Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

[pfrcom]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Probably time to download disk diagnostics from the manufacturer of the HDD that's in it, and run their drive verification tool

A K6/2-500 should be noticeably faster than any Cyrix MII

If it's getting slower every time you use it, sounds like a different link is breaking up somewhere in the performance chain

[lti]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Would a bad hard drive cause games to run slower? Loading times for all programs have not changed. They are only slow when I am trying to use them.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Have you checked the BIOS for any settings that got reset to defaults? But agreed with the others... get a PIII and call it a day. SiS chipsets are... not worth bothering with.

[pfrcom]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

It curently has 256MB. I never noticed a performance hit.

Did you use software tools to measure performance with 128mb or less memory, versus more ?

When building with a SiS 5598 based board a while ago, I found exceeding the cache limit slowed compute performance to 60% or less

Would a bad hard drive cause games to run slower? Loading times for all programs have not changed. They are only slow when I am trying to use them.

Have you measured disk performance, or checked the disk in any way ?

Do you know how much your games use disk, or whether they use lots of virtual memory which also needs disk performance

Seems to me you're judging subjectively rather than objectively, and hoping someone on this and other forums where you've posted similar, will provide a magic bullet for you

[Evil Lurker]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Make sure you got the "turbo" button pushed in lol...

The only logical reason I can think of that someone would want a machine that slow is because they have a q-basic "gorilla" fetish and want to watch the bananas fly thru the air whilst they wank off in anticipation before they hit... well either that or they are running 98 as an antivirus machine (many of the newer trojans and viruses supposedly won't work on them).

I have discarded 20+ perfectly functioning PII-PIII systems this year alone simply because they were too slow. In fact I have a huge pile of 128 and 256mb SDRAM dimms laying around with no home to put them in.

Get an early P4 motherboard that is capable of using SDRAM if you really want a performance boost and insist on reusing your existing components. But honestly, with a machine that old its little more than a mother-humping-time-vampire trying to get it do what you want. Upgrade to a fast socket AM3 board and CPU and you will wonder why you were ever tilting at windmills to begin with.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

I have discarded 20+ perfectly functioning PII-PIII systems this year alone simply because they were too slow. In fact I have a huge pile of 128 and 256mb SDRAM dimms laying around with no home to put them in.

If you had 512s i woulda grabbed them in a flash.

He already said he has a better computer and this one is just for old games. If that's the case at least do it properly. A decent board, MMX 233, 256MB, S3 Virge and Voodoo II. That's what i had as my first computer. Just that at first it only had 32MB RAM and no voodoo.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

I have a set of 512's I found at my old work. they have a custom thermaltake heatsinks on them too!

for sale, $5000 each mwahahahahahahahah

my first computer = Pentium 133, 64M, and a PCI Blaster Banshee on all on the wonderful windows 95. Tribes played so good, only if you were looking at the ground, but if you weren't, your framerate went waaay down

[lti]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

He already said he has a better computer and this one is just for old games. If that's the case at least do it properly. A decent board, MMX 233, 256MB, S3 Virge and Voodoo II. That's what i had as my first computer. Just that at first it only had 32MB RAM and no voodoo.

I have another socket 7 motherboard, but it won't turn on. After forcing the PSU on, the single MOSFET in the VRM gets burning hot, but the CPU heatsink is cold. The CPU works in this Compaq, so it isn't fried.

[lti]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Make sure you got the "turbo" button pushed in lol...

It isn't that old.
Compaq Presario 2286
Unfortunately, this is the only computer I have that is capable of running these games. The newer computer that I have is a laptop, and it has so many hardware faults that it isn't worth repairing. Also, I would have to install Windows 98 on it.

[Wizard]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Replace board with a good Asus mainboard based on HX chipset and 512K cache, and have dual voltage support (revision number is next to the model # on mainboard). This will support 512MB cacheable range means your 256MB memory is covered.

Oh I forgot, K6-2 500 is supported on this HX with dual voltage support too. I had one and trialed a K6-2 333 in it. Not bad.

