Here is more information on my system from the BIOS.

see fig11a for where my system hangs. device 01 sometimes is found as the via chipset sometimes as the hp i think its taking time while it sorts them out into order or stops them from clashing. will take out that floppy later, and swap usb ports (although i have tried this i think).

Ok, the main options screen/ entry screen of my bios is fig12a.

first is standard CMOS features. Ok see fig13a for how mine is setup. does this look ok to you for SATA drives?

second is the advanced BIOS features. Ok see fig 14a for this screen and then 14b for my Boot sequence screen.

third is the advanced chipset features. Ok see fig15a for this screen.

fourth is the integrated peripherals. Ok see fig16a for this main screen. And then see fig16b 16c and 16d for the device configs.

fith is the power management features. Ok see fig17a for this on next reply as too many attachments

sixth is the PNP/PCI configuration. Ok see fig 18a on next post.

seventh is the hardware monitor. I guess this is whats running on the chip or something, there is an option in there to set the fan to maybe run at an earlier temperature. See fig19a for my settings on this screen. Also see fig19b for my current pc health status.

eighth is the money shot I hope. This is my Cell menu. The overclocking area im assuming? And maybe an area where i have selected or have something set wrong. See fig20a for this screens settings.

the other attachments ...

10fps seems about right, and don't worry about getting 0fps during the cpu test in 3dmark, the cpu isn't good at 3d and that's normal

3d is fine, the fps is about normal for a 6800. Only 380 cpu marks is the problem, other people are getting 1000. I think you're cpu might be throttling itself because it's overheating. In speedfan check the graph to see the max temp your cpu is reaching under load. If the cpu isn't being utilised the temp drops fairly rapidly and is inaccurate. Another problem is the ram you have is onyl DDR333 when it should be DDR400. Whoever you bought it off have taken the cheap route and stuffed in some slower ram, but not slow enough to make such a huge difference. But I'd be checking to see if you got what you paid for.

*Latest update*

Have cleaned my case and fans. Knocked my temperatures down by a lot. See fig 21a for my latest temps.

I have disconnected my Floppy disk drive but The Via P devices are still detected on boot.

Are you sure these arnt related to my 2 SATA drives? Could it be my drives are running in IDE mode or something?

In the BIOS they show as IDE and the VIA-P chip on my system board is very close to my IDE ports...

what would the VIA-P 6205 things be for and why is it auto detecting them?

Wow, what a difference! Have you tried playing LFS with the new temps?

And, btw, speedfan is not necessarily reliable. I don't know which would be the best program to actually read core-temperatures for an AMD-processor, but you should try and find something else, as it is possible that the temps speedfan shows are too low (or too high, for that matter).

I recommend Everest for Temp Readings google for EVEREST ...

dont worry i was in a situation with my comp that i couldnt even start 3dmard :S i bought 1gig of 400mhz ram , Newest chipset drivers and everything , now its workin ok! before i had 333mhz ram too...

So what kind of issues should i expect from having 333mhz / PC2700 memory while using this processor and FSB speeds? Is it just the processor drops down to 333mhz or what? Would this cause big issues because I got the PC as a whole package so I might be able to get it changed under warranty or something if i speak to their sale dept.

As a note. I have 1 fan on my 2 hard drives which i cleaned up. 1 fan on my heatsink (bit grubby so is the heatsink but too scared to clean it). 1 fan on my case which is pushing air over the system board. And the obvious fans in my power supply.

I am assuming my processor heatsink fan is the one being displayed in SpeedFan as the other two case fans / PSU dont seem to have any cables for sensors. Its good to know there is more than 1 fan in there though.

Edit: Oh yeah I re enabled those two via chipsets in windows. Is it possible that those 2 things are my CD-RW DVD-/+RW combo drive? when i enabled them two drives show in my computers as "removable media".

Quote from Linsen :

Wow, what a difference! Have you tried playing LFS with the new temps?

And, btw, speedfan is not necessarily reliable. I don't know which would be the best program to actually read core-temperatures for an AMD-processor, but you should try and find something else, as it is possible that the temps speedfan shows are too low (or too high, for that matter).

Speedfan is very reliable. It measures cpu temp off the oncore die probe if its there. I'm not sure about the all the P4s, but the Pentium Ds and AMDs show a Core reading in Speedfan and it is very accurate. A more accurate tool would be CoreTemp which also meaures on die temps and can even show temps of the seperate cores on dual core processors.

The speed difference isn't too much as long as your CPU is running at its rated speed. Your ram is just running slower so things are a tiny bit slower, so faster ram would be a bit faster but nothing major.

