Author Topic: Slow Computer, Fine Specs, newly formatted (Read 18597 times)

Anythingwill · « **on:** September 05, 2007, 11:10:27 AM »

Ok, so here's my problem, it's a little like jinxjack's.
I recently got a shuttle computer from a friend who was getting rid of it, so i formatted the hard drive reinstalling windows and right off the bat it was really slow, it was rediculous.
In fact, a computer i have with lower specs and lots of programs on it is running faster.
The specs of the computer from my friend is shown exactly like this in system information

Intel(R)
Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40 GHz
2.40 GHz, 736 MB of RAM
(and yes it did have 2.40 GHz twice if that's somehow significant)
It's XP Pro 2002 with SP2

My older computer that's running faster is
Intel Pentium III processor
602 MHz
128 MB of RAM
and it's XP Pro 2002 without SP2.

I also have another computer that's similar to my friends and of course it's running faster than my older one as my friends should.
Any ideas on what's going on and how to fix it??

saint_hades · « **Reply #1 on:** September 05, 2007, 11:28:33 AM »

Hi,
Did your friend have Limewire and does it(the computer) have a antivirus and spyware.
Because viruses can really mess up your computer and Limewire is a very know programme for giving out viruses(so nice of it).

Anythingwill · « **Reply #2 on:** September 05, 2007, 11:30:58 AM »

I actually don't know if it did, but i reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows, should that not have gotten rid of any viruses?
Right now it doesn't have any programs other than a few that are installed with windows.

saint_hades · « **Reply #3 on:** September 05, 2007, 11:40:06 AM »

As I know from experience (my family's computer had 32 viruses when we finally got a better antivirus), but even after scanning it and removing the viruses+ spywere, it still runs really slow.
If you have enough money maybe bye a new hard drive. Or even a new computer, the Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40 GHz, is old or is that just the Pentium D.

Or just ask your friend why there just giving it to you. If I was them I would sell it and get money.

Anythingwill · « **Reply #4 on:** September 05, 2007, 11:50:22 AM »

Well i'll try a different hard drive incase that's the problem, i've got an extra one, but i have to reinstall windows on it, so it'll be a while before i can post what happens.
I'll reinstall windows on the hard drive on a different (faster) computer, so if anyone has any other ideas in that time then post them and i'll try them as well.
My friend did give it to me because it wasn't working, and he upgraded to a better computer. When i took it apart, though, I found out it was just a faulty video card. So i just took it out and plugged the monitor into the built in video card. He had no need for the computer, and he sort of owed me anyways, so he just gave it to me.

patio · « **Reply #5 on:** September 05, 2007, 02:28:11 PM »

Did you re-install the MBoard drivers ? ?
What brand/size is this HDD ? ?
Have you ran MemTest on the RAM ? ?
Are all devices listed properly in Device Manager with no Yellow !'s ? ?

Anythingwill · « **Reply #6 on:** September 05, 2007, 02:42:29 PM »

Have you ever heard of an old cord making your computer run slowly, because the one that was in there was yellow, i replaced it with a different one, and now the computer seems to be running faster.
Is it just luck, or the problem fixed?

and thank you for the reminder patio, i made that exact same mistake of not re-installing drivers last time i did this, you may have even been the one to tell me last time too

it may not have been the computer problem, but it explains why i couldn't get internet on it again

Anythingwill · « **Reply #7 on:** September 05, 2007, 02:57:06 PM »

EDIT: No i was right the first time, I can't seem to find the drivers, it's a Shuttle FS51 v2.
Could someone point me in the right direction. I'm obviously doing something wrong

patio · « **Reply #8 on:** September 05, 2007, 07:11:03 PM »

http://eu.shuttle.com/archive/en/ss51g_faq.htm

Anythingwill · « **Reply #9 on:** September 05, 2007, 07:16:41 PM »

Thank you again patio.
My last motherboard drivers download was all in one package, but it looks like this isn't, so i'm assuming i download
AGP driver for all operating systems (6118kB)
VGA SIS Driver v2.07 for Win2000/XP (17144kB)
LAN Driver for all operating systems (SS51G/FS51, 2585kB)
USB2.0 Driver for 2000/XP (7147kB)
Audio Driver Realtek/Avance Logic ALC650 Download Page
VGA AGP Driver for SiS651 Chipset

Anythingwill · « **Reply #10 on:** September 07, 2007, 03:39:47 PM »

Ok so my computer's better now, but it's still not perfect, as i've found out. For the normal running of windows it works fine, but it slows down once it starts actually doing anything. The MemTest says to leave it for 20 minutes, and i figured that meant it would be at 100% by that point, but after 7 hours it only got to 67%, it had no errors at that point, but i had to stop it so i could actually use the computer. My DVD drive isn't even fast wnough to play a CD well enough a DVD. When i was running microsoft office i was running other things as well, so that's not really a fair test, but that was slow as well, and that's all the programs i have on it right now.

