Bill gates sabotaged my computer. (tech help)

General Ludd · June 19, 2003, 18:30

My upgrade from Win98 SE to Win XP has not gone too well. Since upgrading, I have had a huge performance hit, particularily (and I think this is the source of the problem) when loading textures. Shadowbane, for example, runs like crap now. Everytime the game loads a new piece of terrain the games stutters, freezes, or even crashes. Even simply selecting a campaign in Medieval Total War - where all it has to load is a simple 2D map and some text - it freezes for about 3 seconds. Everytime this happens, the CPU usage skyrockets to 100% i have left the task monitor run in the background to watch and it always sky rockets every time a new graphic is loaded.

My computer is:

ASUS A7N8X Deluxe
Athlon XP 2400
512MB PC2700 RAM
Radeon 9700 Pro
Sound Blast Audigy

What is the problem? It can't be RAM I have plently of that, and have tried running windows bare-bone. I have also tried unistalling and reinstalling my video drivers countless times.

OneFootInTheGrave · June 19, 2003, 18:35

Whoaaaa...

, not bad PC you have out there

Well the easiest is another install of Win XP, install your games in that instance, and off you go, will be done in 1 hour

... you will still keep the old setup for anything else that you might need for the time being until you migrate fully than you can just uninstall all in the old setup and delete that installation, if there is a need (but I would tend not to think so as you most likely have a 120 GB hdd, and plenty of space)...

so just install win XP as a separate OS once again. (do not choose repair option as in my experience it never worked

)

reds4ever · June 19, 2003, 18:42

while were on the subject (hope you don't mind Os), how can i speed up my start up in WinXP? I've deleted everything from the startup folder. It seems to take ages loading the stuff i need so i can't delete them (ie norton et al)

alva · June 19, 2003, 19:49

Quote:

Since upgrading,

Have you,

Updated XP,
updated your drivers?

alva · June 19, 2003, 19:51

@reds;

What is long for you?

I think it takes around -give or take a sec-, 30 sec to load XP up to the log-in screen on my PC.

General Ludd · June 19, 2003, 19:53

Quote:

Originally posted by alva

Quote:

Since upgrading,

Have you,

Updated XP,
updated your drivers?

I've gotten the service pack and updated all my drivers, yes.

reds4ever · June 19, 2003, 19:56

alva

XP loads normally (ie 20 secs or so), but getting the 'startup icons' takes another 2 minutes. Is there a file i can look at to see whats happenning? (like autoexec?)

General Ludd · June 19, 2003, 20:04

How exactly do I install it on a new partition? I recall having the option when installing it the first time... but there is no readily available way of doing it as far as I can see. Just like to know that I'm doing it right before I get an installation going.

alva · June 19, 2003, 20:05

Do you have many of them on your desktop?
(and try not to open anything while XP is still loading them, it will only makes everything load slower).

Is your HD fragmented heavely? Try fixing that for example.
Another good thing to do is to make a windows only HD partition.

What are your specs btw (they should be good enough if it loads in 20 sec though)

Whaleboy · June 19, 2003, 20:34

Nice PC, XP should be running ok.

Reinstall, but this time use NTFS

Failing that, or indeed, sodding that, install Linux!

alva · June 19, 2003, 20:37

Quote:

Reinstall, but this time use NTFS

Be carefull if you have any winmx -incomplete files- left on your HD that you want to keep (different partition for example).
Twice I had problems with those

DRoseDARs · June 19, 2003, 23:37

Try checking this:

Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs > Look for "Windows XP Hotfix (SP2) Q811493"

That "update" was discovered to zap system resources. I don't know when Microsoft is going to issue an update for the update, but until such time that "update" is banished from my computer.

As I'm typing this I notice the little f*cker has snuck its way back onto my computer...naughty, naughty.

EDIT:
I checked MS's tech support site today (June 20) and they CLAIM to have fixed the problem and have released a revised version of the update. It is up to the individual to decide whether there's any change.

Urban Ranger · June 20, 2003, 00:35

The only problem I could think of is your swap file. How much RAM do you have, and what is your virual memory setting?

General Ludd · June 20, 2003, 07:19

Quote:

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
Try checking this:

Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs > Look for "Windows XP Hotfix (SP2) Q811493"

That "update" was discovered to zap system resources. I don't know when Microsoft is going to issue an update for the update, but until such time that "update" is banished from my computer.

As I'm typing this I notice the little f*cker has snuck its way back onto my computer...naughty, naughty.

No effect.

Quote:

The only problem I could think of is your swap file. How much RAM do you have, and what is your virual memory setting?

I have 512MB of PC2700 RAM, as stated above. Virtual memory was set to have windows manage it, but I tried seting it at 2gb min/max in an attempt to solve this but had no luck.

