New build running insanely slow

[lucienknows]

A couple of months ago I assembled a new build with a lot of relatively new hardware. The basic stats are e6600 c2d, 680i mobo, 4gigs Buffalo firestix, 8800 gts vid card. The computer ran fine for the first month or so, but when I moved to a new city and booted it up, my windows install had been corrupted somehow. I ran the Drive Fitness Test on all the harddrives with no bad results, so I decided to just reformat and reinstall windows. The reformat went fine but when it started to copy the windows files to the hard drive it took a ridiculously long time (hours). And when I restarted and began the installation that took hours and hours as well. It finished installing finally but when I tried to boot it was going so slow that I just reset it. I'm running memtest now but even that seems to be running slow or something.

Sorry for the long paragraph, but I figured I should explain the problem in at least some detail. There's also been another problem, although I don't know if it's related. My BIOS settings were reset to default (I can't remember if I did this myself or if it did it automatically), but when I try to go in and change my memory timings/fsb settings, the bios freezes as soon as I take it off of the "auto" setting.

I'm generally pretty good at fixing my own computer problems, but I've honestly never encountered this problem before. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm assuming it's a hardware failure of some sort, but I don't know.

[Mechanic]

Did you load the motherboard chipset drivers?

[Colossus]

The windows install is pre-chipset drivers. Is this an original MS Windows disc or a copy? Maybe try another disc?

The optical drive can be funky, but since the bootup from the HD taken so long...

I would reseat all the memory, cards and cables to ensure that they are seated properly. I would also check your BIOS to make sure the drive is detected properly and showing the correct speed (since you never mentioned if the drive was sata or pata).

I would probably change the CMOS battery (big silver button battery) and reset the BIOS also maybe flash the bios to a newer version if available. I would then reset to default and custom it.

[lucienknows]

The drives are all sata. Am I checking to see if the rpms are up to speed?

[Colossus]

The HD rotations are not configurable.

What I wanted you to check was that each drive was seated properly. Sometimes during a move, hardware connections can become loose.

So re-seat all the hardware, ram, video card and sata connectors.

For the format, did you blow away the partition and then a complete format? or did you keep the partition and perform a quick format?

[lucienknows]

did a full format with no partitions

[Un4given]

When the system locks up in the BIOS, that isn't a good sign. You could try doing a proper reset, using the jumper on the motherboard, and then see how it goes.

If you still have the problem, I personally would start by checking the RAM in pairs, as this is a common sign of a bad RAM stick.

Also, since you moved, you may want to remove and reinstall the heatsink on the CPU. I would also check around the mounting holes for any damage.

[lucienknows]

I will try and do the bios reset this afternoon, even though it's going to be a pain trying to get that battery out. As far as the RAM being an issue, I found I was able to get into the memory timings fine and change them, etc. without a problem. It's only when I go into the FSB settings and take it off auto that it freezes. I'll let you guys know the results after I get the bios reset, but could it be a problem with my processor? I'll also try swapping out the memory.