Problem with Barton based XP machine

[John]

Hi Everyone

I wonder if anyone can shed any light on a problem I have been
experiencing with my PC please?

I have the following setup;

Barton XP 2800+ (running at 2.13GHz)
Windows XP Home SP2
2x512Mb RAM
Asus A7N8X Motherboard (revision 1.07)
Samsung 120Mb HDD (main), Maxtor 120Mb HDD (secondary)

A litle while back I rebuilt this machine from scratch since I was
experiencing an odd problem; whilst playing a particular game (Deus Ex -
Invisible War) the machine would halt for a few seconds and then play on
again.

This would happen every three minutes or so. Infuratingly it dod not seem
to occur with any other applications.

Then it DID start to occur with other applications (well, games that is -
i have not seen it manifest itself to any degree with items such as Word,
or Excel and so on.

The other games that were affected were; Rome: Total War and Medal of
Honour: Pacific Assault.

It was suggested to me on this forum to ensure that I have updated all
necessary drivers (this had been done already) also to drop down a notch
or two the graphics driver to see if that would have any effect - it did
not.

The machine and all games that I own are patched to the hilt.

A friend suggested that I ought to look at the processor and check whether
the paste on the cooling fan was intact. It was not so i have reinstalled
all again and now and have tried the games again.

Irritatingly all the OTHER games now seem okay aside from Dues Ex, and it
STILL has the annoying habit of stopping and the starting whilst I am in
the process of playing the game. I did think that I might try turning down
the speed of the processor as it may be running hot (but the limit for the
processor is well, in excess of 70 deg centigrade so I did not think that
this would do much).

It did not make any difference whatsoever.

Does anyone have any clues as to what might be causing this really
specific problem?

Many thanks

John

--
Thanks

John

Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

 

[Uncle John]

You do not say what graphics card or monitor you are using but the symptoms
you mention have occurred with D ex M when there was overheating due of the
processor or graphics card (often due to overclocking)

I suggest you track your temperatures to see if this is the source of your
problem particularly as you indicate you are running over the optimum (the
latest Everest Home Edition can do this.)
Uncle John

clipped

.............................whilst playing Deus Ex - Invisible War the machine would halt for a few
seconds and then play on

 

[\old\ devildog]

Check to see what is in your Task Manager.
Look under Processes. Sounds like you have a something running in the
background every 3 minutes or so. Do you have WinPatrol running? "Scotty"
scans on a very regular basis. Also so many of the anti-virus software run
scans on launched files, any file. If this is it, then it is scanning the
sound files, music files, and graphics files as the game is loading them.
This will cause a slowdown or even a freezing of graphics if the file is
large ( as it is in most games ).
I not think it anything more than this. Before running a game shut down your
anti-virus, anti-spyware, and any other process you don't need (printer
apps, weatherbug, TeaTimer, WinPatrol, etc). Try this before worrying about
hardware.
Post back and let us know if it works.
--
"old' devildog
-- Semper Fi --

Don't take life too seriously; No one gets out alive.
He who dies with the most toys is none the less dead.
------------------------------



| Hi Everyone
|
| I wonder if anyone can shed any light on a problem I have been
| experiencing with my PC please?
|
| I have the following setup;
|
| Barton XP 2800+ (running at 2.13GHz)
| Windows XP Home SP2
| 2x512Mb RAM
| Asus A7N8X Motherboard (revision 1.07)
| Samsung 120Mb HDD (main), Maxtor 120Mb HDD (secondary)
|
| A litle while back I rebuilt this machine from scratch since I was
| experiencing an odd problem; whilst playing a particular game (Deus Ex -
| Invisible War) the machine would halt for a few seconds and then play on
| again.
|
| This would happen every three minutes or so. Infuratingly it dod not seem
| to occur with any other applications.
|
| Then it DID start to occur with other applications (well, games that is -
| i have not seen it manifest itself to any degree with items such as Word,
| or Excel and so on.
|
| The other games that were affected were; Rome: Total War and Medal of
| Honour: Pacific Assault.
|
| It was suggested to me on this forum to ensure that I have updated all
| necessary drivers (this had been done already) also to drop down a notch
| or two the graphics driver to see if that would have any effect - it did
| not.
|
| The machine and all games that I own are patched to the hilt.
|
| A friend suggested that I ought to look at the processor and check whether
| the paste on the cooling fan was intact. It was not so i have reinstalled
| all again and now and have tried the games again.
|
| Irritatingly all the OTHER games now seem okay aside from Dues Ex, and it
| STILL has the annoying habit of stopping and the starting whilst I am in
| the process of playing the game. I did think that I might try turning down
| the speed of the processor as it may be running hot (but the limit for the
| processor is well, in excess of 70 deg centigrade so I did not think that
| this would do much).
|
| It did not make any difference whatsoever.
|
| Does anyone have any clues as to what might be causing this really
| specific problem?
|
| Many thanks
|
| John
|
| --
| Thanks
|
| John
|
| Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

 

[Neil]

I had a similar problem, just before my hard drive died. it was like the pc
was struggling to access the drive and causing the pc to freeze. Back up
anything you don't want to lose!