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View Full Version : What is wrong with my computer?


Druggist
09-16-2007, 12:42 AM
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: Hey guys,
Im not overly happy with the perfomance im getting from my computer. I had it built a few months ago and it contains,
e6600
2gb ddr2 800mhz 4-4-4-12
8800gtx
Asus P5N32E Sli Plus
Xfi Xtremegamer soundcard
Silverstone 750W PSU
Vista premium 32 bit
22inch Viewsonic vx2235wm
Thermaltake armor black case

Anyhows im a massive call of duty 2 player. We have been playing for years now and i need my pc to be running smoothly to play well in scrims etc. For first 3mths i had my fps capped at 200 and i get 80-100 ping (best i can manage with my net speed and location). My issues that im having is that in cod2 your fps shows as x fps (a-b, c). X is your current fps, i think a and b are like upper and lower limits and im told c is choke (quality of fps and should be 0 or 1). Anyhow ive noticed that "a" my lower fps have took massive cuts of late going under 100 and even 60. Also my choke (c) is showing more and more 2s and 3s. I get choppy gameplay and it aint smooth when i shoot. I run in dx7 and with my graphic card i should manage 200fps easy (i used to get 90-125 outta my palit x700). What could be stuffing up my performance
This is what ive considered.
1) Defrag harddrive - didnt need to be done said performance was good
2) Ran spybot and adware on pc and came up clean
3) Ran avg free version antivirus and came up clean
4) Checked lagometer on cod2 and its normal (no spikes)
5) One strange thing i have noticed is that when i play bf2 and bf2142 (had em for years and only play occasionly). When i load both games a red line appears down left and upper border of my monitor (the backlight). This is a millimeter if that and persists in intro until game loads menu then it disappears. Then i load a level and a dull green appears on top left of upper border of monitor (its only visible when map is loading not in game or any other time pc is on). Final strange thing is if i press ` to load console in game and change fps etc the writing is blurred in the console. All of these problems occur in both games and only these two games. Not in console or loading for css, quake wars demo or any of other 10 or so games i have.

Is my monitor stuffed (i must admit its abit of a budget monitor u get what u pay for) its never been a crisp clear image like my old philips but its near enough (PS i thought of trying another monitor on pc but blue cable wont connect to graphic card slot) Need white one.

Could it just be all the stuff i have on my pc now. 150gb of files. Ive considered formating my pc but i dont know how. Like when to install bios, OS and other files etc etc. I wouldnt mind a fresh install when SP1 comes out.
Only other thing i can think is my crappy keyboard with number "FIVE" which dont work. Or perhaps ive damaged a cable/pin (maybe white one between monitor and graphic card) but im not sure.

Plz help me get to bottom of this. I ramble sorry ta for reading to this point
:)

Druggist
09-16-2007, 12:47 AM
Some more info to help u guys pick the problem
- Ive moved my case from on carpet to sitting on a board of wood between two desks. ?airflow seems ok and air from back of pc is quite cool
- The pc when it loads used to be quick. Now there is a 5 or so second delay and RAM usage is at 50% for 30seconds then drops to 35% (seems strange). I have all unecassary programs turned off in system configuration during startup.
- When im playing all these games my CPU and RAM usage is never higher than 70-80% so im not running my pc into ground. Also 8800gtx should play these games with ease. My brand of 8800gtx is a inno3d?

unacceptable_risk
09-16-2007, 01:22 AM
Ok well straight off the bat, BF2 & 2142 have no native widescreen support.. So you have to go into a config text file and alter what it says to the desired resolution.

Defraging and tidying up is always a good idea. Some people format every few months, personally I like to just fix things and learn as I go.. But I can see why people just find it easier to reinstall everything from time to time.

I never got into Cod2, so I can't offer much about that game specifically.

With the AV scans. Sometimes its worthwile running them in safe mode, as programs can't so easily hide themselves. And the registry can get clogged up.. but I am reluctant to reccomend reg cleaners, as they often remove things you want too.

Flybye
09-16-2007, 04:40 AM
It could also be a driver issue. Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the 8800GTX drivers?

Druggist
09-16-2007, 07:22 AM
Quick replies thats what i like about liquidninjas.

Ive actually have bf2 and 2142 for over 2yrs and played em on my 22inch no problem for several months. This problem is recent like 2weeks.

I will run my virus scan in safemode. Good idea. Can i also run spyware programs in safe mode?
As for the drivers flybye i upgraded to a beta driver on about a month ago when i got bioshock. It said the beta gave better performance with bioshock so i dl it. Im not sure if problems started then or if it was a gradual thing. Can i go into control panel and unistall NVIDIA drivers. Then reinstall the current non betas? Cause ive clicked rollback drivers once and it said i moved back to old version and problem was still there. Actually i have this program tweak vista and i turned some startup programs off with it and system configuration. One thing i did was changed some settings in services tab of this from i wanna play games to i want background services running and it came up with NVIDIA drivers may not have installed correctly message from windows straight after i applied. I must admit screen didnt flick black like normal when i did rollback.

Can you elaborate on cleaning up
I know i can delete c:windows/temp from a previous thread. What else should i be deleting and cleaning?

If i was to try a format would need very specific instructions to make sure i restored everything properly. Can someone talk me throught it plz. I can list all the CD's i got when i brought computer.

unacceptable_risk
09-16-2007, 09:18 AM
I have used Tweak XP for some years now and find it great, if Tweak Vista is from the same ppl, then I have no doubt its a good score. In versions I have they include some handy cleanup utils. Temp files are a good start, there are just a few other places where junk accumulates.

I don't know much at all about Vista's registry. But I know Win XP gets its reg in quite a mess after installing and uninstalling a few programs. Perhaps there is a reg cleaner for it that is good. If you go the reg clean, don't just take its word for things.. Go through the list and look at the registry entries it wants to delete. Make sure they are programs that are no longer installed, and just keep an eye out for actual windows components.

Yep, all your scans should be able to be done in safe mode, and generally its a good idea to do that from time to time.

Changing drivers used to be troublesome sometimes.. There were driver cleanup programs for XP.. Sadly I just haven't used Vista enough to be much more help.

Druggist
09-16-2007, 10:23 AM
Ok so i went into control panel and manually uninstalled my nvidia drivers then reinstalled the latest beta drivers. BIG BIG improvement i was on fire on server last nite. Gameplay is restored to almost 100% what i used to get.
So i think its safe to say that was the problem and i turned something off with tweakvista which is needed uninstall or detect previously installed drivers.
Im yet to give bf2 a go but hopefully it will be back working properly. I still wanna clean up all the files as well as run scans. If someone could list of the folders on vista which this applies to would be great :D