Bizzare problem, probably RAM related

**LimitedTimeOffer** · May 12th, 2004, 09:17 PM

The problem I have is, simply, a massive slow down. I've lived with it for a while, because I was too busy with computer-related projects to format - but I'm now thinking this might be something I can fix.

Originially my computer just didn't work, but after messing around in BIOS, it did - but with a disgusting slow-down. So, the slowdown occured after I retrofitted my computer with a old Soundblaster Live! card, designed for Win98. A tech told me the old drivers lower performance, and I downloaded the new drivers, and eventually took out the card - but this can not account for the terrible slow down.

Another thing which is strange is I am now registered as having 224 megs of RAM, when I have a 256 meg chip.

Also, my task manager isn't exactly... working... all the tabs at the top are missing. O_o ALSO-- the loading screens when I turn on my computer are missing - just the little bar at the bottom progressing.

In conclusion, I don't especially want to format, but I have no idea what's going wrong. It could be an unaviodable software issue, but it could be something minor. I've cleaned up my registry, and while there were a bit more than a handful of errors, it still doesn't add up.

OH YEAH

It now says I have 8 KILOBYTES of memory cache!!! WTF?

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Here's my system specs (don't laugh):

Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 1 (build 2600) No details available
1.70 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
8 kilobyte primary memory cache <--- this doesn't look right! Just noticed it.
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: Seanix SiS-650
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG 05/30/2002
Drives Memory Modules c,d
46.79 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
5.25 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8320B [CD-ROM drive]
IDE DVD-ROM 16X [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

Maxtor 90680D4 [Hard drive] (6.80 GB) -- drive 1, s/n V40679EA, rev PAS23B15, SMART Status: Healthy (I also retrofitted an ancient hard drive, which might have something to do with it, but I don't see how)
WDC WD400EB-00CPF0 [Hard drive] (40.02 GB) -- drive 0, s/n WD-WMAAT8006925, rev 06.04G06, SMART Status: Healthy 224 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'A0' is Empty
Slot 'A1' has 256 MB

**NooNoo** · May 13th, 2004, 05:48 PM

How ancient is this hard drive? Yes is could have alot to do with it, it could be forcing the ide into pio mode only.

224 mb ram... you have shared video ?

5gig of free space between both hard drives?

What is the page file settings?

8kb would be your processor's L1 cache - it is ram, but not as you know it! It is a very small, very fast ram situated on the processor.

**LimitedTimeOffer** · May 17th, 2004, 12:35 PM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

How ancient is this hard drive? Yes is could have alot to do with it, it could be forcing the ide into pio mode only.

224 mb ram... you have shared video ?

5gig of free space between both hard drives?

What is the page file settings?

8kb would be your processor's L1 cache - it is ram, but not as you know it! It is a very small, very fast ram situated on the processor.

As for the RAM/video -- I think it is shared video :/ -- but, only since my problems began have I had less than 256 megs.

With the hard drive, I see no increase in processing speed when I have it removed.

Page file settings.. hmm... embarassingly, I am not familiar with this term.

Thanks for your help thus far, NooNoo =)

UPDATE

Removed problem hard drive. Loadeding my computer, I saw the Windows start-up screen for the first time in months. But (edit) no signifigant improvement was noticed. The most noticable is the speed of music being played, which is distorted and choppy during computer activity.

**Grateful_Dad** · May 18th, 2004, 02:29 PM

I had that problem with task manager.. swore I was infected with something..did all the spyware/antvirus checks- nothing.
Was ready to reinstall when i found a post at computing.net..
It's a 'feature' of task manager. Just double click the edge of the task manager window (just INSIDE of the border) and the tabs will return - you are in minimal view, or something like that.
Good luck with your performance issues...

**LimitedTimeOffer** · May 18th, 2004, 02:38 PM

Originally Posted by Grateful_Dad

I had that problem with task manager.. swore I was infected with something..did all the spyware/antvirus checks- nothing.
Was ready to reinstall when i found a post at computing.net..
It's a 'feature' of task manager. Just double click the edge of the task manager window (just INSIDE of the border) and the tabs will return - you are in minimal view, or something like that.
Good luck with your performance issues...

hehehe Oh my god, Microsoft is insane. =)

That's one down. Danke.

**TripleRLtd** · May 18th, 2004, 07:44 PM

LTO, an update? NooNoo's advice abouit the hard drive is accurate. Have you eliminated it or tested the drive itself. When a hard drive is failing it will slow the pc down a lot!!!
You can download Maxtor drive diag here: http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Ma...&downloadID=22
For WD here: http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp#diagutils
Click on dlg diagnostic.
Once the drives are tested we'll take the next step.

**LimitedTimeOffer** · May 18th, 2004, 08:02 PM

Originally Posted by TripleRLtd

LTO, an update? NooNoo's advice abouit the hard drive is accurate. Have you eliminated it or tested the drive itself. When a hard drive is failing it will slow the pc down a lot!!!
You can download Maxtor drive diag here: http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Ma...&downloadID=22
For WD here: http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp#diagutils
Click on dlg diagnostic.
Once the drives are tested we'll take the next step.

