Graphix while gaming acting up.

[luciusad2004]

This is a small problem but I'm not sure whats going on and its starting to bother me. I was playing some Half Life Two Death Match, and my computer seems to not be performing as well as it usually does. I can usually run the game on almost full settings at a resolution of 1024 x 768. Everything usually works out fine (w/ the exception of maps w/ heavy fog and similar effects), but the last couple of days she has been acting strange. Ive been getting lower frame rates and occasionally the game will lock up for half a minute and i can't do anything.

I defragmented the volume that my steam account and games live on and ran a virus scan. I also ran Ccleaner. I'm not sure whats going on that would make my computer performance suddenly drop. I recently switched from AVG antivirus to Avira Antivir. I don't know if that could have anything to do w/ it. Other than that nothing has changed.

Any one have any ideas of things i could look for that might cause something like this?

Computer stats are listed above.
Running Windows XP

Thanks for any advice.

[J-Roc]

Im just going to toss this out here. Are your heatsink's and fans clean? Might be overheating a little.

Also, have you tried updating drivers?

[luciusad2004]

Ill check the heatsink. Now im nervous because my first card (same model) had a faulty heatsink set up and overheated and died. It's a fanless model. You think it's likely i might be able to find a aftermarket cooling unit for her? Are those generally hard to install?

[J-Roc]

you have a GeForce 6200 right?

I would think since its an entry level card that it wouldnt heat up so high. I would get an aftermarket cooler for it. They are cheap and super easy to install. I had a Zalman CU-VC700 and it worked wonders. You'll have to buy some ram sinks if the cooler doesnt come with them.

[luciusad2004]

It really doesn't get that hot. Thats to say, its cool enough for me to touch the heatsink while its running, even when gaming. I'm not sure how hot is "hot" when it comes to computer parts. Also, i was looking around on newegg and i didn't see much that specifically said it would work w/ my card. I'm pretty sure mine isn't as large as a typical card. I didn't look to hard though. I'll browse around some more and see what i find. I've only played once since this happened and it seemed to be working a little better after some scheduled maintenance. It didn't lock up but the frame rate seemed lower.

Thanks guys

[FuzzyPlushroom]

The fact that it's a fanless model is good, as that way you can just drop on a fan (zip ties work well for this) and get a large improvement without having to replace the cooler. If, that is, your problem is an overheating video card.

You're not running out of hard drive space/virtual memory? You have enough physical RAM (no new programs eating it)? Tried disabling Avira while you're gaming?

This could be a lot of things.

[luciusad2004]

Idk, my C drive has 2.5 GBs free. That should be pretty good shouldn't it? I was thinking the other day maybe my living accommodations played a factor. The day this happened, my computer was on all day. Since i just sort of jerry rigged my computer in to the bottom area of my GF's minuscule desk its packed in there very tight, w/ the extra space being filled w/ a plethora of wires. (It's tight enough that i can't open the front door to access my cd drive)

I'll try running my games w/ Avira off and see what happens

[nevermind1534]

Can you feel the back of the computer, at least to se if it's burning hot? My parent's computer would get too hot to touch when it was in the small eMachines case.

[luciusad2004]

My computer is pretty touchable. I'll try touching her when shes working hard and see if she feels any hotter.

[nevermind1534]

and, if at all possible, try opening it up and feeling the video card heatsink after if you can reproduce that, if the computer is touchable. My parent's computer would only get like that after being on and working somewhat hard for a few hours.

[FuzzyPlushroom]

Yep, those enclosed desks are terrible for heat. I'd bet on that being the problem. 2.5 gigs is more than enough free space; my OS partition (10 GB) has 700-800 megs free at the moment.


My computer is pretty touchable. I'll try touching her when shes working hard and see if she feels any hotter.

I might end up sigquoting that... ;)

[J-Roc]

Idea Stolen! Ha ha! Good one!

[luciusad2004]

Sweet i always wanted to be sigquoted. : )

I tried touching the video card, its pretty warm, but not so hot that i can't hold my hand to the heat sink. I tried this after playing Half Life for maybe a half hour at a resolution of 1680 x 1050. It was acting pretty well considering i just hooked up my new monitor and jumped from 1024 x 768 to the above mentioned resolution. Maybe this was a false alarm? IDK, It's only happened twice. Though in my opinion, even if it happens only once, it still indicates a problem.

[Eclecticos]

If it worked fine before, and is giving you troubles now.

There are several scenarios. .
1.You need to update the drivers, and uninstall the old ones.
2.You have recently installed something that is chewing up your resources.
3.Your steam display settings have been set incorrectly.
4.Video memory is being used by another process.
5.Your video card is overheating, fan is malfunctioning, pwr mosfet is overheating
near your 4-8pin molex, card is improperly seated, southbridge is working OT.
6.PSU may be insufficient.

My recommendation:

Take a look at your running processes in the task manager eliminate anything that is unnecessary. Also remove unneeded items for the boot list, Clean the video card fan, piss fart on a snare drum.

Check your fan speeds, system voltages, and temperature.
Add additional intake and exhaust fans if PSU is sufficient.

Free some space on drive c:\ I would recommend windows disk cleanup.

Buy more memory and/or video card.

[luciusad2004]

If it worked fine before, and is giving you troubles now.

There are several scenarios. .
1.You need to update the drivers, and uninstall the old ones.
2.You have recently installed something that is chewing up your resources.
Avira maybe.
3.Your steam display settings are set incorrectly.
Set to my monitors native resolution and to the steam recomended settings.
4.Video memory is being used by another process.
5.Your video card is overheating, fan is malfunctioning, pwr mosfet is overheating
near your 4-6pin molex, card is improperly seated, southbridge is working OT.
I kick my case all the time since it sits right at my feet. Ill reseat the card next time i shut down.
6.Your PSU is crapping out.
Wouldn't be the first time thats happened to me :(

Take a look at your running processes in the task manager eliminate anything that is unnecessary. Also remove unneeded items for the boot list, Clean the video card fan, piss fart on a snare drum.
I usually have an average of 35 to 36 running processes. I'll see what i can cut back on. I really don't know what most of them are for. I don't have a snare drum :(

Free some space on drive c:\ I would recommend windows disk cleanup.

Buy more memory its dirt cheap; in fact it cost less than dirt.
Buy a new video card.
will do as soon as i get a new motherboard and cpu.

7.Excuse me. I am in bad mood. :neutral:
:neutral: