Slow hard drive access times, gets slower with time!

[dmex]

by the way:

i did eventually update bios (via cd), and reset everything to default. Disabled Speedstep, and still happens in that one account.

I disconnected the other two drives, and the Sata dvd drive as well, and it still happens.

What SATA port number are you using for the OS drive exactly?

You should also be using the:

P5Q-E BIOS Version: 1406

 

[ssabripo]

by the way:

i did eventually update bios (via cd), and reset everything to default. Disabled Speedstep, and still happens in that one account.

I disconnected the other two drives, and the Sata dvd drive as well, and it still happens.

What SATA port number are you using for the OS drive exactly?

You should also be using the:

P5Q-E BIOS Version: 1406

yep...using 1406...just installed it last nite (see a couple of postss ago). My sata port for the drive is Sata1 I believe

 

[ssabripo]

by the way:

i did eventually update bios (via cd), and reset everything to default. Disabled Speedstep, and still happens in that one account.

I disconnected the other two drives, and the Sata dvd drive as well, and it still happens.

Hi ssabripo, In your first post you said that after a period of time a new account slows down. That means, to me, that you have no "good" accounts left on your computer after 2 days, despite having re-installed Vista 3 times? Is this the case? Or, as your last post suggests, you have only have one "bad" account now? I am getting just a little confused, and somewhat frustrated, as you seem to keep changing the problem.
Also I don't think this has ever been a hard drive problem, just asked that you check the cables.

hi norm,
the problem, as I stated in the 1st page, is that an account (any account) will eventually show this behavior after some usage and some sleepmode, etc. I'm keeping the current account that is bad as the example, but it would be the same with other accounts nonetheless. I think may have misunderstood me....is not just one account, but eventually any account. I just used that one account as an example.

as for "there are no good accounts" left, that would potentially be true if I used those accounts. I haven't used them much, so they are still oK. For example, my wife's account, she has used it a couple of times, and already is showing slight degredation.

I have changed the cables already.

 

[ssabripo]

Another question. What sort of keyboard are you using?

logitech wireless.

 

[NormCameron]

Hi ssabripo, what cables are we talking about?

 

[ssabripo]

Restored your system to it's default setting.
Checked Cables, Ram and Hard Drives.
Removed a pair of RAM sticks and run with just 2 sticks.
Have you done this and what is the result. Is the problem still there? Is it still in all Accounts or confined to one?

correct...I've done all of the above, and the problem remains. It is only on this account FOR NOW, since I mad a consciois effort not to use the other accounts, but as I mentioned, the problem was occuring and any account after some use. As I mentioned, my wife's account, for example, demonstrates this behavior slightly now, just after a couple of times of use.

 

[ssabripo]

Hi ssabripo, what cables are we talking about?

Sata cables, that came with each of the new mobo's I put in. there is really no more other cables other than power, and the USB cable to the front port (which I've removed to try as well)

 

[NormCameron]

Ok. Thanks for working with me. We are pretty sure it's not MOBO, CPU, Overclock. What did we do with Memory. I wonder if you could update your system specs in your user profile for me. I need names and specs of things ie CPU,cards, h/Drives. RAM, Type of cooling etc. (have a look at mine). Saves me searching through the post. Also a concise little list of all the things you've done to fix the problem (just headings, no real detail) Thanks again.

 

[NormCameron]

ssabripo. I will be online for another hour and a half. I will reply to your posts as quickly as I can. I noticed in another post you had problems installing Vista64. How did you resolve that?

 

[ssabripo]

Ok. Thanks for working with me. We are pretty sure it's not MOBO, CPU, Overclock. What did we do with Memory. I wonder if you could update your system specs in your user profile for me. I need names and specs of things ie CPU,cards, h/Drives. RAM, Type of cooling etc. (have a look at mine). Saves me searching through the post. Also a concise little list of all the things you've done to fix the problem (just headings, no real detail) Thanks again.

thanks Norm...I really appreciate all you guys' help.

the specs are as follows:

Asus P5Q-E motherboard, with Latest BIOS 1406 (Newegg.com - ASUS P5Q-E LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards)
4 x 1GB sticks of Crucial Ballistix PC2-6400 ( Newegg.com - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory)
2 x WD 3200AAKS Sata2 drives (Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives)
1 x WD 2500KS sata drive ( Newegg.com - Recertified: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive)
1 x Asus DVD rom drive: (Newegg.com - Suggested Products

PSU is a thermaltake 750W super gamer one, so power is not an issue.



