New CPU/Mobo, didn't re-install 7

Hi all,

I've got a 1TB hard drive with Windows 7 Ultimate on it. I've been using it in my dual core machine for a while now, but my CPU was showing signs of age, so I got a new motherboard and a quad core CPU (both CPU's are AMD). Just for kicks, I didn't re-install the OS, but rather I slapped the hard drive back in and fired the system up with the new components (the hard drive has 500GB of stuff on it, mostly installed applications and games, so it would be a real pain to re-install everything). Everything boot like a champ, and after installing the new mobo drivers there were no byte conflicts in the device manager. Everything is great, except for the following:

1) when transferring many GB's of files from my external hard drive to the machine, the entire system slows to a crawl for everything else.

2) when installing a large application or game (such as visual studio or Bioshock2), everything else slows down to a crawl.

Do any of you think this is a result of not re-installing the OS? I've already used SmartDefrag on my drive to do a deep optimize, and I'm running 4GB of 5300 DDR2 (not the fastest, but it works well). I would understand if it's just a slowdown during the application install, but transferring files shouldn't have that big of an effect, since no matter how large the files are it can't surpass a certain transfer rate. Also, task manager shows that CPU usage isn't even at 15% and memory usage is less than half during these slow-downs.

howetechnical said:

Hi all,

I've got a 1TB hard drive with Windows 7 Ultimate on it. I've been using it in my dual core machine for a while now, but my CPU was showing signs of age, so I got a new motherboard and a quad core CPU (both CPU's are AMD). Just for kicks, I didn't re-install the OS, but rather I slapped the hard drive back in and fired the system up with the new components (the hard drive has 500GB of stuff on it, mostly installed applications and games, so it would be a real pain to re-install everything). Everything boot like a champ, and after installing the new mobo drivers there were no byte conflicts in the device manager. Everything is great, except for the following:

1) when transferring many GB's of files from my external hard drive to the machine, the entire system slows to a crawl for everything else.

2) when installing a large application or game (such as visual studio or Bioshock2), everything else slows down to a crawl.

Do any of you think this is a result of not re-installing the OS? I've already used SmartDefrag on my drive to do a deep optimize, and I'm running 4GB of 5300 DDR2 (not the fastest, but it works well). I would understand if it's just a slowdown during the application install, but transferring files shouldn't have that big of an effect, since no matter how large the files are it can't surpass a certain transfer rate. Also, task manager shows that CPU usage isn't even at 15% and memory usage is less than half during these slow-downs.

Of course it does. By just slapping the old HD back on you didnt update any of the drivers. It is always going to do that even if you find every single driver. I know a clean install is a PITA, but if you want your system at its best, you kind of have to.

Ken

zigzag3143 said:

howetechnical said:

Hi all,

I've got a 1TB hard drive with Windows 7 Ultimate on it. I've been using it in my dual core machine for a while now, but my CPU was showing signs of age, so I got a new motherboard and a quad core CPU (both CPU's are AMD). Just for kicks, I didn't re-install the OS, but rather I slapped the hard drive back in and fired the system up with the new components (the hard drive has 500GB of stuff on it, mostly installed applications and games, so it would be a real pain to re-install everything). Everything boot like a champ, and after installing the new mobo drivers there were no byte conflicts in the device manager. Everything is great, except for the following:

1) when transferring many GB's of files from my external hard drive to the machine, the entire system slows to a crawl for everything else.

2) when installing a large application or game (such as visual studio or Bioshock2), everything else slows down to a crawl.

Do any of you think this is a result of not re-installing the OS? I've already used SmartDefrag on my drive to do a deep optimize, and I'm running 4GB of 5300 DDR2 (not the fastest, but it works well). I would understand if it's just a slowdown during the application install, but transferring files shouldn't have that big of an effect, since no matter how large the files are it can't surpass a certain transfer rate. Also, task manager shows that CPU usage isn't even at 15% and memory usage is less than half during these slow-downs.

Of course it does. By just slapping the old HD back on you didnt update any of the drivers. It is always going to do that even if you find every single driver. I know a clean install is a PITA, but if you want your system at its best, you kind of have to.

Ken

I'm not sure about the drivers though: I've inspected each one in device maintenance (even chipset) and they all reflect the proper driver. Remember, I installed all the new drivers when it first boot (and re-installed drivers that it didn't automatically replaced). Unless part of the registry doesn't get updated on re-installed drivers, I'm not sure the drivers are what's causing the issue.

I wonder, could I simply do an upgrade install and have windows 7 re-install on top of itself, while keeping my applications there?

Try opening an elevated Command prompt, then type in SFC /SCANNOW. See what it returns. Also, do a windows update and see if any "optional" updates show any driver updates.

Desslok said:

Try opening an elevated Command prompt, then type in SFC /SCANNOW. See what it returns. Also, do a windows update and see if any "optional" updates show any driver updates.

Thanks for the tips. I did the system file checker, no issues found. It's completing the Windows update right now, but nothing driver related, just some SQL Server 2008 (optional stuff) and generic Windows updates.

I'm doing an upgrade re-install now to see if that helps. It's definitely more sluggish than normal, even when doing the upgrade, so I have hope that this will have a good affect.

On a lighter side, it gives my netbook some attention it usually doesn't get at night. It's amazing how well Windows 7 Home Professional runs on an Intel N450 processor with 2GB of ram. I like using my netbook more than my dual core laptop!

Just an FYI for those who don't know, doing an upgrade install after changing CPU or Motherboard components works great. My install last night was stuck at 18% of unpacking Windows resources for almost two hours, so I went to bed and found it had finished sometime during the night. Now the system is incredibly faster when doing an install or transferring files. I also noticed that with Google desktop open, that slowed things down too. It should have everything already cataloged, but maybe not. I'll re open it when I go to work and test things out later.

Anyway, upgrade install did the trick.

Glad you got it sorted out. Yeah, I love 7 on my Netbook. It's an Acer 1410 11" with the Intel Core Solo and 2GB RAM. Even at home I use it downstairs a lot even though I have a much much faster desktop upstairs.