If You Can Solve This

Trevelyan · May 2003

<div class="IPBDescription">I will give you a cookie!</div> Ok, when i use my PC, everything seems normal... no lockups/slowdowns/errors...

However the second i turn on ANY... AND I MEAN ANYGAME!!!! (i have Xcom: UFO defense, that does this to) Every 30 seconds-5 mniutes (totally random... seriously otherwise i could predict this and hide when the lag came) My pc FREEZES... when i run a netgraph i see my ping shoot to above 2000 and my FPS drop to 1-4 and this lag lasts for about 30 seconds (enough time to totally get screwed over)

I have asked Countless number of people/techies/tech forum goers to solve this problem... their only answer... reformatt, however what they dont realise is that i have reformatted 4 TIMES TO TRY AND FIX THE PROBLEM!!!!

my PC:
Pentium 4 1.5 Gig
512 DDR RAM
Geforce 4 4400

Here is what i have done to my PC sence i reformatted (2 weeks ago)

Installed windows
Installed windows updates
Installed latest video drivers
Installed Half life
Installed Half life patches (File planet not corrupted with a virus)
Installed CS/DoD/NS/FA (all straight from the websites)
Installed Several NS maps
Installed Gamespy 3d
Installed IE explorer Several times (still doesnt work right... totally different stupid problem... see below for details)
Installed Macromedia Flash player (see above)
Installed AIM
Installed MSN messenger
Installed mIRC
Installed Spybot (popup blocker tool)
Installed Adaware (same)
Installed Morrowind (awsome game)
Installed Morrowind patches

Ok thats it, i betcha you cant find out what is wrong with it...

MedHead · May 2003

Do you use a router?

Jabba_The_Hunt · May 2003

This is a long shot, but there might be something wrong with your hard drive. I suspect what is happening is your ram is filling up and when windows tries to page some of the data out it takes too long because your hard drive is slow. This eats up almost all of your computers resources.

To test this see if your hard drive light flashes (or remains constantly on) when it happens. As a solution I dont know maybe buy a new hard drive.

CheesyPeteza · May 2003

I did a bios upgrade and didn't clear my CMOS and had random crashes in HL. Clearing the CMOS worked for me. Long shot but worth a try. :/

Aminal · May 2003

install a virus checker.
reinstall direct X (prolly not it though)

FireStorm · May 2003

I've heard that pentium processors have a problem with memory management above 256 MB. I don't know if P4 have it too, I even doubt it but if nothing helps you can try to reduce your meme to 256 MB.

Zel · May 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (FireStorm @ May 7 2003, 05:51 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I've heard that pentium processors have a problem with memory management above 256 MB. I don't know if P4 have it too, I even doubt it but if nothing helps you can try to reduce your meme to 256 MB.  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
no, i use a P3-800mhz with 448 megs of sdram.

----

about the harddrive thing, is your harddrive absolutely full? what version of windows are you using? what size is your pagefile set at?

JoltGris · May 2003

maybe our card gets overheated?
heat is a coputers worst enemy..

H4nDC4Pd · May 2003

does it happen only when ur online playing a game, or just playing a game in general?

EnemyWithin · May 2003

1). What operation system are you running? If you are running W2K/XP, then you should run a game in window mode with the task manager open (or full screen if the task manager can overlay properly with the game). Then you can view the processes to see which one is sucking up all the CPU cycles.

2). What chipset is your motherboard? If you have a VIA chipset, then you will need to install their 1-in-4 drivers. Be careful of which version you use, as I believe the latest one might have some issues with certain hardware. Regardless of the chipset, make sure you install current drivers for it.

3). You didn't mention anti-virus software. Are you running any?

4). </span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (H4nD!C4P*d @ May 7 2003, 07:53 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>does it happen only when ur online playing a game, or just playing a game in general?</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
This is an important question.

5). If the lockups only occur while playing Internet games, then you need to test your Internet connection. Try downloading a big file...something that will take at least 10 minutes (file size depends on your connection). Does the file download at a steady rate over time, or does it pause in a similar fashion to your games? Now this test is very server dependant, so try to find a server that isn't overloaded and run the test a couple of times from different servers.

6). Are your sound card drivers current? I doubt they could cause this kind of problem, but you should make sure they are updated anyway <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

AshTrai · May 2003

i've seen massive *predictable* FPS drops caused by crap soundcards/drivers b4.

Jower · May 2003

Try shutting down all crap you don't need through CTRL+ALT+DEL ( usually everything cept explorer in 9x windows and all applications in XP/2000 ) and then starting a game
It might be some odd program of yours doing whatever

If You Can Solve This

Comments