I'm running MemTest again and letting it get to 100% this time to see if it picks up any errors, but any other ideas for the mean time?

patio · « **Reply #11 on:** September 08, 2007, 08:50:01 AM »

You ran MemTest long enough...it cycles back to the beginning and starts over by itself...if you had no errors reported in that time the memory is fine.

Anythingwill · « **Reply #12 on:** September 08, 2007, 10:46:24 AM »

Oh, Doesn't after it's gotten to 100 just keep going like 101%, 102%, ect.
I don't remember now, but i had run it again before your post, patio, and somehow i knew that it had completely gone through the RAM.
Anyways, yeah, 0 errors, so if it's not the RAM, then what's going on with it?

patio · « **Reply #13 on:** September 08, 2007, 11:56:29 AM »

The next step would be to test the HDD...
DLoad and run the free diagnostics from the drive manuf. site.

Anythingwill · « **Reply #14 on:** September 09, 2007, 09:51:12 AM »

Ok, did that, both the SMART test and the enhanced test came back as PASS...

patio · « **Reply #15 on:** September 09, 2007, 10:13:05 AM »

How much free space is on this HDD? ?
Are there any yellow !'s in Device Manager ? ?
How are you determining the system speed ? ?
You could DLoad and run a benchmark utility...

Anythingwill · « **Reply #16 on:** September 09, 2007, 10:27:58 AM »

there's 71.7 of 74.5 free space on the hard drive, and I expanded everything in device manager and nothing had a yellow !.
The processor is your main speed component, so that's what i would at first judge it by, but in this case everything is better on this PC that i'm trying to fix than my older one. Yet this one is running so slowly. As i said, it doesn't even play a cd properly because it's so slow, that definatly says there's something wrong. I can still run a benchmark utility, but i don't know that it's going to tell me much, right?

patio · « **Reply #17 on:** September 09, 2007, 10:59:01 AM »

I'm just trying to cover all the bases on slowdown issues here...let me give it some more thought.

Did we cover re-setting the BIOS back to it's default settings ? ?

Anythingwill · « **Reply #18 on:** September 10, 2007, 02:32:54 PM »

Well, we have now, unfortunatly didn't work. I actually pressed the Load Optimized Defaults, there was also Load Fail-Safe Defaults which i didn't try.
I have something new with this, though, now i've realized that for the first few minutes it's on, it works fine, but then for some reason it stops working well. Even if i just restart the computer it'll work for a little while

Fed · « **Reply #19 on:** September 10, 2007, 03:01:42 PM »

Has the computer ever been connected to the internet since the format?
Is it slow in safe mode?

patio · « **Reply #20 on:** September 11, 2007, 09:28:06 AM »

And you may as well try the fail safe setting...

Anythingwill · « **Reply #21 on:** September 11, 2007, 02:38:18 PM »

Sorry Fed, I thought that i'd already replied to your post.
In a sense i've been connected to the internet, i've had a cable connected, however i've never actually been able to get a webpage up, and my internet cd says that it occured an error.
Oddly enough it doesn't seem to be slow in safe mode, however the tests that are best to know for sure i can't seem to run. None of the drivers like my video or sound drivers work in safe mode.

Patio, i guess i should have just tried fail safe anyways since optimized didn't work, i'll post back how it works out in a sec

Anythingwill · « **Reply #22 on:** September 11, 2007, 02:53:30 PM »

I can't use the Fail-safe because it makes me load in safe mode then

Anythingwill · « **Reply #23 on:** September 15, 2007, 06:11:11 AM »

I thought we were getting somewhere with it not being slow in safe mode, any more thoughts on that?

Fed · « **Reply #24 on:** September 15, 2007, 06:47:22 AM »

Check you Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and see what your CPU Usage and Memory Usage is at the very bottom of the Task Manager screen.
Give it a short time to settle down after you open your Task Manager.

