Slow P4 1.6

[enhanced08]

My sister has my old 1.6Ghz P4 Dell and it has been very very slow the past few months. I ran AV and anti spyware on it which didnt help any. She has a bad habbit of going to dumb websites and downloading tons of crap that slows the systems down. Either way, I had a problem with my system so I took her CPU and tried it in my board to see if the board was anygood (it wasn't, RMA'd it). I put her CPU back in her system and it wouldn't boot. I played with it for a few min and finally got it to startup. The problem is that its SUPER SLOW now, it takes about an hour for WindowsXP loading screen go away and after that it almost freezes up, its not frozen but its also not doing anything... (desktop is not loaded yet)

So I thought maybe its the RAM, so I ran memtest and noticed that it only is displaying the L2 cache speed as like 29MB/s, isn't it normally faster than that?

After memtest finally did a few passes (took a few days to get 4 passes!) I found there was a bad stick of RAM, So I took it out and left the 256mb stick in it and it was still just as slow. Even when I tried to reinstall te OS it would be fine until where it started copying files then slow down there.

I tried 2 different hard drives, thinking that maybe it was going bad. This didn't help any.

Any ideas? I'm thinkin the CPU may be bad because I'm pretty sure L2 cache is faster than 28MB/sec. I remember seeing a larger number for the L2 speed on other systems, but it could have been in KB/sec i guess.

TIA

[ski]

The CPU may be overheating. If it is, then P4's are designed to automatically reduce their clock speed during excessive heat buildup.
Make sure that the CPU's fan is running at the correct speed, clean all dust from the CPU's fan and heatsink(do the same for all other fans, incl. the power supply, as well as the inside of the case), clean off the old thermal compound from the CPU die and heatsink with a credit card followed by high purity alcohol(91% or higher) and a soft cloth, and apply new compound(Arctic Silver is recommended).
If that does not help, then remove the computer's cover, and run an external fan. If that works, then install additional or more powerful case fans.
If the external fan does not help, then the CPU may be damaged.

[enhanced08]

It doesn't seem to be a heat problem. I checked the HS/F a few times and it seems to be on correctly. The only thing that stands out in my mind is the speed of the cache. 28MB/s seems to slow for cache... If so then I'm thinkin that the chip was damaged when I put it in the other board, which is fried.

Any other thoughts?

[glc]

Impending SNDS, maybe?

[enhanced08]

I'm pretty sure its a willamette...

[arix]

well man thats weird cause a fresh winxp install always works look when i had 128mb of ram in my duron 1.2 it ran pretty fast so i think a 1.6p4 with 256ram should fly with a fresh install so do this first of al reset your board then put aome thermal grease on the heatsink then try reinstalling the OS it should work.

[enhanced08]

Well I finally got XP to boot and a ran throttle watch which tells me its running it its correct, 1.6Ghz, speed... i have no clue whats goin on with it...

[enhanced08]

Also noticed that its using about 30% of the CPU at idle and 100% with the default XP screen saver running! Opening Task Manager causes the CPU to jump to 100% as well. Task manager says its using 59-60MB RAM at idle, its got 256MB installed.

Any other ideas?

[nicolaus corelius]

it could be non-fatal mobo damage, or cpu damage

[glc]

The cache might be blown out or something.

[enhanced08]

Thats the only thing I can think of that could be the problem, the cache... Problem is I dont have another working P4 system to test it in. My board is being RMA'd. A new 1.6 is only like $30 on ebay, maybe I'll just get one and see if it helps any, might even upgrade to 2GHz or so while I'm at it.

Checked Dell's website and they dont mention CPU upgrades...

[ski]

See if a clean boot reduces the CPU load, and the amount of used physical RAM.
If not, then run Hijack This, and post its results.

[arix]

my Hp pavilion had the same problem but it only brought the problem when i installed win2000 but with xp it worked like a charm.

[enhanced08]

This is a clean boot of XP, Its been running for only a few days now with NO other software other than CPUz and throttlewatch installed. I can try HJT but i really dont think its software related because even while it was copying files durring the XP install it was going just as slow as it is now. Took 2 days to install XP!

[ski]

This is what I was referring to when I recommended doing a clean boot:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;310353

But if it took 2 days to install the O/S on a known good working HD, then the CPU may be the cause. For $30 you may just want to go ahead and replace it.

[enhanced08]

Well.... I decided to get a new CPU and got a second stick of 256mb while I was at it. Pop the CPU and RAM in and get the same slow system, didn't help at all! Started playing with the RAM and it turns out that the stick I just got wont work in this system but will in another. Even with the old RAM and second CPU I get the same slow system.... Also ran memtest and noticed that the cache on this CPU is 29MB/sec as well, is this the right speed? It seems to slow for cache.

[glc]

This is sounding like a trashed motherboard. Have you tried flashing the bios?

[enhanced08]

nope, i havn't touched the BIOS since i got the system a few years back...

EDIT: I just flashed it to no avail. I guess this thing finally up and died. It did get hit in a thunderstorm, which is how I got it. $100 for it and all I did was pull out the modem and it has worked since.

[nicolaus corelius]

so u replaced the mobo?

[enhanced08]

No, I replaced the CPU.

[nicolaus corelius]

so how much is a new mobo?

[enhanced08]

eh, I would guess about $35 but I would need a new case too because this is a Dell and an ATX wont fit. I already know the PSU is ATX so thats not a problem.

[nicolaus corelius]

i guess u could get a dell mobo from ebay

[enhanced08]

I figure I'll just get a board and case... I had the original 1.6 OC'ed to 2.2ish and was only stopped by the board. I noticed a pretty big different going from 1.6 to 2.2 so I may just do that, might get 2 since I have 2 CPUs now.... build myself a dedicated foldin box.