Upgraded to AMD XP processor, now windows slower!

On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 11:50:18 -0800, dbd wrote:

Sorry to post again (stupid 8 hour google groups delay) but what bios
should I be running. I have a Kt7a 1.2 mobo, but will the 1.3 bios
work (with proper XP processor support)?

A9 is the latest bios for pre 1.3 KT7A's. I've heard that you can use the
1.3 bios's from someone, but do so at your own risk. Yopu might end up
with a dead board.

--
Abit KT7-Raid (KT133) Tbred B core CPU @2400MHz (24x100FSB)
http://mysite.verizon.net/res0exft/cpu.html

I've seen this before.
The problem is that the XP cpu uses SSE instructions.
When you originally installed your operating system SSE wasn't used. AMD's
own 3DNow was.
You wouldn't think that this would make a difference in performance in a
system already installed but it does.
I had a similar problem when I moved to a 1700+ some months ago.
If you redo your system ( fdisk, repartition and reformat) you'll notice
something right away.
The SSE will be used for the install and the time to install the OS will go
down by almost half.
Standard install using 3DNow is about 35 minutes.
Using SSE it's about 17.

How does the above effect your fps in games? I have no idea, although I
have witnessed it and I know it does happen.
SB
"dbd" wrote in message
om...
Hi,
I have an Abit Kt7a mobo and just upgraded my 1.33 GHz processor to a
1800XP (happily running at 2GHz). The strang thing is that in Windows
(2000 Pro) when I ran the UT2k3 benchmark the FPS dropped by 5,
instead of going up because I now have a faster proccessor.
Currently windows sees it as an unknown proccessor (but maybe because
my mobo don't officially support it, but the abit newsgroup ppl say it
shoud be ok).
Do you think I need to re-install windows, or is something strange
going on.
Also, I would run tests in Linux, but I can't remember my old results,
so can't compare. (It says 3984 bogomips if that helps.)

thanks

dbd

"Wes Newell" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 11:50:18 -0800, dbd wrote:
A9 is the latest bios for pre 1.3 KT7A's. I've heard that you can use the
1.3 bios's from someone, but do so at your own risk. Yopu might end up
with a dead board.

There is absolutely no reason to take the risk. A9 works fine with the XP.
I'm not sure what the OP's problem is, but it won't be solved by a bios
flash.

It might be solved by a bios setting, however. Flashing often sets
everything back to less-than-optimal defaults.

See http://www.sudhian.com/showfaqs.cfm?fid=2 and www.rojakpot.com for bios
tweaking tips.

SilverBack wrote:

I've seen this before.
The problem is that the XP cpu uses SSE instructions.
When you originally installed your operating system SSE wasn't used. AMD's
own 3DNow was.
You wouldn't think that this would make a difference in performance in a
system already installed but it does.
I had a similar problem when I moved to a 1700+ some months ago.
If you redo your system ( fdisk, repartition and reformat) you'll notice
something right away.
I have reinstalled windows, and reformatted my C partition, and that
didn't help.
I don't see how completely repartitioning my hard disk will help,
surely it is the OS that has all the SSE instructions stuff?
Also dxdiag says the processor is Unknonw, SSE, 3dnow, ~1.8GHz
That says to me that the SSE stuff is cool, just the unknown thing is
v strange.
I think that the chip is unlocked (got off ebay, I think it had pencil
marks on it), but that's odd too because it's a T-bred B, and all old
(and it's old enough) T-bred Bs come at least kinda unlocked I
thought.
The SSE will be used for the install and the time to install the OS will
go down by almost half.
Standard install using 3DNow is about 35 minutes.
Using SSE it's about 17.
Cheers for the reply anyway, just seems strange.

How does the above effect your fps in games? I have no idea, although I
have witnessed it and I know it does happen.
SB
"dbd" wrote in message
om...
Hi,
I have an Abit Kt7a mobo and just upgraded my 1.33 GHz processor to
a
1800XP (happily running at 2GHz). The strang thing is that in
Windows
(2000 Pro) when I ran the UT2k3 benchmark the FPS dropped by 5,
instead of going up because I now have a faster proccessor.
Currently windows sees it as an unknown proccessor (but maybe
because
my mobo don't officially support it, but the abit newsgroup ppl say
it
shoud be ok).
Do you think I need to re-install windows, or is something strange
going on.
Also, I would run tests in Linux, but I can't remember my old
results,
so can't compare. (It says 3984 bogomips if that helps.)

thanks

dbd

Does the Kt7a have a newer BIOS to flash?
That would at least identify your cpu correctly.

