dtb

Rough Specs

Gigabyte Mobo ( onboard Video and Audio
2.4 Gig Athlon
1 Gig Ram

What I have tried and checked

No conflicts
No Virus
No Malware
Checked MSconfig for dodgy start up programs
Checked hard disk cache and swap files settings
20 gig left on hard drive.
Drive defragged this morning
Windows update is err up to date.
Mobo Drivers been re-installed and makes no differance


Problem :

Anytime you access the hard drive the puter slows down.


Example 1 : If you have NO programs open and are playing a simple 3 meg MP3 and then you start up Photoshop or Explorer the audio stutters.

Example 2 : Running Photoshop and you fire up another application the mouse pointer gets stuck and photoshop virtually stops.

Example 3 : We used to open photoshop and have 10 large images in memory being worked on, now you can only have around 4 images only and it so slow , it would be quicker using a P90.

Any time the pesky red disk led lights up the computer has a fricking panic attack



System had a clean install from new around 4 months back and has been fine for ages.


Any ideas ?

ckfordy

I think your system might need a defragmentation. You can go to My Computer and right click on the Harddrive Icon and click on the Tools Tab and there should be something there about a defragmentation.

dtb

All the logical common sense stuff like that has been tried. But to no avail.

PC eye

If you are not having a software or driver clash between different programs on the active startup list or a problem being seen with Windows system files being damaged or lost somehow you would probably be looking at a possible hardware failure unless it from a simple overheating of one or more hardwares. You more likely need to run two different free utilities to find what is happening.

The first of two free programs ready for download at any time is called SpeedFan and shows you both cpu and board temps as well as voltages for the different hardwares on the system. These are added to the main reason for the name of monitoring cpu, case, and other cooling fans. You can download that at http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php SpeedFan 4.29 is available there.

What could be free and stress test the memory installed on your system? That would be Memtest a free Linux hardware tester available for floppy disk and cd images at these two links. http://www.memtest86.com/ http://www.memtest.org/

ceewi1

Check your DMA status. Go into Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager. Expand 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers' and double click on Primary IDE Channel. Go to Advanced Settings and ensure that 'Current Transfer Mode' is set to DMA and not PIO.

__________________

Cheap PSUs - 2% of system costs, responsible for 28% of system deaths

PC eye

Another thing to add in here besides a run of the system file checker to see if there are problems found with system files is the "20gb left on drive" notation you mention. How large is the drive itself. If too much drive space is used up percentage wise that can cause a few problems.

To give you one recent example that happened with the 250gb primary hard drive here a total 185gb of files being stored saw Windows stall out of the clear blue. Once several files were removed Windows then returned to normal with no freeze ups being seen after. That was with more then 20% of the drive still having free space. Frequent backups on removable media can help.

To run the system file checker to check the integrity of the necessary files needed to run Windows which can be caught off guard with a bad installation of software at times simply type "sfc scannow" at the Run prompt found right off of the Start menu and press enter to start this up.

You will need the recovery or installation disk for Windows in the cd drive often since it first goes through a file verification process. It will then repair or replace any important files found damaged or missing. If you only have a recovery disk look for the "I386" folder on the disk itself if you are running XP.

dtb

Board and Procesor temps are fine, Memory Tests are fine, System file check has been done several times.

I cant select DMA, it only allows PIO. Says DMA if Available, but in both Device 0 and Device 1 is says PIO Mode in Current Transfer Mode.

dtb

Many thanks mate, your post led me to this and the problem is now solved

http://winhlp.com/WxDMA.htm


Thanks to all of you who offered help, I would still be kicking the computer if it was not for the comments on this thread.

Many thanks