I need some Pc help

Fallschirmjager · Post by **Fallschirmjager** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 3:15 am

For the past several weeks ive been having a problem with my PC

Whenever I play a game....and it doesnt matter what game it is or how graphicaly intensive it is....the game runs fine for about 5-10 min....then the framerate takes a nosedive and I have to restart my PC to return it get it going back to speed again

This happens without fail everytime I try to play a game

Ive tried doing everything I can think off and now I am going to ask for help

I have defragmented...updated drivers...cut my desktop display bitrate down to 16...made sure my video cards AA was off...taken off games to free up space...cleared out temp files and install caches....everything I can think off and shutting down every program that is running

Im running windows XP pro
Two major things have happened since this problem arose

I made this compute my network hub and put dsl on it
and I put in a new hardrive after my other one died
Its a 30 gb hardrive with 20.8 gb used and 17.0 free

I do compress old files to save space (but I dont have the entire hardrive compressed....ive been told on xp you can compress some files with no problem)
I have uncompressed some of my game to try them and it doesnt seem to help

I had my Video card overclocked about 8% and I dialed it back down but that didnt help either

This is my best computer so having it not able to perform optimutly is a big problem

Any help would be apprechiated

Karnaaj · Post by **Karnaaj** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 3:37 am

1 - *Only* during games? Try running a movie (if you have any, or DVD if you have the drive) and see if it tanks on that as well.

2 - Try opening Notepad (about as un-intensive as it gets, I suspect <G>) and type away for about the amoutn of failure-time, then try a game.

3 - Let it sit totally idle (no screensaver, even) until failure-time, then try a game.

Y'might try this stuff after disconnecting from the DSL as well; if all of a sudden your problem goes away *then*, you need to firewall bigtime.

Anyway, if it does it no matter what, you might be overheating... sounds about the right timespan for things to get warm and start going "Fuh fuh fuh".

Good luck...

BrubakerII · Post by **BrubakerII** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 5:00 am

It could also be a memory issue. Try Ctrl-Alt-Del (once!) to bring up the Task Manager and look at what is running on your machine, particulalry in the processes tab - perhaps there is something running in the background that is not releasing mem back to the cpu?

Try and cast your mind back to what you have installed recently ie games/drivers etc. maybe one of these is the problem. You could use the system restore function to go back to an earlier restore point.

Let us know how you got on.

Brubaker

Losqualo · Post by **Losqualo** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 5:11 am

Try some tuning tips like cancelling tasks you don't need while running XP at home.
If you are interested, I can translate some of those tips which were published in german magazines and those helped me a lot.

Nickel · Post by **Nickel** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 6:02 am

I agree with all of the above to test. In addition, Have you done anything to control the size of allowed Temp files? Second do you do a lot of Quick Saves during the games? Some games i.e. the new Blitzkreig game leave fragmented files on your disk that can be 1.75Gb or bigger depending on your graphics settings and how many units are on the map.

Fallschirmjager · Post by **Fallschirmjager** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 6:14 am

Ok

Problem found...but I dont know how to solve it

I found the problem totatly by accident (thank god)

I was trying out IL-2 Forgotten Battles with my DSL off...and for some reason I has unplugged my soundcard too....the game ran fine well past its usual slow down point

So...
I plugged the DSL back in....same results...game ran fine....so I plugged in the sound card again...it slowed down about 3 min in

So....Now how to solve it?

I have a Creative Labs soundblaster extigy that is plugged in through a USB port

Nickel · Post by **Nickel** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 6:14 am

By the way, be careful about shutting down things running in the Task tab in Device Manager. XP does a lot of log saving to maintain your Explorer operating preferances in addition to having MicroSoft set restore points running of which you may not know the timing. XP is not like Windows 95/98/ME. (Voice of experience) Anything in programs is OK. One other thing you might do is remove anything that you think might be causing the problem and go back a week or more and try a system restore.

Nickel · Post by **Nickel** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 6:19 am

How many USB devices do you have running? Are you running USB 1 or 2. Does sound card need USB2? Have you got the most current drivers to go with your USB ports? If you have more than one USB device Try disconnecting other devices and see if this affects it?

Nickel · Post by **Nickel** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 6:31 am

Did you check sound card compatibility for IL2? Ther should be a read me text in the game files that discusses issues for sound and video. Do you have the most current drivers for your sound card? Can you check cpu usage when the game is running and see if it is climbing over time?

Fallschirmjager · Post by **Fallschirmjager** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 6:39 am

Originally posted by Nickel
Did you check sound card compatibility for IL2? Ther should be a read me text in the game files that discusses issues for sound and video. Do you have the most current drivers for your sound card? Can you check cpu usage when the game is running and see if it is climbing over time?

Its not just on Forgotten battles...I tried Jedi Knight II and SpWaW and those two slowed down as well

I do have the latest drivers for my soundcard

I Have all 3 USB ports in use out of 4 (Mouse...DSL, soundcard and a joystick when I need it)

How do I find out what is a USB 2.0 and a USB 1.0?

