Help: under-performing PC

Samson

I recently upgraded my PC from this:

CPU
AMD Athlon (classic) 1.2GHz (overclocked a bit)
Mobo
Asus A7V
512MB RAM
2 x PC133

To this:

CPU
Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz PC533 Socket PGA478, Northwood
Mobo
Abit BE7 mainboard S478/533mhz, I845PE, ATA/100, ATX, USB2.0, DDR333
512MB RAM
2 x PC2700 DDR-DIMM 256MB CL2.5

Now, my problem is that in quite a few applications (games actually) I have seen a significant performance decrease since I upgraded.
I did a clean Windows install and have the latest drivers for my Radeon 8500 (64MB version) graphics card.
Basically, on the games I play most often (RTCW, CS, MOH, GTA3, Mafia, UT 2003, Op. Flash.) all are less smooth at the same resolution as I was using with the old setup (RTCW is particularly jerky at times, even at 800 x 600).

Some more relevant info:
From BIOS
CPU op. speed: 2400(133)
Ext. clock (CPU/AGP/PCI): 133/66/33MHz
PCI bus freq: ext. clock/4
Multiplier: x18
CPU core voltage: std. vcore
DRAM voltage: 2.5v

AGP is set at 4x.

My mobo is non-raid, and I have the following drives:
Primary master: Seagate Barracuda V 80GB 7200RPM
Primary slave: Quantum 40GB 7200RPM
Secondary master: Mitsumi CD writer
Secondary slave: Creative DVD drive

My operating system is Windows ME.

Any ideas?

Saruman

Firstly i would dump ME and get 2k or XP... not relevant to problem but good advice all the same!!

As for the problem... Do you have the latest chipset drivers for your mobo installed? Indeed did you even install them from the cd you got with your mobo?

Oh yeah and are you sure the correct drivers are actually installed for your card? I know you said you have them and installed them but does ME know this??? Just make sure you have all that ATI crap in your taskbar and in your display properties (advanced). If not then ME ignored your drivers and kept its own.

Is it just games with the problem?? Or anything else seem to have a problem? If its just games then its more than likely software and more likely video driver related. You could try installing the latest Direct X though more than likely it has been done from some of the games you installed.

Run Dxdiag and see if there are any problems noted for the display drivers.

Samson

Originally posted by Saruman
Do you have the latest chipset drivers for your mobo installed? Indeed did you even install them from the cd you got with your mobo?

Did that.

Originally posted by Saruman
Oh yeah and are you sure the correct drivers are actually installed for your card? I know you said you have them and installed them but does ME know this??? Just make sure you have all that ATI crap in your taskbar and in your display properties (advanced). If not then ME ignored your drivers and kept its own.

Yes, display drivers are fully and properly installed.

Originally posted by Saruman
Is it just games with the problem?? Or anything else seem to have a problem? If its just games then its more than likely software and more likely video driver related. You could try installing the latest Direct X though more than likely it has been done from some of the games you installed.

The only other problem I have come across, is the PC not shutting down properly now and again, it will hang and not power down. Same problem occurs when attempting a reboot.
I have DirectX 8.1 installed (I always say no when a game asks if I want it to install DirectX).

Originally posted by Saruman
Run Dxdiag and see if there are any problems noted for the display drivers.

Did that already, no problems reported.

Raskolnikov

Originally posted by Samson

The only other problem I have come across, is the PC not shutting down properly now and again, it will hang and not power down. Same problem occurs when attempting a reboot.
I have DirectX 8.1 installed (I always say no when a game asks if I want it to install DirectX).

From what i can tell your problem is WinME, the problem arises because the disk cache driver abuses resources when there is 512 and more Mb of RAM, and may use up far too much, leaving not enough for the rest of the system. You could either try a new OS.

Alternatively, all you need to do is open the system.ini file using notepad. Locate the [Vcache] section. It probably won't have settings in it so you then need to make these settings:
[Vcache]
MinFileCache=64000
MaxFileCache=128000
Save system.ini and then reboot. (You can experiment a bit later by increasing the maximum value upwards to see if it improves performance any more without compromising stability.)

These values are specific to your amount of RAM. The minimum value should be one eighth of installed RAM and the maximum value one quarter.

Quigs Snr

Yup, WinME made a machine I was testing on run like a dog. If you like that falvour of windows (I know I do because I play a lot of older games that XP and 2000 do not), then Windows 98 SE is a far better choice.

BTW Samson, I stuck a Radeon 8500 in your old rig, runs great. Stands up very well next to my primary games machine (an xp2100, gf4ti4600, 512 ddr). Some well matched components that you sold me there.

