Intel DQ35JO On Board Graphics Problem – Really Poor Performance

One of our shop desktops has a Core 2 Duo E6850 running at 3 GHz installed on an Intel Desktop Board DQ35JO Executive Series.

The system had Windows 7 Enterprise x64 installed a while back with all of the latest driver and BIOS updates being applied along the way.

The system has two older BenQ FP931 19” 4x3 LCD monitors connected to the on board video ports.

This system has had a strange behaviour since Windows 7 64 bit has been installed on it. When dragging a window between the two monitors or even moving it from one point on the desktop to another on the same monitor the drag process would be ridiculously slow.

It was almost like the window was being pulled through the water in the way it moved across the screen or screens.

We have a few in-house projects on the go today so while our client systems were doing their thing we pulled the workbench system apart.

There are two 320GB Seagate 7200.10 drives set in a RAID 0 stripe that had no connection issues. The CPU and cooler looked to be as expected as did the optical drive.

When we got to the memory we found:

• Channel 1 slot 1: 1 GB KVR667D2N5/1G
• Channel 2 slot 1: 512 MB KVR533D2N5/512
• Channel 1 slot 2: 1 GB KVR667D2N5/1G
• Channel 2 slot 2: 512 MB KVR533D2N5/512

When checking in the BIOS we saw that the memory sticks were in the correct place as memory status showed “Dual Channel Mode”.

So, we had a look at Kingston’s memory support site for the DQ35JO.

• Kingston Intel DQ35JO Memory Configurations

Note the distinct lack of any part number beginning with KVR533. We must have had the two 533 MHz parts in the parts bin when we put this box together and tossed them in to get a full 3 GB of RAM in the box.

We dug around in the parts bin and came up with four KVR800D2N6/1G sticks of RAM. We installed them, checked in the BIOS to make sure that all four sticks were being seen and then booted up Windows 7.

Once into Windows 7 we saw the above as well. So, we knew that our now 4 GB of RAM was being seen by the operating system.

But what of the window dragging and overall graphics problem?

It was gone!

Windows would now drag between monitors or around on a monitor with no lag time or any “fluid” like motions.

Since the DQ35JO’s on board graphics uses system RAM we can see why there would be a performance hit of significant proportions when the RAM in the system was the wrong spec.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer