PC speed annoying problem

[raiyanb]

hey every1

i got a PC speed issue

when im playin a game such as need for speed underground the game is sometimes a little choppy with the racing. Also say for example if i am copying stuff from a cd onto my HDD when i browse around in my compouter the computer acts slowly (the mouse pointer is choppy and the windows take a while to open up)

My pc stats are
1GB DDR RAM,
AMD athlon xp 2800+,
windows xp service pack 1 home edition
120GB HDD,
128MB GeforeceFX 5200,
gigabye 7n400v pro 2 motherboard

I recently formatted my HDD drive and was wondering if it had nething to do with the windows updates as i havent downloaded the recent ones.

If ne1 can reply and help i would greatly appreciate it.

[dr_roberts49]

Is this a recent problem, or have you always had it? Are your video drivers up-to-date?

One thing you might want to check for, is programs running in the background, but you appear to have more than enough memory. Run spybot and adware. See if they bring anything up. That's all I can think of on the software end. I doubt if it's hardware related.

My daughter's computer had the choppy mouse pointer, and it was because of an app that she didn't mean to load from a website. Spybot found it and killed it. With the offending program gone, her computer returned to normal. Good luck!

Robert

[wallie_x]

What size memory allotment are you giving the AGP card in the BIOS, and is it set to the proper multiplier?
Mostlikely though, it does sound like another program interfering.
Also turn off all the Win XP visual enhancements, fade effects and what not. I have mine set to 'Windows Standard' and not the Win XP effects. That alone helped the speed of my system.
Also: Good web site for Win XP tweaks!!

[Gettinbye]

There are so many factors that affect performance, that it's hard sometimes to know where to start. Without knowing a little more in the way of what you've checked, it'll be harder to narrow it down. For that purpose, I'll post a few questions and things to look at (if you haven't already)...
You said you have 1gb DDR, but what speed is it? PC2700 will be the minimum you'll want to run with the 2800+. Otherwise your FSB will be 266fsb instead of the 333fsb or 400fsb (depending on your chip) that the 2800+ was designed to run at.
Also, in system properties, is your CPU being identified correctly? and at what speed? And in Device Mangler, are there any devices displayed with a yellow exclaimation mark?
As dr_roberts49 mentioned, a spyware scan would be a great idea, as well as a virus scan... do you have any running processes that you don't recognize?
Please post back with what you find out

[shawshank62]

imo, that video card sucks for play with this game. It is pretty graphics intensive game, and that is pushing it if you are running it on high effects.

[raiyanb]

hey thanx every1 for da replies

im not sure what speed the ram is at but im pretty sure its at least PC2700. in the device manager theres nothin with excalamtion mark and the cpu is identified properly.
My NFSU settings are on medium with 800x600 resolution so its not too demanding. im not really expert of tweaking etc so i dont kno how to change the FSB or nething or chek it out from my PC. things is with other games like vice city the problem is not so bad. usually it hapens once the game has been running for about 20mins. My tasklist has usual programs like directCD creator and MSN messenger etc.

Please psot back with anything.

thanx

[DoubleK]

Originally posted by raiyanb
it hapens once the game has been running for about 20mins. thanx

IS this a recent problem or has this game/all games ALWAYS done this?

Recent problem suggests according to above quote that either your video card fan could be malfunctioning or something else on your pc is overheating.

If you are a serious gamer I would partition that huge hard disk.

[raiyanb]

NFS underground always has this problem. usually it happens when i am riding over a puddle or other effects when it slows a little and then gets back to normal. my hard disk is partitioned into 2 drives one 80Gb and anoither 30GB.

[shawshank62]

i think it is video card. Fx 5200 isnt exactly a gamers card.

[HeadBand]

shawshank the system requirements on that game are gf2 or radeon 7500