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Slow computer should be LOTS faster

Trish's Escape from Hardware Hell Help Board » Hardware » ...All the Rest » Slow computer should be LOTS faster « Previous Next »

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wilson55
Posted on Sunday, May 13, 2001 - 5:30 pm:   

As I am new to building these contraptions,I will have to swallow my pride and beg for help! I have just finished building,about 1 mo.ago,a new system for myself.It is a CT-7ata ATX motherboard with slot A 550 Amd K7 with 512 cache onboard.
I loaded 320 meg of 133sdram ,a Diamond Multimedia 2500 Stelth video card and am running Win.98SE.--This computer is to replace an old 166mmx with 48 meg of ram.--Would you believe,this thing is slower by far than the unit it replaced! I replaced the video card, re-installed win 98,and have asked everyone local if they had any ideas----- Help please!
P.S. The proper amount of memory shows on bootup,and in system resources.
win
Posted on Monday, May 14, 2001 - 4:50 pm:   

try lowering the amount of ram to around 200 megs. see if it runs faster. this just off the top of my head. there is a such thing as too much ram. it will slow the computer down enough to show up. however, graphics programs need that amount of ram, minimum for cad is 256 megs. so, you get to play with it, depending on what you want to do with it.
wilson55
Posted on Monday, May 14, 2001 - 7:32 pm:   

The motherboard manual said up to 768meg of pc133 sdram or pc100 sdram ,and yes I've tried with just 64 meg,and with only the 256 meg installed.
Even tried an old pci Cirrus Logic video card (out of the old 166 mmx machine). Nothing I've done so far has made much change. Can a new cpu have something wrong with the cache, but seem to work all right otherwise? (still head scratching)
Mr. Mville
Posted on Tuesday, May 15, 2001 - 8:51 am:   

Do you have a NIC card installed. Also, is it just slower booting up, or all around?
wilson55
Posted on Tuesday, May 15, 2001 - 4:19 pm:   

No NIC card , and this thing is so slow that when on auto-play in some solitare games it will take 3 or 4 seconds to move a card from one stack to another,and is jerky doing that! That's why I tried replacing the Video card.Also takes about 3 to 5 minutes to boot from a cold start.
Paul S
Posted on Tuesday, May 15, 2001 - 6:08 pm:   

this sounds like a few things need checking,,
1. is the bios setup? IE: cache enabled
2. did you install the M/B drivers: IE:agp/pci bridge, chipset drivers???
3. it may have a bios upgrade for this prob also

check a few things out & will watch for reply
V (Vera)
Posted on Tuesday, May 15, 2001 - 6:09 pm:   

hi
when i first installed win 98 i did a custom install to get only what i wanted. i was kind of disappointed to see how slow it was running. one thing i didn't do was to activate the "active desk top". i was used to win 95 and wanted to stay closer to that and also figuring active desktop was going to use resources i didn't want to waste for something i really wasn't interested in anyway. after seeing how slow things were ( i have to say things weren't as slow as you are describing )
i knew anything in the startup menu had to go. never did like anything loading unauthorized anyway. next to go was internet explorer quick launch. next i ran msconfig to uncheck everything i didn't want. these steps definately did help. don't know if you have tried these things.
also i looked up the the video card you have. if what i found is correct you have 2 mg ecc video ram
when i was using win 95b i upgraded from p100 to amd k62-400, 64 meg dimm to 128 meg dimm and still wasn't satisfied with the performance, because my video card just wasn't there. it was a 1 meg stb card. i upgraded that to voodoo 3 2000 16 meg card (which now is no big deal) but that made the difference. thats where the bottleneck was.
well thats my 2 cents worth
hope this helps
wilson55
Posted on Wednesday, May 16, 2001 - 6:05 pm:   

Paul-- I've been through bios setup app.15or 20 times to check and re-check myself,and reloaded the driver cd several times(on each Win98 reload)
I know I'm getting older,but I dont THINK I missed anything .
Vera-- I went with a normal full install on win98
--have gone into MSCONFIG and killed everything, one thing at a time to try and isolate the memory hog ,(if it existed)--still no luck!
The video cards were both in faster computers and did a fine job for me . ( the wife and I surf ,E-mail,and play an ocasional game of solitare, nothing like any of the new shootem up games that require a high tech card.)
V (Vera)
Posted on Wednesday, May 16, 2001 - 7:40 pm:   

hi again
are you using a disk manager that may not be compatible with win98? could be something to look at
wilson55
Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2001 - 4:24 am:   

