[SOLVED] Upgraded video... PC's performance still sucks

Something's rotten in the state of Denmark. If you can help me figure this out, you'll have my most sincere gratitude forever, or at least until such time as I see fit.

My wife's ancient piece of...uhhh her computer continues to have difficulty running Windows to my satisfaction. I bought a cheap video card for the machine in the hope that it would allow fluent Aero experience. I reinstalled 7, but the performance was really unsatisfactory, so just to see how much of a difference it would make, I put XP back on it. The performance is okay, with all the eye candy turned off, but weird things still happen. It's a P4 @ 2.6GHz with 2 gigs of RAM and a GeForce 6200 256MB. One would think that XP would just fly on it, and in my opinion 7 should run decently as well. Not so.

Mostly you notice something wrong when you close a Windows Explorer window and there's a small delay between the border of the window disappearing and the contents disappearing. One of the reasons I reformatted and reinstalled everything was because in her previous XP installation, suddenly it started doing this thing where you move your mouse across Programs menu and instead of the title of an application you see the desktop that's underneath, or you see a black bar.

I'm really tired of dealing with this machine and just want it to work so she can use it and I don't have to mess with it all the time. At this point I have three suspects:
1. Bad RAM (running Memtest86+ as we speak)
2. Problem with hard drives/controllers (started getting a "no 80 conductor cable installed" error out of the blue during post, but all drives/partitions work) -- UPDATE: Replaced 40-conductor cable with 80; error doesn't appear anymore
3. Faulty motherboard.

I've always felt that the memory wasn't quite as "speedy" as you'd expect from a 2 GB stick, but I know very little about RAM. If I post the motherboard info and the memory stick specs is there someone who can tell me if they're really compatible? Because I'm starting to have my doubts.

At this point a new motherboard is just out of the reach of our budget, so I really want to exhaust all other possibilities first...

Any and all suggestions are wholeheartedly welcome.

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Well, I looked online as to the difference in how the 40-conductor cable and the 80 look, and it's clear to me that the IDE cable to the DVD burner and the system drive is a 40-conductor, while the cable to the storage drives is an 80. Could this be the culprit? Could it really make that big of a difference?

I would try to eliminate the memory first. After Memtest, try reseating the stick(s) in another slot. Is it 1 2gig stick? Do you have any other known good sticks you could try. It's not rambus or another type of ram that needs to be installed in pairs is it?
I would think XP could run well on 1gig.

Hard drive diagnostics from hdd manufacturer?

If it's the mobo then where do you draw the line?

Keep us posted.

Memtest didn't find any problems.

Yes, it's a 2 gig stick. Here's its info: 2GB 240p PC2-5300 CL5 16c 128x8 DDR2-667 DIMM RFB Taiwan, Elpida, APM, GU342G0AJEPR692C4CE.

To be honest I don't really know how to tell if a stick is the kind that has to be installed in pairs. I do have another stick of the same kind (also 2 GB); the reason it's not in is because I remember the machine wouldn't boot if I had both in so I took one out (altho mobo supposedly does support 4 GB total).

I replaced the 40-conductor cable with an 80. No more complaint about a missing 80-conductor during boot, but HDTune reported a bunch of CRC errors on the drive after I switched cables. I ran a zero-fill format and used WD's own diag tool which found no problems.

I also have a couple of 512 MB sticks... Is it better to run two 512 MB sticks than one 2 GB stick, in other words losing 1 GB in RAM but being able to fill both slots?

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Well, I put both sticks in, but the system only sees 2.3 GB...

That kind of ram does not need to be installed in pairs.

I would give it a try. It may rule out or pin point where the problem lies.

In my P4 that I'm typing on now, I have 2-1gig and 2-256mb fora total of 2512 of ram. This thing runs really well with Win 7 32bit. It's only DDR PC3200.

Memtest has been known to not find anything on first attempts but does on subsequent tries. Do you have the time to run it longer? Overnight maybe?

Starting to look like the MB maybe?

Core - once IDE PATA drives started getting faster in the late '90s around ATA 66 and on up in speed, the switch to an 80-conductor cable was necessary because of the problem of "channel crosstalk" between the conductors in the cable.

So the extra 40 conductors are actually ground conductors to act as a shield between the active conductors.

Back when I used IDE connections and PATA hard drives I always used 80-conductor cables just to avoid any problems. I also noticed that when I used an 80-conductor cable on the CD/DVD burner there was less "coaster burns" too.

Depending on how old the motherboard is in your wife's rig, it may just be "tired" or "worn out" so to speak. What usually goes out first are the capacitors due to aging of the electrolyte fluid in them.

Look real closely at the tops of the capacitors to see if any are bulging or cracked. Look for fluid leaks too.



On this pic, notice the tops of the capacitors are bulging out.

The following is from: www.badcaps.net -

If the motherboard is over 6-7 years old, it really should be replaced, especially if it's an OEM board from a computer maker like HP, Dell, Gateway, eMachines, Compaq, etc.

All DDR2 memory can be used in a dual channel configuration. To safe guard the possibility that the memory will be compatible with each other, DDR2 is usually bought in pairs. DDR2 does not require you to run in dual channel mode, a single stick will work fine in a single channel mode.

Take my computer for instance, I ran for a while before I realized I had my memory in the wrong slots in order to take advantage of the dual channel capability.

I'll bet a slab of St. Louis-style ribs it's a bad motherboard.

Good call on the swollen caps. Definitely check that out?

Why don't you build a cheap Athlon system for Windows 7 and kill XP? An Athlon x2 250 is more than enough for an office system instead of wasting time and effort on obsolete parts.

He's married and the wife has the power of "Yes & No" !