Anythingwill · « **Reply #25 on:** September 15, 2007, 03:47:10 PM »

When i first opened it up it was at 2%, but after a few minutes it started to get slow again, and as you can see in the pic the task manager was taking up 21%, you can see the other memory usage in the picture as well

[saving space - attachment deleted by admin]

Fed · « **Reply #26 on:** September 15, 2007, 04:19:26 PM »

Look under the Processes Tab of your Task Manager and see if you can tell what is using up your CPU.

Anythingwill · « **Reply #27 on:** September 15, 2007, 04:21:25 PM »

at 21% it was just the task manager. All the other programs were at 0

Fed · « **Reply #28 on:** September 15, 2007, 05:45:26 PM »

Download and run Process Explorer from www.sysinternals.com and have a poke around in there looking for whatever is using your CPU.
I can't point you to exactly what to look for because my knowledge of Process Explorer is limited but I always seem to muddle through it until I find what I'm looking for.
Try it out & come back, we can compare notes.

Anythingwill · « **Reply #29 on:** September 22, 2007, 05:42:43 PM »

It's always jsut whatever program i'm running, here are some screen shots.
Paint was running at 92%, and just process explorer was running at 42%!

[Saving disk space - attachment deleted by admin]

Fed · « **Reply #30 on:** September 22, 2007, 06:54:42 PM »

Well that's strange, it's a P4 running like a P2.
Lets see exactly what Everest says is in there.

Download, unzip, install and run Everest Home Edition
Everest

Select Computer>Summary from the left hand screen.
Right click in the right hand screen & select Copy All
Paste the details in here.

Anythingwill · « **Reply #31 on:** September 23, 2007, 05:48:54 AM »

Here you go, I also did it in two screen shots if that's easier to read

Field   Value
Computer
Operating System   Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack   Service Pack 2
DirectX   4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
Computer Name   85D27A689E4B42A
User Name   Administrator

Motherboard
CPU Type   Intel Pentium 4, 2400 MHz (18 x 133)
Motherboard Name   Shuttle FS51 v2 (1 PCI, 1 AGP, 2 DDR DIMM, Audio, Video, LAN, IEEE-1394)
Motherboard Chipset   SiS 651B
System Memory   736 MB (PC2700 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type   Award (05/30/03)
Communication Port   Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port   Communications Port (COM2)
Communication Port   Printer Port (LPT1)

Display
Video Adapter   SiS 315 Integrated
3D Accelerator   SiS 315 Integrated

Multimedia
Audio Adapter   SiS 7012 Audio Device

Storage
IDE Controller   SiS PCI IDE Controller
Floppy Drive   Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive   WDC WD800JB-00JJA0 (74 GB, IDE)
Disk Drive   USB USB Device (988 MB, USB)
Optical Drive   DVDRW IDE1004 (DVD+RW:4x/4x, DVD-RW:4x/2x, DVD-ROM:12x, CD:40x/24x/40x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)
SMART Hard Disks Status   OK

Partitions
C: (NTFS)   76308 MB (74094 MB free)

Input
Keyboard   Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse   PS/2 Compatible Mouse

Peripherals
USB1 Controller   SiS 7001 PCI-USB Open Host Controller
USB1 Controller   SiS 7001 PCI-USB Open Host Controller
USB1 Controller   SiS 7001 PCI-USB Open Host Controller
USB2 Controller   SiS 7002 USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller
USB Device   USB Mass Storage Device

[Saving disk space - attachment deleted by admin]

Fed · « **Reply #32 on:** September 23, 2007, 02:57:58 PM »

Use Everest to check your Voltage Values, you will find them by selecting Computer>Sensor from the left hand screen.

wverb0783 · « **Reply #33 on:** September 23, 2007, 05:37:05 PM »

You may also want to try replacing the cables from your harddrive, DVD drive and Floppy Drive. if they're are old they may not be allowing full speed either. but from the sounds of it your CPU is being way over worked. might have to replace it. but if you have a better system it may not be worth your time or money to do so.

Anythingwill · « **Reply #34 on:** September 23, 2007, 07:16:16 PM »

Ok, so there were a few different voltages, the CPU Core was at 1.46v, I have a screen shot with the rest

[Saving disk space - attachment deleted by admin]

GX1_Man · « **Reply #35 on:** September 23, 2007, 07:24:02 PM »

Let's hear about the age make and wattage of the power supply. Can you try another known good one?