Richelieu · June 20, 2003, 07:29

Quote:

Originally posted by DRoseDARs
Try checking this:
Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs > Look for "Windows XP Hotfix (SP2) Q811493"

Just did this on mine and it does improve performance. Thanks DRoseDAR!

alva · June 20, 2003, 08:08

Quote:

Virtual memory was set to have windows manage it, but I tried seting it at 2gb min/max in an attempt to solve this but had no luck.

Way too much, try having it fixed at around 300MB.
(You could even try to with dissabling it altogether)

The Viceroy · June 20, 2003, 08:18

reds4ever,

I agree with alva, it could be a fragmented hard disk, this speeds up my machine also.

But there is also something else that may be causing it. When you goto the desktop, a whole heap of systray programs get loaded. If you've got a whole shed of programs starting up all at the same time, as well as XP trying to load the icons, the results are very very slow icon draw.

goto Start->Run. type MSCONFIG, and slect the startup tab. remove everything you don't want .. if your unsure .. post your list, im sure most of us here could help tell you what is not needed.

Also try removing some services (control panel, administrative tools) and goto services. be careful though, only remove stuff your sure about, and give us a list if your not.

As for the XP cut over from Win98 .. I have a P2, 350Mhz with 256Mb ram .. and it runs fine ..

My only advice is, go through all of the Services currently selected, and remove as many as you can .. it could be one of the services which is causing problems (long shot, but something worth trying). Have you updated your ATI drivers ?? (I have a 9000 and its was a tad slow until I updated the drivers).

General Ludd · June 20, 2003, 08:22

Quote:

Originally posted by The Viceroy
My only advice is, go through all of the Services currently selected, and remove as many as you can .. it could be one of the services which is causing problems (long shot, but something worth trying). Have you updated your ATI drivers ?? (I have a 9000 and its was a tad slow until I updated the drivers).

I have tried running with out any of the services. (that of course produced some problems of it's own, but the symptoms I am having now where consistent in both instances) And yes, I have updated the drivers.

General Ludd · June 20, 2003, 10:48

Bill gates is in the title and Asher hasn't responded. What is wrong with the world?

alva · June 20, 2003, 10:59

He's waiting for us (first-line helpers) to admit defeat and summon him

Urban Ranger · June 20, 2003, 11:12

Quote:

Originally posted by Osweld
I have 512MB of PC2700 RAM, as stated above. Virtual memory was set to have windows manage it, but I tried seting it at 2gb min/max in an attempt to solve this but had no luck.

That's too much. Set it to 1GB max - I think 512 MB works well enough. If you have two partitions, defrag the D: drive, move the swap file to there temporarily, then defrag C: drive, and move it back.

Asher · June 20, 2003, 11:27

It sounds like an AGP problem.

Make sure you have AGP FastWrites disabled, also try disabling sidebanding. If that doesn't work, try enabling them both.

Also make sure your video card is set to using AGP 4x or 8x.

Also update your BIOS and update your Nvidia Chipset drivers if you haven't done so already.

General Ludd · June 20, 2003, 11:56

There's another problem I am having, I can't figure out how to get into the video card settings and configure all the nuances of it. I tried going to to going into display options, setting, advanced, like in Win98 but only get minoter frequency options and stuff like that.

Asher · June 20, 2003, 12:03

It sounds like you're still using the default Windows drivers.

Try uninstalling the drivers for your video card, then rebooting, then installing the latest ATI ones.

General Ludd · June 20, 2003, 12:11

Quote:

Originally posted by Asher
It sounds like you're still using the default Windows drivers.

Try uninstalling the drivers for your video card, then rebooting, then installing the latest ATI ones.

I've done that a number of times. It shows up as a Radeon 9700 under the device manager. I don't know if it is supposed to, but it has a secondary driver aswell. I'm not sure why, but i think the secondary is a PCI driver.

General Ludd · June 20, 2003, 12:13

I tried disabling AGP FastWrites, by the way, but with no luck. I didn't see any option of sidebanding in the BIOS, and AGP 8x was enabled.

Asher · June 20, 2003, 12:25

Quote:

Originally posted by Osweld
I've done that a number of times. It shows up as a Radeon 9700 under the device manager. I don't know if it is supposed to, but it has a secondary driver aswell. I'm not sure why, but i think the secondary is a PCI driver.

Very weird.

Under the Device Manager, select Display Adapters and then your Radeon 9700 which should be the only thing listed under it.

Click the details tab, and if possible post a screenshot/transcribe what it says.

Also check the Drivers tab and tell me what the Driver Provider, Date, and Version are.

General Ludd · June 20, 2003, 13:57

Er, or maybe they are both PCI drivers.

Asher · June 20, 2003, 14:40

Well, that's definitely your problem.

This is an AGP Radeon 9700, right?

If so, it looks like a bug of some kind that you'd need to deal with ATI to solve.

Zylka · June 20, 2003, 17:06

Yikes

You're crashing on those specs? Guess I shouldn't be installing XP on the old computer... she's a p3 550mhz, 196 ram