New P4 Running Slow (Someone Please Help)

[keith.f]

I just built this system

P4 1.6 GHz 478 Pin
Asus P4B266-C Motherboard
256 MB DDR Ram
Maxtor 20GB 7200Rpm Hard Drive
Geforce2 MX400 64MB w/tv out
52x Creative CD-Rom
Aopen AW-840 PCI Sound Card
Intellinet 10/100 PCI Network Card
Windows XP Pro

The problem is it is running slow doing some things. Its no faster and with some stuff slower than the K6-2 400 that it's replacing. Like the first thing when you log in as the user it take at least a minute to get past the Welcome screen and on to the desktop.

But the main problem is running AutoCAD it takes a long time to bring in the drawings into one drawing from the file server on the network.

This network is on a peer to peer network with 6 other computers running Win98SE and WinME on the other PC's

All these things make me think its something with the network side of it but don't know any suggestions. Some one please help.

[Furius92]

AutoCAD is meant to be run on very high end computers, which that is not. I have the same setup, except on a P4T-E w/ 512MB RDRAM. I run student level Autodesk Inventor, a lower level CAD program. Most AutoCADs are very high level and very demanding.

This shouldn't be a problem, but what are your temps like? Are you running NTFS or FAT32? Also, with the network, are you using anything like Novell? That can take a while to load up sometimes.

[keith.f]

Thanks for replying Furius92

I realize that AutoCAD is meant to be run on a high end system. But this is the best can be done on a limited budget. The problem is when running Mechanical Desktop and constructing an assembly drawing of a lot of little 3d drawings it takes a long time to bring in those drawings. However on the older AMD K6/2 400 that we replaced it was done much quicker than the new system...

I'm not sure about the loading of the Welcome screen either takes a long time it seems to be the network connections that take a long time to load.

And no not running any Novell or NT just connecting to a Win 95 system in a peer to peer file shareing system and the current system is running FAT32.

[HAL9000]

I don't think that's the problem. I have one client that runs AutoCAD on everything from 233MMX's to their high end machine at the moment is maybe a PIII 600 and they all run it fine. I would take a look at your temps as suggested as a P4 will throttle itself way back if it gets too hot.

[keith.f]

I'll have to take a look at the temps but won't be untill monday its a business computer.

But I don't think this is the problem because it happens even when the system is shut down for a while. Like I already posted it takes a long time to get past the Welcome screen at least a minute before you see the desktop at all. Why would this be.

[Furius92]

There are literally hundreds of CAD programs out there, all of different levels and sophistications. Also, in school we run that same Autodesk Inventor on P3s and it sucks, but it runs beautifully on my really old P2 and new P4 systems. (Well, it ran nicely on the P2 until I took the new video card out for this system). It's kinda strange, right?

[HAL9000]

Yea, I know there are all kinds of versions, and these guys are working them pretty good without any issues.

For your long login, does the hard drive appear to be working a lot, or does the system just seem to kind of hang there.

[audiyoda]

AutoCAD will run on just about anything -- the biggest 'problem' with AutoCAD is it authenticates everything -- so a file will load slowly almost regardless of system specs.

As I see it, you're 'bogged down' by the network itself. Regardless of machine, the file is going to transfer from the server at whatever rate your admin has your network running. And depending on the style of network, if you're at the end of the line, it could take awhile.

And if you're logging into the server, that may take a while as well depending on a variety of variables.

-Craig

[Werewolfdaddy]

HAL9000
No Dave, not the AMD Dave


You're killing me Hal. LOL
PENTIUM, PENTIUM, PENTIUM

[keith.f]

Thanks for all the replys guys I'll have to check things out on Monday and come back with more info or the problem solved

[glc]

I think you need to look at network and WinXP issues. If you are running peer to peer this could be the problem, the XP box is going to want to take over the network, a dedicated fileserver and a switch instead of a hub should speed things up a lot. I have a customer running Autocad 2000 on P2-333's with 128 ram and Win2K Pro on a Novell network with no issues like you have described.

[Werewolfdaddy]

My friends and I network games on Sundays. Four of us have windows xp. One weekend I took my girlfriends computer, which also has xp. For some reason she crashed every 30 minutes or so. After I checked the system event log, I found out that each time, one of the other computers had tried to establish themselves as the default browser or something. Can't quite remember; it's too late at night.

[keith.f]

Tried several different things with the system however, failed to nail down the problem. So because I didn't have much time to fool around with different settings I had to put Win 98 SE on it for now untill I can get at it some day after working hours.

But I belive it has something to do with a networking problem because when I loaded it with Win 98 I couldn't get it on the network had to change out the network card and use another one, couldn't get the Microsoft Network Login to even come up. But then I used that network card in another computer and managed to get it working. So I don't know. But at least for now the boss and everyone is happy and I'm some what happy. Though I could finally get XP on a computer and they would see that it was the cats ass and some of my troubleshooting woes would disapear.

Thanks for all the replys guys.

[glc]

I'd like to suggest if you want good Autocad boxes, put 2000 Pro on them.