windows 7 switching switching themes claiming poor performance

TheGreySpectre · Sep 9, 2010

So occasionally when I am at my computer it will switch from aero back to basic claiming that my computer was suffering from poor performance.

Regardless of the fact that it says I have poor performance I have never noticed any actual performance hit. My computer has more then enough power to run aero. I strongly suspect that running 2 different video cards is responsible for the issue.

Is there anyway I can force windows to remain in aero and not auto change?

This is windows 7 pro 64 bit.
Computer: AMD Quadcore (don't remember the exact speed off the top of my head), 6 gigs DDR2, ATI 4870 primary video card, ATI 3650 secondary card.

Thanks

Jmtyra · Sep 9, 2010

Hey

That's weird behavior, even for Windows. Has it always done this, or just recently (aka, since something was changed/installed/etc)?

Oh -- and how up-to-date are your vid drivers? It seems like those are released weekly now...

Wathnix · Sep 10, 2010

Check the wattage rating of your power supply, if you do not have enough power with ample headroom to run both cards and your CPU, ect then one of your cards may be shutting down, causing Windows to see inadequate performance. Or you may be overheating, try taking the side panel off your computer for a few weeks. Also carefully blow out all dust from your power supply, vid cards and CPU

TheGreySpectre · Sep 10, 2010

I have a 600watt OCZ power supply. It powers a Phenom 9850, ATI 4870, ATI 3650, 6 gigs of ram, 4 hard drives, 2 Dvd drives and a bluray player. Everything is currently running at stock clocks.

Heat is not an issue. My temps are quite good even full load.

This has happened about once every 2-3 weeks or so ever since I got windows 7. It always happens when I am doing something that should not be using much power such as browsing the internet, it has never happened when doing something intensive.

habbajabba · Sep 10, 2010

Win7 has several tasks under task scheduler which perform diagnostics on power, memory and performance. Based on your hardware I'd say it's the ps as well. I have older hardware and do not give a fig for the eye candy and so I disable ALL of it under sharpeshell. This includes the wdm (another useless addition). The os, to me, is simply a platform to run sharpe shell over. I rarely even look at explorer.

Wathnix · Sep 10, 2010

Your power supply is kinda on the border for this, but i think you are right about it probably being 2 cards are the problem. Try a new PSU if you got a spare one but I would not go out and buy one.

TheGreySpectre · Sep 10, 2010

I just ordered a new power supply 1000 watt corsair PS. I kind of needed one anyways, I have been thinking about adding a raid card and some other stuff and I kind of figured I needed power to add anything else to the computer anyways.

Thanks for the help guys, hopefully this fixes it.

Jmtyra · Sep 10, 2010

Hope you got the discount:
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=654156

Nice choice on the PSU btw. :thup:

Let us know if that resolves it or not.

TheGreySpectre · Sep 22, 2010

Update:
I have had the new power supply installed for a couple days now. Just yesterday I had the same problem pop up again where windows claims poor performance, so any other ideas would be appreciated.

I did get the discount on the power supply by the way

Wathnix · Sep 22, 2010

have you tried reseating your video cards and sli cable?

TheGreySpectre · Sep 22, 2010

There is no SLI cable. The 2nd card is in place merely to provide outputs to a the 3rd and occasionally 4th monitor. I reset the cards when I put the new power supply in.

Psycogeec · Sep 23, 2010

do you use any GPU clocking tools?
Wonder what would happen if you stopped ATI from stepping down the clocks and locked them in.

then this improperly termed tweak from Vista
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/01/13/hack-to-force-enable-aero-in-windows-7/
which knocks out some of the "features" of areo, so it is easier.
seems like an Aero tweaker tool would be better to do such things?

the next thing i would try and see what was going on, is Memory, even though you have ample, i would want to see what programs are using what (leaking) and what the performace monitor had to say about the peak commit charge and all that other junk i wont fully understand.
.

TheGreySpectre · Sep 24, 2010

Psycogeec said:
do you use any GPU clocking tools?
Wonder what would happen if you stopped ATI from stepping down the clocks and locked them in.

then this improperly termed tweak from Vista
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/01/13/hack-to-force-enable-aero-in-windows-7/
which knocks out some of the "features" of areo, so it is easier.
seems like an Aero tweaker tool would be better to do such things?

the next thing i would try and see what was going on, is Memory, even though you have ample, i would want to see what programs are using what (leaking) and what the performace monitor had to say about the peak commit charge and all that other junk i wont fully understand.
.

Currently I do not use any GPU clocking tools.

Ram usage looks fine in the task manager, nothing is exceptionally high. When it happens I am just running a standard sweet of programs including a couple instances of windows explore, as well as opera, media monkey and skype. All of these show less then 200Mb of ram in use, with less than half the system memory being used total.

Murrayy said:
Windows 7 is easier? [...]

Was this post in the wrong thread? I fail to see the relation to the issue at hand.

GIXXERGUY6 · Sep 25, 2010

Murrayy said:
Windows 7 is easier? I started an upgrade from the retail disk purchased today. It's a Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade for Windows Vista Ultimate. I had to cancel the first installation (i wanted to ensure I saved off my Microsoft Office *.pst files). I restarted the upgrade from within Windows 7 upgrade and I got the following error message: Windows cannot create the required installation file. Error code: 0x80070005. After spending 3 hours on the phone with Microsoft support, I still haven't moved any further. I ensured I turned off all non-Microsoft services, disabled all start up programs, and cleaned of files to ensure I had 16+GBs free space. Alas, after all that, I'm still here looking at my Vista screen and listening to Microsoft Support Muzak. Good way to start out with the simplest Microsoft operating system.by (fcrusing)

I think you are in the wrong thread my friend

Aktunka · Sep 25, 2010

If your theory is that it is two different video cards that are causing the problem, start smart by removing one of the video cards and and see if the problem continues to occur. You need to eliminate something from the mix, and pulling that 3800 series card out for a while is probably the easiest testing you can do for your theory. If you yank a vid card and it continues to do it then you can try the other video card on its own and see what happens. If it happens still after that, then your problem likely has nothing to do with any of your video card things, unless maybe your PCIe is flaky in some way.

windows 7 switching switching themes claiming poor performance

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