Clean otu that cpu fan! Just unscrew it off the top of the heatsink if you can and clean out that dust, or get a can of compressed air and blow it out. DO NOT use your vacuum on your computer parts as static buildup can fry them. That VIA stuff is usually hard disk controllers or USB stuff, no harm in leaving it enabled.

see problem is im a smoker. so its a sticky nasty sickly yellowy tar.

smoking is bad for your PC health!

just had a race on LFS. frame rate is as follows:

outside view i get 30-60 FPS when racing against others. 100-150 fps when im out racing alone.

in car i get slightly better for obvious reasons and thats how i race so its all good now I sorted those temps out. in planetside i got much better results too.

However, I still think i can get more out of this. And its STILL slow to boot. damn I need to update the bios but I dont have a floppy. anyone got linkage to making a bootable cd rom so i can flash a bios?

What I am worried about is the fan on my heatsink and my geforce card to become unbalanced or broken by me trying to scrape that shit off the fan and surrounding card. im using some mr muscle wipes and a toothbrush. its pretty grimey in there but i really think the big problem was the dirt. See fig22a to fig22j for something to make you cringe and throw up for a week and knightmares of suffocating in dust(view discretion advised 18+ disturbing images ahead look at your own risk).

I didnt realise how dirty it gets inside a cupboard :spidereek yes I even found a spiders web and a spiders shed skin inside the front panel.

P.S Thats not a picture of me holding my own faeces.

P.P.S Did anyone look at the BIOS attachments earlier and see if any of my options are weird.

P.P.P.S Should I use PS/2 adapter with my mouse?

P.P.P.P.S Thanks again.

Yuk, imagine how the inside of lungs must look like. Don't worry about booting speed it has nothing to do with overall computer speed. If it's not broke then don't fix it applies to BIOSes, I wouldn't be stuffing around there unless there's a fix you need in a later BIOS.

Guess you should clean your case more often to keep the temps down so everything is running smoothly.

USB works better than PS2

lol, no wonder your temps were that high. There was obviously hardly any air getting into the case. Yuk .

And, no, speedfan is not necessarily reliable. I know many people from a german hardware forum who get weird or impossible temperatures. And I am getting a cpu temperature of 15° C with room temperature being at 20° C. Would you call that realistic, considering that my machine is 100% air-cooled?

Quote from Linsen :

And, no, speedfan is not necessarily reliable. I know many people from a german hardware forum who get weird or impossible temperatures. And I am getting a cpu temperature of 15° C with room temperature being at 20° C. Would you call that realistic, considering that my machine is 100% air-cooled?

Speedfan has always been reliable for me and the new versions even more so with on die temperature monitoring. Since there's a lot of temps my guess is you were looking at the wrong one. You just have to use some common sense in seeing which temp corressponds to which sensor. That problem no longer applies with on die measurements though.

Quote from Davo :

Speedfan has always been reliable for me and the new versions even more so with on die temperature monitoring. Since there's a lot of temps my guess is you were looking at the wrong one. You just have to use some common sense in seeing which temp corressponds to which sensor. That problem no longer applies with on die measurements though.

Well, congratulations! But: Just because it has been reliable for you does not mean that it's also reliable for others. I know my way around speedfan and know exactly which temperature does what. Not only are them labeled correctly in speedfan, I also did some extensive testing to determine the perfect settings for my fan monitoring which is done by speedfan on my machine. And I repeat: On a german hardwareforum where I sometimes hang out, there are many people getting weird or impossible cpu temperature readings from speedfan. Do you think it's likely that all those hardwaregeeks are looking at the wrong temperature? And besides: for which temperature would it be realistic to be below room temperature if the machine is 100% air-cooled? So, please use some common sense before advising others to do so.

It's only as accurate as the sensors. Anyway as you can clearly see the OP has no problems with speedfan as it reports the temperatures right because they dropped after the clean out.

Well, from the overclocking forum im a member off, a long as the temps arn't silly, and you aren'y looking at the wrong sensor its VERY accurate - although sometimes they dont work properly with C2D's

I'll just quote myself and leave it at that, as it is a little OT for this thread:

Quote from Linsen :

And, btw, speedfan is not necessarily reliable.

hiya, system seems to run much nicer now that it isnt suffocating itself. the only think i noticed about speedfan was that temp3 used to show up as -6 or 7 before but now is showing at a proper temperature reading. I think maybe i cleared some dust out of that sensor.

running anti aliasing and antriscopic filtering like i used to be able to!

