Problem with Bogging AMD Opteron 2ghz

[Termite_one]

have had my computer for about 6 months, and it has worked flawlessly so far. I have been having a problem lately with it bogging down under load. It started about a week ago when I was working with a REALLY complex video editing project. After I would render the movie in premiere the processer usage would stay at 100% for a few seconds after it was done... and just doing generally weird things. So I uninstalled Premiere thinking it might be some bug, but it still did it afterward. Then today I was working with a relatively simple Flash project and it started to do it. About a half hour ago it was doing it while I was playing AA (which it has NEVER done before). I have a pretty intense system where I have never had problems like this before even with like 5 programs running. This is with windows 2000 too.

I would relate the problem to trying to render video and playing a game at the same time. The view is sorta jumpy.

So heres my question. anyone know why it would do this? What do scratch discs in premiere and photoshop do? Are they dependant on RAM or processer ability? Heres the specs on my system:

Processer: AMD OPTERON 2.0GHz (246) Server Processor
Mother Board: Asus SK8N Socket 940 OPTERON DDR Motherboard
Graphics: Asus V 9950ULTRA/TD/256M FX 5900 Ultra 256MB DDR
RAM: 2 x 1 GB DDR 2700 Reg ECC Low Profile Corsair (2G ram total)
Hard Drives: 2 x WD 120GB SERIAL ATA 150 HARD DRIVE (OEM) (240G total)

Its also possible some Spyware or Adware is running, but I run Spybot, Adaware, and Norton 2002 and come up with nothing. With all this bling bling shht I never expected it to bog down... Any ideas? I am relatively new to computer building, so there might be something real stupid I am overlooking, dont be afraid to suggest.

 

[harrymay]

amd processors have a built in protection device that with slow down the processor instead of burning out. i had an athlon 1600+ in my system and it worked fine until i ran pinnacle and explorer, with roxio burning a cd, instead of just crapping out, it slowed way the hell down. it was never the smae again until i replaced it with a 1800+ and the speed was back.

 

[Termite_one]

Hmm... so what can I do? Does this mean I was on the verge of killing my processor? Wow... good thing I didnt overclock it I guess huh? Is there some way I can reset it? I think I paid around $700 for the processor alone, and I cant afford to replace it.

 

[poipo]

why are you running a server processor in a personal desktop machine? they are made differently to do different things...

but anywho, did you update ad-aware before you used it. many people dont do that and they wonder why their machines are so slow.

 

[Termite_one]

Yeah I updated my adaware... I do every time. Spybot as well. I have the server processer because I was recommended to get that from a friend because it was supposed to run alias better (3D modeling prog... www.alias.com). I have had no problems till now, but what was suggested before sounds resonable that it got too hot. I cant find any info on it on the AMD site either.

 

[Termite_one]

Hmm... I found this virus in my norton quarantine. Could this have something to do with it?

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.jeefo.html

 

[ekÆsine]

well your friend recommend you something you do not need. it's obvious to me you do not know what Alias is. that company makes Maya, a 3D modeling & animation program. even if that's what you needed the opteron is still a waste of money for you. if i was you i would backup all important data, format, and reinstall the operating system. if this doesn't fix it than it's a hardware specific problem. i still can't beleive you wasted you money on that computer when you could have bought something better for much less. do you even use Maya often?

 

[Termite_one]

I dont use maya really at all, I use alias studio v11. I do work for car companies as a contract designer, mostly 3D modeling, but some drawing artwork using the features in alias studio. While I was in school most of the systems were real high end (for the time) Sgi machines (octane boxes), but even those were pretty slow at rendering complex alias models. So, I wanted something that I wouldnt have to replace for a long time and could use to edit video and do other random tasks on. On the alias website one of the reccomended processors was the opteron, so it made sense to get it. And FYI, studiotools and Maya are two different things, but are similar. Maya is used more for animation. I have maya but prefer alias.

Is there any market for used stuff like this? I wouldnt mind switching it up trying some Intel stuff if it came down to it. This is my first custom system. At the time I built it I was also considering a high end G5, but Prefer PC.

FYI, the computers I learned alias on looked like this, and they probably go back to about 98-99ish:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=11223&item=5702734954&rd=1

 

[BlazingWolf]

First of all make sure your virus scanner is up to date you might even want to consider replacing it since it is 2002. I think the best way to go is to re-format, and then evaluate from there if you still have problems most likely it's the hardware.

And I also recommend you follow the guides at www.tweaktown.com to tweak your system especially basic tweaks like turning off uncessary services, and not letting a lot of things run in the system tray. While things like those seem as they would not make a great difference they really can.

 

[Termite_one]

I made a mistake, I guess my processor was around $450-$500, and the MB was around $200. Still not cheap by any means.

As far as formatting.... this might be the n00best of n00b questions, but whats the procedure for doing this? I have never in all my years (unbelievably) had to do it. I was thinking of getting an external HD to store all my stuff on anyway as I have about 90G of video and stuff I could need to take to and from the office. So backing up all my video and stuff should be easy going that route. I am currently running Windows 2000, but I wouldnt mind shelling out for XP pro. All my current programs should work on xp pro right? I mainly use Photoshop 7, Premiere 6, and Alias v11. If someone could point me to a good tech article on formatting or type something quick up I would really appreciate it.

And I do try to shut down as much stuff running in the background as possible (like stuff in the taskbar).