Slow PC ideas Before I format?

I suspect this is a OS issue, but I thought I would see if any of you had any suggesitions before I format and reinstall XP. This computer is close to a year old, and has had multiple hardware changes during it's life of being overclocked, gaming, and more recently GPU Folding. Depending on what information I get here, I will most likely kill xp and reinstall tonight or Sunday.

The problem is speed. This thing is super slow when folding. I mean the internet is slow, opening programs is slow, just stupid slow. I have several other computers with only Dual core CPU's that do not have this speed issue. I suspect somewhere along the way the drivers have gotten screwy. I mean, in less than a year this thing has gone from a ATI X850 to a 3850 to an ATI 3870X2 to a Nvidia 8800GT to a 9800GT and now to a Nvidia GTX260. Plus, I run Beta Cuda video drivers. :-D I guess I like change. Toss in one or two RAM swapps in as well.

I will put it this way. The computer in question has a nice 22" monitor. It is so slow, I have been using my laptop for general use for the last 2 months. Just because it works at a normal speed. Now that I have time to mess with it, this must be fixed. This is a Intel Q6600 quad core CPU, 2x 1gb G-Skill RAM, GTX260 video card on a Gigabyte P35 mobo, on Win XP SP3. And I get 8K on 3DMark 06?

I am thinking the format/reinstal will eliminate any possible software/driver issues, and if the problem still exists, I will have to investigate my hardware. The computer is lightly overclocked, but the temps for the CPU and GPU are nice and low, I have a 600Watt OCZ PSU, the GPU requires a 500W PSU.

Really just seeing if anyone has any ideas on what would cause this box to be so slow. It has been scanned by Avast, CCleaner, AusLogig Defrag, spyware scanned, and only has 29 processes showing under Windows Task Manager (3 of which are GPU folding related.)

Well, I was not sure if this should go in Software or Hardware, so I just flipped a coin. Any ideas? Thanks. :-D

 

So , you using the new 180.60 CUDAs, what does task manager show plenty of headroom? Are you running SMP too? The drivers do come into mind but I don't have a similar experience as you have had with all the upgrades. Oh, are you swapping memory?

 

Swapped RAM a few months ago when I built a new box. I usually upgrade the main computer when I build a borg.

I am glad I posted this, it made me think about it more. The computer started lagging when I went from an ATI 3870X2 to the Nvidia platform. I think I will download a driver removing program and then reinstall the drivers. DriverCleaner comes to mind, any of you use it or something similar?

Augie- what do you mean by this " what does task manager show plenty of headroom"? No SMP, just the GPU Folds.

Thanks

 

Just to see if you're maxing out all your cores which will slow you down for normal day to day use. Since you're only GPU folding only core 3 should be pinned.

 

Core 3 is being used more than the others, none are maxed. Currently running the driver cleaner now. Hopefully I can avoid formating. Got Far Cry 2 to play... :-D

 

Cleaned it out, got the stable Cuda drivers instead of the Beta, seems to be working much better. Went from 2K to 15K on 3D Mark06! Will see how the GPU folding goes, then will try some games. :-D

 

Hey, kewl man!:cool

 

Arg! The fooking thing went crazy on me!:tas My overclock and this card did not get along. I set the Voltages to normal and dropped the o/c down a bit and no BSOD in 1:47 of Video Memory Stress Test and Folding.

I got 2 BSOD's since my last post, both 0x000000EA which are video card related.

Hmm, if it stays stable, maybe I can overclock the video card... :-D If that don't fix it I am getting a new mobo! :major

It just locked up. Mobo shopping I go.