Hi got a bit of an update and am about to be a royal pita with more questions. Be prepared this is a lot. Ive downloaded Everest (an older free version). Every time I try and find out information I come up with some overclocking forum and I get lost in information. sorry for the scattyness of my brainage.

First up is my memory issue
Ive been trying to figure out how this is affecting me and what I can do about it to get the most out of my computer. So far this is what I know about my bus speeds. My processor is running at 200mhz which is going through 2 logical units which is equal to 400mhz? which is why the P4 is a 400mhz speeds or something, but somewhere it says its 800mhz FSB, is that to the L1 and L2 cache? hmm. Ok that bit is confusing but thats not where my issue lies, I know that it needs 400mhz on the memory because you guys said already. And frankly the 333mhz seems out of place in the rest of my specs...Does my graphics card speeds matter?

In Everest this is the details.

Graphics Processor Properties
Video Adapter Leadtek WinFast PX6800
GPU Code Name NV40PCX
PCI Device 10DE / 00F9
Transistors 222 million
Process Technology 0.13u
Die Size 287 mm2
Bus Type PCI Express x16 @ x16
Memory Size 256 MB
GPU Clock 402 MHz
RAMDAC Clock 400 MHz
Pixel Pipelines 16
TMU Per Pipeline 1
Vertex Shaders 6 (v3.0)
Pixel Shaders 1 (v3.0)
DirectX Hardware Support DirectX v9.0c
Pixel Fillrate 6432 MPixel/s
Texel Fillrate 6432 MTexel/s

Memory Bus Properties (of my graphics card)
Bus Type DDR
Bus Width 256-bit
Real Clock 510 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 1021 MHz
Bandwidth 31.9 GB/s

Cool, now there is a lot of "mhz" stats there, one of them must talk to the memory in 400mhz? this is a guess, does PCI express 16x run too slow for this to matter? So my processor is running at 400mhz, and my gfx card is also then me memory is slowing up the bus speeds by 66mhz? Which you would say is quite a large loss due to the memory im using.

If I got some PC3200 memory would it make my ratio 1:1 and thus much faster even if I dropped down to 2x512 instead of 2x1024 memory sticks? Argh this timing thing is driving me nuts! Is 2:3 better or is that just for planning to overclock the processor? As I understand with memory so far, I need to get the highest mhz fsb with the lowest latency but keeping those latencies as equal as possible. So for me what I need is 400mhz 2-2-2-5 memory?? Im not really sure on all this.

This is the details of my 2 memory sticks from Everest.

Memory Module Properties
Serial Number None
Manufacture Date Week 18 / 2005
Module Size 1024 MB (2 ranks, 4 banks)
Module Type Unbuffered
Memory Type DDR SDRAM
Memory Speed PC2700 (166 MHz)
Module Width 64 bit
Module Voltage SSTL 2.5
Error Detection Method None
Refresh Rate Reduced (7.8 us), Self-Refresh


Memory Timings
@ 166 MHz 2.5-3-3-7 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
@ 133 MHz 2.0-3-3-6 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)


Memory Module Features
Early RAS# Precharge Not Supported
Auto-Precharge Not Supported
Precharge All Not Supported
Write1/Read Burst Not Supported
Buffered Address/Control Inputs Not Supported
Registered Address/Control Inputs Not Supported
On-Card PLL (Clock) Not Supported
Buffered DQMB Inputs Not Supported
Registered DQMB Inputs Not Supported
Differential Clock Input Supported
Redundant Row Address Not Supported

lol there isnt much supported by my memory ... and I dont know how I can run it at 133mhz either because I cant select that in the bios only 333mhz or 400mhz (which still runs on POST as 333mhz). My motherboard manual seems to think it can support 533mhz too, a maximum of 2gb and 2 dimms(both 240 and 184). Is this an even better memory speed that I could use because of the memory speed on my graphics card? If thats only 400mhz that wont matter will it? Am I trying to get 800mhz fsb over my whole system, with 200mhz cpu with quad data rate, 800mhz fsb on my system board and then 2 dimms of dual 400mhz memory which = 800mhz? wtf im so lost arghghhrhgh lol.

This is my options as I currently see them.

• I can overclock some stuff, like maybe my processor, to make a nicer ratio than 5:4 dont really know about overclocking so it scares me but i could learn
  
• I can declock my processor to 333mhz to make it run better than it is currently???? would that work?
  
• I can buy 400mhz PC3200 memory on 240 pins, prefereably some decent stuff like this crucial/corsair stuff ive heard about, what about http://www.lowestonweb.com/pro ... 68-4B1A-99C5-B857F40D6D8B 184 pin type x2 worth doing that even? or http://www.lowestonweb.com/pro ... 0F-4C94-AF88-F370EE1E3A7D 240 pin type (how comes this is 4-4-4-12 is fast?)
  
