Please help, XP performance dropping

[Lukas]

Hi all,

I'm really desperate now, and I hope you guys can help me out.

Since a few weeks I've been having some weird problems with XP:

* Winamp3's AVS fullscreen framerate is about 7 fps @ 640x480x16
* Winamp 2' avs plays @ about 50 fps in fullscreen, but crashes to desktop after about 15 minutes
* My DivX movies skips some frames every 1-2 minutes
* My DVD movies don't sync sound and video, sound is late about 0.5 secs.
* I hear a crackling sound while dragging windows
* My EventViewer keeps coming back with an Device Driver Error and Partition Error on /Device/Disk/0
* Performance drops suddenly with no significant CPU load
* Copying files from one partition to other means 100% CPU load
* Game performance is under average


I've tried to remedy the problem by doing the following:

* Installed SP1
* Reformatted HD, and installed Slipstreamed XP SP1
* Bought a new HD, Maxtor 80 Gb 7200, installed slipstreamed XP SP1 on that HD
* Reformatted again, installed XP without SP1
* Installed DirectX9
* Installed latest VIA 4in1's
* Installed latest nVidia Detonators
* Installed Norton System Works, and scanned windows installation for errors (none found)
* Scanned for Viruses
* Uninstalled my old soundcard, and bought and installed a new one: SB Audigy 5.1, newest drivers
* Bought additional RAM (now 512 Mb)
* Resetted CMOS
* Loaded optimized defaults in BIOS
* Loaded failsafe defauts in BIOS
* Reformatted again, installed clean XP without SP1, and used only the WinXP native drivers, and DIrectX9
* Increased Hardware acceleration on the SoundCard
* Increased hardware sound buffer size
* Followed Windows Sound and Video troubleshooters
* Processor is normally overclocked, now running normal speed
* I ran all the DirectX9 tests, they are all competed succesfully, with no problems found.

Please tell me what else I can do/try. I really don't know what is causing this weird behaviour... I changed the HD, changed the Soundcard. Tried different versions of drivers, settings, etc.

Please if you think of something just tell me, coz I really don't know what to do...


Thnx!


Lukas

 

[o0RaidR0o]

Check your...

...memory sticks. If you have any extra swap'em out to eliminate them as cause. I honestly don't think its your OS but a hardware related issue. Next step would be to change out your video card or at least reseating it. Also make sure there aren't any loose wiring inside your case that may be shorting your MoBo. Looks like you did some good troubleshooting on your own. If none of my suggestions help then maybe you need to look at your MoBo as being the cause.

 

[2z]

what temperatures are you running @ ???

 

[Lukas]

I have 2x 128 Mb PC133 and 1x 256 Mb Apacer 133 I think.

I thought of something: how about a cooler fan? I got plenty of em, coz pc was overclocked. Coud it shortcircuit from time to time? All of em work, coz I can open my case 'on the fly' but it's just a thought...

Can dust be the cause? Becouse it's pretty dusty in there, especially on fan's wings...

I don't know... just guessing here.


Thnx 4 reply though!

Lukas

 

[Lukas]

Temp stable around 45 - 50°C (CPU)

 

[Geffy]

try givin the internals a nice clean, Air Dusting and contact cleaning to remove grease and stuff.

 

[Lukas]

Hey,


I did everything now... I cleaned it completly, checked for lose cables, plugs, malfunctioning fans. I also reseated all of my pci cards, and tested with one bank of ram at a time. Nothing. I have really no idea what might be causing it...

Anyone suggestions?


Greetz

Lukas