Odd Performance Slowdown

gimpy1

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Feb 19, 2008
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I built a new PC a couple of months ago, and I have notice two recurring problems that I can't pin down. Perhaps they are related, perhaps not.

First the computer:
E8400, EVGA 780i, 4GB RAM, EVGA GTX 260, 2 Seagate 250 GB hard drives in RAID 0.
I have the latest bios installed (2.053.E6) and drivers for the motherboard (nForce 15.23). The graphics card is using 181.22. It runs Vista x64.

The problem is the computer runs a little slow. For example, when opening a program like firefox, it takes about 1 full second for the program to start. Although that is not a long time, it is noticeably slower then my other desktop, which sports a Athlon 5200+ (Windsor) also running Vista x64. Other examples of its sluggishness would be clicking the start button, opening windows like control panel or my computer, putting the computer to sleep, everything. To be clear, it is not really slow; it is just not as fast as it should be.

Benchmarks, however, show the new E8400 computer smokes the older Athlon one. Games also run much faster, but that isn't much of an indicator as the graphics cards are very different between the two computers.

As for the other problem, which may or may not be related, periodically my monitor loses the signal from my computer, and it can only be fixed by restarting. The Windows Problem Report classifies these events as video hardware errors. This problem only occurs when my computer was overclocked. I had my FSB running at 444 mhz (CPU at 4 ghz). The ram was not overclocked. Orthos and Prime95 showed no errors after a couple of 12 hour testing sessions. Since returning the computer to stock speeds, I have not experienced this video error. However, it has only been a couple of weeks, and it simply may not have occurred yet.

Other software wise, I don't install any crap on my computer, so I doubt it is spyware based. Plus this has been going on since the computer was first built. I have gone through the running services and weeded everything out; crap running in the background doesn't seem to be the source of the problem.

I would rather not reinstall windows, if possible. Any ideas of what could be going on?
 
The 780i chipset comes to mind. There's a reason we don't recommend Nvidia chipsets around here.

You haven't listed your RAM, CPU cooler, or specific hard drive models.

You say you had the FSB at 444 but the RAM was not overclocked. If it was 800Mhz RAM it was overclocked, but if it was 1066 it was OK, as long as you verified it after you bumped up the FSB. Many boards keep the RAM linked to the FSB, so that you have to manually lower the RAM after adjusting the FSB.

It sounds, also, like you may have drive issues. Did you turn off indexing by chance?


 

gimpy1

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The ram is Patriot Viper DDR2 800 (2x2GB). The cooler is Cool Master Hyper XT2. The hard drives are Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS.

The ram is unlinked, running at 800 mhz. I didn't do anything with indexing.
 
I could be wrong about your board, but I don't think you can run RAM at 800Mhz when the FSB is 444. The multiplier has to be at least 2.

Regardless, that's apparently not your issue now. Still, make sure that the RAM is running at the correct timings and voltage (2.1V or 2.2V depending on which you have.)

I find it especially odd that you report any lag whatsoever on the start button. Mine is like clicking a light switch, completely instant.

Have you checked CPU temps?

These 3 utilities often help get to the bottom of things:
CPU-Z
Real Temp
HWMonitor