Having performance problems and scratching head...

[GodofCats]

OK, so I had some issues with my sound and new build in a game called Empire: Total War. Perplexed I read up and discovered that a lot of people are having issues with sound in that game. It's being worked on by Creative Assembly, the developers of the game. What I don't understand is why I am having performance / lag issues in other games such as Assassin's Creed and some others (can't remember right now because it's early and I'm a little frustrated by the situation). I'm also experiencing undo lag in Windows 7.

Here are my specs:

Windows 7 64x build 7000
Intel Core i7 2.67GHz CPU
Zotac X58 motherboard with Realtek HD audio onboard
6GB DDR3 RAM
1GB ATI Radeon 4870 HD video card, latest drivers installed
150GB SATA HDD
850 watt Corsair PSU
(2) SATA DVDRW+/- drives

So I am trying to troubleshoot the issue. I looked at all the cables and the RAM is securly in place, yet I get a reading of 5.99GB of RAM installed in the OS. I checked the BIOS to see how much RAM it said was installed there and it IS short of 6GB, however small the amount is.
This causes me to scratch my head.

OS or software side, the ony thing I see wrong is that there are drivers for the System Interrupt Controller that are not installed. I tried installing from the mainboard disc that was provided by Zotac, but to no avail. I'm not sure what to look for but I've tried quite a few things that are on the disc. This is causing me to scratch my head, and I willl look for a solution this Sunday night when I am back home. For now I am working on the rig at my dad's and he has dialup which I can not connect to.

The only other noteworthy thing is that the motherboard status lights are on all the time. Red and green lights just above the southbridge. Not sure what that means, however the Zotac X58 mobo has the debug LCD lights and they read that everything is OK.

Well that about wraps it up. If you have any suggestions or insight, PLEASE write me and let me know. Thanks in advance. I need all the help I can get on this one.

[shadowpr]

Windows 7 is still a beta release. Try a different operating system.

[GodofCats]

Originally Posted by shadowpr Windows 7 is still a beta release. Try a different operating system.

Sorry I also should have mentioned I tried same build with Windows XP Pro 64x and had the same results, only worse performance issues. Also, my Intel E1200 dual core processor ran Windows 7 64x just fine with less end specs (video card was 3650 radeon 2GB RAM, etc.)

so... I don't know what is causing the problem but it's not the OS.

[shadowpr]

I would run memtest on it. See if tha shows anything.

xp 64 has not been known to have the best driver support. If you have xp 32, or vista, I would probably try that if memtest comes back as good.

Make sure you get the latest drivers for the mb from their website as well. Also might want to see if a newer bios addresses this issue.

[GodofCats]

Originally Posted by shadowpr I would run memtest on it. See if tha shows anything. xp 64 has not been known to have the best driver support. If you have xp 32, or vista, I would probably try that if memtest comes back as good. Make sure you get the latest drivers for the mb from their website as well. Also might want to see if a newer bios addresses this issue.

Thanks for the suggestions shadow. I will run memtest on it later this afternoon. I really don't want to use 32 bit as it won't recognize all the RAM. Also, I don't have Vista so...

I had all the latest drivers from the motherboard except for, apparently the System Interrupte Controller ones which I could not find.

I am going to try and flash the BIOS first thing tho, as I have read around on the internet that a lot of people are having memory leak / lag issues with i7 and boards that are "just out of the package" so...

I know what you mean about the xp 64 bit driver stuff, but I'm not entirely worried about this as I haven't had too too much of a problem with this before. Anyway, thanks shadow, I appreciate the attempt to help me.

[liambl]

Originally Posted by GodofCats I really don't want to use 32 bit as it won't recognize all the RAM.

This is just for testing purposes to see if OS and/or drivers are at fault.

[GodofCats]

Originally Posted by liambl This is just for testing purposes to see if OS and/or drivers are at fault.

Oh! I apologize. I thought he meant to just use 32... thanks. I'm a bit of a pud sometimes.

[shadowpr]

Let us know what happens.

[glc]

I had all the latest drivers from the motherboard except for, apparently the System Interrupte Controller ones which I could not find.

This should be part of the Intel Chipset Software Utility.

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/scri...?ProductID=816

[GodofCats]

Originally Posted by shadowpr Let us know what happens.

Hey shadow, here's an update, which I am glad of:

I did some reading up on the Core i7 processor motherboards and discovered that there were several boards that were having lag / memory leak issues because they lacked an up to date BIOS. After flashing the BIOS, I am having no lag at all in the games I have tested so far. I am right now at Easter dinner, but later I plan to try all my games out and see if there is any lag at all.

@glc: It was to my understaning as well that the intel chipset utility CD would take care of this, but I have tried everything to my knowledge and the status is still "yellow" in hardware manager... oh well, I will have to try and fix that later. Not a big deal to me because everything seems to be working so far so good now.

[glc]

Check your bios and make sure ACPI and APIC are both enabled.