Crappy Mobo or OS issue

purplecatty

purplecatty

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I am currently working on my parent's pc. It's a homebuilt system. I didn't buy anything except memory. All parts are donated by me and mobo along with CPU was found on street corner (was my luckiest "gold mine" cuz of owner put in wrong power supply assumed that it's no good and threw it away. I found out power supply had no 4 pin jack for mobo. I used my 450w power supply with 4 pin jack. It powered up great!! :giggle::giggle: ). It boots right up to desktop at normal speed just like any system but go online was crappy.

System Config:

ECS Elitegroup D1, S4-2 Ez-Buddies mobo (that was a darn hard to find info but luckily I found it quickly through Google search, not ECS Elitegroup website directly but "indirectly")
Intel Celeron 2.0 Ghz processor
512mb DDR333 stick (maximum 2Gb)
Onboard SIS651 Video (configurable to 64mb shared)
SIS North/Southbridge chipset
Creative Sound card (my parent bought it cuz onboard sound is broken for some reason)
4 USB2.0
Onboard 1 Lan 10/100
8GB Seagate hdd (I donated it cuz they don't use pc much so why bother having 40gb 7200rpm if they don't use much space)
Windoz XP Pro SP2

The real problem is that my Parent's system is running fast on XP but when log in website, it was slow going but not that slow. My basement PCs and laptop ran on network like a lightening. I tried to do tweak but doesn't help much. I even downloaded Firefox 3.5 and it ran little better but still slow. At first, I thought it was the LAN chipset might be lousy. Until I slipped in Google gOS (base on Ubuntu Hardy). Booted right into desktop then I log in website, it ran smooth and fast as my system. ummphh!!:hmm:

Question is that SOMETHING is holding back network speed on XP!?? I even tried to use XPLite but it popped error as soon I click "next".

I am thinking about just reformat their hdd and reinstall everything else to fix the network speed.

Suggestion!??

Catty
 
HD doesn't do anything with network.


Only modem, router, and the network drive.


Perhaps you left soemthing on like peer 2 peer? I know that would decrease your latency of the internet.

Keep searching thru programs on add/remove hardwares, see any online programs that'd be hidden and using. They'd do that to get files thru your internet because you're faster to them so they can get a file and put it thru you in a faster way.

Anyways, let me know if that worked. If not, I have other ways.
 
tweak w/ Windows configuration to disable bandwidth throttling or something... :dunno:
 
imdeafsowhat said:
HD doesn't do anything with network.


Only modem, router, and the network drive.


Perhaps you left soemthing on like peer 2 peer? I know that would decrease your latency of the internet.

Keep searching thru programs on add/remove hardwares, see any online programs that'd be hidden and using. They'd do that to get files thru your internet because you're faster to them so they can get a file and put it thru you in a faster way.

Anyways, let me know if that worked. If not, I have other ways.
Click to expand...

Yup, nothing to do with hdd. I knew it's something to do with network issue.

The Router, Cable Modem (Roadrunner) are running lightening fast and smooth on rest of my system. It's just one and the only system going slow on network.

I read about network tweak that I have to go into XP to get 20% faster on broadband.


It could be a driver issue that I would have to update for their Onboard LAN.

I am thinking about just reformat and reinstall it to see if it clears the problem.

Firefox under LiveCD Ubuntu ran fast and smooth on network. So that's what I have in my mind "is XP crapping on network??"

I was tempted to install Google's gOS on my parent's system. But the problem is that they have AT&T 2Wires wireless system. Better not mess with it cuz it's not linux compatible. I better stick with Windoz XP for them cuz it's easy. They're not tech proficient (both are in their 70's). They just do basic functions, check email, browse website, type up letter in word processor, and view family pix. That's basic it.

So That's why I think reformatting hdd would be best option. I can feel the hdd click click every 4 seconds constantly.


Catty
 
Not sure if it is hardware or software... But, I note you are only using 512mb? Add more memory, and it should be noticeably faster. A lot of websites use a lot of memory.

If your current network card set at '100 full mode'? I think you can check by clicking on the advance tab of the network properties.

Try using another browser, such as Chrome or Opera, which is very fast and it also uses less memory.
 
omegaman said:
Not sure if it is hardware or software... But, I note you are only using 512mb? Add more memory, and it should be noticeably faster. A lot of websites use a lot of memory.

If your current network card set at '100 full mode'? I think you can check by clicking on the advance tab of the network properties.

Try using another browser, such as Chrome or Opera, which is very fast and it also uses less memory.
Click to expand...


As mentioned on first posting, I installed Firefox on XP and it ran somewhat faster than IE. Yes, I agree it's the memory issue. Oddly, on Ubuntu, it was fast on Firefox.

I would just reformat and reinstall XP to see if there's any difference. Because in the past, I've use Acronis Drive Image to transfer Image of hdd from 40gb hdd to 8gb hdd. It may be the cause.

Catty
 
Hmm, sounds like it may be CDROM/CD or driver issue, or memory is going bad. That's the only thing I can think of.

During XP install if you are using CD to install, is copying corrupted files > corrupted drivers > you get this problem. Have had this a few times before.

Otherwise it's like you said, bad memory can do the same to this as well. I've had memory that allowed some of the older 939/754 systems to boot up and install windows, yet it copied a crudload of corrupted files.

Then it gave sluggish issues during specific events.

Onboard SiS Video drivers are covered right?
 
naisho said:
Hmm, sounds like it may be CDROM/CD or driver issue, or memory is going bad. That's the only thing I can think of.

During XP install if you are using CD to install, is copying corrupted files > corrupted drivers > you get this problem. Have had this a few times before.

