• Secondary desktop performance is lacking
    6 replies, posted
I have 3 desktops running 24/7. But my second desktop started to lack performance with an unknown cause. I freshly installed a copy of Windows XP Home Edition Sp2 from CD and right from the installation it was slow as hell. Before it ran perfectly fine with no glitches, lag, or system crashes; apps ran fine as well with not much load time. But now chrome takes 15-30 seconds to start, control panel sometimes freezes up. When I log off, the screen goes from the XP home screen to the kind of like XP Professional log-off screen. But since it was installed from [B]Legit CD[/B] there shouldn't be any severe causes for this besides hardware problems. But I cannot point out what is the lead cause of it.. This machine was mainly used for watching TV(because my actual TV got screwed over when we moved here) and doing minor programming/ gaming while my primary is doing something important such as scanning for viruses or updating something. The weird thing is the performance in Ubuntu is different. Doesn't choke, lag, or spit out errors that lead to crashes. Only seems to happen in Windows.(And wish not to install W7 because I just really don't like it that much.) This one machine though was found behind my work with the guts removed. So I took it home and fixed it - ran well for quite some time. But I wish to fix this performance issue without needing to buy new parts and restore it to what it used to be. [B]Specs:[/B] Intel Pentium D 805 2.66 GHZ Socket LGA775 (Used to perform hot. Not a big deal anymore with the new block cooler) 1 GB of DDR Memory(Not much, but good enough for what I use it for) Intel DG101GGC desktop board (Old Old Old Old but still seems to run normally) WD 82 Gigabyte HDD (1 week old) Seagate 250 GB HDD (Few years old) 320 Watt ANTEC Power-Supply-Unit (Unsure what model nor age) Ge-force 7300LE (Piece of shit I know, but it's better then inter-graded a bit I guess.. ) When I tried to check my hdd using terminal I got this: [CODE] kurofuchi@ubuntu:~$ smartctl -s on -a /dev/sda1 smartctl version 5.38 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/ Smartctl open device: /dev/sda1 failed: Permission denied kurofuchi@ubuntu:~$ sudo smartctl -s on -a /dev/sda1 smartctl version 5.38 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/ === START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Model Family: Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 family Device Model: ST3250823A Serial Number: 3ND26SBG Firmware Version: 3.03 User Capacity: 250,059,350,016 bytes Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show] ATA Version is: 7 ATA Standard is: Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated Local Time is: Mon Aug 22 16:18:35 2011 PDT SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability. SMART support is: Enabled === START OF ENABLE/DISABLE COMMANDS SECTION === SMART Enabled. === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION === SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED General SMART Values: Offline data collection status: (0x82) Offline data collection activity was completed without error. Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled. Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed without error or no self-test has ever been run. Total time to complete Offline data collection: ( 430) seconds. Offline data collection capabilities: (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate. Auto Offline data collection on/off support. Suspend Offline collection upon new command. Offline surface scan supported. Self-test supported. No Conveyance Self-test supported. Selective Self-test supported. SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering power-saving mode. Supports SMART auto save timer. Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported. General Purpose Logging supported. Short self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes. Extended self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 84) minutes. SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10 Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds: ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 053 045 006 Pre-fail Always - 210971945 3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 099 098 000 Pre-fail Always - 0 4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 930 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 036 Pre-fail Always - 0 7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 084 060 030 Pre-fail Always - 289703022 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 094 094 000 Old_age Always - 5504 10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0 12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 099 099 020 Old_age Always - 1286 194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 043 057 000 Old_age Always - 43 (0 14 0 0) 195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 053 045 000 Old_age Always - 210971945 197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0 199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 001 000 Old_age Always - 851 200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0 202 TA_Increase_Count 0x0032 100 253 000 Old_age Always - 0 SMART Error Log Version: 1 ATA Error Count: 851 (device log contains only the most recent five errors) CR = Command Register [HEX] FR = Features Register [HEX] SC = Sector Count Register [HEX] SN = Sector Number Register [HEX] CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX] CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX] DH = Device/Head Register [HEX] DC = Device Command Register [HEX] ER = Error register [HEX] ST = Status register [HEX] Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes, SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days. Error 851 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 4572 hours (190 days + 12 hours) When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle. After command completion occurred, registers were: ER ST SC SN CL CH