Tweet
The Background:
After almost getting Windows to install on the SATA drive, my computer stopped recognizing it. Thankfully, Newegg gave me an RMA for a refund, and I ordered a 160 GB IDE drive instead. Drive arrived, I got it installed, and after swapping my two 80-pin cables because one didn't want to play with the new drive, I got the drive formatted and Windows happily installed on it. Began the long process of downloading the updates for Windows, and had a scare when my USB ports stopped working. Thanks to a Google search, I got the suggestion to uninstall the USB Root Hubs from the Device Manager and let Windows reinstall them, which worked.
With Windows installed and fully updated, I began hooking up my three older drives one at a time in slave to the new drive so I could see what was on them, copy over anything I wanted to keep, and then wipe my hands of the older drives. Old OS drive was dead in the water; got the message during POST/etc. telling me "Primary Secondary Drive Failed." Really old OS drive (replaced some time ago) had a few files I wanted; I deleted the partition once I was done copying them. Then it was time for the old storage drive. Hooked it up and, in Safe Mode (just to be safe), began transferring about 55 GB worth of files to the second partition on my new drive.
The Problem:
Right from the get-go on the file transfer, things slowed down. Everything had been working normal speed up until now, but the file transfer itself took 10 hours to complete. It didn't take this long to copy most of this stuff to the external hard drive and back. Once the transfer was complete, I shut down the computer.
The next day, I unhooked the old storage drive from the computer (it's now going to be a backup drive), hooked my DVD burner up to the computer as master to the DVD reader (previously, I had just the DVD reader hooked up to keep hooked-up components to a minimum), and booted the computer up. The computer failed to boot into Windows twice, until I managed to get it to Safe Mode. It took about 10 minutes to get to Safe Mode's desktop, and everything was responding slowly. If I right-clicked on something, it took a good minute or two for the pop-up menu to show up. After about half an hour, a window popped up complaining that the driver for "CD-ROM" wasn't digitally signed. I cancelled the installation, to see another window telling me that Windows couldn't install the DVD burner. Things still ran slow.
After trying to check several things and all leads turning up empty, I restarted the computer into normal Windows. It took at least 20 minutes to finally get to the desktop. Again, after about half an hour, it gave an error that the "CD-ROM" driver wasn't digitally signed; again, when I cancelled that, the window said it couldn't install the DVD burner. Things still run slower than molassess in winter.
When I right-click on My Computer and select Properties, when the "Computer" information finally shows up, it only shows my 512 MB of memory; it doesn't show my processor. The processor is visible in Device Management, however, and claims to be working fine. The only items with exclamation point icons in Device Management are things like my Raid controller (has always had that icon, even when Windows runs fine) and my sound and ethernet cards (drivers not installed). While the DVD burner was hooked up, it also had an exclamation point icon, though I've since unhooked it again--no change to the system's speed.
When I try to go to the System Information utility, the System Summary screen only shows the words "Please select sub-category," rather than actually showing me my system summary.
Nothing seems amiss when I look at the performance tab of the Task Manager.
The only difference that I know of between my system now and Monday morning when it ran fine is the presence of 55 GB worth of files on the second partition on the drive itself.
The Request:
Does anyone have any idea what might be slowing it down? With as little training as I have, I suspect my processor might be going (it's 4-5 years old, if I recall correctly). However, I can't find anything overtly wrong with the processor. The computer detects all the RAM, so I don't think it's a RAM problem.
::sigh:: If it's not one thing, it's another.
My System:
Just in case anyone needs this info to help:
Windows XP Professional SP2
512 MB Ram
AMD Athlon XP 1700+ MHz processor
ASUS A7V600 Motherboard
Western Digital 160 GB IDE hard drive, partitioned into 50 GB OS partition and 100 GB storage partition
Lite-On DVD-ROM drive
NEC 16x DVD Burner (currently disconnected)
After almost getting Windows to install on the SATA drive, my computer stopped recognizing it. Thankfully, Newegg gave me an RMA for a refund, and I ordered a 160 GB IDE drive instead. Drive arrived, I got it installed, and after swapping my two 80-pin cables because one didn't want to play with the new drive, I got the drive formatted and Windows happily installed on it. Began the long process of downloading the updates for Windows, and had a scare when my USB ports stopped working. Thanks to a Google search, I got the suggestion to uninstall the USB Root Hubs from the Device Manager and let Windows reinstall them, which worked.
With Windows installed and fully updated, I began hooking up my three older drives one at a time in slave to the new drive so I could see what was on them, copy over anything I wanted to keep, and then wipe my hands of the older drives. Old OS drive was dead in the water; got the message during POST/etc. telling me "Primary Secondary Drive Failed." Really old OS drive (replaced some time ago) had a few files I wanted; I deleted the partition once I was done copying them. Then it was time for the old storage drive. Hooked it up and, in Safe Mode (just to be safe), began transferring about 55 GB worth of files to the second partition on my new drive.
The Problem:
Right from the get-go on the file transfer, things slowed down. Everything had been working normal speed up until now, but the file transfer itself took 10 hours to complete. It didn't take this long to copy most of this stuff to the external hard drive and back. Once the transfer was complete, I shut down the computer.
The next day, I unhooked the old storage drive from the computer (it's now going to be a backup drive), hooked my DVD burner up to the computer as master to the DVD reader (previously, I had just the DVD reader hooked up to keep hooked-up components to a minimum), and booted the computer up. The computer failed to boot into Windows twice, until I managed to get it to Safe Mode. It took about 10 minutes to get to Safe Mode's desktop, and everything was responding slowly. If I right-clicked on something, it took a good minute or two for the pop-up menu to show up. After about half an hour, a window popped up complaining that the driver for "CD-ROM" wasn't digitally signed. I cancelled the installation, to see another window telling me that Windows couldn't install the DVD burner. Things still ran slow.
After trying to check several things and all leads turning up empty, I restarted the computer into normal Windows. It took at least 20 minutes to finally get to the desktop. Again, after about half an hour, it gave an error that the "CD-ROM" driver wasn't digitally signed; again, when I cancelled that, the window said it couldn't install the DVD burner. Things still run slower than molassess in winter.
When I right-click on My Computer and select Properties, when the "Computer" information finally shows up, it only shows my 512 MB of memory; it doesn't show my processor. The processor is visible in Device Management, however, and claims to be working fine. The only items with exclamation point icons in Device Management are things like my Raid controller (has always had that icon, even when Windows runs fine) and my sound and ethernet cards (drivers not installed). While the DVD burner was hooked up, it also had an exclamation point icon, though I've since unhooked it again--no change to the system's speed.
When I try to go to the System Information utility, the System Summary screen only shows the words "Please select sub-category," rather than actually showing me my system summary.
Nothing seems amiss when I look at the performance tab of the Task Manager.
The only difference that I know of between my system now and Monday morning when it ran fine is the presence of 55 GB worth of files on the second partition on the drive itself.
The Request:
Does anyone have any idea what might be slowing it down? With as little training as I have, I suspect my processor might be going (it's 4-5 years old, if I recall correctly). However, I can't find anything overtly wrong with the processor. The computer detects all the RAM, so I don't think it's a RAM problem.
::sigh:: If it's not one thing, it's another.
My System:
Just in case anyone needs this info to help:
Windows XP Professional SP2
512 MB Ram
AMD Athlon XP 1700+ MHz processor
ASUS A7V600 Motherboard
Western Digital 160 GB IDE hard drive, partitioned into 50 GB OS partition and 100 GB storage partition
Lite-On DVD-ROM drive
NEC 16x DVD Burner (currently disconnected)
Eric the Grey
Comment