System acting up

[RenegadeKing]

My brother came home today from boarding school and brought his computer that I built for him with him. Now, games and 3dmark seem to work fine, but just using windows and installing software is a real pain. It keeps getting really sluggish at random times and the cursor will jump. I tried defragging and setting all the system options to best performance. Still same problem. Tried reinstalling the video drivers and disabling a lot of services. Still, installing software and browsing through the start menu seems to make the computer really think and sluggish. I have NAV and mobo monitor running in the background, but same thing happens with them closed. All I can think of at this point is maybe hardware problem (have yet to try only 1 stick of ram), or a virus maybe. He said he got viruses at school, but got rid of them and it hadn't been doing this until today. Also, it doesn't seem to do this in safe mode. So I'm pretty sure it's software. Any ideas? I think I'll go do a full system scan and see if anything comes up. I would really like to avoid a reformat.

Edit:

forgot to include system specs:

Abit KT7A-Raid
Athlon Tbird 1.4ghz
512mb PC133 (unknown brand, 2 sticks)
Sapphire Radeon 8500
40gb either Maxtor or WD hdd. can't remember.

TIA

RenegadeKing

[Markoman01027]

RenegadeKing,

Could be faulty RAM as it could be generic RAM because you do not state the brand of the RAM. Could be 2 defective sticks and not just 1.

Do you have any IRQ conflicts? Do you have APIC enabled with your motherboard? I would re-arrange your PCI cards, and see if things clear up.

Also remove any ports that you dont use in the Device Manager and disable them in the BIOS. So you can free up some IRQ's.

Since everything works ok in Safe Mode. I assume it could be software. Memory Leaks I suppose. Have you tried running the PC with minimal programs running in the background? I would also run a regclean on the PC, aswell as a spyware scan(I assume you already did a virus scan)

A bad hard drive about to go south can also cause this(or just normal hard drive ware and tare)(Basically what I mean by that is normal program installation, etc, you get the point). The longer you have Windows on the hard drive, the slower it will get.

[RenegadeKing]

Thanks for the reply markoman.

Well virus scan came up clean. I checked IRQs and surprisingly everything has its own IRQ except the soundcard shares with USB.

This behaviour occurs with no programs running in the background and a minimal amount of services running.

I'll do a spyware scan and try regclean. I'm really hoping it isn't hardware, but I too would suspect either hdd or ram. The hdd is more or less new (bought it around October I think), so if it's either of those things, I hope it's the ram.

So I think this is what I'll do: If after a few more scans and defrags it still isn't sorted out, I'll check each stick of ram individually. If that's not it I'll remove the PCI cards and see if that does anything. If it's still acting up I'll just reformat and reinstall windows.

Any other suggestions?

[Markoman01027]

Remove one PCI card at a time and see if it acts up still. I would try a brand new stick of RAM, and see if it works.

Have you ran a hard drive diagnostics test on the hard drive? Do you have SMART enabled with that hard drive if it supports it? It can tell you if your hard drive is going to die.

[reboot]

If it doesn't act up in safe mode, it's definitely software, nothing to do with RAM or HD, etc.
Something is hogging the bus probably. Find out what's running in MSConfig, and shut them all off.
Take a look in win.ini and system.ini for any "run=" lines, and delete them.

[Cricket]

Hi RenegadeKing,

Did you empty out all the Windows Temp folders yet?

Cricket

[KHT]

Just a thought and not trying to bud in but I think reboots idea sounds about right but instead of deleting the "run=" in win.ini and sys.ini why not "rem" them out one at a time and if you do rem one out and everything works ok, it will have pointed you to the problem but still leave you with the run=`s that you still want.

[RenegadeKing]

No lines that say "Run=.." in win.ini or system.ini.

MSConfig only shows 2 things under startup: MBM5 and NAV. I unchecked them yet still same problem.

Emptied Temp folders. Same thing.

Ran spybot, didn't fix it. Let defrag run again overnight, didn't fix it.

Think I'll check safemode again.

[Confused]

When was last time system maintenance was done. Try a scandisk, disk cleanup and then follow up with a defrag.
Chas

[reboot]

A real mode driver is loading, something that is part of Windows probably.
What OS is on it?
Does the computer have an autoexec.bat and/or config.sys?
What's in there (if anything)?
If it's 2k/XP, check services...see what's hogging CPU time, or better yet, just shut down any un-needed services.

