Incredibly slow computer performance. Install = 32 hours!

[Gommsta]

I've posted this in Windows forum too, so if this is wrong section then mods please delete.

I'm in the process of setting up another computer.

The problem i've had is that Windows is incredibly slow to install. I.e. 32 hours!! no errors, installs fine, just amazingly slow. I thought i'd persevere and see what happens with windows loaded up. Again, its amazingly slow to do anything, not throwing up any errors and everything seems to work but even opening a window takes about 15 seconds. There is no hard disk thrashing etc or any other visible signs.

System specs are:

A8n-sli mobo
3200 +
2 x 256Mb ram
40gB maxtor hard disk
matrox G450 PCI graphics card
Lite on IDE DVD Rom.

Any ideas at all? I really am stuck on this one.

 

[thefishdude]

32 hours wow that has to be a record. is everything running at the correct speed in the bios ??

 

[Gommsta]

yup,

i've checked all bios settings, cables etc. low level formatted the hard drive etc
I've done a lot of builds/installs but never seen this.

Would PSU be a possible factor? it's an FSP 250W jobber. As i said though, everything works. It's just amazingly slow!

 

[tsinc80697]

lol if it took 32hours to install i would do it again, someting surely must have been going wrong there or somethings semi-borked.
I normally wait 30minutes before i get impatient

on a side note
have a good xmas joe?

 

[ns400r]

Either something wrong with the hdd or maybe the CPU L1/L2 cache may be disabled

Spend a hour installing CPU-Z and check things.

 

[Gommsta]

hey tom,

Thats the 2nd time installing it. It sat on 39mins to go for almost a day the first time! lol I find it funny in a perverse way. Christmas was good thanks. You?

I'm running an overnight memtest now, and that seems to be going full whack. All cache etc showing ok.
My suspicion is the hard disk too. Although formatting etc all seemed to be normal speed. I've tried other cables as well :S

LOL NS400, more like 2 mate i'll do that in the morning after this memtest.

Bah

 

[joeyjojo]

Going to have to start swapping things out to try and pinpoint it, which might be a pain.

 

[markyb]

Have you seated the heatsink and fan correctly?

Had this before on a Pentium 4 where the heatsink was not correctly fitted which was causing the processor to step back to a very low speed to avoid overheating.

 

[M!!cook]

32 bleeping hours! wowsers
AMAZING

 

[tsinc80697]

just remember i had this problem where it looked like it was constantly working away for several hours, but really my hard drive was buggered and would stall/skip and windows would take ages to write a file to it, so that could be a problem, as said above, swapping out is the best option!

yeah i had a decent xmas, got a few lil bits n pieces but mostly money, now im stuck in a dilemma of what to buy, need a desktop and laptop, just need to pick whether to go mac desktop and pc desktop or other way around, decisions decisions!

 

[FrankJH]

Im guessing we are talking Windows XP here - is it SP2? Just thinking of relevant drivers, maybe you have the IDE connector on a mobo RAID controller which has problems or something

The amount of memory probably isnt helping either but I doubt this is a majorly contributing factor

 

[HangTime]

Yeah 512meg is fine for a winxp install - remember it's a 5-year old OS!

My first suspicion would be the HD, or possibly the interface to it.

-Try installing to a different HD
-Try using a different cable and motherboard port.

Being only a 40gig drive I'd imagine it is probably at least a few years old so that would definitely be my first port of call. I know you have done a low-level format but even so it's gotta be worth a try.

I'd also recommend checking when you boot up to ensure that all your drives are operating in UDMA mode. Could be something silly like the CDROM being in PIO mode and slowing everything down.

 

[Gommsta]

ok i'm memtested for 12 hours and thats all fine.

There are some good suggestions above so i'm going to work through them one by one and see what happens.

Thanks all for your help. Will keep you updated.

Tom buy a mac laptop they look really good

 

[Gommsta]

Ok, quick update.
Pulled the hard drive and installed in this machine.
HDTACH, Speedfan online analysis and basic general writing, copying, deleting on the hard disk are all fine.

Gonna swap the CPU out for an X2 and see if its that.

 

[Gommsta]

Well, it's fixed!

I posted this question in Windows forum too. Someone suggested rechecking all the jumpers and resetting the CMOS.

Everything working fine n dandy now!

Thanks everyone for your help. You all get a gold star