I have a 1.2 Ghz homebuilt computer that acts like it has a 500Mhz processor. I am currently running Mandrake 10, but I had the same problem with Red Hat 9. Games are extremely jerky, even though I have installed a 128mb video card. My internet is running at a 50K max, even though it should be running at around 500K. My only clue is an error that I get when booting up that says that I have a "bootloader virus." I have tried formatting my hard drives completely but this doesn't help.


Thanks

Open up a console, and type "lilo -M /dev/hda". That should re-write the MBR, and take care of your problem.
Noah

I get an error message saying "bash: lilo: command not found" I know LILO is the LInux LOader, but I don't know how to fix it or what I'm doing wrong. I entered the command in a "konsole" (KDE console???) Well, thanks for your help anyways.


JC

I found out how to get your command to run, and it did help. my network is much faster and I can boot up and run applications more quickly. However, my system still doesn't run games at the speed they should run at, which leads me to believe that something else is wrong. I think that I might have a BIOS virus, but I'm not sure. If anyone knows how I can test for a BIOS virus or get rid of it, I would appreciate it if you would reply to this message.

Thanx,
JC

Open up konsole, ant type "glxinfo", and "glxgears", and give us the output.
Noah

Did you install video drivers from ATI/NVIDIA? (assuming you have one of their cards) The ones included are normally crap for performance.

Time to ask the obvious question...

Does the CPU in question happen to be a Celeron?

are you dual booting with any other OS?

Hi, I posted in another place about similar performance with a 1.4 gig celeron. Not with 3d or anything... just overall system performance such as a 20 minute boot time... 4 to 5 minutes to open an application etc. I know there is something about the way linux is using this processor, but have not been able to fix it. After a few weeks of searching on google and various other forms, readme's and doc's I am trying to post here. If you can shed any insight, it would be very much appreciated. Thanks. PS.. I have recompiled the kernel several times with many suggested configs that I found online with no luck.

You may need to optimize your hard drive using the hdparm command. A google search for 'hdparm hard drive performance' and #man hdparm should get you started.

I have tried this as well with no result. The hard drive was already set up pretty good by default anyway. The MaxMultSect=16 was what the drive would support and the MultSect=16 was already in use. DMA was on using udma4. and readahead was at 8 (but I did move that up to 16). The hard drive is using an 80 pin cable, and I have tried changing cables just in case it might be a hardware problem. However, I don't think it is a hardware problem - I think it is the way that linux is using the processor.
Any other ideas?

Ok, I have solved it. I actually was a problem with the IDE cable. Still kind of puzzling because when I plug that cable into another hard drive, it works perfectly fine. Go figure.

I, for one, accept our new faulty IDE cable overlords.