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This problem started as an annoyance, and quickly got worse. One day, games started running much slower on my computer. The specs were:
Mobo: Asus A78NX Deluxe Rev. 2.0 BIOS
CPU: AMD Barton 2500+
RAM: 1 gig (512 PC 2100 and 512 PC 2700)
Video Card: G-Force ti4600 Video card
Hard Drive: 80 gig Seagate IDE
OS: Windows 2000 Professional
In all cases with City of Heroes, Everquest, and Star Wars Galaxies, as soon as the in game graphics started to come up, there was dramatic slowdown to various degrees, depending on how graphic intensive the game was. As a side test, I tried Unreal Tournament 2004 without connect to the internet and found that it ran very slow no matter how low I turned the settings down This was a change from when I ran it with all the settings turned up as high as possible with little problems. At this point, my computer was fine otherwise as I could download music and surf the net with no problems.
I started trying to fix the problem myself. I downloaded a tool that benchmarked most everything on my computer and the figures it gave me back told me that all the components on my system tested where they should have. I did a complete hard drive scan at the highest detection settings with Avant Anti-Virus and it found nothing. I defragged my hard drive with Diskkeeper 8 as much as possible. I tried several other free scans from anti-virus programs on the net and they found nothing either. I run Ad-Aware 6.0 and Spybot S&D, both updated to current signatures near daily so I know spyware wasn't the problem. None of these things made a difference.
I began replacing things. I started with going from Windows 2000 Professional, to Windows XP. The install went well but didn't fix the problem. I flashed the BIOS, and installed an AMD Barton 3200+ CPU, 1 gig of Kingston PC3200 RAM, and 2 80 gig Seagate SATA hard drives. These seemed to work well but I still had the same problems. Things started going downhill from there.
As an attempt at a solution, I tried reinstalling Windows XP. It wouldn't work. I removed the IDE hard drive and installed on just the SATA hard drives with no luck. I tried installing with just the SATA hard drives with no luck. I flashed the BIOS again with no luck. I tried installing Windows 2k Pro again and that didn't work either. In all cases, I can format my hard drives however I want but, nothing be written to them after they are done. At the point where Windows is supposed to write files to the hard drive to continue on with the windows install, it does nothing. It then tells me on reboot that the NTLDR file is missing which I assume is the first file Windows needs to work.
I'm unsure as to what I want to do next. Without an OS, I have no access to many diagnostic tools that might help. I'd have no problems replacing components but as I still don't know the cause of this problem, I have no idea where to start. At this point, I don't have the money to make an entirely new system and I'd like to get some mileage out of the parts that I recently purchased as well. Any help is appreciated.
Mobo: Asus A78NX Deluxe Rev. 2.0 BIOS
CPU: AMD Barton 2500+
RAM: 1 gig (512 PC 2100 and 512 PC 2700)
Video Card: G-Force ti4600 Video card
Hard Drive: 80 gig Seagate IDE
OS: Windows 2000 Professional
In all cases with City of Heroes, Everquest, and Star Wars Galaxies, as soon as the in game graphics started to come up, there was dramatic slowdown to various degrees, depending on how graphic intensive the game was. As a side test, I tried Unreal Tournament 2004 without connect to the internet and found that it ran very slow no matter how low I turned the settings down This was a change from when I ran it with all the settings turned up as high as possible with little problems. At this point, my computer was fine otherwise as I could download music and surf the net with no problems.
I started trying to fix the problem myself. I downloaded a tool that benchmarked most everything on my computer and the figures it gave me back told me that all the components on my system tested where they should have. I did a complete hard drive scan at the highest detection settings with Avant Anti-Virus and it found nothing. I defragged my hard drive with Diskkeeper 8 as much as possible. I tried several other free scans from anti-virus programs on the net and they found nothing either. I run Ad-Aware 6.0 and Spybot S&D, both updated to current signatures near daily so I know spyware wasn't the problem. None of these things made a difference.
I began replacing things. I started with going from Windows 2000 Professional, to Windows XP. The install went well but didn't fix the problem. I flashed the BIOS, and installed an AMD Barton 3200+ CPU, 1 gig of Kingston PC3200 RAM, and 2 80 gig Seagate SATA hard drives. These seemed to work well but I still had the same problems. Things started going downhill from there.
As an attempt at a solution, I tried reinstalling Windows XP. It wouldn't work. I removed the IDE hard drive and installed on just the SATA hard drives with no luck. I tried installing with just the SATA hard drives with no luck. I flashed the BIOS again with no luck. I tried installing Windows 2k Pro again and that didn't work either. In all cases, I can format my hard drives however I want but, nothing be written to them after they are done. At the point where Windows is supposed to write files to the hard drive to continue on with the windows install, it does nothing. It then tells me on reboot that the NTLDR file is missing which I assume is the first file Windows needs to work.
I'm unsure as to what I want to do next. Without an OS, I have no access to many diagnostic tools that might help. I'd have no problems replacing components but as I still don't know the cause of this problem, I have no idea where to start. At this point, I don't have the money to make an entirely new system and I'd like to get some mileage out of the parts that I recently purchased as well. Any help is appreciated.
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