Slow start up and gaming problems

[Nathan_1]

Hi,
I have a few problems with my PC.
My systems specs are:
AMD Athlon XP 1800
Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2 Motherboard.
256MB of RAM
80GB Seagate HDD
Nvidia Geforce FX5200 Video Card
320Watt Power Supply
2 Realtek Network Cards

The problem i have is Windows XP starts up really slow i get a blank desktop for a few minutes before all my icons appear.
But when i disconnect my network cable it starts up normally.
I play Final Fantasy XI on my PC, everytime i try to start it, its really slow i can't even get the game to start up from the playonline viewer because everything runs so slow.
Usually this was only happening now and then, now everytime i try to start i have this problem.
Sometimes i would play the game for a while and the screen would start locking up but not frozen everything would just start going very slow, making it unplayable.
Most of the time i would just restart my pc and everything would be working ok again.
Everything else seems to be working ok in my pc except it seems a little slow.
I have tried 2 different motherboards and still the same problem, also tried different network cards.
I thought maybe there could be a problem with my video card but why would it start up so slow with my network cable plugged in, without it plugged in it starts up normally.
But still when i plug it back in everything is just really slow when i try to play Final Fantasy XI.
I also ran the seagate tools diagnostic for my hdd, everything seems to be ok.
I am wondering if my cpu could be the problem.

Any help with this would be appreciated, i really don't know what could be wrong.

Thank you.

 

[vnf4ultra]

problems

Since the problem goes away when you disconnect your lan, it probably is lan related. Did you check in device manager to see if all your devices are working properly? It could be a network driver or something or your lan port not being identified properly.

 

[Nathan_1]

yeah, i checked everything in device manager.
all devices are installed properly, all drivers are up to date.
Device manager says all my hardware is working correctly.
Tried 3 different network because i thought this could be the problem, same problem with all of them.
Not sure what this could be but i am thinking its something else, generally everything now is running alot slower than it should be.

 

[olefarte]

The first thing that comes to my mind, since it seems to be network related, is spyware, or a virus or trojan. Look at this thread, and do exactly what it says, and see if it helps any. Might not be the problem, but worth a try. It could be some kind of malware eating up your bandwidth and causing your problems.

 

[B@TM@N]

Watching over Gotham City...hey it's dark out here

Mayby get a system diag program like..er..
System Mechanic
Then u can
-Remove Spyware
-Remove Trojans
-Fix Registry Problems
-Remove all crap files
-Clean all temp folders
-Defrag & scandisk
-Cleanup

and so and so
Worth a shot
Might be some corrupted drivers
Try and Removing and reinstalling your network card
Since your problem relates to your LAN connection

 

[Nathan_1]

I tried removing all spyware and everything else suggested.
I still have the same problem.
I have noticed when i go back to windows after having problems with the game my cpu is running at 100% in performance of the windows task manager.
Also my cpu was running at 59 Degrees.
Right now my cpu is running at 13% and 47 Degrees.
Do you think it could be my cpu that is causing these problems?

 

[B@TM@N]

The Final Episode

2 scary words

BACKUP
&
CLEAN INSTALL

but seriously, mayby a fresh windows installation is what
your pc needs
100% usage...mmm...virus activity?
that sould also be cleared on fresh windows

Your Cpu seems to Run a bit warm...mmm..mayby try
cable ties on your PC inners to make some airflow
get a system fan if u don't have one
get a clean paintbrush and brush all inners/fans/parts of
yer pc
redoing yer CPU thermal side of things might help aswell

BUT MAINLY
BACKUP & CLEAN LOAD OS
sounds like the option here.
If u have winxp u can use "file and settings transfer wizard"
if u dont wanna lose yer settings.
and after you clean installed your OS make sure you
install all the latest Drivers
Get yourself a popup blocker,firewall,antivirus to prevent these things
mayby even load winxp service pack 2
that's all I can think of now
hope u come right