I have two of each

Ill go look for USB drivers
I have no idea where to find them but Im going to go look

Nickel · Post by **Nickel** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 6:56 am

Are the USB ports built into your computer or are you running a USB router? If internal USB ports, check your motherboard manual and see if the kind of port is identified- should be. Check your manual for you sound card and it should tell you what kind of USB port it will run with. USB 2.0 is a faster type of communication than 1.0. If there is a conflict, you may need to go to the home page for your motherboard, be sure you have the model number and serial number of the board. Also take a good look at the board and see if there is a tag on it anywhere that identifies the version of Bios that is installed on the board you have. Tag can be pretty small so look close. You made need this stuff if you go to the site for the board as some boards with the same model designation have different Bios versions on them and may only support USB 1.0. Be careful about installing noncompatible USB drivers.

If these are external USB ports (a USB router), then you will probably need to go to the manufacturer of the router and see if he has a driver update.

XP does not like to install non-WHQL certified drivers and may intercept you even if you tell windows to override and install. If you get to this point, drop a line and I'll tell you how to override windows, but you go there at you own risk!

Fallschirmjager · Post by **Fallschirmjager** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 7:00 am

Originally posted by Nickel
Are the USB ports built into your computer or are you running a USB router? If internal USB ports, check your motherboard manual and see if the kind of port is identified- should be. Check your manual for you sound card and it should tell you what kind of USB port it will run with. USB 2.0 is a faster type of communication than 1.0. If there is a conflict, you may need to go to the home page for your motherboard, be sure you have the model number and serial number of the board. Also take a good look at the board and see if there is a tag on it anywhere that identifies the version of Bios that is installed on the board you have. Tag can be pretty small so look close. You made need this stuff if you go to the site for the board as some boards with the same model designation have different Bios versions on them and may only support USB 1.0. Be careful about installing noncompatible USB drivers.

If these are external USB ports (a USB router), then you will probably need to go to the manufacturer of the router and see if he has a driver update.

XP does not like to install non-WHQL certified drivers and may intercept you even if you tell windows to override and install. If you get to this point, drop a line and I'll tell you how to override windows, but you go there at you own risk!

I looked at my USB driver and it tells me it was issued by Microsoft...dont know if this means anything

Fallschirmjager · Post by **Fallschirmjager** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 7:17 am

Correction

All 4 USB ports are 1.0

But...

Ive had this soundcard for a year and a half and only in the last few months have I ecperienced the slow down

Jarhead · Post by **Jarhead** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 7:18 am

Have you tried using a different usb port for your sound?

Nickel · Post by **Nickel** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 7:32 am

Go into Control Panel and select Peformance and Maintenance. Next select System at the bottom of the page. Under System Properties select Hardware and on that window select Device Manager. Max the window so you get a good look at the list of devices. At the bottom of the list you should see a listing for Universal Serial Bus controllers. Expand it and you should see a list of your USB ports/ devices that are installed. Don't mess with the Generaic USB Hub or PCI to USB host Controller. Your devices will be installed on the USB listings below these. Right click on the first Usb port and click properties in the popup menu. The menu that pops open will have a general Tab and 2-3 others. you can check the device by trouble shooting if you like. On the Driver tab you will get a menu that is pretty much straight forward. Record the driver info so that you can verify the USB version if you need to. Do a driver update and have windows look for a better driver. If it finds one install it and see if this helps. You can always roll back the driver ( on same menu as Update Driver) You can also do a manual search for a better driver, but you will need to know the exact path to the driver in order to do this. You will need to do this check for each USB port that is listed.

Fallschirmjager · Post by **Fallschirmjager** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 7:35 am

Ok im narrowing this down

When I have the card plugged in but disabled in the games...games run fine
When I activate the hardware within the game....games slow down considerably after a few min

Mr.Frag · Post by **Mr.Frag** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 7:45 am

Run dxdiag, on the sound tab you'll see a hardware/accelleration slider. Shift it to the left to one notch, test, repeat.

Get the latest drivers from Creative and install them. Make absolutely sure you get the part number off your card and match the drivers as there are a million versions of the drivers and the ones built into windows are generally going to mis-detect the card and use some generic versions.

I have the same problem with my SB Live Digital card. Windows sees it as a Live missing the digital aspects and runs like a piece of ****

Nickel · Post by **Nickel** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 7:49 am

Get into System info again and pull up your audio card. You shoul get some kind of properties tab or window. Can you adjust you speaker performance? Can you adjust sound acceleration? Do you have any MIDI contols? Try using the windows default MIDI if you are using the software for your sound card. I know this is going to sound dumb, but I had my card set too slow and was having sound problems so I turned up everything including synthesizing speakers. Apparently some games need higher levels of MIDI and sound control to run properly.

Fallschirmjager · Post by **Fallschirmjager** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 8:16 am

Grr

I moved down sound settings and im still getting poor performance

Its weird though...I can run music and movies for long periods of time with no problem

so Im thinking maybe its direct x and my sound card together

Ive got dx 9.0...im going to roll back to 8.1 tomorrow and see how that works
anyone know how to roll it back safely?
Or do you just reinstall the driver over the new one?

Im going to bed now...but ill work on this more tomorrow...thanks for all the help so far

Losqualo · Post by **Losqualo** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 1:16 pm

Originally posted by Fallschirmjager
...
anyone know how to roll it back safely?
Or do you just reinstall the driver over the new one?...

That's a tricky thing.
The best thing to do with XP would be a system recovery, but you might loose some programs or settings (everything you changed after installing DX9).
There are programs to de-install a newer DX version, but I don't know where to get them.
Just installing the older version won't help.