A little help please

[Muffinking]

A little help please-motherboard and lag/load time issues

Okay, so a bit of a run down:
About a month or so ago, I posted on here about an issue with my computer failing to boot up and between you guys and DFI, realized the mobo was faulty. I sent it back and have since put my computer back together with the repaired mobo. The issue was presumably with the BIOS chip and the particular problem it created is fixed, but not without bringing around a few more.

Now whenever I turn it on, it takes between 30 seconds and a minute to boot up and jumps from screen to screen in a somewhat bizarre fashion. It will show the little vista loading bar then jump to black and then back to the bar and so on. Games also don't seem to be running smoothly anymore. Crysis started jumping around even after lowering the graphics settings to more than doable and even Bioshock is experiencing sudden "lag" or whatever. Load times of games has increased drastically too.

I really have no idea what to even do next. I've tried to search things, but have come up with nothing. If any of you guys can shed some light on this, I would really appreciate it. I built this thing three months ago and have barely even been able to use it properly. Thanks!!!

If this helps:
DFI Lan party x48 Dark
Intel Q6600
Radeon 4870
4 gigs G Skill ram
750 watt corsair PSU
640 gb Western Digital HDD

 

[Lexluethar]

Do the normal maintenance things first.
-Virus Scan
-Spyware/adware scan
-Disk defrag (yes manually do it in vista even though it automatically does it for you)
-Disk cleanup
-Disk check

If all of those are done and come out clean, looking into some hardware/configuration issues.

 

[[t..o..m]]

Have you got the most up-to-date drivers for your motherboard and 4870?

Also what programs do you have in startup? If you have alot it may take a long time to boot up. Another thing you can try is going into BIOS and setting everything to default. That can usually fix some problems

 

[Muffinking]

Lex:
I did all of that and it didn't help. As far as hardware/configuration issues, I'm not sure what to do. Everything worked fine when I first built the computer and continued to work for a month and half or so with no problems. Then the mobo went, so I sent it back, got it repaired and now it seems like the rest of the computer is screwed up.

Tom: I have almost nothing in startup. There's very little even on the computer as I've barely had any time to use it. Apparenly I've used just under 200 gigs of hard drive space, but that seems way too high. I have 50 gigs of music, three games installed, word 07, and a few small programs. As far as drivers go, they were updated right when I put everything together, so if they worked then, shouldn't they work now? I tried the BIOS thing and that didn't help either.

And now to add to the fun, the motherboard is giving me exactly the same problems...so much for them fixing it. Basically the computer will only fully boot up every fourth or fifth try, often sticking on the screen that says, "DFI LANPARTY DARK SERIES." I can't get into BIOS and DFI recognized it as a faulty motherboard. To add to that, the thing now won't even work properly in games and takes forever loading anything. I'm at college and this is a nightmare. Thanks a ton for the help you guys have given me so far though! This site is a real life saver. Any other ideas?

 

[[t..o..m]]

hmm I would be looking to get the motherboard replaced with a new one. Sounds as though it is faulty to me. I would stop getting it 'repaired' as it obviously hasn't worked. Replaced under warranty is your best bet.

Just as one last go, try booting up with just one stick of ram (or two sticks if you have four in total)

 

[Muffinking]

I would love to get a new replacement. The only problem is that DFI's policy isn't so generous...it seems to be stuck on "repair" and replacement with other "repaired"/refurbished or whatever mobos. Maybe if I complain enough they'll humor me though.

I will try the RAM idea, but just out of curiosity, what would that do? I'm leery of turning the computer off for fear of it not turning back on again (I have a paper due tomorrow).

Do you think the new problems my computer is exhibiting point towards the motherboard as well? (the lag, increased load times, etc.) I don't know a ton about computers, but to me, it seems those problems would come from things like the cpu, ram or video card. Is there any way the psu could be responsible for any of this?

Thanks a ton for the help man.

 

[Lexluethar]

Flash the motherboard, see if this is a software issue. IMO it is a crap motherboard and will continue to cause you problems. Replace it with another motherboard. If you tell use all of your specs we could point you in the direction of a motherboard that will work with your current hardware. Cheap motherboards can run as little as 40.

Sorry i know that sounds vague, but as you said yourself it really seems as if the motherboard is your problem. If it doesn't even get past the motherboard text screen, the motherboard is crapping out. Replace it.

 

[Muffinking]

Thanks for the reply. Specs are listed in first post. So are you saying the other problems I've mentioned could be due to the motherboard as well?
A big issue with buying a different mobo is that I need one that will support full x16/x16 crossfire and they are hard to come by for anything less than $200. I don't have a second graphics card now, but am planning on getting one in the near future. And also, what exactly do you mean by "flash the motherboard?"

 

[Lexluethar]

Just meaning update the firmware/software on the motherboard.

How to flash motherboard BIOS from Linux (no DOS/Windows, no floppy drive)? | LinuxInsight

 

[Muffinking]

Well, this is fun. I sent an email to DFI and they respond with some "we found no problems with the board" garbage. Yeah, like I'm making this stuff up. Many people on here have told me the problems my computer is having (sticking on the DFI LANPARTY screen during bootup) points an incriminating finger at the motherboard. Obviously, if DFI accepted my RMA for the reasons I listed, they must have known it too. Oh, and they told me it could be the PSU or OS. I've reinstalled Vista and it did nothing. As far as the PSU goes, I'm pretty sure that's not the problem. What do you guys think? But whatever, I'm done dealing with them. I would really appreciate it if anyone else could give a final verification that the motherboard is, in fact, my problem. If it is, I'm just going to bite the bullet and buy a different one. Thank you guys so much for the help so far in dealing with this headache!