Slow hard drive access times, gets slower with time!

[NormCameron]

You are dead right Fumz. But, the problem started 2 MOBO's, 1CPU, 2 Hard DRIVES and 3 Vista Installs ago. The only things that HAVEN't changed are his RAM and his files. What do you think?? Will a 3rd MOBO fix it? I haven't seen any flying pigs lately. I'd bet on RAM, then hedge my bet with a dodgy transfer of files (Virus etc. etc.)

 

[Fumz]

Wow, when threads get this long it's hard to keep tract of everything... thank god you're on the ball... props for that. I knew I liked you for a reason. :D

Ok, lets think this through. How could RAM be effecting this? As far as the OS is concerned, RAM either works or it doesn't. RAM does not "make decisions", it just does what it's told, right? So how could RAM be effecting the situation?

Perhaps it's the install itself? Have we tried that approach yet? On a new install, have we patched directly to SP1?

 

[NormCameron]

Same problem on 3 installs? 1 with x84 2 with x64?

 

[NormCameron]

PS Fumz, I NEED a hand. Thanks

 

[NormCameron]

I have read that sometimes certain types of RAM don't play well in sticks of 4 x 1gb. Surprisingly Ballistix is the name that comes up most often. We can test hardware till we go silly. BUT- The 2 constants here are RAM and Files. Everything else has changed at least once if not twice.

 

[Fumz]

4x1 is really only an issue if you're running a command rate of 1T; however, even so, that's a bios issue, not an OS issue, and pretty much, no matter what RAM you're running, if you're running CPC 2T 5-5-5-15, you're good to go. I can't think of a single bios/board that cannot handle these relatively relaxed timings? The reason why I think RAM is not a factor is because we haven't seen errors that say, "RAM". We're not getting a parity error. We're not failing to boot. We're not doing any of the things that would say it's the RAM, right? I could be missing something, because the thread is long and the mind is weak, but, afaik, RAM is good?

Yeah, I agree with you, for all it's name recognition, Ballistix does suffer many early deaths... and, imho, is crap for that reason alone... but, that's usually do to voltage, which doesn't seem to be the case here? We're running the stock 1.8v vdimm, right?

Files. You may be onto something here? Bring me up to speed on what we've done with the files?

 

[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)

I ask these questions a few posts back, when I was pretty certain it wasn't ram,

But in a later response Sabipro said
quote=ssabripo;861265]

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?[/quote]

The Hard Drive issue is (I think) a phurphy. His problems started with the new RAM.

But I agree HOW!!!!

 

[NormCameron]

Might be time to end the thread? My advice. Heave the RAM. This might fix the problem. I personally would do a fresh install. including reformat, run the system without transferring any old files. If that fixes it, there you go. Take a good look at the old files for Virus or Trojan or a corrupt file that is screwing with the Indexing System.

 

[Fumz]

For all the reasons you just posted, I'm hoping, crossing my fingers, that the new Gigabyte board will resolve the issue.

With games, apps, anything... the cpu and RAM do not directly access the hard drive. They "talk", in the case of hard drives, to the Southbridge, the Southbridge then "talks" to the hard drive. Data goes from the HDD to the Southbridge, and from the Southbridge to the memory controller, and from the memory controller to the cpu. If access is slow, it's, at least as far as I can tell, a board problem.

 

[NormCameron]

Thats why you are the MAN. My technical expertise is limited to the Colossus. A system you probably aren't familiar with, but i'll give you a clue, it had red and green valves.

 

[Fumz]

Red hat with green valves? My wife tried to put one of those on our dog... I protested... and of course lost...

 

[NormCameron]

Just found, on another forum :-


Well heres a follow up on my previous post. So far I upgraded the stuff I told you guys about on my previous post and havent had a single problem. Matter of a fact my load times are greatly reduced, I also see the PC encoding files much faster now.

The motherboard I went with was a ASUS M3N78-VM so far it's been amazing, I'm still not 100% sure it was the motherboard's fault since I havent yet broken the 2 week mark but I sure am seeing some huge speed ups and no slow down problems so far, if it doesn't slow down in the next couple of days it's guaranteed to be a motherboard problem since I'm still using the same HDD that had the problem.



