Topic: New PC running slower? Why?

[Froggy D]

I just bought a new custom PC which I basically put together (with a little help). Here are the specs: Abit NF7 Mobo, Athlon XP 2200+ (266FSB), 512MB DDR SDRAM (333FSB), ATI Radeon 9100 video card, Western Digital 80 GB HD (7200) w/ 8mb cache, IMB Deskstar 40GB slave, Windows XP home. I booted up the PC and everything seemed to work ok except for  one thing, it definitely ran slower than my old PC.

Note: my old PC was Abit KT7a-raid, Athlon 1.1 GhZ, 256 MB SDRAM (PC133), ATI Xpert 2000 video card, Regular hard drive w/ 2 mb cache (7200), Windows XP.

Programs seem to load up slower on my new PC. For example, it takes more time to open up outlook express. There is a longer lag time from the time I double click on the icon, until the program is open and ready to go. Everything just generally seems to take a little more time to load.

Any suggestions on what I could try. Why would this faster PC run slower than my old in performing simple tasks? HELP!!!
 

[Simon]

Hi Froggy, and welcome to PC Pals.

I'm afraid I can't offer much help here, but hopefully someone more technical will be along soon, with some proper advice.  I'm sure one of our experts will be able to help you.  

[bat69]

Hi Froggy

First of all, welcome to PC Pals    I hope you join in with the fun and enjoy yourself here ... we're a friendly bunch

Right, your problem

Have you downloaded all the latest updates from Microsoft ?   If you have, you will certainly have installed one that makes your machine run slower ... there is some info about it HERE This may be part of the problem

The next thing is to check whether your HDs are set to UDM mode, this is done in the Control Panel, System, Hardware tab, click on the Device Manager button, and then expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI controlers route. Double click on the Primary, and then click on the Advanced Settings tab. The drive should be set to UDMA Mode.

Are you sure the BIOS has detected the correct Front Side Bus speed for the CPU ? Is this CPU running at the correct speed ? You will need to enter the BIOS to change that if it isn't. (you will see the CPU speed when you first click on System in the Control Panel as above)

I'm sure more people will be along with more things to check, unfortunately I have to go now. Hope you get it resolved quickly.  

[Adept]

Hi Froggy D

The only thing I can think of to add to Bat's list at the moment is to make sure that you "clean installed" the XP Home on the new PC and didn't just transfer the drive from an old machine.

My money's on the Front Side Bus though - I had exactly the same thing happen to me recently. Not only did I have to change a jumper on the mobo to change to the faster rate, but I also had to update the BIOS to detect the XP 2000+ processor correctly.

Hope this helps

[Sandra]

Is the 40 gig drive only a 5400 rpm one ?
I notice the older pc had a 7200 rpm drive and you specify that the new one has an 80 gig at 7200 but if the 40 gig drive is a 5400 one it wil slow the 80 gig to 5400 too which I believe makes a big difference  

[Froggy Doddy]

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HELP.

First thing I did was disable my antivirus (real-time protection ... E-trust antivirus), and wouldn't you know it - it did the trick. All seems well now. I'm soooo excited! Even though that worked, I also removed that windows update (thx Bat,   ) just to be on the safe side.

I'm curious as to why my bulked-up PC can't handle the real-time protection when I had no problems before with my old PC. I'll email E-trust to get some answers.

Thanks again all.

FD    8)    

[Simon]

Glad you've found an answer, Froggy, but I wouldn't advise running without anti virus software for too long.  If you're looking for something to try out as an alternative, AVG is well respected among many of our members, and it's free!  

You can download it here.