Have used Western Digital's EZ DRIVE version 9.03,
and have had no problems in the past.(on 3 other computers)
V (Vera)
Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2001 - 6:04 am:   

often times things are trial and error
it may be that ez drive is not compatible with the bios your board has.
check the western digital manual for your harddrive. there are some instances for the removal of ez drive. i was looking at my WD manual and the instructions are there.

here also are some win98 issues at the chaintech website.
http://www.chaintech.com.tw/QUESTION/WIN98.HTM
check back on how you make out
wilson55
Posted on Friday, May 18, 2001 - 7:18 pm:   

Other than checking out the Chaintech site,I've not done any more for this slow box uv junk. Today was our 38th wedding anniversary, and I spent my free time in other endeavors. Am thinking of formatting and trying Win95,as I still get the feeling that this is a software related problem.Any suggestions on stumbling blocks to avoid ,please let me know!
V (Vera)
Posted on Friday, May 18, 2001 - 7:46 pm:   

happy anniversary! that's great. you've got eleven years over me. check back on how things go after the win95 install goes. the only suggestion would be is to wipe everything and do a clean install
wilson55
Posted on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 9:35 pm:   

Hello again---I'm back!--- {on my wife's old 166 Pentium}. My new Amd 550 & 7ata motherboard won't recognize the modem now, tried two new modems,and one out of another system that is known to work,Can't get any e-mail answer from Chaintech,and am fairly sure now that the drivers disk that came with the mother board is not the proper disk for this board. May have to just scrap this board ,and buy another brand.
On another subject-- My sister called me tonight, seems her computer has lost the com2 port,&will not let her modem work on com1. This is on an E-machine 400--- I'm scratching my bald head again!
HELP! Maybe I should give up on these things,and take up checkers.
V (Vera)
Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2001 - 9:04 pm:   

hi
here's something that is food for thought. back on the subject of your system loading so slow
i downloaded the manual for the board you have. on page 18 it speaks about correct type of memory

This mainboard supports 3.3v, unbuffered, 4-clock, SDRAM DIMM only.
Buffered, 5V, or 2-clock SDRAM DIMMs should not be used.
Due to loading anomalies, using DIMM with an 'n x 4' DRAM base on this
mainboard is not recommended. For example, a DIMM that uses sixteen
16Mb x 4 devices should not be used.

you notice the mention of loading anomalies? do you know if the memory you have is correct?
just wondering if that could cause it to run slow.

also are you still using win98 or have you gone to win95?

for your modem problem, is the comm port and irq correct for the modems settings? is the modem set to the correct comm port? how about in bios in the Integrated Peripherals for the onboard serial ports, could any settings have been changed since the last time the modem did work? are the serial ports set to auto or do they define a specific irq and i/o range and do those settings match the setting info in device manager for the comm port the modem is using?

on my soyo board i had to disable the second serial port in bios so my modem could use comm 2.
on my tyan board the second serial port is also set to disabled
on an older board from elite i'm playing around with the second serial port is set to auto
if you play around with the settings maybe you'll find one that works

i have an isa modem and so can set the jumpers to irq 3, comm 2

i haven't worked with an e-machine
has your sister tried to reinstall the comm port in add new hardware? let it auto-detect or select the device she wants to install. does she use a serial mouse on comm 1 if so the modem can't share those same resources.

just some ideas

you can download all the drivers you need at chaintechs website


from chaintechs web site:

Drivers under Windows 98

Windows 98 has its own busmaster drivers. Also, unlike Windows 95 and OSR2.0/2.1/2.5, it recognizes the Intel TX/LX/BX chipset automatically. When using Windows 98 there is thus no need to install any additional drivers.

if you think the drivers from the cd are a problem maybe you could update the drivers in device manager and let win98 install it's own set of compatible drivers

hope something helps

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