Glitchy New System. Esp. Audio and Video

[ryanbeitz]

Hello Wise People,

I've just recently completed a new system and build with these specs:

Cpu: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Deneb 125W ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727 )

MOBO: MSI 790FX-GD70 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130223 )

Hard Drives: Western Digital 150gb 10k Raptor SATA 3gps & WDC green 500gb SATA 3gps (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136358 )

Memory: Mushkin Redline 6Gb (3x2gb) DDR 3 1600 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226050 )

PSU: Silverstone 850W ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256058 )

GPU: ATI Firepro V5700 512mb ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814195074 )

CASE: COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137)

Here are my issues:

1) The thing glitches. It's jumpy. When typing text, the cursor lurches and the text appears all at once instead of smoothly. The music glitches out and repeats the same split second for anywhere from 2 to 10 seconds. It does the same thing with video. And the system has become progressively worse/slower.

2) The eSata ports don't work at all. I've got one on the back of the mobo (it's a combo USB/eSata slot) and one on the top of the case. Both are plugged in, but neither work. I've tried two separate eSata hard drives on each slot with no results.

I designed this machine to do 2 things. The first is to kick ass with 3D applications like 3DS max and Sketchup; and vector drawing/photo editing programs like AutoCad and Photoshop. (The machine is my girlfirend's and we're architecture students.) The second is to play videos and music well. She likes to watch movies and listen to music while working, and this computer is accomplishing that very well so far.

Any tips for making the machine smoother and getting those eSata ports to work would be most appreciated! I talked her into building this machine rather than buying one or a Mac, and I want to show her the good will of internet computer wizards and the value of doing this *** yourself as opposed to buying overpriced corporate machines.

Thanks!

 

[Niklas_13]

Well to start

Update your mobo bios

Make sure you have all the latest drivers for your GPU / Chipset / onboard audio

All windows updates

Now as for the ram you posted you have 6 gigs ? So your not running in dual channel mode ? Make sure your ram, speed / volts / and timings are right in the bios

A few reads that might help

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/274745-31-step-step-guide-building
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-read-posting-boot-video-problems

 

[vvhocare5]

My one lecture is you buy an overpriced corporate system if you dont know how to build one or how to support it. How much are those savings if it doesnt work or it makes you frustrated? You are an architecture student but you are not a computer expert. When you are successful architectural designers remember the value of a good computer person.

The first question is are you overclocking anything? If so back it off...

1. When does it go glitchy? What are you doing? What else is happening?
This can be the hardest thing to solve. Install a CPU heat monitoring tool like Coretemp or HWMonitor and see what the CPU is doing. Slowdowns are typically because something is getting hot. Can be CPU, can be memory, can be poor case cooling. Run GPUz to monitor graphics temps.

Run Memtest to verify your RAM is actually ok

Run Prime95 to see if your system is stable under load.

How many processes are running. I like to see 40 or so.

Whats your antivirus? Is it running?

2. Most eSata ports require bios level settings - have you done that? Do any eSATA ports work on your mb? That would signal a bad setting.

Good Luck

 

[ryanbeitz]

Thanks for the replies! (And don't worry, I am well aware of the value of person more skilled with computers than I...)

What is happening: The computer does not glitch, or stutter, with digital video files. They play smoothly. It is just DVDs, Music, and Youtube or other online videos. Typical these are the only thing playing; the only action that the computer is performing.

I am not overclocking anything.

I am running AVG free edition antivirus. And my operating system is Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate edition.

I will check the CPU temp issue, we bought a giant heat sink for it (the biggest Zalman one, ultra quiet edition) nd I had some trouble getting it on perfectly straight because it was so large the RAM got in the way.

I will post what further new I find out as I test these solutions out.

-Thanks!