Anythingwill · « **Reply #36 on:** September 23, 2007, 07:28:27 PM »

Well, i can't easily try another good one, and even then i'm not sure if it'll be the right powersupply for the computer. Unfortunatly i can't tell you any of the other info either, it being from a friend and all.
Why? is there something wrong with the power supply?

Fed · « **Reply #37 on:** September 23, 2007, 07:30:37 PM »

Is there something strange about those voltage values?
It looks like there's an 'extra' one there?
Remember this...

Quote

Intel(R)
Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40 GHz
2.40 GHz, 736 MB of RAM
(and yes it did have 2.40 GHz twice if that's somehow significant)

Maybe you should try setting the bios to the failsafe defaults?
Give it a bit and see if anyone else has some thoughts on it.

Fed · « **Reply #38 on:** September 23, 2007, 07:33:10 PM »

FYI the following on my computer...

Field   Value
Sensor Properties
Sensor Type   Winbond W83627THF (ISA 290h)
Motherboard Name   Asus P4C800 / P4P800 / P4P8X

Temperatures
Motherboard   39 °C (102 °F)
CPU   39 °C (102 °F)

Cooling Fans
CPU   3924 RPM

Voltage Values
CPU Core   1.55 V
+3.3 V   3.31 V
+5 V   4.97 V
+12 V   11.98 V
+5 V Standby   5.06 V
Debug Info F   FF 56 FF
Debug Info T   39 39 208
Debug Info V   63 C5 CF B9 FF 00 00 (03)

Anythingwill · « **Reply #39 on:** September 23, 2007, 07:37:39 PM »

Well, I can set it to failsafe, but that just means it'll be in safe mode all the time. It'll only really work for while i'm trying to fix the computer.
and your right, there is an extra one, it's still listed under a different name, but it has the same voltage

Fed · « **Reply #40 on:** September 23, 2007, 07:53:26 PM »

Quote

Maybe you should try setting the bios to the failsafe defaults?

The bios, not start in Windows safe mode.

Anythingwill · « **Reply #41 on:** September 23, 2007, 07:56:48 PM »

that's what the fail safe does on my computer, there's two BIOS things, one is optimized defaults, which is what it's on now, and the other is failsafe defaults which only lets me enter in safe mode

Fed · « **Reply #42 on:** September 23, 2007, 08:03:14 PM »

Well that's even stranger because 'Safe Mode' is a Windows function and nothing to do with bios.
Maybe you should unplug it & pluck the battery out for a while to reset the defaults?

GX1_Man · « **Reply #43 on:** September 23, 2007, 08:05:31 PM »

Quote

Let's hear about the age make and wattage of the power supply

You never did answer this. So how about that and this one?

What is the make and model of the computer or motherboard?

Is the computer in front of you? Open it up and look, if nothing else.

Fed · « **Reply #44 on:** September 23, 2007, 08:09:42 PM »

Quote

What is the make and model of the computer or motherboard?

See Reply #31 mate.

Anythingwill · « **Reply #45 on:** September 23, 2007, 08:11:57 PM »

Thank you Fed, much easier way to do that

Fed · « **Reply #46 on:** September 23, 2007, 08:14:15 PM »

Did we ever establish if this thing was clean?
Ewido/AVG Anti-Spyware Online Scan
Panda Activescan

GX1_Man · « **Reply #47 on:** September 23, 2007, 08:22:14 PM »

Thanks, Fed. Did I miss the pwoer supply somewhere? The history of this machine would be helpful as well, but that didn't get mentioned other than given away, did it?

akmal.avloni · « **Reply #48 on:** September 24, 2007, 05:23:46 AM »

run a livecd like knoppix and see if it runs slow

this may help you deduce if the problem is hardware or software

Anythingwill · « **Reply #49 on:** September 27, 2007, 02:30:33 PM »

Ok, did the ewido test, nothing found. I'm not really surprised. It's not connected to the internet, so the only way it would have been infected would have been through my usb flash drive. Since i don't have internet i wasn't able to do the panda activsecan though.
The best i can give you for the power supply is that on a serial tag it said SN:S51G00340E01205, on a sticker it had 9TPWR2004A, and on a label it had S/N:0311161 Model NO:AM630BS20S Achme. It's also got some power values on it.

I don't know anything about the history, sorry

Finally, akmal.avloni, i'm not sure what you mean

patio · « **Reply #50 on:** September 27, 2007, 03:28:19 PM »

An older 200W PSU...i'd consider replacing it.

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Author Topic: Slow Computer, Fine Specs, newly formatted (Read 18597 times)

Anythingwill

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