The thread was for Hp high end systems suffer slow down symptoms very much like those described by [FONT=&quot]ssabripo[/FONT]

 

[ssabripo]

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.

Hi Norm,

The RAM, as mentioned before, was the Crucial Ballistix PC2-6400....I RMA'd the 2 sticks I had when my system first crashed, and went ahead and bought two more sticks for a total of 4 x 1GB sticks. I can try to get some other RAM I suppose, but I ran memtest86 on these for over 6 hours and they ran fine...no errors.

As for carrying something from install to install, there is NOTHING I carry! They are fresh brand new clean installs. I plugged the new HW in, put the vista DVD in, and ran setup. That's it! The only other things i've added everytime, are the mobo drivers (audio, LAN, chipset, etc), and Firefox browser. On one of the installs I put Microsoft Office 2007, but that was it. No legacy software, no legacy files, nothing! The data files (pictures, etc) I have are in one of the Hard Drives, so they are separate from the Hard drive where the OS/apps are being installed.

do you think that somehow, there may be a virus or something, on my data hard drive, and thus upon initial access to it, it proceeds to corrupt the account? I could check the drive for viruses I suppose.

 

[ssabripo]

Just found, on another forum :-


Well heres a follow up on my previous post. So far I upgraded the stuff I told you guys about on my previous post and havent had a single problem. Matter of a fact my load times are greatly reduced, I also see the PC encoding files much faster now.

The motherboard I went with was a ASUS M3N78-VM so far it's been amazing, I'm still not 100% sure it was the motherboard's fault since I havent yet broken the 2 week mark but I sure am seeing some huge speed ups and no slow down problems so far, if it doesn't slow down in the next couple of days it's guaranteed to be a motherboard problem since I'm still using the same HDD that had the problem.



The thread was for Hp high end systems suffer slow down symptoms very much like those described by [FONT=&quot]ssabripo[/FONT]

WOW! that does sound like a similar problem I have....do you have a link to the original thread so I can read that?!

I'm really hoping somehow it is the motherboard....:sa:....I will check the disk tonite and see what it tells me.

 

[NormCameron]

No mate. gotta say Fumz is the expert. He is pretty sure a MOBO will fix it. You've ordered one. Why don't you have a cold beer, watch a bit of telly and wait for your new one. If it doesn't work then lets get stressy again.

 

[NormCameron]

Link here. Vista x64 (huge) perfomance issues on a high-end PC - TechNet Forums
It's not your problem exactly as it relates to HP systems only but the symptoms are very similar.

 

[ssabripo]

will do. I'm gonna run ChKDSK and see if there is an issue. Then I'm gonna install the new Mobo, and install the OS fresh from start after formatting the drives. we shall see.

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

You want to match your motherboard to the ram. My old Tyan serverboards were very RAM specific. You needed to match sticks. Hard drive performance could be affected by what else shares the controller bus. Also, check the device manager for how its configured. Make sure you match the drivers to the BIOS rev.

 

[NormCameron]

Michael how can he check his current RAM 4 GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-6400 (DDR2-800) matches his Asus P5Q-E . I suggested a few times that a RAM/MOBO combination could have been causing troubles, but don't have technical knowhow to properly explore this.

I can't find his RAM on the QVL for ASUS P5Q-E Motherboards

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

Crucial, Corsair and Kingston have memory finders to match to a board. I also recommend not getting faster ram than your CPU needs. My E5430 Xeons on my workstation are DDR667. I went with the RAM matched to their speed. This way the board does not do strange things with memory timing. Vista x64 and XP x64 require tight memory timing. They don't like overclocking or mismatched ram. I went with 8 x 2GB Kingston sticks on my X7DWA-N board. It is a bit slower than some RAM but extremely stable.

4GB kit (2GBx2), 240-pin DIMM, DDR2 PC2-6400 memory module
CT2KIT25664AA800

Module Size: 4GB kit (2GBx2)
Package: 240-pin DIMM
Feature: DDR2 PC2-6400
Specs: DDR2 PC2-6400 • CL=6 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR2-800 • 1.8V • 256Meg x 64 •
This is what is recommended on their site. Only the 2GB Ballistix.

Another thing is make sure the board has the voltage properly set for the RAM. Some boards do strange voltage settings that can cause timing issues.