PS: P/I-P55T2P4 rev 3.x and higher. (dual plane voltage and uses PWM DC-DC converter instead of linear regulator). Make sure you get this with 512K cache installed and dual tag cache chips too.

Cheers, Wizard

[lti]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Unfortunately, replacing the motherboard would require me to purchase a new case and PSU as well. Look at the link above. I might be able to adapt the current PSU to work with a modern ATX motherboard.

I would like to solve the problem that this computer is having. If this is impossible, the next step would be to repair the old Gateway motherboard that won't turn on. If both of these fail, then I will take advice on replacement hardware.

[pfrcom]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Replace board with a good Asus mainboard based on HX chipset and 512K cache, and have dual voltage support (revision number is next to the model # on mainboard). This will support 512MB cacheable range means your 256MB memory is covered.

Oh I forgot, K6-2 500 is supported on this HX with dual voltage support too. I had one and trialed a K6-2 333 in it. Not bad.

PS: P/I-P55T2P4 rev 3.x and higher. (dual plane voltage and uses PWM DC-DC converter instead of linear regulator). Make sure you get this with 512K cache installed and dual tag cache chips too.

Cheers, Wizard

I'm still using one of these, a very late revision with sticker saying OK for K6-233 (a big deal in those days)

And have TAG SRAM chips installed to allow board to cache 512kb instead of default 64kb

Running a K6-3/450 underclocked to 400, at 6x 66mhz FSB, using undocumented settings for the CPU's 2.2v requirement

It's an all SCSI setup, so no overclocking to keep the controller (Asus SC-875) happy

The drawback of a HX chipset is that it supports only 72 pin RAM - so not easy to get larger memory capacity

[Wizard]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

And unfortunately the other boards that supports SDRAM and still use socket 7 do not exist with good chipset *at all*. HX was the good one.

I suggest jump to PII 300 (512K cache) on P2B or socket 370 board 815 chipset. All of these have no issues as long as you have plenty of PCI slots for old video cards and these boards still have floppy interface and slow enough that is compatible with old games.

Cheers, Wizard

[lti]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Nobody understands what I'm trying to do.

This isn't my only computer or my fastest computer.
The games I play aren't old enough to require a slow CPU.
I'm not trying to make the computer slow.
I can't bring in more computer crap. Stop telling me what hardware I should have used. I don't have much to choose from.
There is nothing wrong with the hard drive or the memory.

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Is there any chance you set the drive mode to PIO in the BIOS?

I did that once on an old PII machine I had. I have no idea how, it just happened. It ran like a piece of shit for months until one day I was poking around in the BIOS and noticed. Switched it back and all was right in the computer world.

[mockingbird]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Can't you just run Virtualbox in Windows and install Windows 98 on it?

[toastygoodness]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Can't you just run Virtualbox in Windows and install Windows 98 on it?

yeah i would agree with this. full vesa capabilities too. even Virtual PC is supposed to work.

and if limiting your ram to 128MB doesn't speed it up and you're absoutely sure your PSU, RAM, HD and VRM are okay, then well, you can't really do anything other than change the limited bios settings you have, since its a compaq bios. SiS is very finicky.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

www.dosbox.com
www.scummvm.org

[Agent24]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

Have you checked for a BIOS upgrade?
Have you reset BIOS and checked the options as someone else suggested?

SiS 5598 is pretty old, so the capacitors would be too - maybe they are bad - don't forget what site this is!

(What about PSU too?)

I have also noticed with older computers is that sometimes old hard drive cables etc can fail - OK when they're sitting there but when you move them when you're playing around with upgrades, suddenly they don't work properly.

[lti]

Re: Computer is slower after upgrading CPU

There are no BIOS updates and I reset all BIOS settings to defaults.
Could a timing cap or some component in the clock generator circuit be bad? I have a dead board that is identical to the one in this computer. I could swap parts between boards.
I'm not sure if the caps on the motherboard and PSU are good or not. I don't have a way of testing their ESR. I can only check capacitance.
Do any of those VMs and emulators support 3D graphics at a reasonable speed? I remember hearing that DOSbox emulated a Voodoo card, but it required a faster CPU than anything currently available.