Computer stutters, sound is broken, harddrives freeze the machine....

[Antti]

Well, my machine isn't the newest, but works fine. Almost. After a few
months after a clean install of WinXP Pro, everything just seems bad.
I'd hate to format everything and start all over, but if no-one has
some help or anything, that's just what I'm gonna do.

This is what I got:
WinXP Pro SP1
Athlon 1,30 GHz
704 Mb memory
Maxtor 4 D040H2
Maxtor 6 Y080L0
Promise Ultra100 (tm) IDE Controller
Mentor USB 2.0 card
mobo (sorry, can't tell, but Asus, with VIA chipsets)

....and stuff:

IRQ 9 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System
IRQ 9 RADEON 7200 SERIES
IRQ 9 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller
IRQ 9 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller
IRQ 9 Creative SB Audigy
IRQ 9 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
IRQ 9 ALi PCI to USB Open Host Controller
IRQ 9 ALi PCI to USB Open Host Controller
IRQ 9 ALi PCI to USB Open Host Controller
IRQ 9 Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
IRQ 9 Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC
IRQ 9 WinXP Promise Ultra100 (tm) IDE Controller (PDC20265)


I understand that I can't change IRQ's in WinXP, and after I tweaked
the BIOS (tried to force IRQ's) my machine wouldn't boot up.

I'm trying at the moment to record some audio with my audigy 1 card,
and can't do it...
So, basically, if I try to e.g.
-delete a file (any), my machine will freeze for a 5-8 seconds (not
all the time, usually the first file is a pain. After a while, if I
delete some more files, it stutters again)
-record audio, basically everything sucks, I get clicks and pops...
(timing)
-MIDI is practically useless, basically timing errors
-Audio plugins are useless too, any wave audio jumps (timing)
-p2p software usage (much harddrive access) slows machine down a lot
-mouse (USB) jumps around....

And, well, you can figure out the rest. =(

No useless software is running, reboots don't help, I got free disk
space, everything is scandisked/defragmented... No useless (stupid)
services are running and so forth.

I've tried also (the AIW Radeon is not the newest either) to lower
resolution/colors

My (other =) old machine had the usual slow-downs, but it wasn't
nowhere near so difficult to tune as this machine.

What can I do?

 

[Quaoar]

Well, my machine isn't the newest, but works fine. Almost. After a few
months after a clean install of WinXP Pro, everything just seems bad.
I'd hate to format everything and start all over, but if no-one has
some help or anything, that's just what I'm gonna do.

This is what I got:
WinXP Pro SP1
Athlon 1,30 GHz
704 Mb memory
Maxtor 4 D040H2
Maxtor 6 Y080L0
Promise Ultra100 (tm) IDE Controller
Mentor USB 2.0 card
mobo (sorry, can't tell, but Asus, with VIA chipsets)

...and stuff:

IRQ 9 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System
IRQ 9 RADEON 7200 SERIES
IRQ 9 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller
IRQ 9 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller
IRQ 9 Creative SB Audigy
IRQ 9 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
IRQ 9 ALi PCI to USB Open Host Controller
IRQ 9 ALi PCI to USB Open Host Controller
IRQ 9 ALi PCI to USB Open Host Controller
IRQ 9 Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
IRQ 9 Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC
IRQ 9 WinXP Promise Ultra100 (tm) IDE Controller (PDC20265)


I understand that I can't change IRQ's in WinXP, and after I tweaked
the BIOS (tried to force IRQ's) my machine wouldn't boot up.

I'm trying at the moment to record some audio with my audigy 1 card,
and can't do it...
So, basically, if I try to e.g.
-delete a file (any), my machine will freeze for a 5-8 seconds (not
all the time, usually the first file is a pain. After a while, if I
delete some more files, it stutters again)
-record audio, basically everything sucks, I get clicks and pops...
(timing)
-MIDI is practically useless, basically timing errors
-Audio plugins are useless too, any wave audio jumps (timing)
-p2p software usage (much harddrive access) slows machine down a lot
-mouse (USB) jumps around....

And, well, you can figure out the rest. =(

No useless software is running, reboots don't help, I got free disk
space, everything is scandisked/defragmented... No useless (stupid)
services are running and so forth.

I've tried also (the AIW Radeon is not the newest either) to lower
resolution/colors

My (other =) old machine had the usual slow-downs, but it wasn't
nowhere near so difficult to tune as this machine.

What can I do?

1. Disk cleanup - done
2. Defrag - done
3. from run command: msconfig, select startup tab to clean up startup
files.
4. from command prompt: sfc /scannow to fix system files.
5. from command prompt: chkdsk /F to fix file system
6. get latest hyperion drivers from via arena.
7. review the services you have disabled. some might really be
required.

The other thing is that any kind of A/V is going to exercise a computer
and multitasking might not be indicated if you want the best
performance.

Q

 

[Antti]

1. Disk cleanup - done
2. Defrag - done
3. from run command: msconfig, select startup tab to clean up startup
files.
4. from command prompt: sfc /scannow to fix system files.
5. from command prompt: chkdsk /F to fix file system
6. get latest hyperion drivers from via arena.
7. review the services you have disabled. some might really be
required.

The other thing is that any kind of A/V is going to exercise a computer
and multitasking might not be indicated if you want the best
performance.

Q

Thanks, it's getting there...