Help With New Mobo Performance

MichaelS wrote on 3/6/2006, 9:11 PM

I've recently had to changed out my mother board due to a power surge. Since, I've encountered several problems that I can't seem to track down.'

1. Occassional momentary mouse freeze.

2. Monitor frame rate slows to a crawl.

3. Can't multi-task as many programs as I used to.

Get the idea? I've checked all the obvious. CPU Usage appears to be normal. Reducing video performance doesn't seem to help.

Has anyone experienced similar problems and can offer some much appreciated help?

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 3/6/2006, 10:14 PM

I don't want to send you on a wild goose chase, so wait until a few others give their opinions. The first thing I'd look for, however, if I were you, would be memory. You can download and run the "standard" memory test here:

memtest86

My other guess would be a video card problem.

The memory problem would be solved by using different memory. The video card problem would be most likely solved by looking for, and then installing, a video driver update.

fldave wrote on 3/7/2006, 5:18 AM

Try memtest first, could be your new board doesn't match your cpu and/or memory, if you didn't replace those also. Verify everything is supported.

If that checks out, then it could be IRQs being shared by too many resources. Go to Programs\Accessories\SystemTools\System Information. Open up the Hardware tree and check Conflicts/Sharing. Check to make sure that your main components like video card and sound card are not sharing the same IRQ. Read your motherboard manual to see how to correct if they are. It might be as simple as switching some components on different connectors/buses.

craftech wrote on 3/7/2006, 7:01 AM

The first thing I would ask you is that when you changed your motherboard, did you reformat your hard drive and start with the default bios settings or did you try to get your old hard drive configuration to adapt to the new motherboard?

If you did reformat, did you remove the sound card, network card, etc and use the Standard VGA adapter configuration when you loaded the OS? Then added the peripherals one at a time to see if they worked properly and properly claimed their appropriate IRQ?

John

Wes C. Attle wrote on 3/7/2006, 9:13 AM

Could also be an unstable or insufficient power supply, especially if it suffered through a power surge, or if you added high-end graphics cards etc.

MichaelS wrote on 3/7/2006, 9:54 AM

I'm leaning toward a power supply problem. Everything else checks out. Before the surge, the power supply seemed adequate, but now I'm not so sure. It's only a 250w.

This is a Gateway tower. All warantees have expired (last month). Am I going to have trouble upgrading the power supply without going through Gateway or should any standard "off the shelf" model do?

Here's my IRQ setup. Notice any problems?

IRQ 0 System timer OK
IRQ 1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard OK
IRQ 4 Communications Port (COM1) OK
IRQ 5 Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM SMBus Controller - 2443 OK
IRQ 6 Standard floppy disk controller OK
IRQ 8 System CMOS/real time clock OK
IRQ 9 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System OK
IRQ 12 Microsoft PS/2 Mouse OK
IRQ 13 Numeric data processor OK
IRQ 14 Primary IDE Channel OK
IRQ 15 Secondary IDE Channel OK
IRQ 16 RADEON 9800 SERIES OK
IRQ 18 NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller OK
IRQ 19 NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller OK
IRQ 19 Intel(r) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2442 OK
IRQ 20 Intel(R) PRO/100 Network Connection OK
IRQ 21 Creative SB Audigy OK
IRQ 21 VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller OK
IRQ 22 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller OK
IRQ 22 Silicon Image SiI 0680 ATA/133 Controller OK
IRQ 23 NEC PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller B1 OK
IRQ 23 Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Desktop Adapter OK

Thanks!

fldave wrote on 3/7/2006, 10:07 AM

IRQ's look better than mine! 250W power supply is probably too low for a modern processor/motherboard. Not sure if Gateway's are proprietary or not.

johnmeyer wrote on 3/7/2006, 10:29 AM

You didn't provide much information on how much stuff is in your computer. 250W is a reasonably big power supply for most systems. However, if you have a large number of hard disks and other internal peripherals (DVD drives), you might need more.

There was a link in this thread to a power supply calculator:

Power Supply Calculator

Don't know how good it is, and whether they were just trying to sell more stuff, but it's worth a look.

[Edit] I actually went through the calculations. They are definitely trying to sell power supplies. The calculator ends up recommending REALLY big power supplies.