Computer slows on long file moves

  • Thread starter Thread starter AxeClinton
  • Start date Start date
A

AxeClinton

I am runing a P4T-E-1.7 GHz P4 512 RDRAM

Aftern moving large files like copyiing one patition to another or moving a
super large file my machine starts to slow down. I MEAN SLOW DOWN. You can see
the taskbar come up slowly, Windows will open up slowly, yoo can actually see
them writing to the screen. If you open a program after the transfer, it will
take for ever. It is really awful. I have been dealing with this issue since I
first got the P4T-E.

I have done everything that can be done except change the mobo. I have
installed the latest chipset drivers and the Intel Application Accelerator and
BIOS.

Any ideas?
 
AxeClinton said:
I am runing a P4T-E-1.7 GHz P4 512 RDRAM

Aftern moving large files like copyiing one patition to another or moving a
super large file my machine starts to slow down. I MEAN SLOW DOWN. You can see
the taskbar come up slowly, Windows will open up slowly, yoo can actually see
them writing to the screen. If you open a program after the transfer, it will
take for ever. It is really awful. I have been dealing with this issue since I
first got the P4T-E.

I have done everything that can be done except change the mobo. I have
installed the latest chipset drivers and the Intel Application Accelerator and
BIOS.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Yea..
Your trying to move more data than the OS likes..
Basically If your trying to move 1 gig then you should have 3x + 500meg free
so 3.5 gig free on BOTH drives for it to move over pretty good

That's the only thing I can think of
 
I am runing a P4T-E-1.7 GHz P4 512 RDRAM

Aftern moving large files like copyiing one patition to another or moving a
super large file my machine starts to slow down. I MEAN SLOW DOWN. You can see
the taskbar come up slowly, Windows will open up slowly, yoo can actually see
them writing to the screen. If you open a program after the transfer, it will
take for ever. It is really awful. I have been dealing with this issue since I
first got the P4T-E.

I have done everything that can be done except change the mobo. I have
installed the latest chipset drivers and the Intel Application Accelerator and
BIOS.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Sounds like your RAM is all tied up. This tiny program by Analogx will
relase RAM that other programs should have but didn't. When you see a
slow down double click the icon in the tray.
http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/maxmem.htm
 
Not true.

You can move any sized file with practically any amount of memory - high or
low.
What you are describing is that if you have 'free' memory, Windows will
leave the file data in memory as cached data since you have just read it so
may be likely to want to read it again. Consequently you will see Windows
memory usage in Task Manager (right click on the task bar to show it) swing
around when copying large files. The moment this memory is required for
anything else it is freed no a least used basis...

- Tim
 
Axe,

I would check for Virii, indexing tasks as BoB indicates, virus scanner
activity, non standard settings for windows priorities and cache settings.
If you have ever downloaded any windows "optimisers" then they may be the
culiprits as there are a lot of 'tweaks' that people are under the illusion
will give enhanced performance when in fact Windows knows well how to manage
things itself.

What specific OS and version are you using? If you are using say W2K server
(or NT or W2003) you can set memory priority to background tasks - this can
cause this type of behaviour. (Under NT Workstation, W2K Pro, XP Pro, & XP
Home priority is by default to foreground tasks). This will cause any cached
data to be held onto more strongly and user applications to have memory
aggressively trimmed. This setting is typical in a File Server situation
where you are not supposed to do anything other than Manage the server when
logged in on it - all priority is given to serving up files.

If in doubt, and you are running XP, remove all 'optimisers', run virus
scans, run spyware scans, and try a repair install of XP.

Fire up Task Manager (right click on the task bar in W2K / XP) and watch
what happens when you do a large file copy. Is there another task that gets
busy? What does happen to memory allocation?

- Tim
 
Tim said:
Not true.

You can move any sized file with practically any amount of memory - high or
low.
What you are describing is that if you have 'free' memory, Windows will
leave the file data in memory as cached data since you have just read it so
may be likely to want to read it again. Consequently you will see Windows
memory usage in Task Manager (right click on the task bar to show it) swing
around when copying large files. The moment this memory is required for
anything else it is freed no a least used basis...

- Tim
Click to expand...

Yea but windows will constantly swap the data, tit for tat over and over..
If you are trying to move say 2 gig of data and you only have 200 meg free
then It's going to do much more work and thus the movemnt slows down, this
was my point
 
rstlne said:
Yea but windows will constantly swap the data, tit for tat over and over..
If you are trying to move say 2 gig of data and you only have 200 meg free
then It's going to do much more work and thus the movemnt slows down, this
was my point
Click to expand...


I missed your original comment, but there is no reason why data transfers
should be significantly different in speed whether you have 200Meg or 2Gig
of RAM free.

It's going to read the data and then write the data in chunks, probably much
larger than the block size in order to increase speed, but there comes a
point where there is no improvement... probably where your block-shift-size
meets the standard read-ahead size, which is probably gonna be less than a
Meg or two.

