New Installation Running Unusably Slow

[bloewen]

I just did a clean install of Windows 7 from a legitimate copy of Windows 7 professional (obtained on academic license through MSDNAA). However, it is running unbelievably slow. It works, but whenever I launch an application or really do anything, it sits and waits for at least 10 minutes. The HDD light isn't on, and it doesn't really look like it is doing anything at all.

Any thoughts?

PC:
Pentium D 805 2.66GHz
2 GB DDR2 RAM
MSI motherboard w/ ATI Xpress 200 chipset
Saphire Radeon X1550 256MB Graphics Card
Pinnacle Systems Firewire card
1 40GB IDE HDD (used as system drive)
1 250GB SATA HDD

 

[Steven72555]

and you loaded updated chipset drivers?

 

[bloewen]

I can't really load any drivers because Windows operates too slowly to get anything done.

 

[mickey megabyte]

well it's got to be worth trying a reinstall...sorry that i haven't got any magical quick fixes.

did your install start doing this straight away, or only after you installed something else?

 

[bloewen]

This was the behaviour right off the start. I've tried reinstalling 3 times. I even tried re-downloading the install .iso and re-burning it, to no avail.

Also, I tried it on a different machine and it works just fine there, so it has to be a problem with my computer.

I'm wondering if anyone has experienced this before and, if so, what they found it to be in that case.

 

[mickey megabyte]

ok, there are a lot of knowledgable members on this forum, so wait around and hopefully someone will be along who can help.

 

[mazuk]

Maybe a hardware conflict? have you checked device manager..?

 

[zigzag3143]

This was the behaviour right off the start. I've tried reinstalling 3 times. I even tried re-downloading the install .iso and re-burning it, to no avail.

Also, I tried it on a different machine and it works just fine there, so it has to be a problem with my computer.

I'm wondering if anyone has experienced this before and, if so, what they found it to be in that case.

does it do the same in safe boot mode? hit f8 repeated when booting

Ken

 

[wallyinnc]

Bloewen, a couple of suggestions:
- If you can install the gadget that tells you how much CPU and memory are being used. Does it show hte CPU at or close to 100%
- Try to create a dump file which should tell what is hanging the system.
(Copyright H2SO4)
- Fire up Task Manager
- Find and highlight the Explorer process on the Processes tab
- As soon as you can, right-click Explorer in TM and select "create dump file". It'll dump some Explorer memory into a DMP file and pop up a window with the path info.

 

[bloewen]

There doesn't seem to be any appreciable CPU usage.

Things work fine for a little while, and then they just stop for 10 minutes.

I've tried disabling the Aero theme as well as changing the appearance settings to maximum performance, all to no avail.

I've tried disabling every device I don't need to boot and still no change.

 

[bloewen]

I think I figured it out. I don't know why it causes a problem, but I had missed disabling my onboard audio, and that seems to have fixed it.

Of course now I don't have sound, but that's a different problem . . .

 

[mickey megabyte]

ok - maybe you need to look for better drivers for your onboard audio...

try vista ones if you can't find 7 ones.

 

[wallyinnc]

bloewen, what is the model of your motherboard? Maybe we can help
BTW, good job!

 

[bloewen]

I need to revise my previous post.

I thought had it figured out. As it turns out, it is not completely fixed.

Windows itself works fine. Any applications (as far as I have tested) that were installed with the Windows install work just fine. However, when I tried to install firefox things go crazy. The installation seems to work just fine, but when I try to launch the application I get the same behaviour I was getting before. Everything just kind of freezes (but not quite frozen just very, very busy)

I'm still trying things, but I'm kind of at a loss.

 

[wallyinnc]

bloewen, I am running Win7 from an IDE 40G drive as well in one computer without problems, so I don't think it is necessarily a problem, but can it be caused by the IDE drive? Maybe you need drivers update for that?

The reason for the suggesiton is because you have two applications now with the same problem and that is one thing in common between them

Let us know

 

[lenovowin7]

is you board been 100% been tested buy MSI with windows 7? and does it work on first boot up ok? if so when does the slowness kick in ,what os where you running before .vista or xp,has this hdd been tested and working running another os ,where did you get drivers from did you get them from a 3rd party source if so you may have picked up a virus,unplug your sata drive ,does it read all your memory then,unpug all usbs ,external hdd ,CD's ect ect , if no luck try installing in on the sata drive .

 

[Jellybeans]

Have you checked to see if your graphics card can handle the 64 bit version of windows 7, as i just found out from a really good friend that its my graphics card causing the problem. But most likely it will be if it supports win7 and is higher than a ddr type of memory.