Need help. Slow performance... Tried everything..

Hendrix89

**I already posted an original thread on this in the Windows forum, but right now i think the problem is shifting more to hardware and my actual system so i posted a follow up here **

So I did another reformat (3rd time this week) to try once again to solve my problem and now it's just slow-downs.... Its taking ages to log into windows... Also on top of that it takes an annoying amount of time loading up once i get into windows Strange though is that once it's loaded up it starts to run quite smoothly, but of course everytime i log off and log back on it just takes ages... Whats going on??

I ran chkdsk and no errors. Ran HD Tach and apparently my Raptor HD is up to speed... 3DMark06 - actually a score increase. Removed the little amount of Spyware i had. V scan - No viruses. Knocked off as many startup programs/background tasks as I could and also some BIOS startups, but still the long load times... I'm also not multi-tasking very well...

Help appreciated.

Original: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055044967

Col_Loki

Have you any extra devices attached to it? (Printer/VOIP Phone etc) ?
Can you try booting with as little as possible attached, ie if you have another HD for storage.....and then try booting.

A faulty HD attached can effect the performance of the system, sounds like the raptor should be fine but worth checking the other.

Its a strange one......

Hendrix89

No have no printer plugged in currently or at the time of install. I have however been having problems with my mouse (Razer copperhead), eg. no mouse response after booting up sometimes where i have to unplug and re-plug the mouse to activate it. Maybe the mouse could be the cause? Although i have been having the mouse problem for ages and never had this slow loading problem. I dont know...

I only have the one HD at the moment. Just the Raptor, thats it.

BoobeR

Since its your boot time thats horrible.. Have you tried resetting the BIOS?
Possibly bad windows disk, so try another? And are you running a firewall?

Hendrix89

Well I reset the BIOS back to defaults before doing this current installation.

My boot time (at windows loading screen) isn't what bothers me that much cause i managed to reduce it down to about 5 bars. It's the time it takes to load onto the desktop (my account) thats concerning. When it says 'loading your personal settings' it takes quite an unusual amount of time (at least longer than im used to..) It takes about 6-7 secs at that screen until it goes to the desktop in windows. And even then after the long delay it still takes time to load up at the desktop. It's not a painful wait but it's concerning cause it used to always be very quick and would have windows fully loaded (from the moment of clicking on my account to desktop) in about 7 secs. For my hardware it should be fast (like it used to be).

Yes i run a firewall (not the nvidia one).

Also i didnt know its possible for a windows disk to be bad if it can actually be read and installed!? I don't get that.

Any idea?

Oh yeah i'd also like to point out that now 'ironically' the windows log off time is faster than ever :rolleyes:

That kind of thing is typical for me though. If one feature seems to be working great another area has to be sacrificed :rolleyes:

Col_Loki

5 Bars for loading still isint ultra quick, ill see how long it takes on my raptor (newly installed OS) and report back.

Just for interest sake do you have wireless?
And maybe try with no mouse (seriously doubt this is the problem, but ive had stranger)......

Hendrix89

Okay thanks, appreciate it. That would be helpful.

About the mouse. No its not wireless but i could try booting up without the mouse plugged in. If its possible to do that..

If i can't solve this problem then i am just gonna overclock my CPU to the moon (my tuniq tower just arrived today anyway). That better get things back to speed ad overwright this problem...

KamiKazi

has the hdd been extra noisy or anything?

Hendrix89

has the hdd been extra noisy or anything?

No. No noisier than it normally is. Always makes a fierce racket though, but i've heard thats Raptors...

I don't know if this is anything to do with it, but i never use the nvidia SW IDE drivers (even though they don't sound like theyre anything to do with the HD). Maybe i should be?

Anti

Hendrix89 wrote:

No have no printer plugged in currently or at the time of install. I have however been having problems with my mouse (Razer copperhead), eg. no mouse response after booting up sometimes where i have to unplug and re-plug the mouse to activate it. Maybe the mouse could be the cause? Although i have been having the mouse problem for ages and never had this slow loading problem. I dont know...

I only have the one HD at the moment. Just the Raptor, thats it.

My razer diamondback does exactally the same. Its common with all razer mice so thats not the problem.

Now just to check. Check in yout bios, and make sure the cpu is running at the correct multi with the correct fsb. And check all voltages are correct. Also, run memtestX86 for 12 hours non stop, Dont stop after 1 hour.

Another thing to try. Change th sata cable from the hdd. And if your motherboard will let you boot from sata 2./3/4ports instead of sata1.

Anotherthing, reinstall all motherboard drivers and graphics drivers.

Also enable S.M.A.R.T on the raptor and use speed fan to monitor its temps during windows and loading games/moving files around.

Also check the boot device priority. Have 1st as hdd. And disable the rest. If you dont have a floopy connected. disable that too.

Um, im out of ideas now

Anti

no you dont need the ide drivers, i dont have them installed either.

Hendrix89

Yeah i have tried pretty much all of those steps, just set boot device priority to only Hard disk a moment ago and no improvement in log on times. Em HD temps are are fine (idle about 23C), load never exceeds 40C. Usually reaches mid to high 30's max.

