Need Help Guys - Old PC Running Very Slowly!

spirit

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
As the title states, got a bit of a problem.

OK so I've got this PC, it's so wrecked and old even a rag and bone man would turn it down, but I need it try and keep it running just in case anything happens to my main PC (especially now I've given the Core 2 Quad rig away). I have it just in case the 'unexpected' happens, and believe me, the 'unexpected' has happened a few times and I've had to use this old PC for a few days whilst I get my main one sorted.

Anyway, recently it's been running pretty slowly - and I mean very slowly. The spec is OK (Athlon 64 3700+, 1GB DDR, 80GB IDE HDD, 6600 GT AGP) and I tend to run Windows XP on it and for the most part, it runs fine, but recently it's just been really slow. Programs are taking an age to open (especially Google Chrome) and just browsing through folders in Windows Explorer feels slow.

I had a problem trying to get it to boot whereby it could not detect the IDE hard disks and then it just hung on the Gigabyte splashscreen (the board is K8VT800 Pro btw). Restarting it fixed the problem but it did it every time I tried to boot up the PC. I fixed it eventually by just resetting the CMOS.

I did have Windows 7 x64 on this PC for a few months and when I tried to run the Windows Experience Index, the screen would artefact and then blue screen - symptoms of a dying video card perhaps. Could this be what is causing the slow downs? I installed XP x64 on it the other day and I didn't have any blue screens or screen artefacting, but it was very slow indeed.

This morning I replaced the original Seagate 80GB IDE HDD for a Western Digital one (same size and interface) and I installed XP x64 onto the replacement hard drive. It's still slow. I have also installed all the appropriate RAID, chipset and graphics drivers. I could try installing Windows XP Pro SP3 (32-bit) on it just to see if it's the OS I guess. I have a feeling it's hardware-related though.

I'm just testing the RAM right now as I type this. Memtest86 has been going for 6 hours or so with 11 passes and it hasn't reported any problems. I'll leave it going for another hour or so and if nothing crops up by then I'll conclude the RAM is not the problem.

I've not had a chance to check my CPU or GPU temperatures yet, but when I next get the chance to, I will, as that could be the problem (when I took the graphics card out this morning I noticed the cooler felt a little brittle, maybe it's not cooling the GPU itself correctly?)

So I'm not too sure where this problem lies. I do have a PCI sound card installed in this system which I could try removing, I doubt it's the cause though.

I don't have any other graphics cards I can try (with the board supporting only AGP and PCI cards) and I'm not willing to buy replacement parts in order to fix the issue ideally.

So together I hope we can work this out. Any help or advice would be appreciated! Thanks!
 
I haven't seen a video card slow down a pc before. It can cause artifacts or system crashes, don't see why it would slow it down.

I would be checking the event log for disk errors and even if you don't see any pull down the manufacturers disk check utility and run it. ie seatools for seagate etc.
 
Thank you for the speedy response. I'm going to stop Memtest now and have a look at the logs and see if there are any errors. I will also check the GPU and CPU temperatures too.
 
Might have missed it, but what kind of power supply are you using. I've had a weak (not dead) motherboard battery do things similar. Maybe try replacing the battery.
 
If the CPU is throttling due to overheating it will slow down the PC for sure. You could try removing/cleaning the heatsink and cpu and reapplying thermal grease; it does dry out over time. An overheating video card will cause visual artifacts and possibly freezing, though not so sure about slow performance (other than in games I suppose). I would have guessed the drive was dying right off the top, but you said you replaced it and still got slow performance; maybe the drive controller on the motherboard is failing? I would try connecting a known good power supply too, just to see. Marginal power can cause some very odd behaviour that at first might seem unrelated to the PSU.
 
StrangleHold said:
Might have missed it, but what kind of power supply are you using. I've had a weak (not dead) motherboard battery do things similar. Maybe try replacing the battery.
Click to expand...
Yeah sorry I forgot to mention it. It's an Antec 450SLP.

I think the battery needs to be replaced anyway, the date and time is all wrong. :/

daprofessa said:
If the CPU is throttling due to overheating it will slow down the PC for sure. You could try removing/cleaning the heatsink and cpu and reapplying thermal grease; it does dry out over time. An overheating video card will cause visual artifacts and possibly freezing, though not so sure about slow performance (other than in games I suppose). I would have guessed the drive was dying right off the top, but you said you replaced it and still got slow performance; maybe the drive controller on the motherboard is failing? I would try connecting a known good power supply too, just to see. Marginal power can cause some very odd behaviour that at first might seem unrelated to the PSU.
Click to expand...
CoreTemp reports the CPU to be running at about 41C at idle and I've not had anymore artefacts or crashes.

I tried using it again last night after I had finished Memtesting it and it was running OK on the new HDD - better than before I think. Still seemed a little slow though.
 
Thought I'd update this thread: replaced the HDD again and installed XP x64 onto it. Seems to be all right for the time being. Ran an extended test of WD Lifeguard and it came out with no errors and I ran Memtest86 for about 6 hours and also came out with no errors.

Hopefully the problem has now been sorted. :/
 
spirit said:
Thought I'd update this thread: replaced the HDD again and installed XP x64 onto it. Seems to be all right for the time being. Ran an extended test of WD Lifeguard and it came out with no errors and I ran Memtest86 for about 6 hours and also came out with no errors.

Hopefully the problem has now been sorted. :/
Click to expand...

Your next move needs to get off all that aging technology.

IDE = dead
AGP = dead

There's your two biggest bottlenecks right there.
 
If you had read the original post, you would have noticed that this is primarily a backup system just in case things go wrong with my main PC. My main system is much newer and in my signature.

I know full well IDE and AGP are dead technologies.
 
spirit said:
If you had read the original post, you would have noticed that this is primarily a backup system just in case things go wrong with my main PC. My main system is much newer and in my signature.

I know full well IDE and AGP are dead technologies.
Click to expand...

My mistake. What about slapping a PCI Sata controller in the old box and kicking the OS over to a SSD?
 
Not really willing to spend any money I'm afraid, it's an 8 year old system, not really worth much money. It does have an onboard SATA controller but I cannot for the life of me get to it work. It's a very early controller and is problematic to say the least.

I think I'll replace the CMOS battery at some point and see if that improves things. It seems to be running OK for the time being with the replacement disk I put in it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top