Can a hard drive cause lag in a video game?

[Fred]

My son just bought an ATI 9800 128MB video card (non pro version).

His PC specs:

(Homebuilt)
WinXP Pro (no service pack) [FAT32]
P4 1.9
512 RDRAM (800Mhz)
30GB Maxtor IDE 5400
ASUS P4T-E Mobo
(Cable-modem)

When he's playing Star Wars Galaxies, he hears the hard drive working and at
the same time sees lag in his game; framerate drops down to 1 during this.
(The average for this game is 21Fps).

His hard drive has 4 partitions: C: has only 2GB; D:, E: and F: have bout
9GB each.
I have set his swap file to 900MB for Max and Min. on drive E: (there is
only 1.5GB of free space on E: , the other partitions don't even have that
much.).

He is wondering if he needs a new 7200 HDD - would this make a difference?
(And if so, should we make that the boot drive (And put games on it) or just
make it the slave and use it to put games on only?)

I am wondering if it would make a difference if I re-partitoned the drive he
has into 1
drive with no partitions (FAT32 or NTFS?)?

We also have Win98SE - is that a better gaming OS? (He did notice that the
online lag disappeared when we installed WinXP Pro, tho).

Also, his computer-wiz cousin says it could be that the Rambus RAM is
incompatible or is causing the lag - is this possible??

One more thing - would he see an improvement if we ugraded the CPU? I think
this mobo goes up to a 2.8 (400fsb).

Thanks for any and al help or advice, even just thoughts....
Fred

 

[BigJIm]

sounds like some program is running in the background like an anti-virus or
something.

 

[Fred]

He has no apps running in the background.
Has ONLY WinXP and Star Wars Galaxy installed. (Just did a format re-install
of WinXP yesterday).
I did install the latest MS03-026 Security Update to prevent the Blaster
Worm.

Any other ideas?
We'll try just about anything...
Thanks,
Fred

indexing programs from:
MS Office / find fast
Adobe Photo shop / image manager / type manager
MP3 audio organaizers WAV MP3 WMF WMP
all things running in the backround
Virus
Worm

Virtual Memory setting set incorrectly

Why no service paks? you'll only hurt yourself. The worm comes to mind
(BLASTER)

My son just bought an ATI 9800 128MB video card (non pro version).

His PC specs:

(Homebuilt)
WinXP Pro (no service pack) [FAT32]
P4 1.9
512 RDRAM (800Mhz)
30GB Maxtor IDE 5400
ASUS P4T-E Mobo
(Cable-modem)

When he's playing Star Wars Galaxies, he hears the hard drive working

and

at
the same time sees lag in his game; framerate drops down to 1 during this.
(The average for this game is 21Fps).

His hard drive has 4 partitions: C: has only 2GB; D:, E: and F: have bout
9GB each.
I have set his swap file to 900MB for Max and Min. on drive E: (there is
only 1.5GB of free space on E: , the other partitions don't even have that
much.).

He is wondering if he needs a new 7200 HDD - would this make a difference?
(And if so, should we make that the boot drive (And put games on it) or just
make it the slave and use it to put games on only?)

I am wondering if it would make a difference if I re-partitoned the

drive

he
has into 1
drive with no partitions (FAT32 or NTFS?)?

We also have Win98SE - is that a better gaming OS? (He did notice that the
online lag disappeared when we installed WinXP Pro, tho).

Also, his computer-wiz cousin says it could be that the Rambus RAM is
incompatible or is causing the lag - is this possible??

One more thing - would he see an improvement if we ugraded the CPU? I think
this mobo goes up to a 2.8 (400fsb).

Thanks for any and al help or advice, even just thoughts....
Fred

 

[John E. Carty]

A good while back adding a faster hard drive was the solution to keeping
'Thief' from stuttering as the scenes changed

He has no apps running in the background.
Has ONLY WinXP and Star Wars Galaxy installed. (Just did a format re-install
of WinXP yesterday).
I did install the latest MS03-026 Security Update to prevent the Blaster
Worm.

Any other ideas?
We'll try just about anything...
Thanks,
Fred

indexing programs from:
MS Office / find fast
Adobe Photo shop / image manager / type manager
MP3 audio organaizers WAV MP3 WMF WMP
all things running in the backround
Virus
Worm

Virtual Memory setting set incorrectly

Why no service paks? you'll only hurt yourself. The worm comes to mind
(BLASTER)

My son just bought an ATI 9800 128MB video card (non pro version).

His PC specs:

(Homebuilt)
WinXP Pro (no service pack) [FAT32]
P4 1.9
512 RDRAM (800Mhz)
30GB Maxtor IDE 5400
ASUS P4T-E Mobo
(Cable-modem)

When he's playing Star Wars Galaxies, he hears the hard drive working

and

at
the same time sees lag in his game; framerate drops down to 1 during this.
(The average for this game is 21Fps).

