Random lags with WinXP

[Snogger_T]

Originally Posted by Chike

Can't make which are your settings, you have never posted any(at least I couldn't see them).
No BIOS settings do not reset when you re-install OS,
I am spesifically concerned about the jmicron drivers, do you see ani SCSI driver in device manager or are there only AHCI/ IDE Channels drivers/controllers?
Is the problem only with disks or is there any other kind of lag, e.g. mouse movement or graphics user interface?

- I only see IDE in the device manager.

The problem seems to be with all phases of using my computer. It will lag sometimes when typing text, sometimes when moving a window around the desktop, when scrolling on a webpage, when opening a program, when clicking the start menu, etc...I can't find anything specific that causes it. It happens at least once every 30 seconds to a minute. I've never had this problem before when doing a clean install of windows (even using the same hardware). My windows HDD is fairly old though...so I am wondering if it's maybe starting to fail.

[Psycho101]

It would be useful to know if the lag was present as soon as Windows was installed and booted for the first time (before you installed any drivers).

If the lag started after the drivers were all installed then that introduces another possibility. Drivers allow the use of more complex higher level functions, so it is entirely possible that it's a piece of hardware failing. Default Windows drivers sometiomes don't let hardware use the full extent of it's capabilities and using them the Hardware can seem Perfectly OK. Upon the instalation of correct drivers, the component is allowed to run as intended, maybe exposing any fault that's present. I've had this with faulty GPU's under Windows 98. Default VGA drivers worked fine (apart from only having 16 colours on screen) but propper drivers caused issues.

As you've used the motherboard install CD, you're using pretty old drivers. if this is what you've always used then it's strange that this should be an issue. Either way, it's much better to get the most up to date drivers for all the seperate mobo hardware from the actual manufacturers of the components, not Gigabyte. Intel Chipset drivers from the Intel site, Realtek site for sound and NIC, JMicron site if using any of the purple SATA ports.

I would do as you suggested and try another HDD. A faulty disk would certainly explain your problem. If you have anything valuable on it, get it off there as soon as you've installed XP on the alternative drive. Connect it up and take the data off in Windows.

[Snogger_T]

- The first driver I installed was the video card driver, and there was a lag when I dragged the file over from my USB drive to the desktop...so yeah, it was there from the get go. The lag was definitely not there in anything I did when I built the system back in May.

I've never actually installed drivers for each individual component of the mobo like that, but I suppose I should once I get all this sorted out.

I have 3 storage drives right now (I keep nothing but windows and programs on my windows drive) and one barely has anything on it, so I can use that one to install windows on and test it. Was really hoping it was a software related problem since I didn't really want to spend money on a new HDD.

[Psycho101]

I understand. It's never good having to spend money on something you wish you didn't have to buy.

Give the spare drive a go, making sure to completely disconnect the Raptor, SATA cable and SATA power, just to be sure.

If it turns out to be faulty, this would be a great opportunity for you to delve into the world of SSD's. Are you in the US? If so, Kingston are releasing a 40GB V Series "Boot Drive". It's plenty big enough for Win 7 and the bulk of your Programs if you move the page file to another drive. The drive itself is a cut down Intel X25-M. Because it's 40GB it has only half the number of flash IC's meaning that only 5 channels of the 10 channel controller are used.

Performance is 170MB/S read and 45MB/s write. Don't be put off by the seemingly slow write speed, it's random writes that count. the drive can still pull ~40MB/s random 4K writes which is the main usage pattern for an OS and Applications. You'll notice the difference a lot! The drive works out at $80 after mail in rebate. Once you go SSD you'll never want to use a mechanical drive again for an OS.

[Snogger_T]

Alright, I installed windows on one of my other drives, and it appears that my windows drive was indeed going bad. I'm actually surprised at how much faster everything is running right now. So now I have a few questions.

First, is there any way to get my old drive restored? I hate just throwing a drive away and I would like to keep it as at least a backup drive if I can get it fixed.

As far as the SSD's go, looking around...it seems that to get one of the more reliable ones, it's going to cost around 130 (after rebates). So my question is whether they are better than going with a raptor right now? I can get a raptor drive for roughly $180's, but I do hate having 150GB's for a windows drive when I only keep programs on there (I have several drives for file storage and my audio recordings). Also, would the SSD's be a good windows drive for audio recording? I've read that some of them will have stutters sometimes, and that is the worst thing you could have happen when recording something.

