BIG mystery

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Guest

Guest
Here is one that has been really driving me crazy.

I have the following post up at 10 hardware forums. Either they tell me something i have already been through in regards to OS and software, or they tell me to switch the primary HD.

I'm basically down to either HD, MB, or cpu, having replaced everything else, or nuked and paved, dual OS etc.

It's a video editing machine. P3B-F mb, 733P3, SB live, Geforce, 512 pc133 ram. WIn98SE

HD setup: 4 drives: primary 10gb, Secondary Maxtor 80gb, plus 2 27gb in a promise fasttrak66 card 2+0 raid.

When it runs it runs well.

THE PROBLEM: pretty simple really: with no rhyme or reason the system slows to a crawl. Mouse will barely move, menus open slowly. Sometimes worse than others. Almost seems to surge- hd sounds like this. I use mostly win 98, but win 2k has same symptoms, and will only boot very slowly when it’s happening.

WHAT I HAVE ALREADY DONE:
1) Replaced graphics card. Flashed Bios. Replaced and moved RAM dims. No change.
2) complete nuke and pave and installed dual boot setup w/win2k. Seemed to work at first. but problem came back. Doesn't care which OS. PLEASE DO NOT TELL ME ABOUT OS TWEAKS---I AM 99.95% SURE THIS IS A HARDWARE THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3) Replaced 300watt PS with new 350watt PS, again seemed to work at first then back to square one.
4)tested primary ibm HD- tests ok

What i'm thinking about:
replace primary HD
replace mb and or processor

any thoughts?

PS Please do not respond with thoughts on virtual memory or OS stuff....win 2k and 98 have same issues, not related to what apps are running. Happens with 90% resources free on desktop with no apps sometimes.
 
No problems with overheating?
How's the chipest temp?
Drive temp?
Does it do it in safe mode?
Tried removing all CD/floppy drives and trying the system?
Tried it with less RAM, or is it a 512 stick? If not try less. Try different RAM combos.
Just confirm. Is the swapfile disabled? Just in case.

Thought I'd throw a few at you. It's a teaser. Post back with any more info.

<b><font color=blue>~ What do you mean "It isn't working!"...Now where's my sonic screwdriver? ~ </font color=blue></b>
 
G

Guest

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No problems with overheating?
How's the chipest temp? Good, 4 fans, safe temps
Drive temp? It happen also when drives are cold sometimes, how can i tell the drive temp?
Does it do it in safe mode? I think so, since it will even do it on boot, when it's acting up win 2k willl not boot at all
Tried removing all CD/floppy drives and trying the system? Yes.
Tried it with less RAM, or is it a 512 stick? If not try less. Try different RAM combos.n Yes.
Just confirm. Is the swapfile disabled? Just in case. tried many diff swap setups. doesn't affect it.

Thought I'd throw a few at you. It's a teaser. Post back with any more info. Thank you.
 
ROFL! Can't help but try.

Reset BIOS? Heh! Last resort, and I'm sure you've done it.
Virus? Corrupt software? Out of ideas. LoL!

<b><font color=blue>~ What do you mean "It isn't working!"...Now where's my sonic screwdriver? ~ </font color=blue></b>
 

johnnyx

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I dont think I know enough to properly diagnose this, but maybe you should try running some benchmarks on your HDD or try different drive configs. It sounds to me like a it is definitely a disk problem. You could also try hooking them up individually on another comp. Possibly are there conflicting types of partitions? fat32 on win 98 and ntfs on 2000? I could be wrong on all of this, but hope this helps.

If an orange was driving a racecar would it peel out? www.jxfiles.com
 

unoc

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Your problem is related with system resources taht are not enough.
Because your system is quite powerful, probably you may have some apps running that slows your system. May be more then one apps ask for more resources and all system slow down. Try to close apps you are not currently using by typing ctrl-alt-canc and then go on "task" menu. You will find all applications running. Close what you don't need.
An other solution is to reinstall the OS and installing strictly the applications you need.
The last possibility is some virus which take on all system resources.
 

ejsmith2

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I think (god I'm getting old) my a7v133a did something like that when I first got it.
Anyway, about every 10 minutes, it would just absolutely freeze; no mouse movement, nothing. After what seemed close to 8 seconds, it would just continue on it's merry way.

At the time, I didn't know enough to see if it was a thermal recal on my 75gxp. But, I've heard of other people putting too much thermal grease/gel on their cpu, and it retains a little too much heat around the surrounding capacitors, and gets it to throttle/errorize (look THAT word up). I'd get those side panels off first thing, and get a housefan blowing into the case before I started trouble shooting anything.

Now, I'm not talking about your Win98se side. *YOU* can keep that (I still have a msdos partition too, for games that no like Nt). But on your Win2k side, I'd be trying this:

1) Don't load the Detonator 23.11's. Friggin 16.11's or 27.11's are good to go. *Anything* but 23.11's. Snag a copy of GTU (geforce tweak utility) 4.12b or whatever it is that I have on my programs disk. Lets you flip on/off a lot of stuff. To use it, you cannot load the msft certified drivers.

2) Since it's Nt 5.0, load the Via 4.37's. Then turn right around and install the Miniport drivers too. <A HREF="http://www.viaarena.com" target="_new">http://www.viaarena.com</A>.

3) Flip on DMA. Straight across the board. Bios and os.

4) If that's a Geforce2 card, flip on Fastwrites in all the places you see it. I don't know if your mainboard can handle it, but it frees up some PCI time for your cpu if it can.

5) Check the drivers on the Nic card. Modem or otherwise.

6) For a little testdrive, backup all on your raid array, and nuke both drives. Setup a Win2k software raid (dynamic disk), and just give that a try *once*. I listed this as one of the last ones, because it's a little extreme.

8) I'd normally put something here about using a shotgun/ballbat to get results from technical support, but since we all have to sweat terrorists nowadays, I won't.

Have fun!!!!!
 
I know you don't want to hear this, but here goes, you can run 4 hardrives and system survive with them being different sizes, but for optimal performance they should all be running the same speed, the speed is very important in their communication between them, if one is running at 7200 and the others at 5400, you'll have a problem eventually. Ideally they should all be the same speed, brand, and size, for optimal performance. Wouldn't it be great when we jumped in our cars to go somewhere if everyone on the road was going the same speed, except for the couple of cars going 45 in a 70 Mph speed zone, your computer works the same way. Also running four hardrives with everything else you're running 350 watts is not enough, maybe 400 Watts but probably 500 for sure.
 

unoc

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If the problem exists even when OS is booting you may check if all devices are properly attached to to PC.
Also try to exchange yes/no in the BIOS setting regarding if the OS is PnP or not.
 
G

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TY for all the attention.

Just finished editing a two hour 30 gig project and printed to DV tape with np. WHew! System decided to behave for quite an extended period.

I have a spare Maxtor Dx-740 which I may try swaping with the primary, and i will also flash the fastrak66 bios when I'm done with my next project.

350watts not enough?

5400rpm drive not compatable with 7200rpm? It's tranfer rate is 2X the older 7200rpm primary (IBM).

limping along for now,

uhoh7