Intel 1.5... stinky!

[Miss winnie]

So what do you think is the major problem with my comp here? RAM?.... I have no idea..

 

[[OC]_SR20DE]

Miss Winnie,

How long have u been using that comp since you bought it? Have you done defraging the hard drive?..
Have you done a lot of installing/uninstalling programs, lots of downloads, etc..? Over a period of time, this registry mess get build up and the system slows down quite a bit.
You might want to start with defraging the HD or do complete reformat the HD and fresh install the Operating system.

In addition, you can try some benchmark software like Sisoft Sandra. Run the benchmark on your system.. your CPU, RAM, Hard Drive, etc. If you get extremely low score on the Hard drive, you might want to just reformat the whole thing.

About the RAM.. I can't say much about it since your motherboard is probably limited to what kind of other RAM it may take and could run into incompatibility issue. you can't do much there I don't think..
And how much RAM do you have in there and what operating system are u running?

 

[Miss winnie]

i Am using a 256MB busRam.. and also using windows 98... I want to upgrade to XP but then I don't want to format the comp.. I used this "new" comp for about 2 months I think and no, I haven't been insatlling and downlaoding a lot of prgrams then

 

[[OC]_SR20DE]

hmm... looks like everything is good there.. Two months is good.. not long. Your registry should be not bad either. I donno why your system keeps freezing and slow downs.. strange huh?..

I'm starting to run out of ideas to help u out here.. hopefully somebody else will pop up and give u some goodie info.

sorryyyy

 

[Miss winnie]

it's okay u've been great

 

[batboy]

Those P-4 CPUs are very good and I highly doubt it's the actual problem. Ok, first things first. In order to track down the instability problem, you have to start eliminating factors that might be suspect. The first thing is to run scandisk on your harddrive and then defrag the drive. If you can get a hold of Norton Utilities, then use Win Doctor to clean up any Windows registry errors. After all that is done, next go to "control panel", "system", and then "device manager" under Windows and see if you have any hardware conflicts that need resolved. Conflicts will usually be indicated by a yellow triangle next to the offending device with a "!" or a "?" in the triangle.

The next step and the one that might really be the source of the problem, is to work on better cooling. If the computer is running too hot then you'll experience instabiliy for sure. Those P-4's have speed throttling which means if it is running too hot, the CPU starts running slower and slower to prevent heat damage to the core. You are complaining the computer freezes up and runs slow which suggests a cooling problem in my humble opinion.

Now, what to do to obtain better cooling? Several things actually. First thing I'd recommend is a better CPU cooler because I suspect you have the Intel retail heatsink and fan. Before you run out and buy a good CPU cooler, you must figure out if you have a 423 pin or a 478 pin P-4. Since you've had this for a couple months, my guess is that it's a 423 pin CPU. If you get a new cooler, do not use that crappy heat tape or heat pad that often comes with CPU coolers. Use a good thermal paste instead.

If buying a new cooler is not an option, then I would recommend removing the CPU heatsink and cleaning the crappy heat pad that's probably on it off, applying a good thermal paste (like Arctic Silver), then carefully reinstalling the heatsink again. If you have never done this before, hopefully you can find someone to help you, or we can try to walk you through the procedure. Good contact between the heatsink and the CPU core using thermal paste is critical.

Ok, next you may consider adding an extra case fan or two to increase air circulation throughout the computer case. Having intake fans bringing fresh cool air in (usually in the front) and exhaust fans blowing hot air out (usually out the back) is very important for cooling. I hope this might help you get started with your troubleshooting and fixing the problem. Good luck Miss Winnie.

 

[Miss winnie]

k.. Thanks! I will do as you say..... :

 

[Yodums]

k.. Thanks! I will do as you say..... :

Windows 98?

Suggest you go with Windows XP since it is a 64 Bit Processor, and Windows XP is a 64 bit os, so you get more out of it.

Rather than that backup and try reformating.

 

[jazztrumpet216]

Yup, Windows XP is a must. My P4 is running ME and boy is it slow. My Celeron system outbenches it. That's cause the P4 is a 64 bit processor on a 32 bit operating system. The Celeron is a 32 bit processor on a 32 bit operating system. Once I get XP, which I intend to do soon, I'm sure my benchmarks will improve (and beat those smelly 32 bit Athlon XP's, heh heh heh).

 

[ol' man]

Windows 98?

Suggest you go with Windows XP since it is a 64 Bit Processor, and Windows XP is a 64 bit os, so you get more out of it.

Rather than that backup and try reformating.