Samson

Originally posted by Quigs Snr
BTW Samson, I stuck a Radeon 8500 in your old rig, runs great. Stands up very well next to my primary games machine (an xp2100, gf4ti4600, 512 ddr). Some well matched components that you sold me there.

Yeah, I'm almost sorry I sold it.

Samson

Originally posted by Raskolnikov
Alternatively, all you need to do is open the system.ini file using notepad. Locate the [Vcache] section. It probably won't have settings in it so you then need to make these settings:
[Vcache]
MinFileCache=64000
MaxFileCache=128000
Save system.ini and then reboot. (You can experiment a bit later by increasing the maximum value upwards to see if it improves performance any more without compromising stability.)

Tried this and it had no perceptible positive effect on performance.
Any other suggestions?

Dempsey

Originally posted by Saruman
Firstly i would dump ME and get 2k or XP... not relevant to problem but good advice all the same!!

That what I'd be thinking as well. Maybe you should at least trying another OS cause ME is a poor Operating System.

Maybe if you get this program, It's called Sandra . Run the Peformance Tune up Wizard, and maybe it might spot an less obvious problem.

Raskolnikov

Originally posted by Samson
Tried this and it had no perceptible positive effect on performance.
Any other suggestions?

Well ME is a real hog when it comes to system resources, ideally if you can get a new OS then it'll save you some hassle, i assume you're flat broke so maybe this will help . .

Disable active desktop unless you need it; it uses resources (right click on the desktop, active desktop, make sure the webc ontent line is unchecked). Don’t use wallpaper or screensaver while troubleshooting (right click desktop, properties, background, set wallpaper to "none").

Disable all forms of power management (Right click on desktop, Properties, Screensaver, Settings, set the turn
offs and the standby to "never" - while you’re in screensaver
set it to none). Disable power management in your PC Bios as well (reboot, press Delete until you see the Bios, put in the password if you have one, find the power management section and ensure power management is disabled, save and exit - reboot). You may only wish to do this point temporarily with a laptop.

Check various hardware settings. Make sure that DMA is enabled for your CD drive, DVD drive, hard disks if they are DMA compatible - right click on My Computer then go to
Properties, Device Manager, find each device and click on it, then go to its properties box, settings tab and check the DMA box. Again, don't worry - if it isn't able for DMA it should uncheck itself on a reboot - you can look again and see. Enabling DMA makes a huge difference to games and DVDs in Windows ME. Check the Video card settings (Right click "My Computer", Properties, Device Manager, Performance, Graphics, set accelerator to maximum), While you’re in Performance, click File System, Hard Disk, set the sliders fully to the right and change the role of the PC from desktop to network server even if it’s not - this increases speed of access slightly). Click Floppy Disk and uncheck the search for floppy drives box. Click CD Rom and check the cache size is
large and the optimisation box is correct for yo ur drive. Click
removable disk if you have one and enable write behind caching. Don’t go near "troubleshooting". Check that your display settings are at an optimum for your needs and not set unnecessarily high because that will slow the PC, e.g. 800x600 screen resolution and High Color 16 bit are usually enough. (Right click on thedesktop, go to properties, settings)

Run the Direct X tests, especially if you are having video or sound problems or if games will not work properly. Start, Run, type dxdiag, press Enter, go through the tabs and look at the reports at the bottom, run the sound and video tests, update any drivers it suggests at component manufacturer’s website.

Disable unnecessary programs in startup by going to Start, Run, type msconfig press enter, go to Startup tab, uncheck any unnecessary programs, especially PCHealth (which is a
scheduler), Load power profile (usually there twice), Scheduling agent, anything that mentions scheduling. In short, disable anything that isn't serving a purpose! Also reboot after playing a game might help this!

Having done all the other points, if you are still suffering from inexplicable crashes, freezes, stalls or blue screens, consider a potential VMM32.VXD problem. In that case your best option would be to reinstall windows.

Samson

Raskolnikov,

That is an excellent and quite comprehensive list of recommendations, thanks.
Unfortunately I have already tried most of those without success.
As a rule I like to implement most of these on any PC I go near as I consider it good operating procedure.

Disable unnecessary programs in startup by going to Start, Run, type msconfig press enter, go to Startup tab, uncheck any unnecessary programs, especially PCHealth (which is a
scheduler), Load power profile (usually there twice), Scheduling agent, anything that mentions scheduling. In short, disable anything that isn't serving a purpose!

I have not done this yet, so I will do so as soon as I get home.
I'm going to buy Windows XP today anyway, ITDirect have the home OEM version for €130.

I should have just bought a new OS when I upgraded, rather than being a cheapskate and replacing Win98SE with a spare (work) copy of ME.
I did actually have reservations about ME from the start but I had installed it on one of the laptops in work recently and it behaved quite well, which made me think it might not be such a bad OS, even after all I had heard.