One thing I mentioned yesterday, was that when I tried to upgrade the BIOS via the windows app, during installation it stopped and said "asus mobo not detected" eventhough CPUZ clearly shows it as a Asus mobo. I wonder if that is just a bug with the app, or it points to a clue that somehow the OS and its dll's is not recognizing the mobo correctly, thus causing some of these issues with the sata drivers and chipset drivers......dunno, just throwing some ideas out there.

ssabripo. I will be online for another hour and a half. I will reply to your posts as quickly as I can. I noticed in another post you had problems installing Vista64. How did you resolve that?

that one turned out to be a bad DVD rom drive...would read CD's but somehow would corrupt DVD's. After that, I was able to isntall vista ok

 

[ssabripo]

Ok..I'm losing my mind here!! AAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGHHHHHHHH

I ordered a Gigabyte mobo in the meantime...should be here in the next couple of days. I'll continue to try to troubleshoot this with you guys, and if nothing works till then, will install the gigabyte mobo and try it! And if that doesn't work, then I don't know what else to do!

I can try a new version of the Vista install, or try Home Premium 64bit, or something. But other than that, don't know what else to do. There are plenty of people running Vista with my Hardware, so it has to be either bad hardware, or something wrong with the disks, right?

after building around 10 PC's in the past several years, I've never EVER had so much problems as I'm having right now.

 

[NormCameron]

Thanks mate. Before we say hardware is OK could you try running it for a while with just 2 sticks of RAM to see there is no problem with MOBO incompatability.

 

[NormCameron]

Don't give up just yet. I think you might be nearly there. Theres nothing wong with the type of hardware you've got. Just need to make sure there are no incompatabilities. Look at it as a learning experience. There are known problems with 4 x 1gb sticks. Lets eliminate that one. Then we can look at Vista. Do you play Games? Get any freezes or delays while playing?

 

[ssabripo]

Thanks mate. Before we say hardware is OK could you try running it for a while with just 2 sticks of RAM to see there is no problem with MOBO incompatability.

i ran 2GB sticks for about 6 hours, but the "bad" account is still bad. Do you think that somehow once the account is "contaminated" it is no way to recover it? just doesn't make sense to me. If it was a RAM issue, it would either run or not run. Volatile memory is only dynamic. Writing/reading from the HD's is more of the culprit IMO, such as somehow the Sata driver in this particular chipset not playing nice with my ram, or perhaps even a bad HD drive again...who knows. I could be wrong

Don't give up just yet. I think you might be nearly there. Theres nothing wong with the type of hardware you've got. Just need to make sure there are no incompatabilities. Look at it as a learning experience. There are known problems with 4 x 1gb sticks. Lets eliminate that one. Then we can look at Vista. Do you play Games? Get any freezes or delays while playing?

no, I don't play games....just basic office/webbrowsing, and multimedia stuff (pics, movies).

What else do you want me to try? I currently have 2 sticks, and the bad account is still bad, and my wife's account is still starting to slow down.

 

[NormCameron]

Well it doesn't seem to be hardware. You might be right about the SATA, although I haven't heard of that happening. The question about games was because these are CPU and RAM intensive and if you were experiencing problems there it could give us a clue.


Where I'm at.

I am pretty sure that your hard work has ruled out Hardware. (with the possible unlikely exception of hard drives.

That leaves us with the system

You have installed Vista 3 times and the problem persists. So I don't believe it's Vista.

Your system may not work and play well with Vista 64. That possible but not likely.

Questions - How long have you had the computor.
Did this problem occur from the start or was it something that "happened"
Is this problem the reason for the reinstalls of Vista
Were the Vistas install fresh installs
What files did you copy back onto your computer after the install.
Did the problem occur before or after you copied files back.

(should have asked these at the beginning. Problem with pre-concieved notions)

 

[ssabripo]

Well it doesn't seem to be hardware. You might be right about the SATA, although I haven't heard of that happening. The question about games was because these are CPU and RAM intensive and if you were experiencing problems there it could give us a clue.


Where I'm at.

I am pretty sure that your hard work has ruled out Hardware. (with the possible unlikely exception of hard drives.

That leaves us with the system

You have installed Vista 3 times and the problem persists. So I don't believe it's Vista.

Your system may not work and play well with Vista 64. That possible but not likely.

Questions - How long have you had the computor.
Did this problem occur from the start or was it something that "happened"
Is this problem the reason for the reinstalls of Vista
Were the Vistas install fresh installs
What files did you copy back onto your computer after the install.
Did the problem occur before or after you copied files back.

