Super Slow Systemax

I have a Systemax Pentium4 2.4GHz with512 Cache system. It has 768MB of DDR ram. 80GB ATA 7200 RPM hard drive. The motherboard is a Biostar U8668. For what the numbers show this computer should be relatively fast. It’s NOT. It’s the worst computer I’ve ever had! My gateway Pentium3 with 512MB runs a lot faster with the same programs. The problem seems to be excessive CPU usage. When opening a program the CPU usage goes to 100%. When multiple programs are running it can take 60 seconds or more for a program to open and while waiting all programs stay locked up. Sometimes it gets so bad the mouse pointer gets choppy and I have to restart. The computer came with 256MB of ram and I hoped when I added another 512MB it would improve but it barely helped at all. I’m running Windows 2000 Pro and have reformatted several times with no improvement. I’ve tried shutting down all non essential resident and background programs. Nothing helps.

What could be the problem? It’s like there’s a bottleneck somewhere. Would overclocking do the trick?

 

Hi iammagi, welcome to the BBS.

My thoughts:
You have reformatted so it does not seem to be an OS problem. Do you have a good set of motherboard drivers installed, they should be installed straight after the OS?

I think you're right that there is a bottleneck. CPU's should not run at 100%, but overclocking would probably only fatigue the system (still run 100% overclocked).

Check that your harddrive is set up correctly. The manufacturers website will have instructions and utilities to check it.

Finally, there may be a loose connection that is interrupting the data flow. All hardware connections may have to be reseated.

Is your install CD in good condition?

Hope you find it
Matt

 

I don't know if you consider it essential or not so I have to ask. Do you have an antivirus program and if so, have tried disabling it? They can sometimes cause problems like this. I could be wrong but I suspect this is a software problem of some sort rather than a hardware problem. Whatever the problem is, your correct that it should run way faster than it is. I have a 2.4 pentium and couldn't be happier with the way it runs.

Edit:
A couple more thoughts. I don't have win2k so I don't know the answer to this. Does win2k have an indexing service like XP? If so, turn it off. Do you MS Office installed? If so, is fastfind running. If so, get rid of it.

 

<<<I don't know if you consider it essential or not so I have to ask. Do you have an antivirus program and if so, have tried disabling it? They can sometimes cause problems like this. I could be wrong but I suspect this is a software problem of some sort rather than a hardware problem. Whatever the problem is, your correct that it should run way faster than it is. I have a 2.4 pentium and couldn't be happier with the way it runs.

Edit:
A couple more thoughts. I don't have win2k so I don't know the answer to this. Does win2k have an indexing service like XP? If so, turn it off. Do you MS Office installed? If so, is fastfind running. If so, get rid of it.>>>

Yes I disable the antivirus program. I don't know if w2k has an indexing program. Where would I find it and what is it called?

 

I have 8 devices sharing IRQ 11. Could this be the problem? If so, how do I move them?

 

Found this MSKB Article on index size, which tells me Win2000 does use the indexing service. In XP you open 'My Computer' and right click on C: and choose properties. Indexing can be disabled from the 'General' tab. Maybe 2K has it in the same place.

 

iammagi

Try starting the computer up in "Safe mode ".
If cpu load is normal, can rule out core setup and most hardware. Has this computer always behaved this way or is this a recent problem? Is Event Manager showing any errors?

 

Would agree - software, possibly AV, and/or correct drivers are logical things to check. But you may have said something very telling when you " added memory ". Should nothing else seem to work, it might be wise to consider pulling the new (additional) memory to see what happens without it. If that speeds things up, you might be headed to a solution. To make a comparisin, you can try just the new stick or sticks (pull the original) and gauge the performance. If memory appears to be a factor, slow down your memory timing and try all of the sticks together. If the old still runs better and you can't get it sorted out - its decision time or shopping time.

 

You should be able to change some by rearranging the location of the PCI add-in cards. Put soundcards and modems furthest from the graphics slot.