Otherwise it's like you said, bad memory can do the same to this as well. I've had memory that allowed some of the older 939/754 systems to boot up and install windows, yet it copied a crudload of corrupted files.

Then it gave sluggish issues during specific events.

Onboard SiS Video drivers are covered right?
Click to expand...

CDrom drive was in back of my mind too. I am fully aware that Cdrom drive does affect XP installation. I have many cdrom drives which are old. I am going to swap out the drive and do installation. I agree with you totally!! :lol:

Been there. I have two Norcent CDrw drives and both are 52x speed but write speed , one is 24x and other is 32x. the 32x (52x 32x 52x) drive was little funky. I had an issue with it. Whenever I burned CD on 32x drive and use it on other system, it would not reconize so I burned it with 24x drive and all systems reconize with no problem. Huh!! I remmy installing XP or Ubuntu on old drive, it became funky. I swapped out with better one and it works fine..
My parent's system have old 32x cdrom drive that I use for installing XP.. So that's why it's in deep back in my mind "cd drive".



Aso for memory, it passed test so no problem.

The Onboard SIS651 driver is already installed. It's been updated last summer and ran fine. The system ran smooth but online was slow. It's like "conflict of intrest" :lol:

Reformatting and reinstalling is the option using different CDrom drive. I plan to use "newest" good CDrom drive that works faithfully.

Hope that network issue would solved.

Catty
 
Hmm, last thing I can really think of that I forgot to mention is a bad north/southbridge. I got a used mobo once, was supposedly completely kinda-new used once or twice. During the shipping, somehow the box got damaged and chipped off the heatsink on the NB, in which the heatsink was off, and a piece of the NB was damaged.

I was able to boot it up, install winXP, but I do recall I would get that super sluggy issue when loading up a program. Like the PC went back to 486 on winXP just for opening notepad and paint man!

But yeah, this should be a once in a blue moon kinda problem.

Hope you get it fixed out. If you do figure out what it is once for all let me know what it was too, so I know other variations for the future if we didn't cover it here.
 
naisho said:
Hmm, last thing I can really think of that I forgot to mention is a bad north/southbridge. I got a used mobo once, was supposedly completely kinda-new used once or twice. During the shipping, somehow the box got damaged and chipped off the heatsink on the NB, in which the heatsink was off, and a piece of the NB was damaged.

I was able to boot it up, install winXP, but I do recall I would get that super sluggy issue when loading up a program. Like the PC went back to 486 on winXP just for opening notepad and paint man!

But yeah, this should be a once in a blue moon kinda problem.

Hope you get it fixed out. If you do figure out what it is once for all let me know what it was too, so I know other variations for the future if we didn't cover it here.
Click to expand...

Very interesting! That's one of 1 million! Sound like UPS's handling :rofl2:

Catty
 
Try more memory or shut down any unecessary programs in the background. When I checked the peak RAM rate on the XP unit I was using, it read at 518mb (On a 1Gb setup) due to security and a few other programs running.
 
Jess said:
Try more memory or shut down any unecessary programs in the background. When I checked the peak RAM rate on the XP unit I was using, it read at 518mb (On a 1Gb setup) due to security and a few other programs running.
Click to expand...

Mobo have shared video and it's set to 64mb maximum which is good enuf to get around. It loaded pretty quickly when I powered up. So that's something "squeaky" about XP OS. I'd reformat and reinstall with different CDrom drive. Cuz two of my basment system ran smooth and fast online.

Last thing is the issue with Celeron processor. It don't have much "instruction set" than Pentuim IV. If the problem continue after reformatting, I'd swap out Celeron for Pentuim IV cuz it's cheap in Ebay. I personally hates Celeron processor cuz I had issue with it in past. Celeron is cheap, low end processor. It's very much like AMD Duron or AMD Semptron (those two processor are better than Celeron anyway)

Catty
 
How bout cleaning inside the computer and defragging the HDD?


Also, do adware scan plus virus scan. Who knows that a program that looks solid is actually a spyware or a virus.

Viruses are made by people who made Anti-Virus, how do you think they made money?
 
imdeafsowhat said:
How bout cleaning inside the computer and defragging the HDD?


Also, do adware scan plus virus scan. Who knows that a program that looks solid is actually a spyware or a virus.

Viruses are made by people who made Anti-Virus, how do you think they made money?
Click to expand...

Good idea. I'm reformatting hdd anyway. I always have antivirus installed on every system cuz u know M$ are crappy.

Catty
 
I just finally swapped out CDrom drive and reformatted hard drive of my parent's system. IT seem better now, after all drivers installed and fixed their onboard sound system. I found out that I forgotten to put two jumpers in audio pins oops!. Now it's working and I pulled out Creative Lab sound card. Then test ran the network. It seem somewhat better but I decide to try another network card and plugged in. After booting up and driver auto detected. I went back online and test to see if network card works better. It seem better than Onboard network.

The only thing I haven't installed was antivirus. I'm gonna to try out and see what the performance be like after that. If it ran just like I tested then I think I fixed it.

I sure hope that'll shut up the network issue.

(Update)..

Just installed AVG antivirus and ran network. IT ran just like the way I tested. Pretty fast. I probably will try update the driver for Onboard NIC. If problem presist. Then I would stick with NIC card that I just installed.

catty

Catty
 
I updated the Onboard NIC (SIS900) driver from v1.16 to v1.19. It seem fixed the problem. The overall performance seem better than originally was. System is ready for a trip back to my parent's home but they'll have to get their monitor back from my sister who "swiped" it :rofl:

Catty
 
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