[RenegadeKing]

Win XP. I've already disabled almost every service. I checked page file usage and it was at 70mb.

It's scandisking now, but after it finishes I'll check to see what's in autoexec and config.sys.

[RenegadeKing]

Ok, well I checked safemode again, and it isn't as noticeable, but it still does it. The mouse just gets excessivly choppy while installing stuff.

If the ram is bad, will docmemory let me know? Or would it not be bad enough for it to find any errors?

[KHT]

Do you have an external powered USB hub? If so, try removing it. (choppy mouse)

EDIT...I ran into the erratic mouse thing where it ran perfect in safemode but not in a full boot. After removing the external hub I discovered that was the problem.

EDIT again...And yes, it affected a PS\2 mouse

[reboot]

There is one other possibility.
Something is sharing resources with another device.
It's not noticed in safe mode, because the drivers for the device are not loading, but it's noticed in normal mode, because of shared IRQ's (probably) between the video and something, or the mouse and something, or the USB and something, or something and something...(get the idea?)
If you can absolutely say it's not a program/app that's doing it, then it's time to sort out IRQ assignments.

[RenegadeKing]

Ok, well I did notice it a bit in safemode, I just didn't notice it the first time. Now I'm in a real mess:

I tried using only one stick of RAM and I got a BSOD at windows. I thought, yay, I found the culprit. So I try the other stick, and to my surprise windows reboots itself right after the loading screen. So now I think I have two bad sticks, so why was it working with both before? I tried the first stick again and got a BSOD with it again. I put both back in, windows boots to give me some lsass error. I hit ok and it reboot. So I'm pretty sure I have some bad ram. Unfortunatly I don't have any spare sticks PC133. I'm going to run docmemory and see what it comes up with. Thanks for all the help guys. Any info regarding why taking the sticks out might have fuged things up would be nice. Thanks again.

[RenegadeKing]

Ran docmemory and I'm not liking results: all tests passed.

Tried windows again and the error says:

"An invalid parameter was passed to a service or function."

Going to try swapping the sticks and see if it goes back to how it was before I started messing with ram.

edit:

sh*t. I swapped the slots the sticks of ram were in and same thing. I was hoping that that might put it back to the way it was.

tried using different ram slots and same thing again. thought maybe the one I had used everytime was defective or something. I guess not.

bah, same thing in safemode.

[RenegadeKing]

I tried repairing the XP installation and after it rebooted and went into the finishing installation thing, it gave me the same error with the install screen in the background. I'm starting to think that it's a software problem again and not a ram problem but I'm not sure. I think I'm going to try reinstalling windows. I just hope it fixes the problem.

[RenegadeKing]

Ok well I honestly don't understand what is going on. I reinstalled windows and perfermance is still "jumpy" around windows. Main reason why I don't understand it is games run perfect. I think I'll just leave it alone unless it becomes unbearable.

[reboot]

Last thoughts: What are your RAM timing settings in BIOS? It could be that you're pushing things too fast, and the system is having trouble keeping up with the speeds you've set.
I doubt if both sticks of RAM are bad, I think something in BIOS is messed.
It could be other simple, often overlooked things, like a flaky mouse, intermittent keyboard...

[RenegadeKing]

Ram timings are at SPD. BIOS settings haven't been touched since it was acting normal to my knowledge. I could reset them though.

I swapped video cards just to check the video card and it worked all right. I uninstalled the drivers and put the original card back in a guess what. BSOD at bootup. Same with safemode. Another installation gone. The error in the BSOD made me think to run the WD diagnostic tool on the hdd. It failed. I tried again, and it failed. Listened for any noises coming from the hdd and it was making a fast clicky noise. I swapped the IDE cable and it no longer made the noise and passed the test. I tried the original IDE cable again and to my surprise it passed again. I zeroed the drive and reinstalled windows. And it's still jumpy. Think I might just RMA the hdd because maybe it's just on the line between dead and alive.

[reboot]

It could be other simple, often overlooked things, like a flaky mouse, intermittent keyboard...

flaky IDE cable, flaky hard drive...