EggXpert.com

Yeah i clicked "default settings" in the bios which fixed any "mistakes" i may have made.

You think its the psu or mobo? I was thinking  it was the cpu or mobo. I havent really considered the psu being a problem. I have a feeling its the mobo so im prepared to replace it. Yeah i guess we'll see next weekend when i start switching out parts to find the culprit.

Any other ideas guys? Thanks for the help

well in most cases cpu's work or don't work, and if you get a bad one the system doesn't boot or crashes. So I would say the mobo is most likely the culprit.

The mobo not working properly or the psu not feeding enough power to the components could explain why the entire system is slow and not just one component.

Any reason you are using slots 2 and 4 for your ram? Maybe you should try slots 1 and 3, It shouldn't make a difference but it's easy enough to try. 

Have you run any games yet? Are we sure this is a real hardware problem or just a 3dmark problem? 

domtown:

Yeah i clicked "default settings" in the bios which fixed any "mistakes" i may have made.

You think its the psu or mobo? I was thinking  it was the cpu or mobo. I havent really considered the psu being a problem. I have a feeling its the mobo so im prepared to replace it. Yeah i guess we'll see next weekend when i start switching out parts to find the culprit.

Any other ideas guys? Thanks for the help

You then turned off speed step after loading defaults right?  If you turned off speed step and then hit default settings, you just turned speed step back on.  In Windows, under task manager you see 4 seperate CPU windows and in Device Manager you see 4 seperate CPU's each called Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @2.4 GHz correct?

 Also since your CPU is no longer overclocked, your score is going to be lower.

Dude the guy saw a 1000 point DROP *AFTER* turning speed step off.

This is either a totally fragged OS or Some Weird Hardware problem. 

CheapAsianGamerGuy:

Dude the guy saw a 1000 point DROP *AFTER* turning speed step off.

This is either a totally fragged OS or Some Weird Hardware problem. 

"After disabling those functions and returning everything to stock this is what i get"

If this is the order he did it in he turned off speedstep and then hit "Use default settings", which just re-enables speedstep.  Plus now he's at stock 2.4Ghz vs the 3.3 Ghz OC he had.  You follow?

Kardon: I'm using slots 2 and 4 for the ram just bc i used to have a cpu fan that had a huge mounting bracket and stuck out over slot 1. I now have a different fan thats more of a "tower" and just screws down into the bracket on the mack side of the mobo so i can try moving the sticks. The only game ive run so far is civ IV. I ran it on high graphics settings with no problems but that game doesnt have the best graphics so thats not saying much.

mok: Yeah i turned speedstepping off AFTER setting it to default. In task manager i see 4 cpu windows and in device manager i see all 4 cpu cores so the pc is aparently seeing all 4 cores, its just not using them to their full advantage.

I meant to mention this earlier but forgot. On that 3dmark test i ran that said i was at 3.3ghz, i had actually only oc'd it to 3ghz. Ive been setting the multiplier to 9x 334 but that time i set it to 8x 375. After reboot cpuz clocked it at 3ghz but at the same time 3dmark said 3.3ghz. I thought this was really odd and problematic

Try running another benchmark tool like SuperPI, using 1,000,000 digits and see how long it takes. It should take 20 seconds at the most; I'd expect lower than that, maybe around 15 or 16 seconds. This might help determine if it's a CPU problem or something else. Have your friend do the same.

Other than that, everyone else's recommendations are more than I would have come up with.

---

Im still at stock right now and the 1m digit test took 49 sec. My friend will run it in an hour or so. Ill update this post with his result

***update***

My friend is at 3.0 Ghz and ran the 1m digit test in 17 sec.

I was at stock 2.4 and he was oc'd to 3.0 but there shouldnt be that big of a difference.

Hey Im the friend 

Here is my 3DMark

http://service.futuremark.com/resultComparison.action?compareResultId=7123383&compareResultType=14

This is also at 3.1gHz 

Thanks hova

Here's mine again at 3.0ghz

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=7114178

If you purchased the mobo from newegg recently you should be able to rma it to newegg no hassle for a replacement. They will even pay shipping both ways if you ask.

Just an fyi encase gigabyte gives you any c**p.

Also newegg rmas are normally much faster when you have the option.

Ctrl+Alt+Del => Task Manager, check how many processes, and % free physical memory.

Do you feel your computer is running slow? (Start up, open applications, ect...)

 Your system can reach 12k score in 3dmark 2006 with default settings.

I'm running Vista 64 bits, right now I have few IE, Msn, Windows media, KIS.

Total processes = 60, 50% free memory. (2GB)

And I have reasonable score in 3dmark 2006.

If your OS is too messed up, you might want to re-install OS. A clean copy with new drivers for everything.

I tried to rma through newegg first but its been over 30 days since i purchased it so no can do. I'm stuck with gigabyte.

Task manager says 55 processes and 35% physical mem.

Do you think a reinstall of windows will help? Thats going to be a pain in the butt to do so i would rather only do it if there's a good chance it will help

domtown:

I tried to rma through newegg first but its been over 30 days since i purchased it so no can do. I'm stuck with gigabyte.

 

Task manager says 55 processes and 35% physical mem.

Do you think a reinstall of windows will help? Thats going to be a pain in the butt to do so i would rather only do it if there's a good chance it will help

I don't think you need to reinstall OS with that much free physical memory.

Can you ask your friend to check out your CPU? Or Mobo?

Switching and testing. He has the same setup as yours right?

**Update**

I swapped cpu's and i still get the same score so im almost certain its the mobo now. It could still be the psu but i doubt it. I will rma the mobo and hopefully it will work. Thanks for the help

After swapping ram, cpu, vga, psu, purchasing a new mobo, and reinstalling windows I finally determined the problem. My mobo had a 4-pin connector on it in which i plugged a 4-pin power cord from the psu. What i did not realize was that right next to that 4-pin connector was another 4-pin connector which would make a total of 8-pins (for those uva graduates) and would require an 8-pin connector from the psu. For a reason unknown to me, 4 of the pins were covered by a little black cap which made it look like a little black box. There were many little black boxes on my mobo so it seemed to fit right in. Since this is my first build i didn't know that it should be 8 pins and not 4. After removing that black cap and inserting an 8-pin connector I got this score...i didn't realize until afterwards that while i was running the 3dmark test some updates were installing on my computer. So I guess that could slow it down a bit. Everything is stock and the ram is running at 800 instead of 1066. I havent had time to mess with the bios yet to get the ram up to stock. Thanks for the help everyone...sorry for wasting your time

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=7332934

domtown:

 I havent had time to mess with the bios yet to get the ram up to stock. Thanks for the help everyone...sorry for wasting your time

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=7332934

It's not wasting time if you learned something from it. Good to hear that you figured it out.

-Leon