New HDD, fresh XP install, SP2, lots of cursing

[Unfocused]

Got a new 160GB Seagate HDD (UATA). I decided to keep the old 40GB HDD so I could later transfer some things I needed, and make the new HDD Master so as to install and work on a fresh WinXP.

I made a ~7GB partition for the system (but I'll have to resize it; forgot some damn programs install on the main partition without asking - BF2 needs 3GB of the main partition while installing patches, even if it's installed on another one) and the rest went for, well, the rest of my stuff.

I then installed WinXP. 3 ****ing times.

1st installation:
Everything well, until I install the mobo stuff (one installation process; reboots a few times) - Intel INF chipset (whatever) -> reboot -> integrated audio driver -> reboot -> integrated LAN driver -> reboot -> Intel app accelerator (with UATA drivers), some other apps -> rebooooooting. Something got screwed, I thought. Damn it - reinstall.

2nd installation:
(...)Intel app accelerator (with UATA drivers), some other apps -> rebooooooting. This time I decided to wait. About 5 minutes later everything loaded. I figured maybe it's the custom Intel mobo UATA driver so I decided to deactivate it. Uninstalling was taking ages (I don't know if it would even end) so I decided to install WinXP for the 3rd time.

3rd instalaltion:
Installed everything, bar the UATA drivers. Now everything's running well. I installed the Catalyst based WarCat 5.11 XT drivers which had given me the best performance on my other WINXP instalment. Then I downloaded and installed Service Pack 2. Disabled the Security Center so that wouldn't take my resources. After the installation the PC rebooted but for some reason The drivers I installed for my GPU and monitor were deactivated. I activated them again.

In order to check if everything is OK I launched BF2. I got much worse performance than before. I did a reboot and launched 3DMark05 (trial). Previously on these GPU drivers I got a score of 1799; the Omega's didn't make much of a difference. This time - 662 (yes, six hundred sixty two). WTF? I installed the Omega's - back to normal - 1790.


I've got some questions:

1. What the hell is going on with the performance of my PC? Why did I get a much worse score with the drivers that worked fine before?

2. Does SP2 affect performance? Is there a difference, compared to SP1?

3. Are there any drawbacks of resizing partitions (apart from the fact that everything can go to hell if unlucky)?

4. A bit offtopic - how do I make Firefox my default browser? I forgot what I did previously. What I mean is I want all the links, clicked in applications (Outlook, Xfire etc.), opened in Firefox.

 

[dream431ca]

Did you install service pack one before installing Service pack 2?

Firefox default is in the options and under general.

 

[Cole]

I havn't noticed any worse performance with Sp2. Infact, if I didn't know better all I think Sp2 did was add a "block\unblock" list. Of course I know better and I've read every article on it so I know it what it did in depth.
Anyway, Sp2 shouldn't affect performance at all, only tighten security up. I havn't had any problems with Sp2, ever.
For Cataylst did you forget to download the framework (11meg (?)) file thats required?
Did you uninstall your old drivers properly using driver cleaner and in Safe mode?
Whats your graphics card?

 

[Unfocused]

Did you install service pack one before installing Service pack 2?

Firefox default is in the options and under general.

Nope, installed it on non-SP version. I had SP1 previously though.

I havn't noticed any worse performance with Sp2. Infact, if I didn't know better all I think Sp2 did was add a "block\unblock" list. Of course I know better and I've read every article on it so I know it what it did in depth.
Anyway, Sp2 shouldn't affect performance at all, only tighten security up. I havn't had any problems with Sp2, ever.
For Cataylst did you forget to download the framework (11meg (?)) file thats required?
Did you uninstall your old drivers properly using driver cleaner and in Safe mode?
Whats your graphics card?

I didn't install the Catalyst. I installed Catalyst-based Omega drivers. Now eveything seems OK. I'm wondering what was wrong with the WarCat drivers.
My GPU is a Radeon 9550 OCed to about a R9600 pro (core a bit higher than pro, memory a bit lower). I don't think that has anything to do with the problems however.