PC running sluggish...getting tired of it

0

006

Member
Jan 10, 2005
8,952
0
36
Ok, so I have a PC that I use with a Digidesign MBox and PTLE 6.4 for home projects and for recording during the writing process of a lot of my little ideas. I have Drumkit From Hell 2 on there as well as Cubase SX. Now, it is a Dell XPS Gen2 (blue one) with an Intel PentiumIV 3.2gHz w. 800mHz FSB, 2gb dual channel ram and a Western Digital 10k RPM 180gb internal drive. Why is it taking 10 minutes almost to load DFH2 in CubaseSX compared to about a minute total for my friend who has a 2.XgHz PentiumIII and 512mb of ram? My PC has always been under-performing for recording and gaming ever since I got it. I de-frag about once a week, and format to clean the system off about every month or so. Another friend of mine bought some game a while back that was pretty graphics intense, and I have a good video card, it's actually made for games (Radeon 256mb), and he has an eMachines with a 1.X Pentium chip and 512mb of ram...a 128mb video card that came on the board, and he can run that game much smoother than I can WITH all the graphics intense portions turned up in the options. I had to turn them all down and it was STILL choppy and lagging.

I just don't understand it. Maybe somebody here can help me out with this problem? :)

~006
 
P4 3.2 with 2gb of RAM, and you're running slow? Holy shit. Have you check on spyware/virus'?

I'm running a Dell Deminsion 4550 with P4 2.6 and 1GB of RAM, and have never had a problem running Nuendo 2, Battery 2, Absynth, and a couple other programs at once.
 
run msconfig.exe, click the "startup" tab, and start disabling all the crap you don't need. There are a great deal of programs out there that love to run in the background for no good reason, other than to suck CPU cycles.

-0z-
 
Well actually, there is NO internet connection whatsoever on this machine. I took the network card out 3 months ago, and I have formatted about 8 times since then. I'm pretty sure there's no possibility that there is spyware or any viruses on it. Also, it's WinXP Pro, so all it had on it was the basics, besides I have done the start-up disable on a couple of things already, there wasn't much there to begin with, :p. I just never understood it. It's always been like this. Any other ideas?

~006
 
Also, I have a PowerMac G5 with dual 2.0gHz processors and 4gb of RAM, as well as a PowerBook G4 1.8gHz and 768mb of RAM...so I'm very Mac'ed out, hehe. I do have this PC though that SHOULD be able to do what I'm trying to with it. I really would like to get it to perform like it should.

~006
 
I run my PC on those specs as well, but 2.8 CPU... and have had no problems like you mentioned, only if i really do big ass projects with lot's of programs and heavy plugins..

What OS are you running?

If it's XP, there is a lot, and i mean a lot that you can trim out of XP, so it will run smoother...

Also, spyware was mentioned as well.. do you have a firewall and a protective virus/spyware scanner?

If not, look for hitman pro.. that will defenitly detect a lot of spyware, and if possible, delete it for you... at least you will know it that's the problem when you run it.

I ran it once, and had about 38 different hits on spyware after scanning.. it could delete them all, and had never had a problem with it...

Oh yeah, stay away from porn... sicko! :tickled:

And programs like kazaa or limewire don't help either...
 
Hmmm.. does your friend with DFH2 have everything on one drive, or does he keep his samples on a second drive? Keeping a "programs" drive and a seperate drive for audio files always speeds up load times, and generally yields much better performance.
Even so, such a high-spec machine shouldn't have such problems. A few things you can try:
-check out MusicXP.net; they have tons of info on tweaking WinXP specifically for audio. The "tuning tips" section is particularly useful.
-Make sure you're not accidentally underclocking your CPU; check the bios and make sure it's actually running at 3.2GHz. Sometimes you have to manually set a clock multiplier value, or it runs slower. In fact, make sure all of your bios settings are what you expect.
-I don't mean to sound presumptuous, so I'm just going to ask it and leave it at that: Is your copy of cubase legit? (this still wouldn't explain the slow game thing, though)
-Turn off any virus protection while you do music/game stuff.
-Run adaware, spybot, etc anyway; you'll never know what you might turn up.
 
Actually, as I said there is no internet connection on the computer at all. So spyware, viruses, trojans, etc. are out of the question as the culprits of this. My friend actually loads up Drumkit From Hell Superior (which is more intense than DFH2's initial load) in about 1/10th of the time. He uses one single drive just like me. In fact he has the same drive too.

I don't have any spyware or virus programs installed because there is no connection to the net. I never thought to check my bios at all. Yes my copy of Cubase is legit. I believe firmly in supporting the software companies that provide me with tools to do my job, which includes paying in full for the programs. Any other ideas?

~006
 
Well, I see "Pro Tools Freak" under your name, and I hate to sound preachy, but you should really take a look at SawStudio to see just how fast your machine can really run. Machine code is a completely different world.

-0z-
 
Most likely spyware/malware issues. It is getting really out of hand these days. I repair PC's on the side and cannot tell you how many times I see this.

Your problem sounds quite extreme. IMO, you will most likely spend more time running various "cleansing" apps than it would take to format C: and load a fresh copy of XP, drivers and your most pertinent apps.

I guarantee you, provided that you do not have some pending hardware failure (a failing drive for instance) your machine will run like $1,000,000 if you do a fresh load.
 
ProTools actually runs pretty fine on my PC, it's mostly DFH2 that I'm sick of, and games being all sluggish. The load times on DFH2, and the graphics on games. Thats all I'm concerned about. DFD? Let me test my pc, I'll post results, :)

~006
 
Ok, for the last time...there is no possible way that I can get spyware on the PC, it's not connected to the internet, nor does it have any way of being connected, the network card is not in the case anymore, and there is nothing remotely close to any kind of connection to the web in conjunction with my PC. I'm using my laptop right now on this forum.

I defrag about once a week at least, and format about once a month. Graphics are always set to minimum, thats just a standard procedure :p. And I still need to check the bios. The Everest thing that Space Corpse posted doesn't run on my PC...not sure what thats about but now I'm pretty sure there could be some spyware NOW. Anyway, checking bios.

~006
 
Ok, it said the clock was at 3.2gHz. I turned hyperthreading ON, even though I read somewhere that you should disable it for recording purposes. I'm opening up DFH2 now to see if that makes a difference.......

Nope, same exact amount of time. So going back and disabling it again...obviously it doesn't help. I feel like I'm in the gutter on this one.

~006
 
Weeeee....after rebooting, now my System32 folder pops up every time Windows loads. Yay.

~006
 
i have a pc with 512 mb of ram and a p4 3.0 and theres no way dfh 2 will load quickly in fact i cant even get it to load fully without dropouts. are you sure your friends only has 512 mb ram? just doesnt sound reasonable to me, most people i know use at least 1 gig with that program and even then its not perfect. but these days are over, i just bought a g5 today so when it arrives in about a week i can start a new life free of pc problems.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

0
Building my own new PC...
Replies
25
Views
1K
Andy Sneap
Lord Lurion
L
zenx
Optimal PC config
Replies
31
Views
1K
Andy Sneap
Brett - K A L I S I A
B
L
pc sound card ?
Replies
27
Views
1K
Andy Sneap
Brett - K A L I S I A
B
A
WOOO new pc
Replies
18
Views
545
Maiden Downunder
AussieTerry84
A
gorath23
Yet another PC question
Replies
25
Views
1K
Andy Sneap
Metaltastic
M
Top Bottom
Back