(should have asked these at the beginning. Problem with pre-concieved notions)

the computer originally I had for about 2 years....then I had RAM failure, and decided to install Vista once I got new RAM, about 2 months ago. That's when all hell broke loose!

I installed vista ultimate 32bit and noticed this behavior...the mobo was a Asus P5B-deluxe, and e6300 CPU. Then, I replaced the HD's thinking the hard drives were bad, and went all teh way and replaced the mother board and CPU (as well as DVD rom drive), thus pretty much all new hardware.

That's when I installed Vista 64bit, and had the same issue. Then I RMA'd the hard drives, and still same issue. As you saw, i replaced the motherboard yet again, and still same issue.

the only thing I can think of at this point is that either a) the HD's are bad again (which would make me the unluckiest SOB in the world), or b) Motherboard doesn't play nice with my HD's.

so, I'm gonna wait for the Gigabyte mobo, and will do a chkdsk on the harddrives and see if they are bad somehow.

ps- what is the best way to check the hard drives, if other than windows CHKDSK?

 

[NormCameron]

Do you still have the same RAM
Hard Drive check- This is one free one. There are others HdTach

As a footnote. I don't think a new MOBO will solve your problem. I mean, you've had 2. AND the problem started with your new RAM? Check the drives then info on what you have continued to carry forward from each new system install.

 

[NormCameron]

A new think. It's NOT Vista, MOBO, CPU. Could be Power Supply?? but not likely.
Run Vista Reliability and Performance Monitor (All Programs - Administrative Tools). Then perform some tasks that slow down your system. Let me know what you see. ie High CPU/Memory Usage?? Do you have the old RAM. Put it back in and give it a go. If that doesn't fix it I need to know what you've transferred. You could be carrying across a trojan or virus, it could be a corrupted file or folder causing the problem.

You could also run the Vista Memory Diagnostic Tool (same place)

 

[NormCameron]

Well it doesn't seem to be hardware. You might be right about the SATA, although I haven't heard of that happening. The question about games was because these are CPU and RAM intensive and if you were experiencing problems there it could give us a clue.


Where I'm at.

I am pretty sure that your hard work has ruled out Hardware. (with the possible unlikely exception of hard drives.

That leaves us with the system

You have installed Vista 3 times and the problem persists. So I don't believe it's Vista.

Your system may not work and play well with Vista 64. That possible but not likely.

Questions - How long have you had the computor.
Did this problem occur from the start or was it something that "happened"
Is this problem the reason for the reinstalls of Vista
Were the Vistas install fresh installs
What files did you copy back onto your computer after the install.
Did the problem occur before or after you copied files back.

(should have asked these at the beginning. Problem with pre-concieved notions)

the computer originally I had for about 2 years....then I had RAM failure, and decided to install Vista once I got new RAM, about 2 months ago. That's when all hell broke loose!

I installed vista ultimate 32bit and noticed this behavior...the mobo was a Asus P5B-deluxe, and e6300 CPU. Then, I replaced the HD's thinking the hard drives were bad, and went all teh way and replaced the mother board and CPU (as well as DVD rom drive), thus pretty much all new hardware.

That's when I installed Vista 64bit, and had the same issue. Then I RMA'd the hard drives, and still same issue. As you saw, i replaced the motherboard yet again, and still same issue.

the only thing I can think of at this point is that either a) the HD's are bad again (which would make me the unluckiest SOB in the world), or b) Motherboard doesn't play nice with my HD's.

so, I'm gonna wait for the Gigabyte mobo, and will do a chkdsk on the harddrives and see if they are bad somehow.

I have to tell you. I started off thinking this was RAM and your post doesn't encourage me to think it is not. Replace the RAM with another set temporarily. (Don't buy new ones). This should be the next thing you do. If this doesn't work - The second thing is tell me what you've carried forward from install to install. I've asked for this a few times now and can't help you if you won't help me.

 

[Fumz]

Hi guys,

Honestly, this is one of the most bizarre problems I've ever seen. I think we could run ourselves ragged testing each piece of hardware only to find that each piece checks out... but then, we sort of knew that going in as that pesky new account of his responded as it should have, right?

I'm curious to see how the new Gigabyte board reacts? Ok, I'm with ya, I don't see how changing the board will solve this... but, stranger things have happened. This has actually caused me to lose sleep... seriously... because it makes ZERO sense.