Laggy system

[Pubby]

I have no idea what causes this, but here goes.

I could be running anything very small, just AIM and a
browser, that's cool. If I start something else, like a
3d game or something, it will work well for a min or so,
then be laggy, then work well for a min or so, then be
laggy for a min or so, on and on. This works the same
when there is only the game running. It is not the
graphics card, because it will happen sometimes on things
like flash or java applets, and I know my graphics card
can handle that. I have set system configuration, and
basically the minimal will run. So it will have like RAM
at like 30-50% frequently, but processor will nearly
always be at 100%. I've defragged my hard drive. And I
have run virus scan with no detection. Someone did
mention something about the registry, but I don't know
how that works. Is that my problem?

Specs are:
384mb RAM
2.0ghz intel celeron CPU
XP home OS
Graphics card is Intel 82845G/GL Chip, 64mb memory

I'm not a computer wiz, if some other specs are needed, I
can add.

I have talked to other gamers and have not had luck
finding a person who know's what to do about it.

 

[Epona]

I have no idea what causes this, but here goes.

I could be running anything very small, just AIM and a
browser, that's cool. If I start something else, like a
3d game or something, it will work well for a min or so,
then be laggy, then work well for a min or so, then be
laggy for a min or so, on and on. This works the same
when there is only the game running. It is not the
graphics card, because it will happen sometimes on things
like flash or java applets, and I know my graphics card
can handle that. I have set system configuration, and
basically the minimal will run. So it will have like RAM
at like 30-50% frequently, but processor will nearly
always be at 100%. I've defragged my hard drive. And I
have run virus scan with no detection. Someone did
mention something about the registry, but I don't know
how that works. Is that my problem?

Specs are:
384mb RAM
2.0ghz intel celeron CPU
XP home OS
Graphics card is Intel 82845G/GL Chip, 64mb memory

I'm not a computer wiz, if some other specs are needed, I
can add.

I have talked to other gamers and have not had luck
finding a person who know's what to do about it.

Hate to break it to you, but you don't have a graphics card - you have an
on-board graphics chip, which is 'eating' 64MB of your system RAM (i.e. your
available physical RAM is only 320MB). As 384 is mid-range comfortable, I
strongly recommend the purchase of a proper AGP card, especially if you're a
heavy gamer, and you should consider it an essential purchase if you play
games that really crunch the pixels (1st-person shooters, sports/flight
sims - even some RTS are very pixel-hungry).

I would also look to see the process using 100% of the cycles. If it's
explorer, svchost, or another vital system process, then a full system-wide
scan with an up-to-date AVP, followed by Spybot from
www.safer-networking.org. In fact do that anyway, it can't hurt.

 

[Brendan]

-----Original Message-----
I have no idea what causes this, but here goes.

I could be running anything very small, just AIM and a
browser, that's cool. If I start something else, like a
3d game or something, it will work well for a min or so,
then be laggy, then work well for a min or so, then be
laggy for a min or so, on and on. This works the same
when there is only the game running. It is not the
graphics card, because it will happen sometimes on things
like flash or java applets, and I know my graphics card
can handle that. I have set system configuration, and
basically the minimal will run. So it will have like RAM
at like 30-50% frequently, but processor will nearly
always be at 100%. I've defragged my hard drive. And I
have run virus scan with no detection. Someone did
mention something about the registry, but I don't know
how that works. Is that my problem?

Specs are:
384mb RAM
2.0ghz intel celeron CPU
XP home OS
Graphics card is Intel 82845G/GL Chip, 64mb memory

I'm not a computer wiz, if some other specs are needed, I
can add.

I have talked to other gamers and have not had luck
finding a person who know's what to do about it.
.

Hello Pubby,

I am no expert on these things but i do maybe have a
couple of suggestions,

Firstly,

The CPU is a celeron, now I used to sell PC's and i would
never suggest a celeron cpu for gamers, they just cant
handle programmes like the pentiums or the amds something
to do with the floating point technology, but that may not
be the problem, what i would do is to re install windows
incase you have lost information, also i do know that when
the cpu heats up too much then the processor stops
working, to have your processor working at 100% is
strange, maybe check that the fan attached to the cpu is
working, i had a similar problem on a machine where one of
the backets was broken so the force of the fan wasn't on
the cpu properly causing it to overheat, hence the slowing
down of the whole system, once that was fixed the system
worked fine, although if this problem has been going on
for a while then the processor could be stuffed.
also another thought is that maybe you are overclocking
your processor too much, overclocking is an art i believe
and if not done correctly can cause some serious problems.

So Firstly check that the processor fan is working
properly and is attached properly.
check that there is no overclocking going on, how? i am
not sure, maybe in bios?
if all that is fine reinstall windows to cover any lost
clusters from nessary files,
if problem still is not fixed then maybe it could be a
motherboard problem or if it only happens with games your
game card could be at fault,
keeping in mind that i am no Wiz myself, but I have come
accross the problem of the celeron processor heating up
too much and causing the system to " lag " and to crash.

I hope this fixes your problem.

You could also check that the graphics card is not working
too high for the motherboard, processor and monitor.
these are just thoughts.
check the fan..

Brendan