[malcolmlusby]

Hi, can anyone help?
My computer games are running slowly during gameplay. They all start off working just fine, then about 10 mins into any game (including low memory games like Polar Golfer and Diablo II) the gameplay goes into slow motion. This lasts for different amounts of time depending on the game. E.G Splinter Cell goes slow-mo for about 5 mins then returns to normal for 10, then slow-mo again and so on. Hitman is always slow mo. Polar Golfer goes slow mo for about 15 seconds then returns to normal for about 20 mins then slwmo again.
I've got my laptop running 22 processes and using about 2% Cpu mem (it jumps to 20-40% every fifteen seconds or so then straight back to 2%)
I've defragged, cleaned up, used Ccleaner and tracks eraser. I have norton anti-virus 2006 on and have no viruses or worms that it can detect (I'm also running ad-aware and yahoo spyware - no spyware present.)
I'm at my wits end. Is my laptop just not designed to play games!!!???

My Computer has 60gb of memory and I currently have 22.2 GB free. Everything else on the computer works just fine, it's just the gameplay!!!!!

Please help if you can

Thanks.

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well first while you are running a game you should check your processes for any processes that take up too much cpu usage

if not its probly a flash player or a java problem

Best wishes

[mike needs help]

well first while you are running a game you should check your processes for any processes that take up too much cpu usage

if not its probly a flash player or a java problem

Best wishes

[mike needs help]

This also could be the speed of your video card

or your 3d card

Best Wishes

[malcolmlusby]

thanks mike. I've checked my processes and disabled everything that is not a Microsoft process. The problem is, the game plays fine for a while, then goes into slow-mo. I'm not sure if that means that my video card is working fine and capable of handling the program or not, but I suspect that it is okay and it is a process jumping in at some point and slowing things down.

I've run task manager during the game and when the game is not running and everything seems to be okay. Is there a microsoft process that can cause the jump from 2% to 20-40% that i can disable? I think this may be the problem. Even when i have nothing runnning apart from microsoft processes and task manager, i still get the periodic jump from 2% to 20-40%!!! When all my processes are enabled (itunes, messenger etc) i'm running 40 processes in total so disabling them down to 22 seems to do nothing!!!

just an additional note. When my laptop is running for a while, the left hand side (right next to the mouse pad) is very hot to the touch. I suspect this may be a processor issue, but can that interfere with gameplay?

any additional help wou;d be invaluable.
thanks again mike

[emery]

Is it only games or do programs also run slow on your machine?

Could you please post some more information on your system specs.

just an additional note. When my laptop is running for a while, the left hand side (right next to the mouse pad) is very hot to the touch. I suspect this may be a processor issue, but can that interfere with gameplay?

It shouldn't be any problem unless your computer shuts down by itself because it would be overheating

[malcolmlusby]

hi emery, what else do you need to know about my computer's specs? and can you tell me how to find it? my sound card is working fine...graphics card i don't know how to find. i'm running intel pentium m 1.80ghz, 1.0 gb ram, mobility radeon 9000 if that helps....

[emery]

With those specs you should be able to play the games you've listed.


I'm late for work... I'll check back later this afternoon and see if I can help you any further

[malcolmlusby]

Hi Emery. You are right. It actually DOES play the games with no probelms whatsoever, then a little while into gameplay the whole thing slows right down and becomes extremely sluggish!. What I can tell you extra is that it is not beause their are too many graphics on the screen (i though that was the problem when I in battle mode playing starwars) because it happens with every game.


the only other thing of note that I can think of is that when I exit the game (when it's going slowly) and then immediately open Task manager and click on performance - the CPU history graph shows the CPU has been running at full capacity (However I haven't tried this when the game is running fine. I'll check now.) thanks for all the help so far.....I hope I can get it sorted.

[malcolmlusby]

UPDATE:

I have rebooted XP from my installation disk and reinstalled my Ati Radeon 9000 drivers. Apart from causing a shed load of problems with media player, word etc. it hasn't made a bit of difference!!!!!! Just so y'all know.
In addition, i now appear to have lost my bluetooth connection on the laptop. Was working fine before I did the XP uprage thing, but now says 'bluetooth device not found. i'm going to try the add new hardware wizard, but without the disk I reckon I'm screwed!!! lol

[gerryf]

your issue sounds mostly like a heat issue

Can you download this

http://www.geekstogo...d...=show&id=13

SAVE A REPORT and ATTACH IT

[malcolmlusby]

hi gerry, hope this helps

Attached Files

•  Report.htm   287.48KB   26 downloads

[gerryf]

temp looks ok, but I see this thing only has 32mb of video memory---that is not very much and the latitude line is really not intended as a gaming machine

can you increase that in bios--look for SHARED SYSTEM memory

[malcolmlusby]

any idea how i find shared system memory on windows xp????

[malcolmlusby]

I think I found the bios bit by going into setup (f2) but, although it lists the video memory as 32mb, i can't change it there.

One other thing, the games that i am having problems are downloaded demos. Is that likely to affect anything?

[gerryf]

I had a feeling you could not change it-- but, since there is a great deal of difference between various machines, I wanted to make certain as that is the most obvious issue.

I want you to go here:

http://www.omegadrivers.net/

and get the xp radeon ati drivers


these are alternative drivers to those that came with your system. Install them and see if the situation improves