Running slow after fresh install and new RAM

[bryank]

Dell always sets the floppy drive as the first boot device. And the BR58200.exe file that you downloaded needs to be run from within Windows (as it's a self extracting executable), in order to create the floppy that you'll need to boot from (which will also include the updated BIOS file; A02).

When I went into BIOS by hitting F2 at startup it had Hard Drive & Hard Drive as the 1 & 2.

I just didnt have the floppy built correctly.....the black dos prompt came up but of course I had no idea what to do from there.

Is it common when upgrading RAM to have to flash the bios? The slowdown on this machine was occurring before I put the new RAM in along with the shutdown when running MEMTEST

 

[madhatter256]

When I went into BIOS by hitting F2 at startup it had Hard Drive & Hard Drive as the 1 & 2.

I just didnt have the floppy built correctly.....the black dos prompt came up but of course I had no idea what to do from there.

Is it common when upgrading RAM to have to flash the bios? The slowdown on this machine was occurring before I put the new RAM in along with the shutdown when running MEMTEST

No it is not common. You most likely have a hardware issue more than software. Don't worry about flashing the BIOS just yet. I suggest you check the following first:

Open up the case. Clean it of any dust and look for swollen capacitors. Given the age of it, you might have some as dells are known for their capacitors dying prematurely. If it all looks good then check the power supply. IF you have a spare one, then put that in and see if things run normal. if they run just fine, then that was your problem, a bad PSU.

Try that stuff first before you do anything software-wise.

 

[imposter]

hard drive???
download HDtune run speed test if the drive is moving slowly. or there are smart errors then hdd could be going
i have seen alot of those hard drives go bad ....

 

[bryank]

I dont see how the power supply has anything to do with this machine being very very slow. I don know that there is visible dust at the cooling fan and power supply. I just dont know enough about it to take those things apart and clean them out.

 

[bryank]

The hard drive was replace about 2 years ago. I dont see how that has anything to do with the thing running slow either.

 

[redduc900]

You came here asking for help, but as of yet you're reluctant to take any of our suggestions.

- madhatter suggested checking your PSU, to which you responded "I dont see how the power supply has anything to do with this machine being very very slow".

- imposter suggested checking your HDD, to which you responded "The hard drive was replace about 2 years ago. I dont see how that has anything to do with the thing running slow either."

- And I suggested flashing the BIOS to the latest revision, to which you responded "There has got to be something else wrong with this machine" and "I have a bad feeling that this is something else"

So I'm finding it difficult to make anymore suggestions, since you obviously don't agree w/ any of the advice we've given up to this point.

 

[bryank]

I appreciate all of the advice....thing is that I'm at work right now and cant try any of those things until I get home. I will try all of what has been suggested and report the results tonight.

Thanks much

 

[imposter]

ill put good money its the hard drive...

 

[bryank]

will the free version be sufficient? Looks like I can use a fully functional PRO free for 15 days. Will post the results here when finished testing.

 

[imposter]

free one should be good. do a benchmark , look under smart errors, then scan for bad sectors

 

[bryank]

free one should be good. do a benchmark , look under smart errors, then scan for bad sectors

I just did a test on my work machine and dont see where I can look under smart errors. When I go to the "Health" tab everything says "OK" and seems to check out with the test results page at their website. Then I did the Error Scan and there were no errors on this one. I guess I will do the same at home.

 

[imposter]

Ya i ment health. woops. yea try it at home =P

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

Then it sounds like a short. Please check the motherboard mounting, the RAM slots and the wires!

 

[madhatter256]

I appreciate all of the advice....thing is that I'm at work right now and cant try any of those things until I get home. I will try all of what has been suggested and report the results tonight.

Thanks much

It's ok, but trust me that what I'm saying has affected such devices before. Where the PSU has caused random shutdowns and blue screens in the past, stuff you'd think is nothing but a software issue.

 

[bryank]

we had a wall replaced in our basement so there was a lot of dust in the air. I just dont know how to disassemble a machine to clean out all of the dust. I can see that the power supply and cooling fan have lots of dust. The problem is that I wont have a problem taking it apart...getting it back together will be a problem and very time consuming especially if that doesnt fix the problem.

Before I did the reinstall i was getting the blue screen...I forget what it was telling me now but it was one that would say "Beginning dump of physical memory now".

 

[bryank]

Ran HDtune and everything checks out fine. Right in line with the test results on their website. Running at 34 degrees Celsius. All status under the Health tab come back OK. No reds in the Error Scan. I know nothing about what I'm looking at below to know if its right or wrong.

Benchmark Results:

Disk Monitor Results:

Next step....flash BIOS

 

[bryank]

By the way...the blue screen that I was getting prior to my re-install was giving me:

BAD_POOL_CALLER

Stop: 0x000000c2(0x00000007,0x00000cD4,0x02080006,0x82AFC760)

If this problem continues, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. If this is a new installation ask your hardware or software monufacturer for any Windows Updates needed. Disable bios momory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use safemode click F8 on startup.

Beginning dump of Physical Memory.

Physical memory dump complete.

On restart it took me to where I'd choose Safe Mode.

This hasnt happened since the re-install

 

[bryank]

ok...now I have flashed the BIOS successfully and restarted.

The machine is still crawling.

 

[Joeteck]

Did you download and use the chipset drivers from the dells website for that model computer? Don't install newer drivers for new technology. Dell is crazy this way, and I've seen a chipset driver cripple a PC, like you're describing. For craps and ha ha's, when the system is crawling can you open task manager and tell us what is taking up most of your CPU usage?

Also check to see if Ultra DMA is enabled in BIOS. This is an older system and may have this turned off for compatibility.

Also check to see if you have enough page file set. with 2 gig of RAM, if you manually set it with 768MB of ram it may still be set at 768 to 1568. You'll need to change this to 3072 to 4092. 1.5 times your RAM.

And another thing Intel speed step and XP have a major issue with DELLS. There is a patch to fix this, not sure if your system is affected.

EDIT: After doing some reading into your problem, I would look at your RAM or one of your RAM slots is bad. Try running a single stick of the older 512MB.

Run your system through your normal tasks... Maybe download Sisosft sandra and do some memory tests. Then shut down and move it to the other RAM slot. If all goes good, then move to a single 1 gig stick, repeat and rinse...lol

I'm banking on either a bad slot, or bad RAM. Remember, new RAM can come DOA...

 

[bryank]

About 30 mins ago a buddy told me to change it to:

Initial: 2046
Maximum: 4092

Should I up either of them?