I am having some trouble with my system. It is most apparent in BFV and BF42. Maps use to take seconds, now take a minute or 2 before they load. I have a feeling something is going on with my disk throughput. I have 120 GB SATA drives, so this shouldn't be a problem. I have 2 swap files on seperate drives, so the swap shouldn't be an issue either.
What software does everyone recommend for benchmarking my cpu, memory and disk throughput?
Does anyone have any recommendations? I've noticed other programs locking up when they first load, so I'm sure something is going on.
I use the free version of SiSoft Sandra. Will test your CPU, memory, and file system for benchmarking against similar machines. You have to pay to get the diagnostic portion of the software though.
The more I think about your problem, the more I wonder. Didn't you say you had the exact same MB, that one of your buds had and his went bad? Do you both use the same video card? The reason I ask is, the more I think about your symptoms, they are starting to mimic a problem I once had. There was an incompatability between the northbridge and my video card. Over time I noticed a slower computer to eventual lockups and finally it became a 50/50 on wether it would boot. Basically I'd check to make sure there are not any hardware incompatabilities on your system. Mine turned out to be the ali northbridge incompatability with a TNT video card (burned it out), but that has been about 5-6 years ago.
Will do. I defragged my main OS drive and my applications Partition on the SATA. It seemed to help the first part of the loading, but when you get to the midpoint, where it seems to hang, then load the rest of the bar after a bit. That part is still taking too long.
I also checked my cables on the SATA. I've already broken one. I don't like the design of SATA cables. They come loose too easily.
I'll keep digging into it. That's good advice Raze, thanks. If I can't find anything, then the next step is formating windows and I always hate doing that.
Raze was telling me about the Dell's using the same thing. I've got to check to see if the mobo and HD side can use the clip cables. I may do that anyway. Thanks for the info Sarge.
I haven't seen any indepedent sata cables with clips. I know the western digital cables have clips, but they only clip onto WD Sata drives. I have heard the claim that 90 degree cables are better but I doubt it. As for Dell, I can tell you the latest dells I have seen (shipped within the last month) did not have locking sata cables.
My guess on the issue would be that the cache on either your HD or Your L2 on your Proc have gone bad, not sure how to test either of these except typical diags on the chip and HD diags. I would say the easiest way if you have access is to replace the HD and see if that helps. (I realize that is not such an easy sol'n). Again this is a somewhat informed guess.
Thanks for the info Bubba. You mentioned the L2 going bad? I had a really strange CPU error at the last LAN party I went to. I rebooted a few times and everything worked fine. I didn't make note of the error, other than it was CPU related and completely stopped my system from booting. Can you tell me more about this? I will Google it, but I wanted to know what was a good starting point. FYI, I have a P4 2.6HT.
As for the Drives, I run Raid 1, so I can drop the primary and bring the secondary online to see if that's an issue. I needed a good excuse to figure out how to bring my backup online anyway. Guess my Saturday is not looking good. :-(
Figured out my problem. Let's just say that Raid 1 rules! My SATA0 drive appears to have the problem. I took it offline, worked from the SATA1 drive and everything instantly improved. Now I need to get the drive replaced. I hope that goes smooth, but at least I did not loose anything and I am up and running just like nothing happened. Gotta love that!
Just for kicks see how it works with only the drive that you think is the problem. If it doesn't boot or if the problem comes back you got your answer. But, if it works like it does with the sata1. There may be something else wrong. But let's hope not!.
Yea, I did that to determine if it was the SATA0 that was bad or the primary IDE. I even used the cable from SATA1 on the SATA0 to make sure it wasn't the cable. I think I was pretty thorough. It appears to be the SATA0 drive. The only other thing it could be is the SATA0 connector on the mobo, but I don't believe I can swamp the drives without corrupting the RAID configuration and all the data on the other drive.
I'll call about replacing the drive. If the new one does the same thing, then I know it's the mobo. The real question is what happens when I add a new empty drive. Hmmmm.... I need to read up on that. I would hate for the empty drive to be mirrored on the good drive.
I can't win. My system is 100% hosed right now. It gets to Loading DMI Data Pool and goes no further. Looks like I lost my OS drive. I'll load a new drive. I'll have a working system by Friday night one way or another.