Win XP Slow Desktop Draw

[DMikeM]

I have been posting this trouble on a couple of forums.

Here

http://forum.msi.com.tw/thread.php?threadid=63144

And here.

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=355508

I did use Nlite to creat my SP2 OEM XP Pro CD.

Here is the inititial problem.

Is there a bug that causes the KT880 to draw the screen slow? Games seem to be fine, but the actually desktop and app screens seem to redraw very slow. Do I need to clock my ram down from 333 to 266 to match the CPU fsb? Is there a VIA bug or driver issue that may be causing the onboard LAN to fight with the USB controller?

System in sig.

[pthomas]

Are windows incredibly slow when you drag them across the screen? Or like you can see windows being drawn in some cases?

Sounds like you've somehow got windows to only draw the desktop with software rendering instead of using hardware rendering provided by your 3d card. If you've already installed the latest video drivers off the web, then your problem most likely resides in whatever you took out of XP by using the Nlite program.

Ram/FSB speed is NOT going to cause this at all. This is purley a video problem. It is true that running the RAM and FSB speeds exactly the same in an Athlon system provides the best performance, but this will NOT create the problem that you are having. And the performance penalty of running the RAM faster than the FSB is only like 3-7% depending on RAM, timings used, MB chipset, ect.

Double check to see what you did not include using the Nlite method. To rule things out, install xp and updgrade it to sp2 in some method other then using an Nlite method. I'll bet you it works fine and something that got taken out of the install is causing your problem.

Paul

[jada855]

I have been having a window drawing problem for some time now. I have a kt600 pro mother board with a AGP 4X 64mb nvidia geforce2 mx 400 and I thought this would not happen once i got and AGP card I used to have a on board video system and it was not the best. But it still does re-draw slow and I just used a regular windows xp upgrade cd with and sp2 cd I got from microsoft. And still the same problem.

It mostly occurs when the system is doing to much like if I am burning a cd then I try to open up my computer and then the control panel I will see the top part of the window with nothing in the center and then the icons and backgoround will fill in. I have and Athlonxp2600+(Barton Core) its wierd because I have a laptop pentium 3 running windows 98 witha 16mb graphics card and this never happens.

Maybe its the athlon processor. I dont know it bothers me but I got used to it but if there is a solution please let me know I have the latest direct x, Nvidia display driver and the latest via chipset

[prathapml]

The VIA chipsets/drivers has been a perpetual head-ache. With nVidia you just have one set of chipset drivers, one set of graphics drivers, and both are unattend-friendly!

First, just make a plain WinXP+SP2 slip-streamed CD. After installing windows from that, install the drivers for your mother-board. And then the latest drivers for your graphics. Should work fine, after that. (if you did nothing wrong in the process)

So if you did the above, and all is fine, then use nLite to integrate drivers - otherwise if it won't work manually for you, how can it when automated!

I've seen newer VIA chipsets giving pretty good performance - so its not an issue there. And I have an Athlon myself and can confirm that an Athlon is equal-to or faster than competing chips (no, let's not make this an Intel-AMD flame).

If nothing else helps, you've either over-clocked your processor (or RAM or gfx card) - in that case bring them all down to run at equal frequency. Or you got a defective board - ask for replacement.

But normally CPU/memory FSB being same gives a safe and stable system. And what's the need to ask about "whether you can bring down RAM to 266 MHz to match your proc" ? Why not try it yourself, and see what the results are - its definitely not going to blow-up any of your components.

[jada855]

Hey prathapml my cpu speed is a athlon 2600+or 1.92ghz are you saying to lower the processor speed in the bios to keep up with the memory. My FSB for the processor is 333mhz but I have pc2100 ram installed which has a 166mhz FSB so in the Bios my processorcpu host frequency speed reads 166mhz and the cpu clock ratio is set to 11.5.

Are you saying to lower the cpu clock ratio to a lower speed so it will not be faster than the ram because I can lower the ram speed its set a 266mhz and can only go higher. . I dont think its the motherboard though because I had a celeron processor with onboard sis graphics card and that thing performed so slow 800mhz celeron. My kt600 pro motherboard is practically new but the window re-draw problem is old and has been doing it for ever I am out of ideas. Thanx for any help or reply. One last question will bringing down the cpu host frequency from its normal 11.5 down to something like 7.0 hurt the processor

[prathapml]

No, the absolute speed in megahertz is not needed to be changed.

What we need to do here, is to see that you have proc. and matching memory, such that both run at the same FSB.

And please check if the details are true..... your post says you have PC2100 memory. That means its default is 266 MHz FSB. And then you mention 166 MHz for the memory.... you are giving conflicting reports.

Right now, what you *CAN* easily do, is go into your BIOS, and set everything to the defaults. (it might be called fail-safe settings, factory defaults, CMOS defaults, whatever....) Basically to return everything to "tested under factory conditions" state. Now check if the slow desktop draw still happens.

If its still happening, then go into BIOS, and set the Proc. and RAM both to the same FSB (first try 266, then 333) - change no other setting. If the "slow desktop draw" still continues, then try changing to different resolutions/bit-depths/refresh-rates. If a windows re-install (after a re-format of C: drive) hasn't been done since a long time, then try that.

If all of this has failed, then there always is the product support offices of the vendor from whom you bought this PC. Get them to either solve the problem or replace the defective components.