DH -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 84 51 01 07 00 00 40 Error: ICRC, ABRT 1 sectors at LBA = 0x00000007 = 7 Commands leading to the command that caused the error were: CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- -------------------- 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:49.051 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.644 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.631 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.614 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.564 READ DMA EXT Error 850 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 4572 hours (190 days + 12 hours) When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle. After command completion occurred, registers were: ER ST SC SN CL CH DH -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 84 51 01 07 00 00 40 Error: ICRC, ABRT 1 sectors at LBA = 0x00000007 = 7 Commands leading to the command that caused the error were: CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- -------------------- 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:49.051 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.644 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.631 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.614 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.564 READ DMA EXT Error 849 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 4572 hours (190 days + 12 hours) When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle. After command completion occurred, registers were: ER ST SC SN CL CH DH -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 84 51 01 07 00 00 40 Error: ICRC, ABRT 1 sectors at LBA = 0x00000007 = 7 Commands leading to the command that caused the error were: CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- -------------------- 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:49.051 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.644 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.631 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.614 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.564 READ DMA EXT Error 848 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 4572 hours (190 days + 12 hours) When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle. After command completion occurred, registers were: ER ST SC SN CL CH DH -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 84 51 01 07 00 00 40 Error: ICRC, ABRT 1 sectors at LBA = 0x00000007 = 7 Commands leading to the command that caused the error were: CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- -------------------- 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:49.051 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.644 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.631 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.614 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.564 READ DMA EXT Error 847 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 4572 hours (190 days + 12 hours) When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle. After command completion occurred, registers were: ER ST SC SN CL CH DH -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 84 51 01 07 00 00 40 Error: ICRC, ABRT 1 sectors at LBA = 0x00000007 = 7 Commands leading to the command that caused the error were: CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- -------------------- 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:49.051 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.644 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.631 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.614 READ DMA EXT 25 00 08 00 00 00 40 00 00:00:48.564 READ DMA EXT SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1 No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t] SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1 SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS 1 0 0 Not_testing 2 0 0 Not_testing 3 0 0 Not_testing 4 0 0 Not_testing 5 0 0 Not_testing Selective self-test flags (0x0): After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk. If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay. [/CODE] Don't know if its' good or bad, find it hard to understand. Suggestions?
Well I can see three possible causes. 1) The RAM is bad. Linux is much more tolerant of memory errors than Windows is. Run memtest [url]www.memtest.org[/url] (or put in the Ubuntu CD and run memtest on the startup options.) 2) The Antec PSU is bad. Antec is known to use shit "Fuhyjju" capacitors that are faulty due to a stolen electrolyte formula. To check, unplug the PSU from the mains, take it out of the computer and take the cover off. Look for any capacitors that are bulging or leaking a brown substance from the top or bottom of the capacitor (the electrolyte.) Here is an example of an Antec PSU before I repaired it: [img]http://img807.imageshack.us/img807/4474/img0074j.jpg[/img] Don't mistake the the glue on the inductors for electrolyte. Most manufacturers put glue/epoxy on the inductors to stop them from having coil whine. This glue will usually start out white, but slowly turn dark brown or black from the inductor coil heat. Electrolyte is a lighter brown color. If you do see leaking capacitors, replace the PSU. You can repair the PSU by replacing the capacitors with the same farad and voltage rating capacitors of a better brand if you have soldering experience. 3) This: "UDMA_CRC_Error_Count" is high (it should be zero or near that) This is usually caused by either a bad IDE / SATA cable, or by using a 40 wire IDE cable with a higher transfer mode it doesn't support. 40 wire IDE cables can support PIO-4 (16.67 MB/s) or DMA-2 (33.33 MB/s) maximum. Most controllers can detect the cable type (40 or 80 wire), but sometimes they can't and will use higher modes that only 80 wire cables support and can cause data corruption and other nasty problems. If the drive uses IDE, replace the cable with an 80 wire cable, if it's SATA, try a new SATA cable.