Already tried driver re-installs apart from the BIOS driver cause it had been performing fine before. About checking the bios settings.. I have OC'ed a tad bit to 2.6GHz (got my TT120 today so will be cranking the clock up more tomorrow) so its not stock settings. Everything seems as its meant to be, however i feel i should mention that before this most recent reformat (re-install) i applied the BIOS back to default config.

Memtest, I have never ran. I just could never get it to run. I have ran long instances of prime though with no errors on the memory side...

Its good to know whats happening with my mouse is normal. Driving me insane though...

Anyway so anymore suggestions, or what you think the problem could be?

Anti

usb2 drivers, are they installed ?

Also look in the hardware manager. andthing wrong in there ?

Hendrix89

Yes the usb drivers are installed i think. (*checked* usb 2.00 drivers definately installed)

In device manager there is just one unknown device and thats 'RAID Controller'. I have always left out this driver. Never saw the need for it cause i don't use RAID. Everything else is recognised okay.

Alkers

Is it possible you have anything that's not fully removed? i.e. something that windows is trying to load but it's uninistalled.?

Col_Loki

Checked my PC last night and it takes about 10 seconds to load from start to usable windows.
Make sure you have your SATA Controller drivers installed and not using the windows ones......
Try an updated BIOS Version/Chipset Drivers.....
Also trying another SATA Port is a good call (as 2 slots may be on one controller and 2 on another).

Very strange problem to be honest. (btw with a fresh install the windows loading bar goes across 3ish times with my system).

PS Your CPU is not going to be the problem so overclocking it will not help things.

Hendrix89

Yeah 10 secs is more like how it used to be for me

Make sure you have your SATA Controller drivers installed and not using the windows ones......
Try an updated BIOS Version/Chipset Drivers.....

SATA drivers?? I never new it was possible to get drivers for it I guess i just have the windows ones then. Where do i find them?

There is no newer BIOS than this one available to me. And the chipset driver i use is the latest... (6.86).

PS Your CPU is not going to be the problem so overclocking it will not help things.

Yeah i know but i am not used to getting through problems like these so OCing the CPU more will be a solution to get more speed. I would be overclocking anyway cause im not gonna let my new Tuniq tower go to waste.

Is it possible you have anything that's not fully removed? i.e. something that windows is trying to load but it's uninistalled.?

I doubt it cause this is a fresh install. I was also careful not to re-install things once i had already installed them. I could try disabling my antivirus and logging on.

Oh yeah at the moment i have system processes down to only 20! Still not much of an improvement in log on time...

Anti

have you got windows update fully? ie sp2b and all the other updates?

Hendrix89

Sorry for late reply. Yeah got Sp2 and windows is fully updated.

I see you guys are running out of solutions, and i can understand, it's no big deal though cause i guess i am starting to get used to the long log on times anyway. Also as i said i have no performance problems with games, benchmarks (3dmark06) or general system perf. Just the unusual windows boot up and load times. As long as nothin else occurs i should get by.

Still if you have a good suggestion tell me. It would be still nice to solve it.

Anti, i got my new Tuniq tower installed just now and it's working very well. 40C max load / 22 idle, at 2.60GHz on my 4800+. The reohstat (fan controller) aint' workin though, so i could probly be getting better temps. I think i might have connected it (the controller) wrong. Is yours working? How did you connect it? Sorry this is off topic so you could PM me I didn't want to start a new thread for such a silly question...

Anti

IT only connets one way. So you cant balls it up. There is a cable from the fan, and a cable from the back plate controller. jus plug em together.


Also, might be worth a try. defrag a few times ?

Hendrix89

Anti wrote:

IT only connets one way. So you cant balls it up. There is a cable from the fan, and a cable from the back plate controller. jus plug em together.

Lol hey you make me sound like an idiot! Anyway yeah I did that though I might try reconnect them later (running prime now). Oh yeah i just noticed that my fan speed is at max (speedf reads 2109rpm)... Ah well i thought i might be getting more incredible temps at full fan speed but i guess 42C load (at 2.65GHz now) at where i am now aint' bad. Quite happy. I do have a habit of over-estimating things though.

Right so i will try reconnecting the controller, and it betta work.

Also, might be worth a try. defrag a few times ?

Yeah i defragged just recently and not much improvement. I use O&O defrag 2000 (free edition). Could it be that it's not very good? Any recommendations for any other good (FREE) defragmenters?

Col_Loki

SATA drivers?? I never new it was possible to get drivers for it I guess i just have the windows ones then. Where do i find them?

Erm im just grasping at straws..... but if you have say a Promise SATA Controller for instance, installing the correct drivers might help (Just seems like it might be HD related so thinking along those lines). Might work better than standard windows ones.......

Hendrix89

Col_Loki wrote:

Erm im just grasping at straws..... but if you have say a Promise SATA Controller for instance, installing the correct drivers might help (Just seems like it might be HD related so thinking along those lines). Might work better than standard windows ones.......

Alright thanks i'll check em out.

halkar

Try Bootvis from Microsoft. You will be able to identify what causing the boot delays. It also has a built in optimizer which will arrange boot up files for quicker access.

