For some reason, when I used a different Windows XP CD, my new SATA hard drive showed being split into two partitions. Not sure how because it is a brand new drive, but I was able to delete one partition to join both together. I finished installing my SATA and formatted my computer with Windows XP Pro with SP2. The installation had no problems, but I did run into a couple of issues afterwards. Here are a couple of questions:
1. Does the CPU speed display a fluctuation for speed?
The reason why I am asking is because when I check my CPU speed, it shows up running at 800 MHz. I have a AMD Athlon 64 3400+ processor. I know that it should be running at around 2200MHz. I downloaded AMD Clock which shows a window of my current CPU speed. I tested and it when I open up an application or anything that causes my CPU to run, the speed will fluctuate. Sometimes it will go around 1800MHz or 2150Mhz. But whenever I stop doing anything it will go back down to 800Mhz. Is this normal behavior? The weird thing is that this just started happening. Earlier today, before I installed my SATA drive, my processor was showing at 2200Mhz with my old ATA hard drive. Then after I installed my new SATA drive and also a new 1 gig PC3200 stick of RAM, the CPU speed displays around 800MHz.
2. Is my SATA drive supposed to be in the "IDE Channel 2 Master"?
When the computer first starts, it shows that my SATA drive is in the IDE CHannel 2 Master and the main IDE Channel nothing there (master or slave). I thought that was weird cause this has never happened before and it just started happening when I installed my SATA drive.
3. Why does my restart hang up right before the Windows XP logo?
Whenever I restart my computer, the POST part of the restart goes fine. Then when it tries to start up windows, it hangs up right before that Windows XP logo. I am not sure if you know what part I am talking about, but its when the screen displays Windows XP lgo and it has the horizontal bar at the bottom that constantly goes from left to right. It will hang there barely visible for about thirty seconds and then come in clearly and continue with the restart. It only hangs up right before it shows the Windows XP logo.
I think that all three cases may somehow be related. It might even have to do with my SATA drive, but once in Windows, I have no problem with anything. Everything runs smoothly. It just with these three issues that is making me a little nervous. Suggestions?
