Hello, I'm experiencing a weird issue with my home computer for several months now and don't know what's causing it. I hope someone here can help me figure out what's happening.
Before I begin, I would like you to know that I am a tech savvy person so I'm well versed with the technology and the jargon associated with it.
Several months ago my home computer, that I built myself back in 2002, started to run slowly. Multitasking was clunky, I.E. ran pages with Flash very slowly, music playing in the background would sound choppy while I switched between applications.
Also, the BIOS would NOT recognize the HDD after turning on the PC. The computer would go through the initial POST (S.M.A.R.T. tests all pass), but then the system would not find a boot drive.
I had to leave the computer on for around 2 - 3 minutes in that state (where it could not find a boot device) and then press the reset button. This reboot would make the BIOS "see" the HDD and then Windows XP SP3 boots up normally. I still continued to see the sluggishness in Windows.
Restarting the computer did not bring the problem back, it's only after a shut down is performed does the HDD recognition problem reoccur.
I figured it was time to reformat the HDD, as defrag. and diagnostics (scan disk, etc.) did not fix the problem. I also tried connecting the HDD to the secondary cable and also making it slave on the primary cable. No difference.
After reformatting the HDD and reinstalling my software, the problem remained.
I then bought a new HDD (WD 160gb WD1600AAJB uata-100 7200rpm 8mb) to replace the old one. The SAME EXACT symptoms still occur (no recognition of HDD in BIOS for first couple of minutes, sluggish performance after booting up successfully, etc.)
I have the latest firmware for my BIOS for my mobo: Gigabyte GA-7VRXP.
I also keep up to date with the latest and greatest drivers, patches, etc.
What could the problem be? Thanks in advance!