OK I've just tried it - I copied a 700Meg file. Memory useage changed by
like 200KB, which is probably the icons and file copy dialog box. What did
increase was System cache... It went from ~460MB to 820MB and stayed high
until high until I deleted the file. Now it was actually using System RAM
for caching that file (I'm using a Server OS, so LargeSystemCache = 1), but
can immediately dump that if an application requires that memory. Now,
having the SystemCache increase massively is not used to increase the speed
of Current File Transfers, only to increase the speed of accessing the files
in that cache should I need to.

Ben
 
OK I've just tried it - I copied a 700Meg file. Memory useage changed by
like 200KB, which is probably the icons and file copy dialog box. What did
increase was System cache... It went from ~460MB to 820MB and stayed high
until high until I deleted the file. Now it was actually using System RAM
for caching that file (I'm using a Server OS, so LargeSystemCache = 1), but
can immediately dump that if an application requires that memory. Now,
having the SystemCache increase massively is not used to increase the speed
of Current File Transfers, only to increase the speed of accessing the files
in that cache should I need to.

Ben
Click to expand...


Try moving something the size of your free space
so if you have 6 gig left, move 6 gig worth of data
hwo long does it take
then move 2 gig worth of data
how long does it take

I bet it took more than 3* the length of time to move the 6 gig than it did
the 2 gig
 
rstlne said:
Try moving something the size of your free space
Click to expand...

Free space where? On the drive?
so if you have 6 gig left, move 6 gig worth of data
hwo long does it take
Click to expand...

I take it you mean on the drive then.
then move 2 gig worth of data
how long does it take

I bet it took more than 3* the length of time to move the 6 gig than it
did the 2 gig
Click to expand...

Thats a whole different kettle of fish... data will unlikely be contiguous,
so yeah, it'll take longer as there are more seeks. What does that have to
do with the amount of free RAM you have?

Ben
 
Thats a whole different kettle of fish... data will unlikely be
contiguous,
so yeah, it'll take longer as there are more seeks. What does that have to
do with the amount of free RAM you have?
Click to expand...

Nothing
Why you talking about ram?
Tim Changed "Drive Space" to "Memory"
so I talked about "Swapping Files" trying to direct it back to Hard Drives
heh
 
rstlne said:
Nothing
Why you talking about ram?
Click to expand...

Like I said earlier, I missed the first part of the thread, I thought we
were talking about memory as RAM, rather then disk space.
Tim Changed "Drive Space" to "Memory"
so I talked about "Swapping Files" trying to direct it back to Hard Drives
Click to expand...


I didn't notice that (still can't, but hey).

(from a previous post)
If you are trying to move say 2 gig of data and you only have 200 meg free
then It's going to do much more work and thus the movemnt slows down, this
was my point
Click to expand...

Moving a 2Gig file when you have 200Meg (on the hard disk) free is either
going to fail (if the source and target partitions are different) or take
next to no time, since only the file reference is changed (this depends on
your file system type). I'm not sure what you are talking about. Moving a
file within the directory structure is unlikely going to involve touching
the data in question (not on any file systems I know of, anyway).

Ben
 
Moving a 2Gig file when you have 200Meg (on the hard disk) free is either
going to fail (if the source and target partitions are different) or take
next to no time, since only the file reference is changed (this depends on
your file system type). I'm not sure what you are talking about. Moving a
file within the directory structure is unlikely going to involve touching
the data in question (not on any file systems I know of, anyway).

Ben
Click to expand...

I just had to go look back at the original msg
I thought he was moving from drive to drive
damn..
he's moving partition to partition heh
 
rstlne said:
I just had to go look back at the original msg
I thought he was moving from drive to drive
damn..
he's moving partition to partition heh
Click to expand...

Little to no difference. The data must be physically moved in both cases.
Obviously it'll be faster if drive to drive and on different channels.

Ben
 
I would check for
Click to expand...

If all the other suggestions fail, I'd check the CPU temp and make sure
its not throttling back and slowing itself down when it gets hot !?!

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=|[ AxeClinton's ]|= said:
I am runing a P4T-E-1.7 GHz P4 512 RDRAM

Aftern moving large files like copyiing one patition to another or moving a
super large file my machine starts to slow down. I MEAN SLOW DOWN. You can see
the taskbar come up slowly, Windows will open up slowly, yoo can actually see
them writing to the screen. If you open a program after the transfer, it will
take for ever. It is really awful. I have been dealing with this issue since I
first got the P4T-E.

I have done everything that can be done except change the mobo. I have
installed the latest chipset drivers and the Intel Application Accelerator and
BIOS.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Ive seen symptoms like this when the little jumpers on the drive dont match
with its master/slave config -thats a lucky bet.

You could try using a new cable,preferably a sheilded round one,or knocking
the udma rate down a notch or two in the bios,or trying pio mode 2.

I dont know it, but heard some say the intel app'acceler' can make things
worse.

gl,
 
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