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| Thread ID: 118977 | 2011-06-29 07:36:00 | Odd problem with PC | Tukapa (62) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1213177 | 2011-06-29 07:36:00 | Hi all I have a PC - belongs to a workmate and is the kids homework PC etc. Anyway - it wasn't booting at all so I got it up and running again. It is a Sempron 3000, 512MB Ram running Win XP. Typical of PC's that kids run riot on it was full of crap so after he asked me to "make it work faster" I gave it a good old clean and advised him that a ram upgrade would make the world of difference. I installed an additional 1GB ram stick and booted it up and it took almost four times as long to boot. I removed the ram and went back to the original 512MB stick only and it still took about four time as long to boot. No matter what combination of ram sticks, which slots etc it takes forever to boot. The motherboard has two ram slots and takes a max of 2GB ram. (for what it's worth you know the Win XP boot screen where the little scrolling bar appears under the Win XP logo - well that was scrolling 12 times before it booted into the desktop before the ram upgrade - now it scrolls 42 times before booting to the desktop) The only change from it booting reasonably quickly to the boot problem now was the addition of ram. I have come to my wits end to figure out what the problem is. Does anybody have any clues or struck this sort of problem in the past? Any suggestions will be gratefully tried. Thanks in advance. |
Tukapa (62) | ||
| 1213178 | 2011-06-29 07:56:00 | Generally speaking the RAM shouldn't cause a continuous slow down.if its not compatible then you will possibly have problems and removing it would fix it. The line that goes across is basically the drivers and software loading, if it slows down or takes a long time, then there is some sort of driver loading problem, or software loading problems/ corruption. One easy way to check it out is start in safe mode, that should load faster. if it does, go into msconfig and disable everything not needed.After that, if its still slow, then there could be driver damage. You may also have malware loading. Try running chkdsk as well, that may sort some of the problem. One thing of interest, you say : I gave it a good old clean and advised him that a ram upgrade would make the world of difference. I installed an additional 1GB ram stick and booted it up and it took almost four times as long to boot. Did you reboot with the original RAM after the clean out, and before installing the additional RAM, if Not then you may have caused some corruption when doing the clean out. |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 1213179 | 2011-06-29 08:04:00 | Thanks Wainui Booting into safe mode doesn't cause the same slow down. After the clean out I booted up before installing the new ram (in fact I didn't even have the additional ram then) and it was fine and quicker to boot than before the clean out. I then ordered the additional ram in and installed it - that's when the slowdown issues started in the boot process. I had already done the msconfig and disable thing - I will try your other suggestions. Do you think a repair install may fix any issues if your suggestions don't achieve the fix? Thanks. |
Tukapa (62) | ||
| 1213180 | 2011-06-29 08:22:00 | Booting into safe mode doesn't cause the same slow down. . 2 things do that. drivers and malware. What did you use to clean it out? |
pctek (84) | ||
| 1213181 | 2011-06-29 08:31:00 | 2 things do that. drivers and malware. What did you use to clean it out? I only used programs uninstall features along with Ccleaner, malwarebytes and superantispyware. None of the malware programs threw up anything. |
Tukapa (62) | ||
| 1213182 | 2011-06-29 08:40:00 | If its with you now, I could have a quick check with teamviewer. If you want | Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
| 1213183 | 2011-06-29 09:11:00 | Did you buy the ram from Dick Smith perchance, and was it DDR400 (supposedly); I did so recently (1GB) and found that it was not DDR400 but was DDR266 in fact (was labeled DDR266/333/400, somewhat ambiguous huh). | feersumendjinn (64) | ||
| 1213184 | 2011-06-29 13:26:00 | Check your cpu is running at the correct speed because when I fitted that ram it kicked the cpu external frequency back to 133MHz(x2=266) from 166(x2=333) resulting in much reduced performance (turned the cpu from an Athlon XP 2500+ to an A-XP 1300. On that mobo it needed to be adjusted manually, don't know if yours works similarly. | feersumendjinn (64) | ||
| 1213185 | 2011-06-29 13:44:00 | Also this: IDE ATA and ATAPI disks use PIO mode after multiple time-out or CRC errors occur support.microsoft.com |
zqwerty (97) | ||
| 1213186 | 2011-06-29 13:56:00 | Also these may help: ENSURE XP IS USING DMA MODE XP enables DMA for Hard-Drives and CD-Roms by default on most ATA or ATAPI (IDE) devices. However, sometimes computers switch to PIO mode which is slower for data transfer – a typical reason is because of a virus. To ensure that your machine is using DMA: 1. Open ‘Device Manager’ 2. Double-click ‘IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers’ 3. Right-click ‘Primary Channel’ and select ‘Properties’ and then ‘Advanced Settings’ 4. In the ‘Current Transfer Mode’ drop-down box, select ‘DMA if Available’ if the current setting is ‘PIO Only’ from here: Make Your Windows XP Run Faster Than Never Before 9tutorials.com |
zqwerty (97) | ||
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