I just built a system around a Biostar M7NCG. It's basically just an e-mail and surfing station for my wife, so all I put in was a Duron 800 and 256MB of PC2100 RAM. It ain't fast, but it's good enough for office work. However, the Internet response just plain blows. I used a wireless and wired connection (using on-board LAN) and both can barely connect to normally high speed sites. All computers in the house go through an SMC Barricade 4-port router. The other two wired PC's have great Internet connections. I initially set up the new one downstairs and used a Belkin Wireless Access Point and PCI Wireless card to connect to the network. Signal strength is always reported as excellent, but most Web sessions time out. I can't even get Windows Update to run. I moved it back upstairs and hooked it up directly to the router with wire and it has the exact same crappy response. This happens with both IE6 and Mozilla. I'm running XP SP1. There a few hitches with the system:
So, the network connections to the PC seem just fine. Other than a wonked XP install, is there something else I'm missing?
- Memory Slot 1 is bad. I inherited the mobo from someone who was reviewing it and Biostar replaced it because of the bad slot. The two DIMMs are in slots 2 and 3. Like I said, it ain't fast but it runs OK.
- The Maxtor 7200 RPM HD was in another system and had the Windows partition. I put it in the Biostar system expecting to have to format and reload XP, but it booted and loaded Windows just fine. I suspect that the re-used XP is the culprit here, but I'd rather not go to the trouble of reformatting and reloaded all apps if there's something else I can try.
So, the network connections to the PC seem just fine. Other than a wonked XP install, is there something else I'm missing?