BIG MYSTERY............

[uhoh7]

Here is one that has been really driving me crazy.

It's a video editing machine. P3B-F mb, 733P3, SB live, Geforce, 512 pc133 ram. WIn98SE

HD setup: 4 drives: primary 10gb, Secondary Maxtor 80gb, plus 2 27gb in a promise fasttrak66 card 2+0 raid.

When it runs it runs well.

THE PROBLEM: pretty simple really: with no rhyme or reason the system slows to a crawl. Mouse will barely move, menus open slowly. Sometimes worse than others. Almost seems to surge- hd sounds like this.

WHAT I HAVE ALREADY DONE:
1) Replaced graphics card. Flashed Bios. Replaced and moved RAM dims. No change.
2) complete nuke and pave and installed dual boot setup w/win2k. Seemed to work at first. but problem came back. Doesn't care which OS. PLEASE DO NOT TELL ME ABOUT OS TWEAKS---I AM 99.95% SURE THIS IS A HARDWARE THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3) Replaced 300watt PS with new 350watt PS, again seemed to work at first then back to square one.
4)tested primary ibm HD- tests ok

What i'm thinking about:
replace primary HD
replace mb and or processor

any thoughts?

 

[cdogg]

Sounds like virtual memory is having a heck of a time. When you say it works at first, is that until you install all your apps? Does it work fine right after a clean install?

I would try taking the total amount of RAM down below 400MB (preferably 256MB). Explained in the FAQ below, you could also try lowering the Aperture setting in the BIOS to 32MB if the setting exists.

Read this FAQ which will help explain why having too much RAM can affect virtual memory:

faq615-1638

 

[PulsaMatt]

If you do alot of video editing it could be possible that the HDD just gets fragmented to pieces ... seems simple I know but sometimes the simplest stuff gets looked over.

Matt Laski
Sysadmin, Pulsafeeder Inc.
Dell Inspiron 7500
466 MHz Celeron, 384 MB RAM, 26 GB on 2 HDDs

 

[uhoh7]

ty for fast replies

Virtual memory has been set every which way, already tried reducing ram. The problem doesn't depend on what applications are running. Drive defraged many times.

 

[crisc]

If your drive sounds like it's "surging", (not sure what you mean by that exactly but it can't be good) definately try swapping your primary HD...

 

[uhoh7]

yeah..i have a new one sitting here but hate to have to reload the world. no option maybe. TY

 

[Tech4U]

Ghost it first and then put the drive in. This should give you an idea about the hardware and software. I'm sure it's hardware too, but that .05 chance that it is a software problem is still there.

-T

 

[uhoh7]

what's the best way to ghost it? maybe you have some links or can tell me a little about ghosting. Norton system works is installed if that makes any diff--not running in background though: all that stuff is disabled. computer is not on internet.

TY

 

[ceh4702]

Sometimes Windows gets stuck in MS-DOS compatability mode. Usually if you right-click on "my computer" and select properties it will tell you if you are in MS-DOS compatablility mode.

One way to fix this is a simple windows reinstall.

With Windows 98 SE the maximum memory is 384 Megs of RAM. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[uhoh7]

ceh 4702 Not in dos compatable mode. Not a ram thing, unless it's the motherboard itself. been there done that.

 

[sghouse]

have you tried pulling the raid card and running for a while without it?

to GHOST your primary drive
1. copy GHOST pgm to diskette
2. boot to dos from a boot disk
3. run ghost, telling the program to image primary hard drive and store it on your secondary 80gb drive
4. swap out your primary drive for a new one
5. boot up to dos again from boot disk
6. run ghost, telling it to restore the saved image stored on the second drive to primary drive.

win98 should boot right up; win2k might blue screen if the drive controller doesn't match the previous one. in that case, boot from your win2k cd and choose to repair your installation.

hope some of this helps

 

[uhoh7]

TY SG house
my primary HD right now has got 4 partitions on it. Is this ghost gona paste those unto a clean drive (would be 20 gig replacing 10 gig), or will i have to partition the drive exactly before hand?


Trying to think of how the raid card, promise fasttrak66, could bring the system suddenly to it's knees on the desktop with no disk access involved.

 

[sghouse]

ghost will make an exact image of the entire HD, partitions and all; when the image is copied back to the empty HD, ghost will compensate automatically for the size difference. just make sure the new HD is larger than the old one.

don't add-in drive controllers have a bios of their own that is supposed to work in conjuction with the system bios? maybe the raid card needs a bios update or newer driver.

my last ditch effort would be remove as many devices as possible to get the most minimum config, then if the system works like that, start adding devices back in one at a time until it screws up. if it won't work in a minimum config then i'd start shopping for a new box.