Computer generated lag

[Bullseye]

I am having a problem with lag while playing fps games such Call of Duty, and Mohaa. I recently replaced my hard drive because i think that i fried my other, which I had to reinstall windows XP Pro. on the new HD. I installed a DVD RW as well. Now when I try and play my game even in single player mode i expierence a lag spike about every 10 seconds. It also seems to be much worse when i get into a fire fight with someone. I have taken the following steps to try and trouble shoot: I have tried some different ram, made sure that i have installed all newest drivers for vid card as well as motherboard, changed power supply to another 350wt power supply, and nothing seems to be correcting the problem. I am not real familar with BIOS and the settings but i have had someone look at them and they seem to be configured right for what i am doing. Please help
Bullseye

 

[Greeno]

Please post your PC spec

 

[Justin]

Are you running a cpu-intensive app in the background, such as seti@home or folding@home ?

 

[TS | Crazyace]

Hello friend.

To help understand the situation, we must evaluate your system specifications before omitting any type of technical support. For starters though, try using a lower resolution and see if this cures your ailing.

 

[vassil3427]

Go into My Computer/Control Panel/System/HardWare/Device Manager..Then go into Primary IDe Channel, Then Advanced Settings, ensure Ultra DMA Mode-5 is enabled and running, also check the Secondary IDE Channel...

I've noticed with many different hard Drives they have to be set a certain way(such as Cable Select instead of Master) to get Ultra DMA working.... My friends pc experienced lag for weeks before I finally thought to check his DMA settings..Then it took us forever to figure out how to get the HDD into Ultra DMA Mode 5..ended up we had to set it as CS instead if Master...

Just an idea....

 

[Bullseye]

I was under the impression that if you clicked on my profile that it would show you my specs???
Bulls

 

[Maelst0rm]

Do you have a linksys wireless router?

I had a similiar problem when I first installed a linksys wireless router. The only permanent solution I could find was to disable XP wireless zero service and install the linksys client software for Windows 2000 in Windows XP and I haven't had any problems since.

 

[Bullseye]

but i am having the same prob. when i play the sp mode as well as multiplayer... I havent changed my router settings and it was working correctly before.

 

[Maelst0rm]

Must not be the same problem. I'd try disconnecting the DVRW and see if you still have the same problem. If so try connecting each to a separate EIDE port. I'd also recommend updating your system bios to the latest version if you haven't already. Just be careful. I've never had a hard drive generate lag for me so I'm unfamiliar with your problem but you might also want to monitor your system performance and watch to see what happens when the lag spike occurs, if you see you cpu usage going through the roof then that means something running in the background is really eating up cpu cycles. You also might want to run a diagnostic program or use a site like PC Pitstop to see if there is any obvious problems that can be easily detected. If you have recently installed any P2P software I'd run SPYBOT search and destroy and check for annoying spyware which can really bog down a system.

 

[Maelst0rm]

Do you see the harddrive activity indicator LED go crazy when you experience a lag spike?

 

[TS | Crazyace]

Didn't know you had your specs under your profile, but since you don't have time to post them, I don't have time for advice.
Good day

 

[Goalie]

Crazyace, that was rather rude and blunt to a newcomer who may not know our ways yet...

Bullseye, a few things that I have seen happen before to cause this stuff is if you are in a networked environment (especially with shares) sometimes the NIC goes crazy looking for DHCP, netgroup elections, etc. Solution for me there was disconnect the network cable.

Another thing is to check your cache file. Be sure it's not set to an insanely small size- Even though you have plenty of RAM, Windows still likes to use cache for no real good reason. If windows is working with a small cache file it'll spend time swapping stuff out (for no reason whatsoever...). You may even try setting the swap file size manually, but only if you know what you're doing.

Take a look over everyone's advice, try things out, and let us know what you've done and any changes things make.

 

[xtrmn8r]

have you checked for other applications running in the background? i know it sounds simple but there could be something taking up a lot of cpu power.

also is it just these two games? have you tried any others and did you experience the same problem?

also was this problem occuring before you installed all of the new compnents?

let us know if anything has worked yet.

 

[snowman]

do you have the latest drivers for your DVD drive?