Messed up Duron performance

[ksoth]

Alright, here's my computer specs before I go into details:

Duron 700
MSI K7T Pro mobo 1.8 BIOS version
128 MB PC133 RAM (CAS 3)
Geforce 256 DDR (Hercules 3D prophet with most recent detonator drivers)
Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer
CD-RW and CD-ROM
14 Gig IBM 7200 RPM HD

Ok, here's the problem. For some reason, every now and then, the computer gets choppy as hell. For about 3 minutes or so, for no reason, performance just goes downhill, like getting 5 fps. This happens in EVERYTHING. Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Unreal Tournament, Alice, Diablo II, everything. Has anyone else seen similar problems with their Duron system? Thanks.

 

[Ncogneto]

What OS? Have you checked your irq's to make sure that you have no devices sharing? ( I suspect your sound card as the culprit...try to assign it to irq 5 and make sure it shares an irq with nothing)

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!

 

[ksoth]

Runnin Windows ME. I did notice that my video card, USB controller, and network card are all using IRQ 10, but it doesn't say there is any conflict. Isn't there IRQ sharing, or is that really a problem? The thing is, it just does this every once in awhile. Like it'll be running nice and fast, then all of a sudden it'll do this for a few minutes, then it'll run fast again. Then, a while later, maybe an hour so, maybe longer, maybe sooner, it'll slow down again. So, I'd think that if it is a IRQ conflict, it'll always be all messed up, but it isn't.

 

[phsstpok]

Sounds like a problem in a Abit KT7 Bios document I have.

Read this and see if it is applicable on your MSI mobo.

BIOS Setup

Advanced Chipset Configuration

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PCI delay transaction

This makes the 32-bit write buffer accept delayed transaction cycles. Without this enabled your system will not comply with PCI 2.1. Note that users experiencing periodic system pauses often need to disable this setting to resolve this problem.

Source: www.apushardware.com

 

[Ncogneto]

hmmmm get your video card on its own irq, do not have anything installed in pci slots one and two in other words move your nic.......You do have an AGP video card correct? Do you have any USB devices? If not then disable this in bios. Before moving your nic to a differnet slot, boot into safe mode and remove it in device manager as well as your usb, then reboot, go into device manager and enable "reset configuration Data" Let the nic re-install and then check to see if you have resolved the irq situation. Also, disable System restore. This is most easily done by installing a program like winbench and unchecking it in the startup manager.

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!

 

[FUGGER]

Sounds more like hard drive access in the background. watch the HD led to see if its blinking when this problem happens.

 

[ksoth]

I installed the new 4.25 VIA drivers, and disabled the PCI delay transaction, but the problem still occurs. So, that apparantly is not the problem. Maybe I'll try e-mailing MSI to see if they know what it may be. Thanks for the input though.

 

[TheAntipop]

fugger is on to something, it is most likely a hard drive problems from the sounds of it, and I do know that Windows ME has that very annoying system restore function (on by default) which will every once and a while suck up hard drive processes like a vacuum. Try disabling that to see if it fixes the problem.

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