• I can overclock my current memory from 333mhz to 400mhz, if thats even possible?

Second up is my slow boot error
The VIA-P chipset has got to be the 9 in 1 card reader / floppy drive. I just cant work out how I can fix it because it even comes up when I disconnect the drive, maybe I didnt disconnect the whole thing properly because the removable disks still show up in my computer even though my A: is gone. I guess i should unplug it from the system board or something.

Still havent updated my BIOS this bit scares me a lot too the readme (attached earlier post) doesnt say it fixes anything similar to what I have or need, i should just do it but i dont want to stop my computer running, but need LFS

I cant find any updates regarding this driver or chipset either yet I see lots of people that have this got problems with all sorts of hardware. Maybe I should just phone up Evesham and tell them about this will they do anything though my computer is over a year old now. Ive had an engineer out twice to fit new PSU's so the warranty may have been extended from when he last visited who knows. Ill try and find out their support number tomorrow and call them, uhhh they wasted my time so much in the past i cant believe i have to ring them again!

Third is an easy one
Would I be better off using 1024x768 res with 85hz refresh rate on my monitor, or is that only worth it with vsync. I get that tearing thing sometimes in some games. why would I get tearing is my viewsonic vp191s monitor too poor for my system? I usually run 1280x1024 at 75hz I dont know if I would see any visual difference changing it to 85hz.

Fourth is my overheating thing a bit more continued
I went into my nvidia control panel and put a lot of the options up so it bumped the graphics up a lot to higher quality but after about 10 mins of playing the fans kicked in and it slowed down a bit and I checked the temp and the GPU was at 50C and the processor seemed to have crept up to 70C again. maybe i need to clean harder. Maybe I just pushed my system as hard as it could go. It still had good FPS but it just felt slower to the demon ive been used to the last couple of days.

Sensor Properties
Sensor Type Winbond W83627THF (ISA 290h)
GPU Sensor Type Maxim MAX6646 (NV-I2C 4Ch)
Motherboard Name MSI MS-7058

Temperatures
Motherboard 40 °C (104 °F)
CPU 50 °C (122 °F)
GPU 37 °C (99 °F)
GPU Ambient 35 °C (95 °F)
WDC WD2000JD-00HBC0 35 °C (95 °F)
WDC WD2000JD-00HBC0 31 °C (88 °F)

Cooling Fans
CPU 1096 RPM

Voltage Values
CPU Core 1.36 V
+3.3 V 3.30 V
+5 V 5.00 V
+12 V 11.67 V
+5 V Standby 5.06 V
VBAT Battery 3.09 V
Debug Info F FF 9A FF
Debug Info T 40 50 233
Debug Info V 8A 6C CE BA C0 5A 10 (03)

The two sensors I have in my system feels limited, id like to get more sensors somehow, is there a card i can get that will do this or is that all down to what motherboard ive got? Is there a way to find out the rpm of my GPU fan? How do you rate PCI fan cards? I want a heavy duty fan I dont want one that glows in the dark but one that is really quiet but powerful at the same time.

Fith is still my BIOS settings still continued
Just remembered this, I havent really looked into the options much I will google this stuff in a bit and get back to you with some stuff about that probably lol

Sixth is the reinstall of windows I keep talking about and not doing
My current windows install is on G: because i messed up the install first time around now ive moved most of the data I want to keep to my other hard drive C: which when I reinstall windows I plan to remove from the system, then once windows is reinstalled Ill reconnect it and hope the drive letter gets renamed, will this work?

I dont know which drivers to let windows install or which to use a driver disk or downloaded drivers that I can put on a CD. If I want my system to start clean, should I disconnect the hardware except 1 hard drive, then update the BIOS then install windows then connect stuff up after that? Ive got a recovery disk that I got with the computer too, which is sort of an XP pro disk except its got evesham on it. is this loaded with drivers for my windows to work with this hardware? is that installing the VIA drivers that are causing me hassle? Ill need this disk to load my SATA drivers right? When I format the disk do I format /mbr too or something? do i even need to do that these days?

Wow my fingers ache now. Sorry I can talk a lot sometimes.

Thanks everyone for lending me your ears and spending time helping me.

Oh dear it has begun, I've spotted the signs and I'm sorry, but you've contracted the upgrade bug lol

I'm not going to answer all your questions because I don't think they really make much difference and the performance boost you're looking for can only be had in an upgrade. A little tweaking or new ram isn't going to bring you huge beneifts where all of a sudden you can run everything at max quality and high fps.