[QUOTE=bohb;31889101]Well I can see three possible causes. 1) The RAM is bad. Linux is much more tolerant of memory errors than Windows is. Run memtest [url]www.memtest.org[/url] (or put in the Ubuntu CD and run memtest on the startup options.) 2) The Antec PSU is bad. Antec is known to use shit "Fuhyjju" capacitors that are faulty due to a stolen electrolyte formula. To check, unplug the PSU from the mains, take it out of the computer and take the cover off. Look for any capacitors that are bulging or leaking a brown substance from the top or bottom of the capacitor (the electrolyte.) Here is an example of an Antec PSU before I repaired it: [img]http://img807.imageshack.us/img807/4474/img0074j.jpg[/img] Don't mistake the the glue on the inductors for electrolyte. Most manufacturers put glue/epoxy on the inductors to stop them from having coil whine. This glue will usually start out white, but slowly turn dark brown or black from the inductor coil heat. Electrolyte is a lighter brown color. If you do see leaking capacitors, replace the PSU. You can repair the PSU by replacing the capacitors with the same farad and voltage rating capacitors of a better brand if you have soldering experience. 3) This: "UDMA_CRC_Error_Count" is high (it should be zero or near that) This is usually caused by either a bad IDE / SATA cable, or by using a 40 wire IDE cable with a higher transfer mode it doesn't support. 40 wire IDE cables can support PIO-4 (16.67 MB/s) or DMA-2 (33.33 MB/s) maximum. Most controllers can detect the cable type (40 or 80 wire), but sometimes they can't and will use higher modes that only 80 wire cables support and can cause data corruption and other nasty problems. If the drive uses IDE, replace the cable with an 80 wire cable, if it's SATA, try a new SATA cable.[/QUOTE] It has no leaking capacitors, and the cable attached to the drive was changed and it's still performing the same. Last thing to do is run the memory scan.
It's very silly to say you don't want to install Windows 7, just because you don't like it. It's not just visual changes within the operating system. Windows 7 handles stuff such as memory operations much better than XP. Eventually you will have to upgrade anyway because support will eventually be dropped for XP, and if you continue to use XP when support has been dropped, you can say goodbye to a virus free pc
[QUOTE=djjkxbox360;31896868]It's very silly to say you don't want to install Windows 7, just because you don't like it. It's not just visual changes within the operating system. Windows 7 handles stuff such as memory operations much better than XP. Eventually you will have to upgrade anyway because support will eventually be dropped for XP, and if you continue to use XP when support has been dropped, you can say goodbye to a virus free pc[/QUOTE] It's very silly for you to try and force your flawed ideology on someone else, how about you cut that out ok? An OS doesn't suddenly become useless when THE LATEST WHIZBANG WINDOWS OS(TM)(R)(C) comes out. I still have Windows 98SE and Windows 2000 machines that have been running for over a decade, and they still work fine with none of these "virus PCs" you're talking about. People shouldn't have to spend money on a more modern OS that likely doesn't fully support their hardware (Windows Vista/7 dropped support for thousands of old devices, GPUs included.) It doesn't matter if it "has better memory management" if it makes you run in 640x480 because it doesn't support your GPU now does it? Coupled with the lack of support, both Vista and 7 have a HUGE drive space footprint and memory requirement, both of which XP and prior don't. You can get away with a 5 GB install on XP with less than 512MB of memory usage with all of the service packs and patches installed, yet Vista/7 use 20 GB by default, and can explode to almost 100 GB due to shadow copies, superfetch cache and storing massive amounts of Windows Update data on the hard drive. All of this is a pain in the ass to remove/stop, and even restarts on its own in some cases, making it a constant struggle. In short: Don't fix what isn't broken. If you want us to upgrade our machines, you pay for it babe.
This is what I hate about technical support, you just try to ignore your problems when the fix costs money. Well you can't say I didn't help
[QUOTE=djjkxbox360;31918410]This is what I hate about technical support, you just try to ignore your problems when the fix costs money. Well you can't say I didn't help[/QUOTE] Excuse me Sir, SIR! Yes, the problem with your computer is that you have a broken printer, and I'm sorry to inform you that you MUST upgrade to Windows 7 for $149.99 before I can guide you through how to fix the problem because XP isn't supported anymore. I see you have a bright future ahead of you.
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