Intel III 866mhz
256mb ram
current via drivers installed
win98 os


Friend brought his computer over for a reformat...he had a taiwanese version of win98, and he doesn't read taiwanese.
The computer was running fine with the old setup, but once I reformatted and put an english win98 on his comp, the performance has dropped significantly (before any drivers were installed). Even when installing the OS, the computer would slow down. It took about 45 minutes just to get through the install, normally I do it in about 10.
Now it takes forever to boot, and when it finally does, the system seems to take forever for the simplest of procedures. Opening files is dismally slow.
The fact that the only thing that changed was the data on the harddrive leads me to believe this is a driver problem. And something probably on the FSB as the cpu seems to have great difficulty writing/reading.
Any ideas, or a diagnostic program you can suggest to help me pin down the problem?

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I would start by downloading and running the diagnostic software from the hard drive manufacturer. I suspect that you have a problem with the hard drive. I don't think there are any drivers that would cause a slowdown like you describe at the install of Windoze, it sounds like a hardware problem.

The via 4in1 drivers could be the problem. You say you have current via drivers installed. What version might that be. I run version 4.35 for W98se. When using a higher version things tend to get wigged out.

Also, check to see if DMA is enabled on the drive...under Device Manager.

Also under System Properties => Performance, that it is not running in MS-DOS compatibility mode.

Intel PIII 866mhz
Gigabyte GA 6VXE7+ Mobo
Fujitsu 10G HD
256MB Ram
Nvidia GeForce 2 64mn video
Via 4-in-1 V4.49 drivers

Ran the Fujitsu diagnostic tool, had no problems with the drive.
Updated the Via drivers to current version with no effect.
An interesting note is that when I boot the computer in safe mode, there is no deterioration of performance. Any other ideas aside from going through the step-by-step bootup and find which step is suffocating the system?

Well, that clearly says it is a software problem, so a step by step is probably the way to go. You can also certainly check in msconfig to see what is running and disable any likely candidates for the slowdown...

I have the same problem only:

My performance drops terrible(even the oldest games get hard to play)when I've got safe mode on my bios.
When I choose optimal mode, my computer shuts down as soon as all programs which start up when windows starts up have started up.
I think it has something to do with the power because when I brought my computer to the store for a checkup, the guy at the store said he didn't have any problem with optimal mode.
My computer didn't always have this problem and I'm definitly sure it's a hardware error cause I tried reformatting multiple times, nothing works however.
:confused: :confused: :confused:

tried the step-by-step confirmation...there was no significant delay until I finished processing the drivers. Then it went to black screen with a blinking cursor top left, stayed like that a minute, then the teal entry screen another 2 minutes, and finally another minute to get into the OS fully. So that's about 4 minutes to boot up, and when in the OS, changing windows is painfully slow, as it executing any program, sometimes i have to wait a minute before the folder opens or the exe is run.
Booting in safe mode, I'm fully up in 30 seconds, and have no issues with performance lag.

Any other ideas for diagnostics to pin-point this problem?

Use msconfig and disable programs one at a time (except systray and explorer) to see which is causing the slowdown. You have to reboot each time, but start with the most likely and you may catch it early on....

Oh and Trackie,

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At the very least, it sounds like you need a really good surge protector and even better would be a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). The UPS can even out your power so that the problem should ease if it is a power problem....

but what does that have to do with the bios?

I've just got systray on there from the start, and it has had no effect.

Trackie,

I don't know what it has to do with the BIOS, you said that it ran well at the shop, but not at home and that you thought it might be due to the power difference. That is a reasonable possibility and the UPS will clean up the power. It probably works at the lowest settings because it isn't as demanding of power and a clean power supply will let it run at Optimal. If you want to continue this discussion, it would be a good idea to start a new thread so that you don't hijack Judicator's thread....

Judicator,

I am not sure what you mean? Are you saying that you are already loading with only systray and no explorer? And no other background programs? If so, you may want to run HiJack This to see if there is anything else running that could be slowing things down. I don't think you have a hijacker since you apparently haven't had the opportunity, but it will identify all running processes and that may help to figure out what is going on. You can find a link for it in mjc's security thread. (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15179)

there is no option in msconfig/startup for explorer, although it is still running when I boot up. I only have systray selected in msconfig.

That is odd, I thought it was always there by default. I wonder if that could be part of the problem. Anyway, the HiJack This log may be the next thing to check...

works fine on my box but apparently his is missing a MSVBVM60.DLL, just about ready to throw it out the window...

well, it isn't the ram, soundcard or ethernet card, as I've removed/exchanged them all and the computer still boots up slow as molasses.

When you did the reformat, did you start with a zero fill??? I would probably just start over at this point. Use a utility to zero fill the drive, use fdisk to remove partitions, repartition and then reformat. Reinstall Win98. I am guessing you have something in a hidden part of the drive that is messing things up, so starting over like a brand new system would probably fix it....

An other thing you might try is a lower version of via 4in1 drivers. The version your using now might be causing you a problem. You might want to give 4in1 v3.35 a try. Version 3.35 might be best if your using W98se.

Have you checked the BIOS features setup to see if the CPU Internal Cache and External Cache are enabled? I do not think it would run at normal speed in Safe Mode if they were disabled, but otherwise the lack of performance would be as described if they are disabled.

Best bet is to get rid of those VIA drivers

and use the Intel chipset drivers made for

that Mboard.

VIA drivers would treat you right with an
AMD system.

Did you do a fresh install in DOS mode? Guy
needs to always fdisk the mbr.


RD.

Originally posted by ranchdog
Best bet is to get rid of those VIA drivers and use the Intel chipset drivers made for that Mboard. Then I wonder why Gigabyte says it has a VIA chipset?

http://tw.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_GA-6VXE7+.htm

"However, soon after the introduction of the VIA 693A it became apparent that it was compatible with Intel's 133 MHz CPUs"
http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardwarecentral/reports/1686/2/

Are you getting any error messages when this happens?

If so, what are they?

Have you done any updates recently?