DaSilva

Mate, I read the windows forum thread and this one.

First off, tell me when it slows down exactly. Is it the Windows loading screen where its slow, and upon first logging in to windows that its slow?

When else? Still slow when you click the start button?


The day it started being slow something must have happened, and I'm going to hazard a guess at you installing new hardware, drivers or network settings.
Did you install some new hardware like a memory card reader, or fire wire? Or something like that? Or did you update drivers for anything?

This doesn't sound like a hardware fault too me just yet.

Hendrix89

DaSilva, thanks for taking the time to read my original thread.

It's starting to get very odd now with the windows loading screen. Earlier on today it finished in just over 3 bars, which seems more like how it should be, compared to over 5 bars the other day and since the problem started Now as i said before, it's the actual time logging into windows (for first time after boot and all the time) that bothers me cause thats a very unusually long delay...
Actually the best way to describe it is... while at the blue 'loading windows' screen, about two seconds after the windows log on tune stops it gets to the desktop. Then after about another 6-7 secs the load timer stops.. Even at that point files still have a delay (need to load) when clicked on until after a while when windows starts to smooth out. Sorry its very hard to explain all this correctly:(

When else? Still slow when you click the start button?

Funny enough, no. After the windows re-install that stopped, now its the slow log ons thats occurring...

The day it started being slow something must have happened, and I'm going to hazard a guess at you installing new hardware, drivers or network settings.
Did you install some new hardware like a memory card reader, or fire wire? Or something like that? Or did you update drivers for anything?

This doesn't sound like a hardware fault too me just yet

Well this slow log on problem started only after i had installed everything upon the fresh install. I of course was sure to be extra careful this time round with what I did, and I even made sure that I did not uninstall and re-install anything so that I could have it completely clean... I only installed the chipset driver (6.86), gfx driver (91.47) and the windows updates. This re-install I noticed the start tab response problem I had with the previous install had gone. Then of course when I restarted I noticed this new problem with the load times into windows.

I can't really say much more. I hope it's not a hardware problem.

DaSilva

Too help diagnose the problem, you should try an older gfx driver. If its still slow, then try an older chipset driver.

Since you said it was having this trouble after a fresh install with newest GFX and Chipset drivers and windows updates. I suspect it's the chipset drivers causing this. Out of curiosity does you pc have PCMCIA (probably does if its a laptop) slots?

Anti

Its not a laptop, but yeah give the older chipset and gfx drivers a try. Just remember to remove them properly with driver cleaner. I even boot ito safe mode to remove them again.

Hendrix89

Alright cheers guys, i guess i'll try an older chipset driver but i'm not too hopeful of anything cause i didnt have this problem with the same drivers a couple months ago on my previous install. I already tried a different gfx driver (the latest one) but decided to re-install the older one cause i wasnt able to use coolbits. Anyway so the gfx driver is not the problem.It's down to the chipset then. I really don't like messing my system up uninstalling and re-installing drivers but i guess i will have to.

Anti

Cant remember if it was said before, but are all the cables connected properly?

Can you change the ide/sata cables for spare ones?

Hendrix89

Anti wrote:

Cant remember if it was said before, but are all the cables connected properly?

Can you change the ide/sata cables for spare ones?

Yes i am sure they are all connected properly. I re-connected the sata cable just to be certain. Have no spares.

By the way i just found a very concerning piece of spyware (with Spybot S&S)... 'Antivirus 0verride'. It reported it as a registry change! I remember gettng warning messages a few days ago saying something like windows can't find an anti-virus program. I use Kaspersky. Anyway so i just removed this spyware, but i hope it's fully gone!?. I also ran Kaspersky and it detected nothing. My computer is running a bit faster now but the log on delay is still about...

Do you think there could be more hidden spyware eatin away at my system!!? I have one of the best and most secure Anti-viruses available so it's hard to believe anything actually got at it in the first place

Hendrix89

Actually guys after re-checking the (hd's) sata cable it's actually connected in the SATA 2 slot! I think i used to have it in sata 1... Does this really make a difference to the performance? I talked to this computer engineer I know and he said it doesnt make a difference which sata slot it's in... Is this true?

Anti

I always find sata slot 1 is faster, as the bios looks for slot one before slot 2/3/4. So yes.

Im sure i said this in a earlier post. and for you to check it. If this is the cause of the problem im gonna slap you so hard.

Hendrix89

Anti wrote:

I always find sata slot 1 is faster, as the bios looks for slot one before slot 2/3/4. So yes.

Im sure i said this in a earlier post. and for you to check it. If this is the cause of the problem im gonna slap you so hard.

Lol I confess, didnt actually check till now:o I was pretty sure it was in slot 1, but then after looking today (which required a very close look) I noticed it was actually in sata slot 2!

Anyway as for the result with the HD now in sata1, not that good... Okay definately better speed in windows once its loaded everything, but as for the log on time, pretty much the same... And actually for some reason the windows load bar takes longer in sata 1 (bout 6 bars to load)... Not much though.. I do get better results in HD Tach now.

Anti

Takes me 5/6 bars too, so dont worry to much. ITs only a few seconds slower