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Hope someone can help..

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  • New Build
  • Systems
Last response: in Systems
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December 14, 2008 9:29:29 PM

Ok im at the end of my rope, never tried forums for advice but im lost here.

I built a home system which I have done before, the specs are:

nzxt tempest case
k9a2 plat mobo
amd phenom 9550 quad
4g ram (667)
nvidia 9400 gt
1000w power supply
seagate drive (brand new) ide
sony dvd rw dw-d22a ide
soundblaster live sound card
windows xp pro service pack 3
direct x 9c
all drivers updated and verified for mobo, video card, and sound card
cpu operating temp is 37f idle
everything i list is after fresh wipe of hard drive and nothing running exept zonealarm and avg

heres the symptoms:
minor:
slow to boot, about 2 min to desktop and za and avg up
about 45 sec to load up firefox (these two sound petty but i have lees than 1/3 of the time on a lesser machine and only list here to help diagnose)
Major:
programs take forever to load, ie games
wow load times are forever and when im in the character models take a long time to load so you can see them, frame rates dropping down as low as 4 fps. with settings turned down, such as shadows,resolution
and detail
tried Bioshock and with lower resolution and shadows off all I get is a slide show, totally unplayable.
other than this I see no problems at all, ie no instability

What Ive tried:
replaced video card (both were brand new the other was a Nvidia 8800gt)
replace my ram with new(started with 2g bought 2 more and swapped, then just added the 2 for 4g, noticed no difference)
checked the thermal paste and applied new
replaced all cables
wiped system and started over.

have not flashed bios and everything is less than 1 month old

any help here would be appr, dont know where to turn now

More about : hope

December 14, 2008 10:45:47 PM

Why a brand new IDE disk instead of a SATA disk? How is it configured in the BIOS?
December 14, 2008 10:56:44 PM


yea probably something with your IDE drive

running in PIO mode or something
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December 14, 2008 11:03:56 PM

i had already had it bought and in the box from a year ago, so I used it. I plan on upgrading it, if you think it may be the problem ill change that next, Checked the bios and it is configured correctly. It just seems that the performance hit Im getting is pretty severe for it to be just the drive. Thank you for the quick response . All help is appreciated.
December 14, 2008 11:27:59 PM

There definitely is a problem here.
It looks to me to be hard drive related.
I suspect that a new Sata drive will fix your problem.

For now, go to the hard drive vendor's web site, and download their diagnostic program for that drive. See if that shows anything. Possibly the drive is defective and has many relocated sectors. You might have to reformat the drive.

Run HDtach or HDtune to benchmark the hard drive.

Run memtest86+ for a couple of full passes to verify that the ram is completely good.

Run prime 95 with error checking to verify that the CPU is sound and exercise the ram in a different way.
December 15, 2008 12:48:04 AM

will do, thanks for the replys. gives me another direction to go.
thanks all
December 15, 2008 1:09:22 AM

try new ide cables . Even minor damage causes problems like the ones you are having .
Or its the hard drive itself.

An alternate possible issue: presumably you have run the driver disc for the new motherboard? Check in device manager that the correct mb drivers are installed and the old ones are not still there in parallel [ complete with yellow triangles with a ! in the middle] .
If they are you could try deleting them , which will help unscramble windows . If its still slow after that do a fresh install of xp
December 15, 2008 2:02:58 AM

just a quick update and a thank you again, ran Hdtach and my cpu is at 26% and my read speed is at 1.3 mbs which is really bad, I guess just because I never opened the box on the hard drive doesnt automatically make it good lol, guess Im shopping for drives tommorow .
December 15, 2008 2:33:33 AM

Are you using the 80-pin IDE cable that came with your motherboard or an old 40-pin IDE cable? An older cable will slow down the disk a lot.
December 15, 2008 12:11:33 PM

I had actually swapped out three different sets of cables, but yes the first one were the ones from the mobo.
!