I am convinced that my hardware is responsible for my computer's terrible performance. I have tried everything to fix my computer so now I'm to the point where I am going to replace some of my older computer hardware pieces. I am wondering if there is any way to test each part of my computer, such as a stress test that can test each individual part?

I think it is either my motherboard or processor.

1.2ghz AMD Athlon (old)
NVIDIA unified motherboard (old)
512MB ram
ATI radeon9600pro
Windows XP sp1a

My processor runs at a cool temp. I have reformated my drives and reinstalled windows many times. This problem occurs even with a fresh partitioned windows install without any drives installed. This is why I think it's my hardware.

Thankyou

Sisoft Sandra standard. If the link doesn't work, copy and paste it.

http://www.sisoftware.net/index.html?dir=dload&location=sw...=en&a=

It did not find any errors.

I need to find a way to test the components of my system since... it can't run winamp and explorer at the same time without freezing up. I'm about to throw this computer out and just buy a brand new one I'm so fed up with it.

1.2 ghz AMD Athlon
radeon 9600pro
NVIDIA nforce2 motherboard
512MB ram
2 Hard drives, IBM (80GB) and Seagate (8GB)

If you're gonna ditch it, send it to me as I need a good gaming server!
You most likely have RAM errors. Try getting new RAM (your board probably uses SDRAM instead of DDR-RAM. SDRAM is getting hard to find, but Newegg.com has some!

I had to ditch WinAmp because it generated so many errors on my old system. That would be my advice.

This problem was happening with a fresh install of windows (and after I installed all the drives/tweaks).

It could be my ram.. I have two sticks of it and i've tried running the machine with each of the sticks and the same result. I think it could be my processor since it was running at 54C for a long time (I leave my computer on night and day.)

Although if anyone else has any tips where it has helped them with a problem... information would be greatly appreciated. I already know how to clean the registry, spyware, defrag, etc... but information like "make sure you hard drives are set to DMA IF AVAILABLE" or something of the sort I didn't know.

But for right now my computer crashes if I run AIM, internet explorer and winamp at the same time.. (or any combination of software), although I can play battlefield1942 with max settings perfectly. Sigh...

1.2 AMD Athlon
ATI radeon 9600PRO
NVIDIA nforce2 motherboard
512MB ram

format it format it format it! w00t w00t

Format????
Fdisk! or use the HD mfg's utility to wipe the drive clean first.........then partition with fdisk or the HD mfg's software & finely format it.

You may as well just reinstall your OS over the old if all your doing is reformating the partition!, anyone who's been around long enough knows reinstalling an OS over an existing one is only 50% effective in solving problems. In other words just a waste of time except to recover data.

I'm with Josh on dumping WinAmp, I can't run it on any of my PC's without problems either, unless I use a really old version.

I know it's not the winamp...

I don't think I quite understand this whole partition thing.

What I've done (twice mind you) is formatted the whole drive, put in the winxp CD and partitioned a space for winxp and installed windows.

It's skippy with a fresh install, I install all the drivers and it's still skippy, I install all the windows updates and service pack and it's still skippy.

I am convinced that my hardware is damaged somewhere... but I don't know where. I can run battlefield 1942 perfectly but I can't run a bunch of programs at once without the computer freezing. Also, other games will freeze... but not battlefield1942 which is probably the most demanding in the way of CPU out of all the games.

1.2 AMD Athlon
ATI Radeon 9600pro
512 MB ram
Seagate and IBM hard drives

Did your hardware test perform a thorough RAM test?

nope, which ram test should i use?

I've obtained very good results using a diagnostic from http://www.micro2000.com.

Or try

http://www.memtest86.com/

What method did you use to format the HD?

If you can run one game perfectly & not others it's not a hardware problem.....as for your system slowing as you run more programs that can be considered normal depending on the programs your running.

Formating doesn't wipe any info from your drive it overwrites what's currently on the partition & isn't a substitution for fdisking the drive.

Have you tried resetting the bios to defaults, some older bios's have a check box to "reset configuration data" it only happens once, to do it again you'd have to enter the bios & select it again. Once done during post it should say ESCD updated successfully.