And on a little bit different subject, for a clean install of windows. What are the steps you would recommend taking to have it run most efficiently? What is the best way to update drivers for each component of the Mobo?

Advice on all of that would be greatly appreciated.

[wazza300]

its up to you personally i dontsee the point in ssd for the amount they cost and you have to reformat them every so often to maintain performance.my samsung drives perform brilliantly not as fast as an ssd drive but id rather wait a few seconds more then spending alot more £££ and to update motherboard drivers its best to check on gigabytes website and download them from there.do regular defrags and your disk should be in tip top condition,also you could set up a raid configuration that will run things alot quicker

[Psycho101]

its up to you personally i dontsee the point in ssd for the amount they cost and you have to reformat them every so often to maintain performance.

Then it's very obvious to me that you have never used a PC with a decent performing SSD in it. If you had, you would never want to use a clunky mechanical drive ever again.

Most modern drives ie all the ones worth buying do not need to have anything done to them to maintain performance. Depending on the model, either let TRIM keep the drive maintained (automatic in windows 7), run a manual TRIM tool that takes about two minutes and doesn't destroy any data or if using an Intel based drive, justuse it. Performance degradation is so minor on Intel drives it's not vital you do anything.

When completely filled and then emptied, my Intel drive still pulls double the read performance of my WD Caviar Blue. The part that counts the most is random access. All OS's at boot and while running as well as application launch rely on random performance. Again, my WD HDD can random 4K write at 1.5MB/s. My intel SSD manages over 40MB/s. more than 20 times as fast. Access times are 14ms for my mechanical drive and 0.1ms for my SSD.

Providing enough RAM is present to cope with intended PC usage and the machine isn't ancient etc, a SSD is the single most effective upgrade you can make to a current PC.

RAID 0 for mechanical HDD's is all well and good, but twice as fast as slow is still slow.

Also note that formatting a SSD, at least using a full format will reduce the performance of the drive to its slowest possible state, not restore it.

Kingston release their 40GB boot drive today (9th November on Newegg). It should cost $80 after rebate. Kingston Digital Extends SSD Family with Desktop Upgrade Solution :: TweakTown As it'll be used for a boot drive, sequential write figures don't matter. This drive will load Windows maybe 10-12 seconds faster than a Velociraptor, will give you an instantly usable desktop, no need to wait for all that HDD crunching to stop, and app launch times will be silly quick.

If SSD's are pointless then so are CPU's capable of processing 8 threads.

[Snogger_T]

Psycho101,

How would the SSD you recommend do for something like recording audio? Would it have any issues with stuttering?

[Psycho101]

I probably wouldn't recommend using a SSD as the target drive for audio recording. A standard HDD would cope plenty well enough. Having the audio recording program installed on the SSD and saving to a larger drive is the way to go.

Any filters applied will load from the SSD quicker. The model I linked to is purely to be used to install the OS and your programs to.

The drive won't stutter. The first gen of SSD's based on JMicron controllers did. Intel based drives, Samsung Gen2 drives and any Indilinx based drive (OCZ Vertex and Agility, Patriot Torx, GSkill, Crucial M225, Corsair X32/64/128/256 etc) do not stutter in the slightest.

A SSD will improve response times of programs and the OS, I don't recommend using them for any application requiring a lot of storage space. A SSD OS/apps drive and a traditional HDD for data is better in those situations.

[Snogger_T]

Even with my current setup, I never put any data on my windows drive. I have a dedicated drive for my audio recording (Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive), a dedicated drive for general file storage (Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive), and then I had another 250GB drive I used to back up anything important ( that drive has now become my windows drive for the time being). I was using a 74GB raptor for my windows drive, but since it died...I want to go to something faster. I'll be getting the raptor replaced since it's still under warranty, but I'll just use it as another backup drive.

For the SSD, when you say not to use any app using a lot of storage...what do you consider a lot? Some of the programs I use for recording take up a couple gigs of space, so I'm not sure if that would be too big. With my last windows drive (the raptor), I had about 15 gigs on it total...that was a little bloated because I had several large programs on it for school that I will not be using anymore.

I guess I'm just trying to figure out which route to go for a dedicated windows drive. If the new SSD is roughly $80 and outperforms the velociraptor, that seems like the way to go.