Extremely slow computer

[skeletonghost]

Hi everyone, I'm having a pretty big PC problem that I'm pretty sure is hardware related but I can't narrow it down to anything specifically.

A couple of months ago I got a virus and reformatted my computer. In my haste to backup my music and pictures to a separate hard drive I accidentally left the sata connector for my main hard drive slightly ajar. After reinstalling windows it was running unbearably slow (took about 4 hours just to install) and would take upwards of several minutes to start up and boot into windows as opposed to the normal 15-20 seconds and would be extremely unresponsive once booted. I figured it was my hard drive and got a new one recently (I'm a poor college kid) expecting to have a clean install and no issues, but I'm having the exact same problems. It still takes a long time to boot into windows, and when it does it is unbearably slow.

Normally my computer ran like a champ (for being a couple years old):

DFI Lanparty UT NF590 SLI-M2R/G
BFG Tech GeForce 7950GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
Pioneer Black 16X DVD+R

I've had RAM issues before, but that was always random restarts, problems booting, BSOD's etc. My problem is just EXTREME slowness, and I can't narrow it down to anything other than it NOT being the hard drive. Any help or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[customisbetter]

Run Memtest for a few hours and see if it comes up with anything. You could also try removing a stick of ram and see if that fixs the problem. Its possible one stick is failing and slooooowwing dooowwwn.

 

[Zecow]

I had the same issue, but mine might be different. It was because I was using IDE cd drives with SATA HDDs. Strange that it may sound... as it should be compatible and should not have affected the drives. Swapping to SATA cd drives solved my problems.

 

[GhislainG]

skeletonghost, how fast is your CPU running and how much memory is detected in the BIOS? Is everything else normal in the BIOS? That's where I would start.

Have you tried connecting the hard disk to a different port? Does the PC boot faster from a CD or DVD (I assume that you might have one, even though you didn't list any)?

 

[dorrito64]

there are a few people you can check with(Zorg, Shadow703793)
Both of these people are good and can help you out

 

[skeletonghost]

I had the same issue, but mine might be different. It was because I was using IDE cd drives with SATA HDDs. Strange that it may sound... as it should be compatible and should not have affected the drives. Swapping to SATA cd drives solved my problems.

Did you have problems suddenly or was it a problem from the start? If that IS the case for me it would be pretty spontaneous considering it ran fine for a year and a half. I tried unplugging my DVD drive and it didn't do anything...so I'm thinking that it's probably not the problem. Thanks for the advice though

 

[customisbetter]

try a linux live CD and see if that is slow as well.

 

[skeletonghost]

In response to everything:

I ran memtest for 18 hours with 18 passes, it is safe to say my RAM is okay.
My computer actually froze up trying to load Ubuntu from a cd. WTF?
I ran prime95 for a couple of hours, but it didn't seem to be working, it was on test #1 the whole time....
I used EuroSoft and did a Video Card, CPU and Mobo stress test and ALL of it passed. I have exhausted all of my ideas.

I did go into my bios and noticed my CPU was a little hot, around 55C, other than that it was clocking in as it should and getting the voltage it should.

Someone shoot me.

 

[unclefester]

You might try another install. I use 2 ops 1 on 30 trial just 4 OCing that way if it drops files I don't have to do a full install. Some installs will be really crappy.

 

[skeletonghost]

I'll try a reinstall tonight, but I did notice a couple new developments. I tested my cpu with EuroSoft again and the 2nd processor failed the MP symmetry test once, but I tested it a few times and it passed all the others. I'm not sure what that tests exactly, but any fails are never good.

 

[GhislainG]

So far we know that the computer is very slow when booting Windows, a new hard drive and reinstallation didn't resolve the issue (and reinstalling again obviously won't help), the computer froze up trying to load Ubuntu from a CD, etc.

Is your Pioneer Black 16X DVD+R SATA or IDE? If it's SATA, have you tried booting from an IDE device?

 

[skeletonghost]

It's IDE, and I haven't tried booting from a SATA device. However, I did try unplugging it from my motherboard and that didn't help any.

 

[skeletonghost]

You might try another install. I use 2 ops 1 on 30 trial just 4 OCing that way if it drops files I don't have to do a full install. Some installs will be really crappy.

I cleared my CMOS and reset my bios settings to factory settings AND reinstalled windows and that did nothing. Windows took around 8 hours to install (from partition to first boot).

 

[Zorg]

Confusing to say the least. I doubt that you damaged the CPU, but I don't know about the mobo.

Try running HD Tune and post the results.

Also, I found that you have a separate controller, as per this.