Uh the PIV is a 64bit cpu like the ITANIUM??????????????????? Are you sure man? Also you say winxp is 64bit. I think you have got that mixed up too. I am going to post a pic of the PIV data sheets. I can't find anything relating the PIV to 64 bit operation but I can see it explains how it is optimized for 32bit instructions. I am pretty sure the PIV is a 32bit chip as also xp being a 32bit OS. I think they have a 64bit XP OS in the works but you can't have both but the AMD hammer is supposed to run 64bit just fine as also 32bit. If you want a 64bit chip right now I think the itaniums were $2000 on pricewatch last I checked.

 

[ol' man]

Yup, Windows XP is a must. My P4 is running ME and boy is it slow. My Celeron system outbenches it. That's cause the P4 is a 64 bit processor on a 32 bit operating system. The Celeron is a 32 bit processor on a 32 bit operating system. Once I get XP, which I intend to do soon, I'm sure my benchmarks will improve (and beat those smelly 32 bit Athlon XP's, heh heh heh).

Actually win2k runs windows code supposedly faster than XP and is the fastest windows OS right now. All XP is really is win2k with some pretty eye candy on the screen for ya. I run win2k and with service packs which are free downloads I guess you can run most to all win95 ans 98 games on it. I run descent3 on my win2k box and it does just fine. You can even get a geforce tweaker to run in win2k. Pretty sweet if you ask me. Win2k besides winXP to most people are the most stable OS's available. Some say XP is a little more stable than win2k but not by much I guess. IF iwere anyone getting a new OS these days I would look for a school edition of win2k pro. That is what I did and it only cost me $100. Nice thing about it is that I guess ripped software like msconfig from XP and other stuff will work on win2k. So you find someone with winXP and you have 2k and you could have the best of both worlds, reliability and speed. Also with winXP home you can only support single processors. You would need winXP pro to use both cpu's, with win2k you can use 2 cpus if you like. The other kicker about winXP is that you can't do too much to your system before you have to reactivate your OS through M$ and until then you will be locked out of your machine and I think in the end most likely will have to reinstall your OS anyway. I don;t like that. I like to be able to run my HD back and forth between two systems if I have to cause I am having trouble with one. If so I can take the win2k HD and put it into another machine without a hicup. You wont be able to do that with XP. Once it is installed on that machine it is done. You can change I think hardware 7 times with out the reactiviation but if you forget how many ti9mes you have changed a stick of ram or replaced a vidcard one of those times it will lock up on you and you will lose everything. I could be wrong but that is how I understood it. They just implimented this activation thing for XP and it has been standard for MS Office since Office2000 came out.

 

[sfa ok]

The P4 is NOT a 64 bit processor. I don't know where people got this idea, but I've seen it a lot. It is 32 bit. Itanium is 64, and costs a whole lot!!

 

[ol' man]

Uh the PIV is a 64bit cpu like the ITANIUM??????????????????? Are you sure man? Also you say winxp is 64bit. I think you have got that mixed up too. I am going to post a pic of the PIV data sheets. I can't find anything relating the PIV to 64 bit operation but I can see it explains how it is optimized for 32bit instructions. I am pretty sure the PIV is a 32bit chip as also xp being a 32bit OS. I think they have a 64bit XP OS in the works but you can't have both but the AMD hammer is supposed to run 64bit just fine as also 32bit. If you want a 64bit chip right now I think the itaniums were $2000 on pricewatch last I checked.

Hey sfa ok, I thought I made that clear here before your statement

 

[sfa ok]

You did, I'm just restating, I've seen this debate before, and people tend not to belive it if there's only one person disagreeing with them.

 

[jazztrumpet216]

You did, I'm just restating, I've seen this debate before, and people tend not to belive it if there's only one person disagreeing with them.

Heh, you're right, I didn't believe it from one person. So I looked it up on the Intel website, and sure enough, I started reading about this microburst architecture or whatever being the fastest IA32 processor. WHOOPS. Sorry guys.

 

[ol' man]

You did, I'm just restating, I've seen this debate before, and people tend not to belive it if there's only one person disagreeing with them.

Yeah thanks man. I ain't always right either, although I may talk like I am

Sometimes the next day after I post some stuff I go back and read it and kick my self for being such a idiot.

 

[Yodums]

I just got the face that is a 64 bit processor because the hell its everywhere!

 

[Miss winnie]

I heard that XP can't support lots of applications.. is this true?

 

[funnyperson1]

it doesnt support the same apps that Win2k didnt, so if you have win2k, its the same incompatibility issues, i havent come across anything incompatible yet, except for Creative Launcher (thats just because i have a PCI 512, i think it should work fine if you have a live)