Computer is still slow, tried everything

writhziden said:

Could you post your Malwarebytes log? You will find it in C:\Users\(Your administrator user)\AppData\Roaming\Malwarebytes\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\Logs

Also, did the BIOS update help your problem, make it worse, or stay the same?

Still waiting for the BIOS download to finish, but here's the Malwarebytes log.

usinjin said:

So I have a question about BIOS settings. I've heard all different answers on this one, but what SATA setting should I be using if I have a single drive? There's AHCI, IDE, and RAID. Probably not AHCI, but I've heard that the motherboard uses the RAID controller for all SATA drives, so even with a single drive it should be set to RAID. Is this a good idea?

It sometimes varies with computers. If you can use AHCI, this provides the best performance but may have compatibility issues. RAID is usually only used if you have multiple drives. IDE is the most stable. My answer would be: Whichever gives you the best performance and least compatibility issues.

writhziden said:

usinjin said:

So I have a question about BIOS settings. I've heard all different answers on this one, but what SATA setting should I be using if I have a single drive? There's AHCI, IDE, and RAID. Probably not AHCI, but I've heard that the motherboard uses the RAID controller for all SATA drives, so even with a single drive it should be set to RAID. Is this a good idea?

It sometimes varies with computers. If you can use AHCI, this provides the best performance but may have compatibility issues. RAID is usually only used if you have multiple drives. IDE is the most stable. My answer would be: Whichever gives you the best performance and least compatibility issues.

DO I need to reinstall windows to switch to AHCI/IDE mode?

usinjin said:

writhziden said:

usinjin said:

So I have a question about BIOS settings. I've heard all different answers on this one, but what SATA setting should I be using if I have a single drive? There's AHCI, IDE, and RAID. Probably not AHCI, but I've heard that the motherboard uses the RAID controller for all SATA drives, so even with a single drive it should be set to RAID. Is this a good idea?

It sometimes varies with computers. If you can use AHCI, this provides the best performance but may have compatibility issues. RAID is usually only used if you have multiple drives. IDE is the most stable. My answer would be: Whichever gives you the best performance and least compatibility issues.

DO I need to reinstall windows to switch to AHCI/IDE mode?

That is a good question, and I'm glad you asked before doing anything. The answer is no, but you will need to make some changes to your system to avoid getting a Blue Screen when booting into Windows. Let me see if I can find something in the forums related to this and post back.

I was unable to find anything in sevenforums related to the RAID AHCI mode, but I did find this on MicrosoftAnswers.

"Changing from RAID to AHCI, you need one more step. Msahci driver requires Atapi.sys miniport to be loaded during boot as well. So you need to change theStart value to 0 for both of the following entries in your registry. You can use regedit.exe utility.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi
Or you can also simply run the below command lines in an elevated window.
REG ADD HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci /v Start /d 0 /f /t REG_DWORD
REG ADD HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi /v Start /d 0 /f /t REG_DWORD"

If you change from RAID to AHCI and your computer will no longer boot, you may have to do a repair install of Windows 7. See Repair Install

Edit: Make sure you have the right Windows 7 DVD for your computer. You need one with service pack 1 integrated if you have service pack 1 installed. If you do not have a DVD with Service Pack 1 available, search google for official windows 7 dvd iso and you can legally download the appropriate iso file.

Before you go changing your hard drive settings, however, may I recommend one more thing to try (if none of my previous suggestions helped). Look at Optimize Windows 7

writhziden said:

I was unable to find anything in sevenforums related to the RAID AHCI mode, but I did find this on MicrosoftAnswers.

"Changing from RAID to AHCI, you need one more step. Msahci driver requires Atapi.sys miniport to be loaded during boot as well. So you need to change theStart value to 0 for both of the following entries in your registry. You can use regedit.exe utility.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi
Or you can also simply run the below command lines in an elevated window.
REG ADD HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci /v Start /d 0 /f /t REG_DWORD
REG ADD HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi /v Start /d 0 /f /t REG_DWORD"

Nice. Thanks a million. I think I'm going to try this after the BIOS finishes.

usinjin said:

Nice. Thanks a million. I think I'm going to try this after the BIOS finishes.

Make sure you read my above post first. Also, backup your user files to an external drive before changing your hard drive configuration, just in case.

writhziden said:

usinjin said:

Nice. Thanks a million. I think I'm going to try this after the BIOS finishes.

Make sure you read my above post first. Also, backup your user files to an external drive before changing your hard drive configuration, just in case.

Sure thing. I went ahead and turned on AHCI, computer does seem a little faster.

usinjin said:

Sure thing. I went ahead and turned on AHCI, computer does seem a little faster.

Glad to see you received some performance boost. Is Windows stable so far?