Quote from Davo :

I'm not going to answer all your questions because I don't think they really make much difference and the performance boost you're looking for can only be had in an upgrade. A little tweaking or new ram isn't going to bring you huge beneifts where all of a sudden you can run everything at max quality and high fps.

just fyi, i have an AMD 4000 (Nudging FX-57 speeds - comparable to a 4.7 GHz Intel) and a 7950GT, even when it's overclocked, with all my custon textures it runs at 100 fps with 4xAA and 16xAF, but at the starts it drops to 35! If you want an upgrade plan, WAIT, and get a Core 2 Duo and either a 8600 (which are coming out when the R600 comes out) or get a used 7xxx card

EDIT - GFX cards....

although Intel's want to be kept under 60, GFX cards are alright up to 85-90!

Also, MHz on graphics card are only useful to compare you 629xxz to another 692xxz, or allow you to see how much it's overclocked.

My old 9600XT ran at 500 MHz on the core, my newer 6600GT also ran at 500 MHz, and my new 7950GT only runs at 580 MHz

I'll give you a hint, each one is over double as powerful as the one before

Yeh, fps drop very badly when there's a full grid, infact I change my resolution down to 1440x900. Normally I use 1680x1050 with 4xAA and 16xAF on my 7900GS and get 130+fps alone and most races around 60. But bring on a full grid and that drops substantially. I think a cpu upgrade helps miore than a gpu upgrade for a full grid fps boost. I'm considering going C2D, but I think I'll wait till s939 system fetch more on the market because of rare parts.

Quote from richy :

What exactly should I be aiming for based on my PC specs? Should I atleast have 100 fps solid or what?

This might give you an idea about that: http://lfsbench.iron.eu.org/?c=completemax

Quote from richy :

Second up is my slow boot error
The VIA-P chipset has got to be the 9 in 1 card reader / floppy drive. I just cant work out how I can fix it because it even comes up when I disconnect the drive, maybe I didnt disconnect the whole thing properly because the removable disks still show up in my computer even though my A: is gone. I guess i should unplug it from the system board or something.

Still havent updated my BIOS this bit scares me a lot too the readme (attached earlier post) doesnt say it fixes anything similar to what I have or need, i should just do it but i dont want to stop my computer running, but need LFS

I cant find any updates regarding this driver or chipset either yet I see lots of people that have this got problems with all sorts of hardware. Maybe I should just phone up Evesham and tell them about this will they do anything though my computer is over a year old now. Ive had an engineer out twice to fit new PSU's so the warranty may have been extended from when he last visited who knows. Ill try and find out their support number tomorrow and call them, uhhh they wasted my time so much in the past i cant believe i have to ring them again!

Problem fixed!

I checked inside the case again, and I had done exactly I thought. I disconnected the floppy cable which runs off the FDD controller. Id disconnected the power cable but not the big black cable that I didnt see! This cable must be powered off the motherboard which powers the 9in1 reader. Disconnected the readers. Still have a floppy. Printer and ipod is seen on boot up and it doesnt take 10 minutes.

Wicked!

Quote from Jakg :

just fyi, i have an AMD 4000 (Nudging FX-57 speeds - comparable to a 4.7 GHz Intel) and a 7950GT, even when it's overclocked, with all my custon textures it runs at 100 fps with 4xAA and 16xAF, but at the starts it drops to 35! If you want an upgrade plan, WAIT, and get a Core 2 Duo and either a 8600 (which are coming out when the R600 comes out) or get a used 7xxx card

EDIT - GFX cards....

although Intel's want to be kept under 60, GFX cards are alright up to 85-90!

Also, MHz on graphics card are only useful to compare you 629xxz to another 692xxz, or allow you to see how much it's overclocked.

My old 9600XT ran at 500 MHz on the core, my newer 6600GT also ran at 500 MHz, and my new 7950GT only runs at 580 MHz

I'll give you a hint, each one is over double as powerful as the one before

My system needs to last me atleast another year yet with minimal cost. However I would like to get the best out of my processor and motherboard and graphics card, maybe at the cost of a ram upgrade. And if that little 333mhz think is a bottleneck for the whole systems fsb i could get a large upgrade for a cheap investment? Or am I not going to see a difference worthy of the money?

edit:

oh I see, the graphics processor talks to the memory on the card... bingo.

I wouldn't bother, you probably won't even notice the difference going from 333 to 400. Save the dosh and use it for a complete upgrade later.