So frustrating!

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Hey everyone. I've just built a new system and it is running....less than stellar. It has:
Asus P5N-D Motherboard
Pentium D 925 3.0GHz
(2x) Geforce 7300GT SLI
(2x) WD 250GB Sata
(1x) WD 1TB Sata
2GB PC2-4200 ram
500 watt Apveia PSU
2 CD drives and all stuffed into a mid tower.

I tried windows 7 for a while, which runs great on my notebook. It was running terrible, way tooo slow. So I tried to load XP on it, after about 2 hours of configuration I finally was able to install XP pro 32-bit on it, it runs better....but with my specs I would think that XP would run great... it isnt. I have all drivers installed and it still takes it sweet time loading ANYTHING. Plus it does weird things like when I click on the volume icon it opens like 40 "master volume" apps in my task manager. I can't close them.

I remember once on my old Athlon rig, the motherboard was barely touching some metal and caused some problems (don't remember what kind of problems, too many years ago.) I remember when I was assembling this computer that the motherboard tray has the raised holes for the screws, thus eliminated the need for the copper screw pieces under the board in most cases. Could these be maybe touching somewhere and need to go?
 
Did you use the stand-offs for the motherboard? Did the power supply come with the case? The reason for the psu question is because we have found here at TechSpot that with a very few exceptions a psu that comes with a case are basically garbage.

I'm not saying the psu is not supplying what you need but if you have friend that has a multimeter it would be a good idea to test the supply it claims.

Also, I am just wondering if your cpu isn't bottlenecking the rest of your system. From what I have read it is a good chip for everyday computing needs but as for gaming it leaves something to be desired. Looking at your rig you have a SLi set-up, three SATA drives, and 2 CD drives. I am just wondering if the demand on the cpu is a bit much (only a hunch).

Also, I take it your 3 harddrives and then the 2 CD drives are all part of the boot up process. It would be wise to check over what other things are booting up. Certainly your antivirus is but watch out for HP drivers, etc. that really don't need to be engaing as you turn on your system. Unecessary drivers can slow down a system.

Just few ideas.
 
Personally, I would just get rid of that board... I had a P5N-D about 18 months ago and it was just bad. The driver support was terrible and the north bridge was constantly overheating, which might be what you're experiencing. I didn't use SLI on it though, so i can't really vouch for how good or bad the multi GPU support is... other than the slots were way too close to each other. One thing that stood out was how buggy the SATA drivers were... I had to install versions for a different board just so I didn't get BSODs!! Alright I'm done, this is just bringing back awful memories of that damn thing lol...
 
Great. I don't know if I could even return a board that works. I will look into it.

The only reason I had 3 sata drives in it were because I had them. I took the 250's out and am running just the TB drive. Also changed my fan around to help with case temps. I've got a zalman cooler on the way... And I'm thinking that will be the real test, with my specs and a good cooler I should be flying on xp pro right? Obviously there is a bigger problem if the cooler doesn't help at all. :/
 
Alright, I feel kind of stupid now. So this is my first LGA build, first build with a pinless cpu. I got my pentium D from a friend, out of a machine that had a bad motherboard. I inspected the chip and it looked fine other than a small gold spot on the bottom of the chip. Didn't even think anything of it. I had an LGA775 Pentium 4 3.0GHz that a friend gave me at the same time from another computer but working. I wanted the D for dual core lol. Pulled the chip out and sure enough that is what it was. Pentium 4 is in and this thing is running excellent.

Thanks
 
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