mobo cpu combo vga

[Kush]

hi guys i recently made a pc for someone that the mobo came with the cpu. the vga card is built in and so it takes 32 mb from the ram which is 512 making it show up as 480 in windows, the pc is running slower than it should, so if i get a graphics card that is agp will that make the pc run faster? as in the 32 mb will go back to the ram and wont be shared so then it will run much faster cuz the vga isnt the on board one right?

 

[Kush]

what im trying to say is the on board vga the thing thats slowing down the pc?

 

[Sazar]

what cpu are you running?

onboard devices tend to have more overhead hit on your cycles than a separate pci or agp card but if your processor itself is a low-ender than it does not matter...

if its a celeron no matter what you do its still going to be slow...

 

[Kush]

amd 2200+

 

[Sazar]

ok... thats a pretty good cpu...

how do you mean its slower ? is there something you have noticed or is it from benchmarking you have seen something?

 

[Kush]

yeah ive noticed that its running slow, like it freezes somtimes in mpeg2 videos that i downloaded from mirc that are high quality 640 X 480, and takes like 5 secs to open winamp 5. stuff like that, start menu. i got a 400w power supply for it so i dont think thats the problem, i had got a faulty ram module but i stuck my piece in and it works but same thing its slow and my ram is fine, we returned the faulty ram and got a new one, works well. and still. also when the faulty ram was in it used to restart by itself instanly while in the middle of something, not like the blaster worm, the ram was messed up if that helps.

 

[Kush]

maybe when i was formatting the hard drive for the first time in xp setup in dos, i told it all the space for one partition but it left 7.8 mb unpartitioned i dont know why, i tried to fix it with partition magic 8 but no luck, i made it into its own partition which was 7.8mb but when i tried to join it it wouldnt allow me, so theres 7.8 mb unpartitioned could that cause that? and if it could how can i fix that.

 

[Sazar]

I'll respond when I get back home.. I am off for a few hours to the gym...

ttyl...

 

[Kush]

ok

 

[Sazar]

your unpartioned space and stuff is fine... should not cause problems.. its only 8 megs anyways..

things that can cause slowdows are excessive memory usage (ie lots of background apps running... such as anti-virus)... heavy loads of cookies (nice to try and clean out the useless ones) and/or a virus...

has the computer been like this ever since you got it working properly or is it a recent occurence ?

 

[Taurus]

only bother buying a seperate agp video card if you want to play 3d games. otherwise, the onboard video shouldn't cause any performance problems with windows.

sounds like a software issue.

 

[Kush]

there is something wrong with it doesnt even play xvid properly

 

[Kush]

would an agp card make it run smoother though like just an agp 64 mb one

 

[Taurus]

xvids as well as any other video should play fine, no matter what video adapter you have. the 2200+ should do a more than adequate job of doing software decoding of video.

 

[Kush]

exactly they dont!!!! but im saying what is making the pc act like a turtle seriously its not even acting like a 1000mhz pc its acting slower!!!

 

[Dubbin1]

takes like 5 secs to open winamp 5

Thats about normal for winamp 5

 

[Kush]

well alll other things are much slower than usual. PEOPLE HELP! i feel bad about the pc, yet the guy is sooooo happy with it, i feel guilty even though im trying to fix it

 

[Taurus]

is the OS a recent install?
did you install up-to-date chipset and video drivers?
is the cpu and memory running at the right frequency?
how many background applications/processes are there?

 

[Kush]

yeah os is recent install
yeah i got the the new via drivers and vga drivers
cpu is running right, and the ram is 333mhz
not that many backround operations

 

[LeeJend]

Ok slow downs come from:

Hardware:
CPU speed FSB and clock. You checked and both are ok (RIGHT?)
Too little RAM. 512 is plenty even with 32mb shared.
Cheap, old Hard Drives. You put in a 7200 RPM right?
Incorrect settings. You have a UDMA 100 HD and the Bios is set to UDMA right?
Fragmented hard disk. Make sure it's defragged.

Software:
Spyware, background app's etc. You said you checked. Ran adaware, etc. Right?
Antivirus set to do background disk scan when system thinks it is inactive. Turn it off.
Where you put your page file and how you set it up. Is it fragged, did you use a fixed size on it's own partition, etc. Make a mini partiton and use fixed size at 1.5 times installed RAM.

If all the above is ok it could be the on board video choking the **** out of the FSB and PCI data paths. It depends on how good a MB you picked. I have friends doing well with PCChips on board video and others having major performance complaints with other MB on board video. The on board Intel Video on my computer at work is choking the 2.8 gig P4 so bad my 2 gig Athlon system at home blows it away. A cheap plug in video card might help if you have an AGP slot.

If in doubt pop your vid card in and see if the problems clean up.