[Kivak]

Alrighty, let just first off say, i am very good at computers, but I still cannot figure this problem out. This is a problem on my friend's computer, not mine. But it effects both of us when we play games. So its my problem too. lol

Ok, so, the problem is this. His computer is a dell inspiron 600m laptop. And he uses it to play games. However, lately it has been doing something very strange. From the time he turns it on to about 30min into playing a game, his computer acts normal, then after that time his computer "enters lag-mode" (that is what we called it). Basically what happens is that it slows down the game by about 90%. Things move real slow, and in a network game, it effects everyone else as well. But we know it is him because when he plays a game by himself it still does it. It acts very much the same as if the powercord was unplugged and it was running on battery. So I took the battery out (thinking it was battery related) but it still occurs. We tried looking for viruses, addware, and spyware. That wasn't it. I also checked the running processes, nothing was abnormal. But it still goes into lag mode. The weird thing is that it gets worse and worse, first 30min of fine play time, lag mode, then 25min, then fine, then 20... and so on and so forth. The other weird thing is that lag mode lasts only for a pretty regular amount of time. Its like clockwork... But I am out of ideas.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

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Looks like the cpu is overheating. Download Everest from my signature, run it and go to Computer > Sensor. Wait few seconds until data shows up. Keep the program minimized and while well into the game, when it starts slowing down, maximize, check and cpu, HD and board temperatures.

[The Skeptic]

Looks like the cpu is overheating. Download Everest from my signature, run it and go to Computer > Sensor. Wait few seconds until data shows up. Keep the program minimized and while well into the game, when it starts slowing down, maximize, check and cpu, HD and board temperatures.

[Kivak]

Thank you. I will definitely try that. If it is the CPU overheating, is there any way to prevent or minimize that? Or is it something you can't prevent without a better cooling system?

[The Skeptic]

You can improve the situation by cleaning air inlets and fan. Use a can of compressed air. Apply short bursts of air to avoid overevving the fan.

Another way is to lift the computer a little, exposing the bottom side, to improve air circulation from the bottom. Laptops are notorious for overheating. You can buy a special cooling plate in computer shops.

[zbd]

CPU overheating suggestions.

http://forums.cnet.c...ssageID=1102081

[Kivak]

Hi again.

We did try what you suggested. In fact we did put his computer up on dominos (which increased the airflow a lot more). And waited a bit for the lagmode to start, hoping that it wouldn't at all. but it did. We checked the CPU and HD temps using everest and one other and they both read about 117 degrees. Which mine was at as well. And we continued and it suffered the same type of symptoms. But we felt it might have been less severe. But it could also be because we were doing things during that time to distract us. :-\ My friend said it might be a memory issue where he might be running out of memory. The problem with that is that I have the same memory running the same game and i am just fine. He suggested it may also be the time it is taking to process the virtual memory. But it doesn't make sense that way.

Any other ideas? We're going to keep his computer circulated (it came with no feet he said). So that will help the computer anyway.

[The Skeptic]

The other weird thing is that lag mode lasts only for a pretty regular amount of time. Its like clockwork... But I am out of ideas.

Do you mean the lag stops after some time and the computer goes back to normal speed? If yes, it might be that a program enters into a scan or update mode and when it finishes the computer goes back to normal. Uncheck every automatic update and every automatic scan (e.g antimalware, synchronization programs, windows update, adobe etc.etc) to find the culprit.

[Kivak]

That is correct. And Thats what i thought at first. I checked into it and it didn't seem like there was anything out of the ordinary going on in terms of CPU usage. However I don't have anything to measure HD usage. We made sure to uncheck everything in windows and such. But it might be somewhere else. Do you have any ideas of some sort of software that might help in this? Or is this more of a problem you have to solve the hard manual way?

[The Skeptic]

Try Srart > run > msconfig. Set to Selective Startup then go Startup and uncheck everything except for the antivirus and other items directly related to the operation of the computer. Reboot. Disable windows automatic updates and antivirus automatic update and scan. Remember to reactivate after the test.

Open Task Manager and in Processes look for Idle System Processe. Run the the game and look from time to time What is the cpu usage of Idle System Processes. Look again when the computer slows down and when returning to normal speed. Please report these values. Also look at other processes if any of them change cpu usage considerably when the computer slows down.

I don't see how the problem can be related to HD usage.