Wierd problem

[SkyXion]

So the other day I had a few hours available and decided it was time
for my computers bi-yearly cleaning.

Computer:

Intel P4 3.0ghz
Intel D865PERL mobo
2g Mushkin DDR400
Geforce 6600

Just to let everyone know, before the cleaning everything was working
perfectly, although it is an older system i could listen to music and
play my MMO and not have any problems.

I took all the components apart and cleaned out all the dust, added 2
standoffs to the mobo tray that i had been meaning to do and put it
all back together, no new components were added, nor did i adjust any
jumpers or settings. However when i start it up for the first time.
the whole thing seems slower, almost if i was cut back to 1.5ghz or
something. Any processor heavy tasks, such as my MMO cause the
integrated sound to falter and lag. any task takes two to three times
longer to do. I have taken everything back out to check for a loose
wire or anything and i can't find anything wrong. any ideas?

 

[housetrained]

standoffs!

 

[SkyXion]

Huh?

standoffs!

 

[SkyXion]

Huh?

standoffs!

 

[SkyXion]

Huh?

standoffs!

 

[SkyXion]

Huh?

standoffs!

 

[Paul]

Huh?

"housetrained" has noticed that you added two standoffs. He
is suggesting you remove those two standoffs and try again.

As far as your "perceptions" of how well the system is working,
get a copy of CPUZ from cpuid.com and verify the operating
frequency of the components. Get a copy of HDTune from hdtune.com
and verify that the hard drive connection is running at the full rate.
You can also benchmark the drive and verify the transfer rate.
You can also open Task Manager (control-alt-delete) and see
if there are any tasks which are using up CPU cycles. Those
are a few things to start with.

Paul

 

[SkyXion]

<a href="http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y210/SkyXion/?
action=view&current=Scans.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://
i6.photobucket.com/albums/y210/SkyXion/Scans.jpg" border="0"
alt="Photobucket"></a>

Here is a scan of my results of those 2 tests. I did not remove the
standoffs mostly because i can't remember which ones they were...

I really do appreciate your help on this

 

[SkyXion]

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y210/SkyXion/Scans.jpg

 

[Paul]

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y210/SkyXion/Scans.jpg

Your processor looks normal, at 3GHz.

The HDtune is a bit strange looking. It is hard to make out,
but it looks like the "Maximum" value is higher than the
"Burst" rating. The values are also on the high side for
a single disk. Perhaps you have a RAID or something ?
In any case, it looks pretty speedy to me. You would be in
trouble, if it was a flat line at only 4MB/sec, as that would
indicate PIO transfer mode.

If this is a RAID array, see if there is a RAID management
tool installed in Windows. Check the status of the array
and see if it is "healthy" or whatever.

The next thing you can check, is the HDTune "Info" tab, in
the lower right hand corner. It shows max device transfer
rate and currently used transfer rate.

The HDTune results also have a number of dips in the results.
That could be caused by a couple things. It could be that
there are read errors on the disk, requiring the disk to make
multiple retries until the data is retrieved. The other possibility,
is another task is running, and that task is using so much
cycles, as to affect the benchmark results.

If you look in Task Manager (control-alt-delete), what do you
see in the CPU charts. When the Windows desktop is supposed to be
idle, is the CPU utilization close to 0% ? Leave Task Manager open,
and rerun the HDTune benchmark. Do the dips in the chart show up
in the same spots ? And while the benchmark is running, look
in Task Manager - is another task besides HDTune, quite busy ?

Paul

 

[philo]

Huh?

NO. it's not the standoffs...
but sometimes, when taking a machine apart...
a small static electricity charge will cause the bios to be reset to
default...
so if the thing seems like it's running at 1.5 mhz...
maybe it's because it has , in fact...been reset to that speed.

re-check your bios settings