"dbd" wrote in message
om...
SilverBack wrote:

I've seen this before.
The problem is that the XP cpu uses SSE instructions.
When you originally installed your operating system SSE wasn't used.
AMD's
own 3DNow was.
You wouldn't think that this would make a difference in performance in a
system already installed but it does.
I had a similar problem when I moved to a 1700+ some months ago.
If you redo your system ( fdisk, repartition and reformat) you'll notice
something right away.
I have reinstalled windows, and reformatted my C partition, and that
didn't help.
I don't see how completely repartitioning my hard disk will help,
surely it is the OS that has all the SSE instructions stuff?
Also dxdiag says the processor is Unknonw, SSE, 3dnow, ~1.8GHz
That says to me that the SSE stuff is cool, just the unknown thing is
v strange.
I think that the chip is unlocked (got off ebay, I think it had pencil
marks on it), but that's odd too because it's a T-bred B, and all old
(and it's old enough) T-bred Bs come at least kinda unlocked I
thought.
The SSE will be used for the install and the time to install the OS will
go down by almost half.
Standard install using 3DNow is about 35 minutes.
Using SSE it's about 17.
Cheers for the reply anyway, just seems strange.

How does the above effect your fps in games? I have no idea, although I
have witnessed it and I know it does happen.
SB
"dbd" wrote in message
om...
Hi,
I have an Abit Kt7a mobo and just upgraded my 1.33 GHz processor to
a
1800XP (happily running at 2GHz). The strang thing is that in
Windows
(2000 Pro) when I ran the UT2k3 benchmark the FPS dropped by 5,
instead of going up because I now have a faster proccessor.
Currently windows sees it as an unknown proccessor (but maybe
because
my mobo don't officially support it, but the abit newsgroup ppl say
it
shoud be ok).
Do you think I need to re-install windows, or is something strange
going on.
Also, I would run tests in Linux, but I can't remember my old
results,
so can't compare. (It says 3984 bogomips if that helps.)

thanks

dbd

Sorry for the top post, but it's real simple to fix, just save anything you
need to cd of a second hard drive, then do an fdisk and reinstall windows

"dbd" wrote in message
om...
Hi,
I have an Abit Kt7a mobo and just upgraded my 1.33 GHz processor to a
1800XP (happily running at 2GHz). The strang thing is that in Windows
(2000 Pro) when I ran the UT2k3 benchmark the FPS dropped by 5,
instead of going up because I now have a faster proccessor.
Currently windows sees it as an unknown proccessor (but maybe because
my mobo don't officially support it, but the abit newsgroup ppl say it
shoud be ok).
Do you think I need to re-install windows, or is something strange
going on.
Also, I would run tests in Linux, but I can't remember my old results,
so can't compare. (It says 3984 bogomips if that helps.)

thanks

dbd

"SilverBack" wrote in message ver.com...
Does the Kt7a have a newer BIOS to flash?
That would at least identify your cpu correctly.
Nope, already got latest bios.

"dbd" wrote in message
om...
SilverBack wrote:

I've seen this before.
The problem is that the XP cpu uses SSE instructions.
When you originally installed your operating system SSE wasn't used.
AMD's
own 3DNow was.
You wouldn't think that this would make a difference in performance in a
system already installed but it does.
I had a similar problem when I moved to a 1700+ some months ago.
If you redo your system ( fdisk, repartition and reformat) you'll notice
something right away.
I have reinstalled windows, and reformatted my C partition, and that
didn't help.
I don't see how completely repartitioning my hard disk will help,
surely it is the OS that has all the SSE instructions stuff?
Also dxdiag says the processor is Unknonw, SSE, 3dnow, ~1.8GHz
That says to me that the SSE stuff is cool, just the unknown thing is
v strange.
I think that the chip is unlocked (got off ebay, I think it had pencil
marks on it), but that's odd too because it's a T-bred B, and all old
(and it's old enough) T-bred Bs come at least kinda unlocked I
thought.
The SSE will be used for the install and the time to install the OS will
go down by almost half.
Standard install using 3DNow is about 35 minutes.
Using SSE it's about 17.
Cheers for the reply anyway, just seems strange.

