Slow computer

Hi there. I noticed my computer is running way slower than it should. I thought it was because the RAM and processor frequencies were mismatched. My dad's computer runs faster than mine and it's on an Athlon 2000+ with one stick of 128MB 266DDR and one of 256MB PC333. Is that even possible?

I tried my RAM and processor in his smaller cheaper A bit board and it worked fine, so now I'm wondering if my board's broken. Or maybe AN7 boards have a reputation for being slow. I do know that the northbridge chip had hardly any thermal grease on it when I replaced the heatsink and fan recently. Maybe that got cooked before I put the new fan in.

Also I tried my hard drive and VGA in my dad's computer and those worked OK too so no bugs there either.

To test the speed I ran Norton Antivirus to take up a lot of system resources, then timed how long it took to load Internet Explorer mid scan. My dad's computer took 0.5 - 2 seconds, with my processor and ram it was the same, but my computer took 10 - 30 seconds! Usually nearer 30

Should I replace my board, or is there anything else I could try? I also have a few PCI cards, but the board ran that speed before I put them in I think.


AN7 Guru board
Sempron 2800+ (333MHz FSB)
512MB DDR400 RAM
80GB Western Digital hard drive
256MB Ge Force FX5500 VGA

 

Just in case the mainboard is faulty, can anyone recommend a good brand to go for?

Cheers.

 

Your dads PC has two different speeds of ram one pc2100/266 & one pc2700/333 ( this is OK as the memory will only run at the speed of the slowest chip which is pc2100/266 fsb, it is also the speed of his CPU = all is good with dads rig)

Is your Board Broken?, If it running and even running slow I doubt it.

Your CPU runs at 333fsb, your mem is pc3200 400fsb, for best performance you should run your mem at 333 to match your CPU, How ya got your's set?
Lot's of things can make you run slow.
Norton is one of those things! I dont like Norton & would never use it but some folks Like it.
Spyware/adware/virus things of that nature can slow the fastest PC to slow crawl.
Poorly set Bios options/settings, cpu & memory timmings etc. can slow ya too.
A build up of cookies/temp files & heavily fragmented HDD can slow things too.
A system's registry can fill with usless entries that can slow your system.
Over time your system or most peoples fill with garbage & old left over files etc.

You can try to clean up your system
Or
One sure way to elimate spyware/virus & system clog of garbage is simply to reformate & reinstall your OS.
If you choose that route make sure your BIOS is configured to suit your hardware setup first, Here's Bios Guide:
http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=9
Then also install the latest drivers etc for your setup.
Include good protection for spyware/virus etc. there are lots of good free ones here at MG that dont hog your resourses.

 

For socket A, to use your current CPU.
Asus/Abit/Gigabyte/DFI there are other's too, make sure you get one that has Nforce 2 Ultra 400 chipset.
I like Asus, here's a Good one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131478&ATT=Motherboards+AMD&CMP=KNC-goog13
DFI for OCing, but hard to find, the Asus is good OCer too!

I'd stay away from Asrock & PC Chips they are on the lowest end of the scale when comes to Quality.

 

Thanks Unfortunately none of hat seems to be the problem, so I may just go for a new board. I tried setting the FSB/DRAM ratio to 3/3 , 5/5 , and 6/6 instead of auto (all should be the same as 1/1 and the DRAM value on all of the settings was 333MHz). No change. Still ran slow.

Apparently the 256MB RAM in my dad's computer was a DDR333 and not a PC333 as the label stated, so I replaced my RAM with that. Again no change. As far as I can see that rules out the frequency mismatch.

I found this while I was looking up my mainboard:
http://reviews.pimprig.com/motherboards/abit_an7_nforce2_400_ultra.php?page=2
apparently badly applied northbridge heatsinks were standard on this model. If that were the problem I suppose it would have got worse as the chip burned out, but my computer's always been that slow with that mainboard. I just never noticed because the monkey who built my previous system underclocked the processor from 266MHz to 200MHz FSB just so he could rip me off with an archaic mainboard. You can see why i go for the DIY approach

My dad's computer has all the same Norton stuff as mine and my hard drive runs as fast as his when I put it in his computer. Plus I did a clean boot just over 2 weeks ago and haven't been online much since. Temp files, cookies, spyware and registry changes shouldn't have built up that much. I have a few different antispyware progs, but it ran as slow before installing them as after. although they did clean out some nasty stuff.

The BIOS seems set up OK. I haven't fiddled with the settings I don't understand, so it should all be OK. I can't download drivers manually for the BIOS. It only allows live updates from a windows based flash menu program. It says I need to update flash menu to the latest version. After visiting the website, downloading and installing the latest version I ran it and... it asked me to download and install the latest version. I uninstalled and reinstalled it several times but it still wants me to update it to a new version which doesn't exist.

So, if that's all I can do, then I tried it all. All of the evidence seems to point to a problem in the board. If the flash menu program can't update the BIOS, maybe there's a problem with it. But if the BIOS is faulty surely the thing wouldn't even start

You can see why I've got a headache heheh.