 

If you were running 98, this would definately be a potential bottleneck and its still worth checking out, however, this isn't the same beast it was a few years ago. IRQ sharing is handled much better than it used to be. You might want to try something like Boot Log Analyzer which will track loading times at startup and flag any problems.

Then, as mattman suggested, you can tackle known conflicts by moving cards around but make sure you enable reset configuration in your BIOS or remove the device in the control panel before changing PCI slots, otherwise you will be well on your way to creating a monstor.

Not meant to offend but by any chance do you have an AGP video card and do you have anything plugged into PCI #1? If yes, clear PCI #1 - (common rookie foul up)

My vote still goes to memory related problems in your machine but obviously, thats speculation.

 

<<<You should be able to change some by rearranging the location of the PCI add-in cards. Put soundcards and modems furthest from the graphics slot.>>>

Please explain what you mean in more detail.

BTW I have an ATI TV Wonder card in a PCI slot. I've always been supect of it. It seems to be a piece of junk.

PSS, I've done some suggested tweaks and it seems to be getting better but still when I run Spybot Search and Destroy, CPU usage goes to 100% and stays there until the program finishes scanning. I also have a 4 line Dialogic card where the same thing happens when it's running.

 

IRQ's can be allocated by the position of the card in the PCI slots. (Don't ask me the tech details, I'd have to refresh my memory and would have trouble explaining it even then... ).

The "graphics" slot is the place for an AGP graphics card to be inserted. It is usually brown in colour and offset from the PCI (white) slots. Check your motherboard manual, sorry I have no experience with Systemax. If you have a PCI video card, it should go in the PCI slot nearest the AGP slot. As I said, soundcards and modems should go furthest from the (AGP) graphics slot.

Matt

PS I seem to recall a forum post somewhere where there was a conflict between two pieces of hardware, but Win 2000 showed "no conflicts ". One was removed (or changed) and problem disappeared.

 

<<<PS I seem to recall a forum post somewhere where there was a conflict between two pieces of hardware, but Win 2000 showed "no conflicts ". One was removed (or changed) and problem disappeared.>>>

It's even doing it in safe mode. A program like Spybot Search and Destroy puts the CPU at 100-99% all through the scan even in safe mode.

 

I don't think there's anything abnormal about that. What Spybots doing is quite intensive. If I run Spybot, the cpu in mine runs at 98-100% until the scan is done; just as yours does. It's scanning the files in your system, the cpu is there and available, it's going to use it. It uses what it can. I don't however really have any problem opening another program while the scan is running. It takes a bit longer than normal to open the program but not to bad. When I try to open a program, spybot lets go of some of the cpu until the other program is open and then it jumps once again to 99%. It all seems normal to me. If it won't let go of the cpu when you try to do something else perhaps the priority level is set to high. As I said, I don't have win2k, but if it's the same as XP, you can right click on spybot in the processes list and set the priority there. By default it's set to normal. If that's where it's set now you can try below normal or low. May take a bit longer to get done this way but it would be interesting to see if it changes things for you. What other programs give you trouble (use 100%)?

 

<<If that's where it's set now you can try below normal or low. May take a bit longer to get done this way but it would be interesting to see if it changes things for you. What other programs give you trouble (use 100%)?>>

The other program that ***** up the cpu's and runs all day is Winleads. It's an autodialer program that uses a four line Dialogic card. I'd love to lower the priority of this program being that it runs from 9am-9pm. Any ideas?

 

I set up a couple of machines with those Dialogic cards in conjunction with Octopus as dedicated machines with Win2000 solely for the purposes of a telemarketing firm, which I'll assume is what you are up to. I still think your problem is memory but if you are trying to do a bunch of other stuff while running the autodialers and attendant programs, give it up. The ones I did used ISA cards, which are a bit stingier with IRQ handling. Its been a couple of years, but the setup was a bit of a challenge. I used Chaintech's with Pentium Pro's and they ran great - a lot less processor than you are using and 2 cards in each machine - 8 lines. Something has to be wrong in your setup but you'd be smart to test your memory too.