How does the above effect your fps in games? I have no idea, although I
have witnessed it and I know it does happen.
SB
"dbd" wrote in message
om...
Hi,
I have an Abit Kt7a mobo and just upgraded my 1.33 GHz processor to
a
1800XP (happily running at 2GHz). The strang thing is that in
Windows
(2000 Pro) when I ran the UT2k3 benchmark the FPS dropped by 5,
instead of going up because I now have a faster proccessor.
Currently windows sees it as an unknown proccessor (but maybe
because
my mobo don't officially support it, but the abit newsgroup ppl say
it
shoud be ok).
Do you think I need to re-install windows, or is something strange
going on.
Also, I would run tests in Linux, but I can't remember my old
results,
so can't compare. (It says 3984 bogomips if that helps.)

thanks

dbd

"Skid" wrote in message news:%7nCb.32583$8y1.137261@attbi_s52...
"Wes Newell" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 11:50:18 -0800, dbd wrote:
A9 is the latest bios for pre 1.3 KT7A's. I've heard that you can use the
1.3 bios's from someone, but do so at your own risk. Yopu might end up
with a dead board.

There is absolutely no reason to take the risk. A9 works fine with the XP.
I'm not sure what the OP's problem is, but it won't be solved by a bios
flash.

It might be solved by a bios setting, however. Flashing often sets
everything back to less-than-optimal defaults.

See http://www.sudhian.com/showfaqs.cfm?fid=2 and www.rojakpot.com for bios
tweaking tips.

I've done lots of bios tweaking suggested by Paul's FAQ, windows still
says unknown, and no SSE in dxdiag, maybe I need to re-insatll again,
but I nothing I changed mentioned SSE.
If it is a BIOS problem then is there a way in Linux to check if the
SSE stuff is enabled, it's listed in the CPU Flags, but I don't know
if that means its using it.

On Sun, 14 Dec 2003 10:20:18 -0800, dbd wrote:

I've done lots of bios tweaking suggested by Paul's FAQ, windows still
says unknown, and no SSE in dxdiag, maybe I need to re-insatll again,
but I nothing I changed mentioned SSE.

And it will always say unknown. There's no name match for the speed it's
running in the bios. This is only cosmetic and is no concern.

If it is a BIOS problem then is there a way in Linux to check if the SSE
stuff is enabled, it's listed in the CPU Flags, but I don't know if that
means its using it.

To be honest, I don't know if the Linux kernel uses SSE or not. And it
really doesn't matter. Any SSE capable app should use it as long as the
programmer correctly identifies that SSE is available. And as you see, the
flag is there using cat /proc/cpuinfo.

--
Abit KT7-Raid (KT133) Tbred B core CPU @2400MHz (24x100FSB)
http://mysite.verizon.net/res0exft/cpu.html

Have you updated windowsxp? I know it has a couple CPU updates, and the
Athlon XP is one of them.

Daniel

"chuck" wrote in message
...
Sorry for the top post, but it's real simple to fix, just save anything
you
need to cd of a second hard drive, then do an fdisk and reinstall windows

"dbd" wrote in message
om...
Hi,
I have an Abit Kt7a mobo and just upgraded my 1.33 GHz processor to a
1800XP (happily running at 2GHz). The strang thing is that in Windows
(2000 Pro) when I ran the UT2k3 benchmark the FPS dropped by 5,
instead of going up because I now have a faster proccessor.
Currently windows sees it as an unknown proccessor (but maybe because
my mobo don't officially support it, but the abit newsgroup ppl say it
shoud be ok).
Do you think I need to re-install windows, or is something strange
going on.
Also, I would run tests in Linux, but I can't remember my old results,
so can't compare. (It says 3984 bogomips if that helps.)

thanks

dbd