His hard drive has 4 partitions: C: has only 2GB; D:, E: and F: have bout
9GB each.
I have set his swap file to 900MB for Max and Min. on drive E: (there is
only 1.5GB of free space on E: , the other partitions don't even have that
much.).

He is wondering if he needs a new 7200 HDD - would this make a difference?
(And if so, should we make that the boot drive (And put games on it)

or
just

make it the slave and use it to put games on only?)

I am wondering if it would make a difference if I re-partitoned the

drive

he
has into 1
drive with no partitions (FAT32 or NTFS?)?

We also have Win98SE - is that a better gaming OS? (He did notice that the
online lag disappeared when we installed WinXP Pro, tho).

Also, his computer-wiz cousin says it could be that the Rambus RAM is
incompatible or is causing the lag - is this possible??

One more thing - would he see an improvement if we ugraded the CPU? I think
this mobo goes up to a 2.8 (400fsb).

Thanks for any and al help or advice, even just thoughts....
Fred

 

[Forelli]

My son just bought an ATI 9800 128MB video card (non pro version).

His PC specs:

(Homebuilt)
WinXP Pro (no service pack) [FAT32]
P4 1.9
512 RDRAM (800Mhz)
30GB Maxtor IDE 5400
ASUS P4T-E Mobo
(Cable-modem)

When he's playing Star Wars Galaxies, he hears the hard drive working and at
the same time sees lag in his game; framerate drops down to 1 during this.
(The average for this game is 21Fps).

His hard drive has 4 partitions: C: has only 2GB; D:, E: and F: have bout
9GB each.
I have set his swap file to 900MB for Max and Min. on drive E: (there is
only 1.5GB of free space on E: , the other partitions don't even have that
much.).

He is wondering if he needs a new 7200 HDD - would this make a difference?
(And if so, should we make that the boot drive (And put games on it) or just
make it the slave and use it to put games on only?)

I am wondering if it would make a difference if I re-partitoned the drive he
has into 1
drive with no partitions (FAT32 or NTFS?)?

We also have Win98SE - is that a better gaming OS? (He did notice that the
online lag disappeared when we installed WinXP Pro, tho).

Also, his computer-wiz cousin says it could be that the Rambus RAM is
incompatible or is causing the lag - is this possible??

One more thing - would he see an improvement if we ugraded the CPU? I think
this mobo goes up to a 2.8 (400fsb).

Thanks for any and al help or advice, even just thoughts....
Fred

if u can u should try to install the game on the c: partition. If not enough
space partition magic will do it.

 

[JAD]

DMA enabled on the HD?

He has no apps running in the background.
Has ONLY WinXP and Star Wars Galaxy installed. (Just did a format re-install
of WinXP yesterday).
I did install the latest MS03-026 Security Update to prevent the Blaster
Worm.

Any other ideas?
We'll try just about anything...
Thanks,
Fred

indexing programs from:
MS Office / find fast
Adobe Photo shop / image manager / type manager
MP3 audio organaizers WAV MP3 WMF WMP
all things running in the backround
Virus
Worm

Virtual Memory setting set incorrectly

Why no service paks? you'll only hurt yourself. The worm comes to mind
(BLASTER)

My son just bought an ATI 9800 128MB video card (non pro version).

His PC specs:

(Homebuilt)
WinXP Pro (no service pack) [FAT32]
P4 1.9
512 RDRAM (800Mhz)
30GB Maxtor IDE 5400
ASUS P4T-E Mobo
(Cable-modem)

When he's playing Star Wars Galaxies, he hears the hard drive working

and

at
the same time sees lag in his game; framerate drops down to 1 during this.
(The average for this game is 21Fps).

His hard drive has 4 partitions: C: has only 2GB; D:, E: and F: have bout
9GB each.
I have set his swap file to 900MB for Max and Min. on drive E: (there is
only 1.5GB of free space on E: , the other partitions don't even have that
much.).

He is wondering if he needs a new 7200 HDD - would this make a difference?
(And if so, should we make that the boot drive (And put games on it)

or
just

make it the slave and use it to put games on only?)

I am wondering if it would make a difference if I re-partitoned the

drive

he
has into 1
drive with no partitions (FAT32 or NTFS?)?

We also have Win98SE - is that a better gaming OS? (He did notice that the
online lag disappeared when we installed WinXP Pro, tho).

Also, his computer-wiz cousin says it could be that the Rambus RAM is
incompatible or is causing the lag - is this possible??

One more thing - would he see an improvement if we ugraded the CPU? I think
this mobo goes up to a 2.8 (400fsb).

Thanks for any and al help or advice, even just thoughts....
Fred

 

[CACTUS JACK]

When he's playing Star Wars Galaxies, he hears the hard drive working and at
the same time sees lag in his game; framerate drops down to 1 during this.
(The average for this game is 21Fps).

My kids play this game, the lag is probably from the servers being
crowded There are a lot of people playing this game and more join
daily.