[Lachrym]

First of all, I'd like to say that I'm new to the forum and I really hope that you guys will be able to help me.

Anyway, here's my situation: I'm playing a game. Any PC game at all. Half-Life 2, RuneScape, whatever. The game runs fine for about 5 minutes, but then the problem begins. After 5 minutes, there is a period of lag lasting about 20-30 seconds. The game freezes and the cursor becomes very jerky. This happens every (approximately) 5 minutes afterwards. Like I said, this happens with all PC games. This has happened before, and it stopped for a while, but now it's back again. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. Below are my system specs:

Windows: Windows XP5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 2
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2900.2180
Memory (RAM): 768 MB
CPU Info: Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 1500MHz
CPU Speed: 1495.4 MHz
Sound card: Intel® Integrated Audio
Display Adapters: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 | NetMeeting driver | RDPDD Chained DD |
Screen Resolution: 1024 X 768
Network: Network Present
Network Adapters: MAC Bridge Miniport - Packet Scheduler Miniport | Intel® PRO/100 VM Network Connection - Packet Scheduler Miniport | WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface |
CD / DVD Drives: E: COMPAQ DVD-ROM GD-8000 | F: LG CD-RW CED-8120B |
Default Printer: Lexmark 3300 Series
COM Ports: COM1 | COM2 |
LPT Ports: LPT1 |
Mouse: 5 Button Wheel Mouse Present
Hard Disks: C: 33.4GB | D: 3.9GB |
Hard Disks - Free: C: 6.1GB | D: 881.4MB |
USB Controllers: Detected: 2 host controllers.
Firewire (1394): Not Detected
PCMCIA (Laptops): Not Installed
Manufacturer: Compaq
Product Make:
Serial Number: ###########
AC Power Status: OnLine
BIOS Info: AT/AT COMPATIBLE | 09/06/01 | COMPAQ - 20010906 | |
Time Zone: Eastern Standard Time
Battery: No Battery
Motherboard: Compaq
Modems:

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...Anyone?

[Lachrym]

...Anyone?

[Dan]

Hi Lachrym,
I'm not the most "Hardware Savvy" guy around, however I once had a similar problem to you when my CD-ROM was going bad. How old is your CD-Rom / Power Supply? Is this on online games, offline, or both? I remember becoming very frustrated with this, especially when I was online However, your problem might not be related to your CD-Rom, I'm just sharing with you one of my many exciting life stories

Hopefully one of the more hardware-savvy people will be able to shed some more light on your issue

[Lachrym]

Thanks for the reply, Dan.

Something wrong with the CD-ROM? That sounds a bit out there. But anyway, it came with my computer, which is a little over 4 years old. Same with the power supply.

My problem happens on both online and offline games, quite freqently. I've noticed that it seems to happen when my PC usage stays at 100% for too long. I used to be able to play PC games just fine; I played Runescape and Morrowind a lot last year, with no problems. But now, this is happening. Is it possible that my video card is overheating? Even if so, I don't see why the card should have any problems, as it's only a year old.

Thanks again for the response. Hopefully someone will be able to help me.
- Lachrym

[Dan]

Okay, before you start troubleshooting your Hardware, I would highly recommend that you test your machine for infection(s), by following all of the steps here. Alternately, you could restart your computer into Safe Mode, load up a game and then see if you still experience the frequent spikes of lag.

[ZEUS_GB]

Check the system and applications logs for errors around the time of the lag.

[Lachrym]

OK Dan, I followed as many steps as I could at your link (CleanUp!, AdAware, CWShredder), but I can't download any of the other programs (another problem, with my connection). And booting into Safe Mode doesn't help; I can't load a single game, because apparently, Safe Mode uses the computer's generic video drivers for video rendering.

And ZEUS, I'm not sure how to check the logs for errors. Some of the games do not use evident logs (HL2, Runescape). Could you please explain how to check the logs?

[ZEUS_GB]

Why can't you download the programs?

Go into control panel > administrative tools > event viewer. Once in event viewer you should see 3 logs, application, security and system.