone back and once again, its installed great and is fast enough for its needs, so I know the disks are fine.

I have had this Mobo returned twice and I feel that perhaps the Motherboard is at fault because the Disks and the RAM are great on other PCs, just not this one... I kind of hope that there might be some setting I have missed however, because Im sick of returning this particular board.

--

Ok thanks for that lot.

I know the RAM is good. I know the disks are good. I dont know however, that the RAM and the Disks are good in this board.

I will try other bits later on and get back.

 

[FatRakoon]

what do performance counters show is happenning when it takes ages to open up a disk

Nothing.

When I double click on anything the system just does nothing.

Even if I try opening somehting up with a right-click, the context menu takes yonks to come up... As soon as I click on anything, nohting happens, no matter what...

Performance counters dont show a thing to help.

is the disk thrashing or not ? if not it implies the bottleneck is elsewhere, eg the ram...

Disk is not doing a thing.

make sure the hard disk(s) areant running in PIO mode and make sure they are running in DMA mode.

sorry if you've checked this already but it sounds like theyre running in PIO from what you describe.

Good thought, but again, something that was checked out very early on in the list, well before I asked here.

Sounds hard drive related or mobo drivers to me....try the OS drive on a native IDE port to see if the problem goes away (disconnect your other drives as well).

HD Related perhaps, but this does not explain why it is the same across the board no matter if Windows access the HD or not.

Yes, I have tried different ports. This Mobo has 6 SATA and only the one IDE ( 2 devices of course )

I did hook up the DVD to a SATA Adapter and I tried a brand new 400GB IDE ( fairly quick drive ) on the IDE and again, not all that responsive.

---

I have still got my old Gigabyte S3 that I have now put all the stuff up to tht board and its running peachy as hell... I have the Abit packed up.

I have a number of IDE Cards and I did want to try those out, but, unfortunately, they simply would not work with the Board, in either PCI Port, with or withotu the SATA Enabled, and thats a shame because it would have shown me that the IDE / SATA Controler was just buggered and slow for some reason? - unless of course the IDE Card was the same ?

I had a similar issue some time ago, where no matter what, the PC was simply unable to access disks at anythign over 16MB/s - I eventually gave this Mobo to InSanCen in the hope that he could find out why?

But this one has just annoyed the hell out of me. I have tried different RAM and different HDs and the RAM and HDs work perfectly fine in other boards, so its not RAM or HD issues... Unless of course its the board, and thats what Im aiming for now.

 

[FatRakoon]

OK I have dug out the Mobo again last night and today I have a few play abouts.

I have now tried Vista32 and 64 on it too and on both counts, the thing was the same.

I have just run HDTACH and its only giving me 16MB/s now?

I got 55+ under XP

I have set the SATA W/B and its made no difference?

Any clues?

ADDED BIT

FWIW - its doing this on all Sata Drives and IDE Drives on a SATA Adapter, on all SATA Ports with different cables.

I have also tried no drivers, the drivers from the CD, and the latest drivers from T'internet, but they are all *** same?

WTF?