In need of help

Snives · 16 Jul 2009

Well.. first and foremost I apologize to be making my first post as a request for help, but I feel I have pretty well depleted my other options.

To begin with, before installing W7 I had attempted installing Vista Ultimate. This is relevant I feel because when attempting to install either Vista or VistaSP1 (32 and 64bit for each) the install would progress until the first reboot after it finishes loading files in the black/gray GUI before reaching the colorized GUI. That being said, XP-SP3 and XP-x64SP2 run perfectly.

W7 install was terribly slow. On other machines, installs have taken 20 minutes or less, while on this one (my strongest) it took over 3 hours. I have installed it now very many times attempting different builds and both x86 and x64 versions. After reaching a working desktop things do not improve. It takes 30+ seconds to load any application. Web browsing is quick however after the browser is finally open. I have disabled both IDE and floppy devices in BIOS as I use neither. My DVD Drive is SATA (although I've also tested burning/operating with my older IDE one). I have both tested memory modules, as well as swapping to a second set for testing (Patriot 2x2GB kit, 7-7-7-20). I have attempted running with each stick from the two sets individually as well. My HD is configured as AHCI, and tests fine with the Seagate tool. Video playback is unbearable at any resolution (even when making the player roughly 1inx1in to rule out overstressing the GPU).

And here is the biggest oddity... My ratings are solid too so W7 doesn't even think it is running slowly...
CPU : 7.4
Mem : 7.5
GFX Aero : 6.0
GFX Game/Bus : 6.0
HD : 6.0

Any ideas? I hate asking for help but I'm nearly desperate at this point.

Oh yeah, and I've made sure chipset/gpu/lan/audio drivers were up to date

>Edit< Well... About that connection being fast once the browser is open... It is actually running at 5-6x the rated speed for downloads, and nearly 80x the rated upload according to DSLReports O_o. Still browsing around looking for a solution, still not finding anything new... If atleast videos and basic tasks like typing worked acceptably I would almost consider just saying I'll live with it being slow in exchange for these speeds, lol

Snives · 17 Jul 2009

I also have the onboard Serial and IRDA controllers disabled now. I attempted disabling the audio as well but I turned it back on because there was no noticeable effect. I've included an extra SataII drive to be used to extend the pagefile. All drivers have once again been uninstalled and reinstalled using the latest stable versions (vista versions when necessary).

So... quick recap : System is slow and the following (plus more) has been looked into

All drivers are up to date, several installs of W7 have been performed (all burned at 4x in Nero, including ISOs direct from M$), fully functional when using XP, memory/hard drive have been swapped for testing, no overclocking, lots of stuff disabled in BIOS (floppy, serial, irda, ide controllers).

Snives · 17 Jul 2009

Disabling System Restore minorly improved the load time on videos in MPC. (I'm using this as a quick/simple benchmark for adjustments) Video is still not playable at functional rates, but the first frame appears after ~8 seconds now compared to ~13 with Restore enabled.

As a side note, W7's memory rating appears to function as a single thread, as reverting to Unganged mode dropped my rating from 7.5 to 5.9. I guess I'll have to make sure I didn't forget to reset timings and all after my last CMOS reset :P

Has anyone tried playing with the indexing features in W7? I know disabling them gave a minor boost in XP, time to go research for W7 :)

Snives · 20 Jul 2009

Disabled indexing services after I mentioned it last time, no noticeable performance gains, but it didn't run any worse either.

Well... unless anyone has any ideas I'll just have to toss XP back on this build for the time being

Orbital Shark · 20 Jul 2009

Hi Snives, sorry for the late reply & welcome to the forums.

Was the offending W7 install an 'Upgrade' or 'Clean Install' ?

I ask this because of the time it took to install. Upgrades can leave remnants of the old OS which can sometimes interfere with the new system.

Jeff

Snives · 20 Jul 2009

All installs were clean installs onto a freshly formated (NTFS) drive. The only thing I can think of left to test is to possibly swap out my graphics card. I modified the firmware a year or so back to bring the core clock up to a stable 650mhz from the stock 600 and adjust some voltages. I'm wondering if for some reason the newer OSs just don't like the changes even though XP has never cared.

Thanks for the reply btw Orbit, it was getting lonely in here :)

I'll be trying out 7600 in the next few days once I have time to play around with things again. The installer seemed to boot a bit faster when I tested it, but that could just be perception as I didn't time it. It was by no means fast though.

Orbital Shark · 20 Jul 2009

Then the best i can suggest *whispers* go for 7600 and see how it goes

Zidane24 · 20 Jul 2009

Orbital Shark said:

Then the best i can suggest *whispers* go for 7600 and see how it goes

Same thing I was going to recommend...just waited for someone else to say it (so they could get the heat HAAAHAAAHAAAAAA)

pparks1 · 20 Jul 2009

I experienced extremely slow installs of Vista and Win7 on 2 of my machines. I discovered that the installer would pause at various stages if I had my BIOS set for a 1.4MB floppy when I didn't physically have one in the system. I disabled the floppy option in the BIOS and my install was just as fast as I could have expected it.

My situation is different than yours, as the box was fine after Windows was installed...it was just the install that was horribly slow.

Snives · 20 Jul 2009

Well, I ended up with more free time tonight than expected, and the 7600 install only took ~25 minutes from when the DVD started spinning up the first time. I haven't tested anything else yet, I just figured I'd leave an update as I go :P As faulty of a benchmark as it may be, IE8 loaded MUCH faster (the browser itself, not just pages) than in any previous installs. If nothing else it is atleast capable of 'Netbook' style useage with this install :P I'll post again once I find more.

@PParks: I already have FDC and IDE controllers disabled :) Thanks for the input though.

>Edit WMP is running low resolution xvids somewhat slow, but actually playable. This is a HUGE improvement. I haven't even checked out the drivers yet :P