If it is all that much of a big problem, as you say - then that needs a technician to be right in front of your PC to analyze/trouble-shoot. If he can't do that and identify what is the cause of your problem...... (I won't comment on the probable quality of his knowledge, or lack thereof). It can't be THAT difficult to fix, because definitely you are using off-the-shelf hardware - hardware that thousands of others are using as well, without any problem.

[jada855]

My fault on the errors sorry. Well my cpu FSB is set to 166mhz my ram is ddr pc2100 at 266mhz. In my bios I have the option to increase the cpu FSB speed to 248 max but the system will not start with anything above 166mhz for the cpu FSB.

I can leave the cpu FSB at 166 and over clock the ram to 333mhz but i still have the re-draw problem. I have attached and image to show you how the sp2 security screen opens when no other programs are open.

Things I have tried turning off all the GUI effects inside windows xp even the themes and I still have this problem here is my detailed system specs. And I know its not the Service packs it even happens on the fresh install of windows xp. here are my system specs

Motherboard:kt600 pro by albatron via chipset (latest drivers)

Nvidia geforce mx400 64mb agp 4x card(latest drivers)

pc2100 ddr ram 256mb

20gb hardisk 5400rpm(could this be the problem??) 2mb cache buffer

Monitor IBM G70(even tried the resolution at 800x600 and a 100mhz refresh rate)

I disabled the direct draw acceleration ( And to my suprise I saw some improvement)

AMD athlonxp 2600+Barton core 512kb L2 cache

Final theory

could it be me because i built the systems everything seems to be running fine on the processor meaning I have a heatsync I used the thermal glue and the right fan speed.

I think it just might be the ram I need to go ahead and get the pc2700 512mb of ram 256 is just not enough

Its funny I play games like unreal 2003 just fine with great frame rates and high textures no problem. But I do experience a super re-draw problem after I quit the game my desktop will re-draw super slow after I quit a game I think it has something to do with the hard disk because when the light is in use on the front of the case is usally when the slow down of the windows comes into play

but if anyone else has any solutions I am willing to try. I find it wierd because I thought I was the only one with this problem so I never mentioned it till i saw this post.

I tried everything you recommended in the previous post.

thanx for any help

[DMikeM]

Are windows incredibly slow when you drag them across the screen? Or like you can see windows being drawn in some cases?

Sounds like you've somehow got windows to only draw the desktop with software rendering instead of using hardware rendering provided by your 3d card. If you've already installed the latest video drivers off the web, then your problem most likely resides in whatever you took out of XP by using the Nlite program.

Ram/FSB speed is NOT going to cause this at all. This is purley a video problem. It is true that running the RAM and FSB speeds exactly the same in an Athlon system provides the best performance, but this will NOT create the problem that you are having. And the performance penalty of running the RAM faster than the FSB is only like 3-7% depending on RAM, timings used, MB chipset, ect.

Double check to see what you did not include using the Nlite method. To rule things out, install xp and updgrade it to sp2 in some method other then using an Nlite method. I'll bet you it works fine and something that got taken out of the install is causing your problem.

Paul

That sounds like about what is going on. Software desktop. Maybe just turn off hardware excelleration then turn it back on?

[DMikeM]

Are windows incredibly slow when you drag them across the screen? Or like you can see windows being drawn in some cases?

Sounds like you've somehow got windows to only draw the desktop with software rendering instead of using hardware rendering provided by your 3d card. If you've already installed the latest video drivers off the web, then your problem most likely resides in whatever you took out of XP by using the Nlite program.

Ram/FSB speed is NOT going to cause this at all. This is purley a video problem. It is true that running the RAM and FSB speeds exactly the same in an Athlon system provides the best performance, but this will NOT create the problem that you are having. And the performance penalty of running the RAM faster than the FSB is only like 3-7% depending on RAM, timings used, MB chipset, ect.

Double check to see what you did not include using the Nlite method. To rule things out, install xp and updgrade it to sp2 in some method other then using an Nlite method. I'll bet you it works fine and something that got taken out of the install is causing your problem.

Paul

That sounds like about what is going on. Software desktop. Maybe just turn off hardware excelleration then turn it back on?

OMG!! That may have fixed it!

pthomas if this is all it was I owe you! If you are ever headed to Big Bear for Siing or Snow Boarding look me up @ Snow Summit.

[DMikeM]

Well bummer, that was just a temporary fix.

Came back after about 10 minutes.

[pthomas]

Alright, question time.

It came back? Was this after a reboot or something? Have you already downloaded and installed the latest video drivers from nvidia.com? Is hardware acceleration set to full under display properties? Does the software rendering seem to kick in after a certain app is launched?

Paul

[DMikeM]

Alright, question time.

It came back? Was this after a reboot or something? Have you already downloaded and installed the latest video drivers from nvidia.com? Is hardware acceleration set to full under display properties? Does the software rendering seem to kick in after a certain app is launched?

Paul

Came back after using IE, or PowerDesk Pro 5 (Ontrack Explorer Replacement). Not after a reboot, it is actually not present for several minutes after a reboot. All drivers are current, acceleration is set to full. Maybe turn off acceleration, reboot turn on, reboot? Will try after work.

Maybe turn off Themes Support then see if it happens, could be the patch from nLite on the themes dll.