I've since removed the hard drive alltogether and haven't noticed any change, other than the Windows XP loading screen showing.

**TripleRLtd** · May 18th, 2004, 08:17 PM

Originally Posted by LimitedTimeOffer

I've since removed the hard drive alltogether and haven't noticed any change, other than the Windows XP loading screen showing.

What do you mean? Does it try to load and then stop?

**LimitedTimeOffer** · May 18th, 2004, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by TripleRLtd

What do you mean? Does it try to load and then stop?

Nae, before it would be a black screen which would hold for a couple of minutes and then Windows would start. Very strange.

**TripleRLtd** · May 18th, 2004, 08:41 PM

So, what is happening now? Is the situation the same as the original post? Is it just extrememly slow? Did this slowdown just happen all at once or gradually. Does Windows work and everything, but slow? Details man, details.

**LimitedTimeOffer** · May 18th, 2004, 09:29 PM

Originally Posted by TripleRLtd

So, what is happening now? Is the situation the same as the original post? Is it just extrememly slow? Did this slowdown just happen all at once or gradually. Does Windows work and everything, but slow? Details man, details.

It's very slow. That's really the only thing I can say about is since everything is functioning, just at a much lower capacity. Sounds are choppy, as I said above, which is the best clue. But also programs load more slowly, and Windows is generally chugging along.

Also notable, in Photoshop after performing maybe 10 or 15 operations on an imagine, I notice a major slowdown until I delete the history. That didn't happen before. So, again, a RAM problem...

**TripleRLtd** · May 18th, 2004, 09:36 PM

So, you seem knowledgable. Have you tested the ram with memtest, or some other ram tester (they ARE limited, though). Better yet, swap the ram and check with new ram...the cost is low enough now. And, you could use it later. In my xp though, bad ram will not slow a machine down but it will cause errors. Look for something else. There IS other ram: on the cpu and the mb. Like I said before we need more info on this in order to help. Plus: test the hard drive you have left in the pc. Remember: with diagnostics, it's one step at a time.

**Ruslan** · May 18th, 2004, 10:15 PM

Originally Posted by TripleRLtd

So, you seem knowledgable. Have you tested the ram with memtest, or some other ram tester (they ARE limited, though). Better yet, swap the ram and check with new ram...the cost is low enough now. And, you could use it later. In my xp though, bad ram will not slow a machine down but it will cause errors. Look for something else. There IS other ram: on the cpu and the mb. Like I said before we need more info on this in order to help. Plus: test the hard drive you have left in the pc. Remember: with diagnostics, it's one step at a time.

Like he has already said, bad memory causes "blue screens" (BSODs), lockups, but not slowdown... And as it also been said, check the harddrive(s)... From my experience, I would suspect harddrive has developed unstable sectors (it is not the same as bad sectors (!), most of HDD manufacturer's diag utilities cannot detect them)... Only Spinrite (ver.5 or newer) utility or MHDD utility can detect them because they are monitoring access time...

Besides hardware problem, it could be just only wrong or somehow corrupted driver or PC is infected by virus... Have seen many times keyboard driver taking up to 99% of computer's resourses...
In both cases clean install of Windows on another (spare, known good) harddrive can help to solve the mistery... quite often even it's only fastest way to sort it out...

**LimitedTimeOffer** · May 19th, 2004, 12:00 AM

Originally Posted by Ruslan

Like he has already said, bad memory causes "blue screens" (BSODs), lockups, but not slowdown... And as it also been said, check the harddrive(s)... From my experience, I would suspect harddrive has developed unstable sectors (it is not the same as bad sectors (!), most of HDD manufacturer's diag utilities cannot detect them)... Only Spinrite (ver.5 or newer) utility or MHDD utility can detect them because they are monitoring access time...

Besides hardware problem, it could be just only wrong or somehow corrupted driver or PC is infected by virus... Have seen many times keyboard driver taking up to 99% of computer's resourses...
In both cases clean install of Windows on another (spare, known good) harddrive can help to solve the mistery... quite often even it's only fastest way to sort it out...

I figured right from the get-go that this is the what must be done. I'm planning on getting a second, new hard drive and maybe upgrading my RAM. My fear, though, that this is a physical problem that won't go away, even after a reinstall.

**peterpam** · May 19th, 2004, 03:05 AM

Originally Posted by LimitedTimeOffer

I figured right from the get-go that this is the what must be done. I'm planning on getting a second, new hard drive and maybe upgrading my RAM. My fear, though, that this is a physical problem that won't go away, even after a reinstall.

Have you upgraded your Bios: could bee a corruipted Bios.

And if you remove hard drives and windows still slow... how? Where is it? Anyway, it could also bee a cd rom or DVD thats giving you trouble... Try remove everithing except the system hard drive from the PC and test. If its still slow, we remain with tree hipoteses: the mobo is failing, the hard drive is failing, the system has software problems.

After that, you coul install a second OS on a clean and small partition (use Partition Magic for that), and see if the problems remain. If not, software was the problem.

If the problems remain, try flashing your bios with the most recent version. Then try change the memory. At last, try using another Hard Drive.

If the problem still remain, change your mobo!

Greetings from the country of sun