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Posted by Freewheeling on 10/07/55 11:56
Wes Newell wrote:
> On Wed, 23 Aug 2006 12:16:30 -0400, Freewheeling wrote:
>
>> Hi folks. I've got some problems watching video and DVDs on my system
>> and I'm wondering what I need to do to get watchable performance? I
>> Motherboard: ASUS A7M266
>> Processor: AMD Athlon 1400 MHz
>> RAM: 2GB
>> Video Card: ASUS AGP-V7100 DVI SDRAM v44.03 (GeForce2 MX Chipset - no
>> memory)
>> Sound Device: CM18738/C3DX PCI Audio Device (this is the onboard audio)
>> DVD Player: Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1502
>> Monitor: Samsung Syncmaster 205BW (Digital 1024 x 768)
>>
>> Question: Short of buying a completely new system, which changes would
>> tend to produce adequate video/DVD performance? New sound and/or video
>> card? Video memory? New DVD Player? Some adjustment to things
>> assigned to IRQ9? Is there some way I can use that 2GB RAM to
>> substitute for the hard drive access? Any other ideas?
>>
>> BTW, is it possible to upgrade the processor in this system, and would
>> that help?
First, regarding Geena's thoughts I scan for that pretty routinely using
Adaware and Search&Destroy, and I just finished a scan using Trend
Micro's online process, although that's the only time I've been online
in months. However, my antivirus software (PCCillin2000) seems impacted
by something. It might be that it just hasn't been updated with a new
"engine" in several months, but I've been offline during that time so
it's hard to see how a virus could have gotten in. The only contact
with the outside has been through my thumb drive from work, and that's
scanned pretty regularly. Plus, no virus problems at work. The
background monitor for PCCillin still runs, but I can't open the main
program. I'm going to try an installation of some new software from a
CD, and if that gets halted or starts acting strange I'll know something
is up.
There are a lot of things running in the background, but I stopped most
of them (except essential services) and it didn't seem to make a lot of
difference. Far more likely that there's some IRQ interaction. Problem
is I don't know how to reassign IRQs. I tried assigning one of them in
the BIOS, and the computer wouldn't boot. It might also be time for a
new video and even audio card, but I'll try the IRQs first since that's
the cheapest. Well, actually the antivirus stuff is cheapest.
Problem is, I don't have any idea how to reassign the IRQs. Is there an
online tutorial, or something?
I do have a Linux distribution, although it's a few years old: Lycos
Desktop/LX, which is now defunct. But it won't play the CDs, possibly
because it doesn't have the necessary codexes, and I can't update since
Desktop/LX is now defunct. The one possibility left is that the DVD
software in Linux has been assigned to the wrong region, so I might
fiddle with that a bit.
>
> Yes, It's possible to upgrade the CPu, but I don't think that's your
> porblem unless it's the lack of SSE instructions on the Thunderbird 1400
> CPU.
What are the limitations on upgrading with that MB? What are the
options? Would I need to change my power supply? I think I recently
went from 300 to 350 amps, so it's a little more robust than originally,
but it supports all the necessary voltages.
A newer video card (non MX) may help. Also, splitting those irq's up.
> But first, get a copy of one of those Linux distros that run from cd (like
> Knoppmyth) and boot it and play the DVD with it and see if it plays ok.
> That will verify it's not a hardware problem and I really don't suspect it
> is. It doesn't take much in the way of cpu power to play a dvd. I imagine
> you probably have some rouge software running, but it could be the irq
> sharing. those are the 2 spots I'd check first.
Thanks, will let you know how it goes.
One more thing, I noticed that with the DVD image reduced in size the
faltering wasn't nearly as bad.
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