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Hey i have a few questions on what to do. I just bought a new computer last month and its really running slow. I have an amd athlon xp 2800+ 512mb ddr ram 80gb harddrive ASUS A7N8X deluxe motherboard, geforce 4 ti 4400. with a cd-rw floppy and dvd drive. As of right now i can't run a game at full graphics without serious lag. Also i can only do a small amount of processes before my system fills up.
sorry didn't finish it. well here's the rest. my svchost.exe seems to be excessively big and so does IEXPLORE.EXE under the process window also under system information it says im running 1.24ghz. which seems rather slow to me. I havn't figured out how to get into BIOS on this computer yet. i regularly run adaware and spybot S@D. If anyone has any ideas of possible solutions it would be much appreciated.
well if you don't know how to get into the bios then its probably best that you don't mess with it.
Usually though once you turn the computer on press the del key or F1, F10, F12, Esc. Something like that.
It sounds like somehow someone edited your clock speed, and multiplier in your BIOS.
Is this XP pro? Win 98?
Also, do you have a lot of programs that run in the background? Like stuff in the system tray?
This definitely sounds to me like a BIOS configuration problem. It seems like your processor is underclocked, but it still reports itself as the speed it should be running at. The xp 2800 has a clock speed of 2.08 ghz, so your processor can only execute instructions at roughly half the speed it is recieving them from the OS.
Before you worry about adware and viruses on a system that is only a month old, make sure the BIOS is configured correctly.
Unfortunately I am not familiar with AMD processors and as such I am unaware of the front side bus speed supported by your processor. According to ASUS, your mobo supports 400 mhz, and I imagine that the XP+ 2800 does also. This likely means that a setting of a 200 mhz system bus speed with a 10x clock multiplier would be the best setting for your system.
To enter your BIOS settings, prese <DELETE> during the POST.
Hope this helps.
--Striek
ok a few more specs that you guys needed. I have windows xp home edition. and there are very few programs running in the back round. i managed to create a list of all the key files i needed for the system to run and i delete every but that usually.
Thanks for all the help so far
ok well i got into the BIOS and here's some information that may help out a litte
CPU external freq. 100mhz. System performance optimal memory frequency SPD
FSB spread spectrum 0.50% AGP spread spectrum disabled CPU temp 45 C
MB temp 23 C CPU fan 3970 RPM.
ok thanks again
wait a minute guys.. don't you want to recommend a virus scanner ?
there's a few worms and viruses that use that svchost.exe to make it seem like it's a valid windows process..
hardware ? hmmm.. I don't think so..
search the forum for svchost.exe or search google (svchost.exe virus)
I'm still thinking this is a hardware problem sicne your system info is reporting a 1.24 ghz processor. The Athlon XP 2800 has a rated clock speed of 2.08 Ghz. The front side bus speed is 333 Mhz. The CPU Externzal Frequency should always be set to half the FSB speed (for current AMD chips) unless you are overclocking it. (But get it working properly first). Therefore, I think the CPU external frequency should be set to 166 mhz (333/2 = 166.5), not 200 as I previously mentioned. So even if there is another problem, this should be fixed anyway. Here's my logic:
Your current settings:
(CPU External Freq. 100 Mhz) * (12.5x CPU Freq. Multiple?) = 1250 Mhz (1.25 Ghz); 10mhz difference is within 0.5% spectrum.
Optimal Settings (I think):
(CPU External Freq. 166 Mhz) * (12.5x CPU Freq. Multiple) = 2075 Mhz (2.075 Ghz); this is within 0.5% of the rated clock speed of 2.08 Ghz for the Athlon XP 2800.
It looks like the BIOS is configuring the CPU Frequency Multiple correctly but is not setting the external frequency properly, which is why your system is reporting a speed of 1.24 Ghz instead of 2.08 Ghz; your processor is only running at 1.24 Ghz. I have seen this problem on AMD chips before.
Try manually configuring the CPU External Frequency and the CPU Frequency Multiple like this and see if it makes a difference. Further information can be found in the "Advanced Chipset Features" section of your motherboard's user guide.
THANKS STRIEK!. my computer is now running 2.08ghz also thanks sumdumguy because im pretty sure i have the svchost.exe virus and im working on getting rid of it by actuelly getting a virus checker finally
thanks everyone