Can this be a motherboard problem?

[alwaysConfused]

Let me see if I can explain this correctly.
I have a PC (asus a7v motherboard, amd 1.1 tbird, and 2 hard drives) which, after locking up) refused to reload windows(xp pro at this point). After repeated attempts to restart the machine (tried the various safemodes and booting from xp cd) I let it load overnight. In the morning Windows finally did load but was INSANELY slow - It would take 5-10 minutes to acknowledge a mouse click.
I reformated the HD which had XP on it and tried reloading XP but it would never finish installing. The second (larger with all the family photos) drive was not recognized as being formated. The three partitions show but no format. I was able to use another machine and demo software and have seen evidence of some of the data so my wife MAY allow me to live.
Now, since this machine was about to become the family second string pc (once I purchase my new parts) I figured I'd try to install win98. I was able to reformat (didn't like the last one). I removed everything except my video card and am currenly installing win98. However that began well over an hour ago and the load is only at 70% now.
My question is : Could there be something wrong with my motherboard that, while allowing access to the HD, could slow things to a standstill?

PS I've swapped my 2 memory cards in and out, ran tufttest (no issues there except floppy) and also experimented with on old HD that had win 98 on it (eventually kind of worked but again very slow)

I was about to order the parts for my new build but now am holding off in case I need something for this older one.

Sorry this was so long - I tried to keep it succinct but am sure i failed.

[halovivek]

i hope the falut may be the swapped RAM so..please swith off ur computer and make precautions and remove RAM and insert properly
and try to install or work with windows

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Take the second harddrive (data and pics I presume) out of the 'picture' for now until it's sorted. Remove it. We'll know if it is intact once the rest is settled.

If your RAM is definitely ok, try another harddrive. A small one is fine, if with a similar 'version' of Windows (so it'll see NTFS if needed), you could see right away if things are sped up.

AFAIK, besides RAM, the one component that will bring your system almost to a standstill, is the harddrive (or malware to the *nth degree). Especially since, to do a barebones boot, all the other peripherals are disconnected normally anyway.

Waiting overnight has given time for the 'poison' if it were a virus or trojan of sorts trying to take hold of things in your os. Your data is most likely still ok, but I'd never trust that os install anymore.

I'm sorry if the explanation is not technical enough, I realise it has to do with the registry and other such things but to me, it all boils down to the same thang,,,

Just reformat tha damn C:!!!! :D

[Fruss Tray Ted]

How long did the reformats take? Normal for the size of drive (partition)?

Check BIOS settings and for the heck of it, reset them to default, power down. Pull the power 'lead', press power 'on' button. Reconnect power 'lead', then boot to BIOS and put settings to where they should be for your system. Does it perform faster then?

The battery might be weak also but I seldom see that as a problem.

I've learned (by school of 'hard knocks') NOT to "let things happen" overnight. The results are ALWAYS less than desired (c-a-t-a-s-t-r-o-p-h-i-c... usually :o ).

If you have seen evidence of data or photos still there with another pc, maybe it's time to use that machine again to burn off all the data you can, while the gettin's good.

It may be simply that the primary drive is flaked out but do the 'BareBones Boot' dance without your data drive in place till this is all sorted out. Use the other pc to retrieve the data for now.

Oh, and have you seen Cathy from the Irving commercials? How about Annapannalonga? Realise, I'm just guessing, but if it breaks per my advice, I'll replace it. With a P233, just get yur a$$ over here and it's your's! ;)

[alwaysConfused]

I'm letting win98 finish its install -currently up to "updating system settings". I will run memtest from a floppy after that is done.

As far as the second drive is concerned, I have connected to a second computer. All it sees are the three partitions but want me to format each of them. I downloaded some demo recovery software and it found evidence of jpgs in the partition used to store our photos (haven't burned a copy since last september ;( ). I have nbeeded this other (kinda borrowed) pc through the day so have not been able to actually recover any files. If anyone has a suggestion for recovery software I'm all ears.

I thought the format went kinda slow but I don't format hard drives every day so and I am impatient so my perception may have been skewed.

[alwaysConfused]

morning edition...
after finally downloading the video drivers I have a computer that is improved but still way slow.
Last night I reset bios, pulled the lead tp the motherboard and pulled tha battery. I had them out for a minute or so but somehow the PC remembered the time.
I am now trying to load aida32 and the going is very slow. I was able to tuen on win98's system monitor and see that CPU usage peak very quickly to 100% and stays there. The only things running are one ie window and the monitor.
Coulc the CPU have issues but still work. Now that I think of it I have had a couple messages that the kernal dll crashed.

[Matt]

I would get those errors on an older 1 Ghz AMD when the CPU started to overheat. At the time I was unaware of what the cause was (fans were all running at full speed, nothing was burning, boot-up was normal) until I cracked open the case and started checking everything. What I found was that so much dust (in 2 month's time) had collected behind the CPU fan in the fins on the heatsink that air flow was completely restricted and the CPU was overheating if I did anything beyond opening a window or two at a time. If I pushed it too hard, I'd get a BSOD referencing to a problem with the kernel or a couple other system files.

[Whyzman]

A cursory check back through the thread and I didn't see a suggestion to run a harddrive diagnostic...I would give that a go...

[alwaysConfused]

I have diagnostic softwre for the screwed up HD with the photos on it - I'm not messing with that until I have recovered what I can off of it. The HD running now is a quantom fireball - need to see if I can diagnostics for that one.

I struggled with a slow machine for quite a while today however I recently messed with sime bios settings ( have to look again at what I did) and have noticable improvement from that.