Source

Six Serial ATA ports supported by NVIDIA® MCP55PXE
- SATA speed up to 3Gb/s
- RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 and RAID 5
Two Serial ATA ports supported by Silicon Image SiI 3132
- SATA speed up to 3Gb/s
- RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 0+1

I don't know for sure whether these are bootable or if they work JBOD but look in your manual and see. If they are usable then you might be able to switch to them, assuming your HD Tune results are bad.

Also go into device manager for the HD controller and check to see that you are running DMA and not PIO. This is less likely due to the reloads, but something to check.

 

[GhislainG]

Reinstalling Windows will not resolve your issue. Use CPU-Z to provide us with the following info:

- CPU Core Speed, Multiplier, Bus Speed and Rated FSB.
- Memory Timings.

 

[unclefester]

You might try opening task manager to see if anything out of the ordinary is useing resources.Then try running HiJackThis.compare them and see if there the same. heres a link http://www.download.com/Trend-Micro-HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10227353.htmla

 

[Zorg]

Good thought, download and run Process Explorer v11.21. Click on the CPU header and look for high CPU load.

 

[skeletonghost]

Confusing to say the least. I doubt that you damaged the CPU, but I don't know about the mobo.

Try running HD Tune and post the results.

Also, I found that you have a separate controller, as per this.

Source

Six Serial ATA ports supported by NVIDIA® MCP55PXE
- SATA speed up to 3Gb/s
- RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 and RAID 5
Two Serial ATA ports supported by Silicon Image SiI 3132
- SATA speed up to 3Gb/s
- RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 0+1

I don't know for sure whether these are bootable or if they work JBOD but look in your manual and see. If they are usable then you might be able to switch to them, assuming your HD Tune results are bad.

Also go into device manager for the HD controller and check to see that you are running DMA and not PIO. This is less likely due to the reloads, but something to check.

benchmarks:

Transfer Rate:
Minimum: 11.4 MB/sec
Maximum: 18.8 MB/sec
Average: 16.5 MB/sec

Access Time: 14.2 ms

Burst Rate: 25.7 MB/sec
CPU Usage: 79.2%

Those two other SATA ports weren't bootable. I am running DMA.

 

[Zorg]

Your read numbers are in the tank, and something is causing the CPU to get hammered. That is a classic PIO problem, but if you checked then ok.

Run the Sysinternals Process Explorer linked above and find out that's eating the processor cycles.

 

[skeletonghost]

Reinstalling Windows will not resolve your issue. Use CPU-Z to provide us with the following info:

- CPU Core Speed, Multiplier, Bus Speed and Rated FSB.
- Memory Timings.

I couldn't find the rated FSB, maybe you have a better eye than me http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103741

Here are the speeds:
CPU Core speed: 2210.3 MHZ
Multiplier: X11
Bus Speed: 200.9 MHz

Memory timings:
DRAM Frequency 368.4 MHz
FSBram: CPU/6
CAS # Latency: 5.0
RAS # to CAS #: 5
RAS # Precharge: 5
Cycle Time: 18
Bank Cycle Time: 23
Command Rate: 2T

 

[skeletonghost]

Your read numbers are in the tank, and something is causing the CPU to get hammered. That is a classic PIO problem, but if you checked then ok.

Run the Sysinternals Process Explorer linked above and find out that's eating the processor cycles.

My CPU seems to be at a constant usage of AT least 60%, though in windows task manager it fluctuates frequently from 15-100%...

Sysinternals process explorer shows:

scchost.exe: 50%-67%
Procexplorer was taking up around 15-16%
and the system idle process was taking 11-18%
services.exe 10.80%

I double checked to make sure my hard drive wasn't PIO.

 

[GhislainG]

If you wait for several minutes, does svchost.exe eventually stop using the CPU that much? If so, then does the system perform normally?

 

[skeletonghost]

If you wait for several minutes, does svchost.exe eventually stop using the CPU that much? If so, then does the system perform normally?

It seems to go down every once in awhile, and if I leave it alone long enough it doesn't eat up any cpu usage. However, even simple processes like IE or firefox sometimes take up 60%, so I never notice an increase in performance.

 

[GhislainG]

Could you launch Task manager, select the Performance tab and post it here?

 

[skeletonghost]

Totals:
Handles: 5088
Threads: 273
Processes: 20

Commit Charge:
Total: 164612
Limit: 4037808
Peak: 289032

Physical Memory:
Total: 2095532
Available 1778908~1779308
System Cache: 1486952

Kernel Memory:
Total: 56404~56412
Paged: 33808
Nonpaged:22648

CPU Usage: usually about 59-61% and I have nothing open, though windows is downloading updates.