WindowsXP Pro + ASUS A7V133-c = slow performance

[SteyrF88]

Hi all
This is my first post at this wonderful forum and site.... so please be gentle :D

I have searched the forums and found a few posts with basically the same problems im having but they seem to have gone un-answered.
eg:
http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=413&highlight=asus+a7v133+xp

http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5142&highlight=asus+a7v133+xp

http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3146&highlight=asus+a7v133+xp

Problem PC specs:
OS - Windows XP Pro(OEM) - installed to NTFS drive
CPU - AMD Duron 1.2ghz
Mobo - ASUS A7V133-c(via kt133 chipset) (BIOS: avuc1009; Via4in1's: V4.40V(a)P3)
RAM - 512mb PC133
VGA - ASUS GF2mx400 (det. 29.42)
Sound Card - Creative Labs Vibra 128 (XP drivers or cd drivers)
NIC - Intel Pro 100s network adapter(10/100mbit) (XP drivers)
HDD - 1 x 6.4gb udma33(D: FAT32); 1 x 16gb udma66(C: NTFS; E: FAT32)

Modem - Marconi VDSL (1000/256 plan with isp) using RASPPPOE protocol
Printer - Epson stylus colour 680 (USB)
Scanner - Microtek X12usl (USB)
Mouse - A4Tech 4D Scroll Mouse (PS/2)
Keyboard - standard (ps/2)
I have the bios settings set for max stability.
Because the mobo has the 686b southbridge I also install George Breese unofficial PCI Latency Patch v0.19

Main Problems:
Very slow LAN access times to 3 other machines running windowsME, however access to the XP machine from the ME ones it quick/normal.
Very slow hdd access, opening my computer can take anywhere from 3-5 seconds.
Very slow start menu(even if i use classic windows start menu), eg click start and it might take 3-5seconds to popup, then click programs and another 3-5secs for that to open... that happens with most sub menus in the start menu.
Internet Explorer will take about 3-5 seconds aswell to open up. Then there is a small delay for the web content to load(a small delay compared to the ME machines).

Now I tried running XP without the NIC, Sound Card installed... same problem, uninstalled the firewall(zone alarm pro) and AV software (vet antivirus) ... same problem.

SO what I did to be almost 100% sure it was a problem with XP and the A7V133-a mobo is take a spare 2.1gb seagate udma33(might even be just udma its so old teeheeehehee) and put that in the problem box, intalled WindowsME and wow its soo much quicker even on a old and slow HDD.

Now the reason i'm 100% sure its the mobo and XP not playing nice is after I installed ME on the spare HDD in the problem PC, I formatted the HDD and installed XP on this machine(specs below) and like with windowsME even on the slower hdd XP ran smooth and quick.
I installed all the same driver versions and software(AV,firewall etc..) on this pc and it still didnt show signs of slowing or delays when opening IE or the start menu like the problem machine.

This machines specs are:
CPU - AMD Athlon 1.2ghz
Mobo - TYAN S2390B Trinity KT-A (exact same chipset as my ASUS A7V133-c mobo) (latest BIOS and same 4in1s V4.40V(a)P3)
RAM - 512mb PC133
VGA - Leadtek GF3ti200 64mb (det. 29.42)
Sound Card - Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 (XP drivers)
NIC - NETGEAR FA310TX (XP drivers)
HDD - (C: NTFS) the old seagate 2.1gb that I tested windowsME on the problem machine with.

Now I was thinking about just swapping the motherboards over but i assume XP's activation thingy will detect a major change in core hardware and refuse to boot as it thinks the HDD has been moved to another PC or its been pirated.. :/

Ok this is quite a long first post so anything that needs to be explained with more detail or if more system info such as bios settings etc... are required just let me know :D

thanks in advance to anyone that bothers reading this far

cheers
SB

[saphalline]

Don't know if you've tried this, but maybe if you make one partition on one physical HDD for Win XP it will work? I read recently that Win XP has its own built-in HDD management that will try to place files strategically around the platters for accessing. By splitting up the main HDD into partitions (is that what you did?) then you screwed up poor XP's optimization plans.

Again, don't know if this will fix your problem(s) but I thought I'd give it a shot.

[SteyrF88]

thanks for the reply saphalline
Now that I have swapped the HDD back on this machine(the tyan mobo) and running ME again I will try install XP on the spare 2.1gb drive with only the 1 partition.
What you said in theory sounds like it could be the problem... but I guess it could also be a million other things causing conflicts etc...

I unplugged the 6gb udma33 slave drive from the ASUS A7V133-c problem machine to rule out the problem of the udma33 slave drive slowing down the master udma66 16gb drive as these two drives are on the same IDE controller. Same result....

Any thoughts on swapping to motherboards in the PC's around.... like I said before I don't think XP will take to kindly to this as the mobo is a core bit of hardware and changing that might cause it too stop booting up.
After I have installed XP on the spare single partition drive, and I still get the same problems I will have to strongly think about swapping the mobos :/

Umm forgot to mention that the ACPI on the prob. machine has all the PCI and AGP device(s) assigned to the one IRQ #7. I suppose windows is handling this and it shouldnt be a big factor?.....
If so how do I go about removing ACPI on XP, as If i manually assign the IRQ's in bios, windows automatically overrides them and assigns irq #7 back to all of them.

cheers
SB

[saphalline]

Generally speaking, you should always re-install any OS after a mobo change, even if they use the same chipset. There's some low-level BIOS/OS exchanges that go on unnoticed to the user that can cause problems.

I don't about your IRQ problem, that sounds really weird. I know that most of the time Windows will give the AGP slot and the PCI slot next to it the same IRQ, but with two PCI cards plus the vid card I can't see why Windows would want them all on one IRQ.

Search the forums! There are many threads on the archaic ol' IRQ.

[SteyrF88]

thanks for the help saphalline :D
OK I think i've pinned down the problem
last night I installed XP again on that 2gb seagate(after that had 25mb free space lol) and for a 4-5 year old HDD XP ran super fast compared to the 16gb partitioned udma66 HDD.
What you said in your first reply has made a lot of sense. This weekend I will do a XP backup, make the XP installation HDD a single NTFS partition and get my mate in IT to help me install XP 'properly' and look at the IRQ and BIOS settings etc...

About the NIC, sound card and VGA all sharing the same IRQ I don't think is the problem.. atleast not the main one. The slow performance was still obvious even if I removed the NIC and sound card and just had the VGA on the one IRQ.
OK just checked the MS support site and found this in regards to the PCI devices sharing the same IRQ.. it's normal on XP :D
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];Q314068

Umm just quick question about the AMD duron 1.2ghz CPU I have. The FSB of these durons is only 100 correct? If I try set it too 133 in the BIOS the PC refuses to boot and the BIOS resets the FSB and SDRAM speed to 100. Now if im just running the CPU FSB at 100, should I keep the SDRAM speed at 100 for stability or will having it set too 133 not really affect the overall system stability. And will the performance be really affected if its only at 100 instead of 133.... this XP machine is only going to be used to share the internet connection and mainly run accounting software, office XP etc... not any hardware hungry games.

ok thanks again
SB