FPS Lag Problem [please read]

for some reason in games, such as cs, my fps drops from 100 all the way from 60 - 20.

my fps is from constant 100 to 60 - 20. This has been happening for a month
now and i'm at the point where i want to smash my computer.

and also one thing, its hitting constant 100, then every minute or so it does that fps drop.

Computer Specs:
Windows Xp SP2
Intel Pedium D 2.66ghz
1.00gb of ram
250gb hard drive
ATI Radeon X1600 PRO 512mb

So thats pretty much all i know about my computer so if you could help me fix this problem that would be awesome or you need more info about my computer and such please let me know

*bubble-a3roXD@hotmail.com

what changes have you done to the system in that month period?
software, hardware, etc. Try undoing them..

Sounds like an infestation of some sort. What AV and anti-spyware programs do you use? Have you tried running a virus scan? Also, are your drivers up-to-date?

i'm gonna go with Rage on that one. go to yahoo.com and download their virus scanner. that things is pretty good. and check up on your drivers. visit the amd website and download the latest for your x1600.

if all else fails, you could try adding some RAM, or cleaning out your hard drive/registry.

hey thanks for replying, what i've done during these several months is one was reformat, not sure if reformatted properly or whatever. I have installed the lastest drivers for my video card at
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp/radeonx-xp.

Also i've tried reformatting several times and etc.

oh and also im using nod32 anti-virus 2.7

give this a go, might help in the process.:
http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic53669.html

check your temps etc. read my sig.

Thanks for helping but, that talks about if you dont want to reformat your computer. I reformatted and scanned with spy bot and stuff several times found nothing. I'm pretty sure i dont have a virus or whatever. I've tried defragging and **** didn't help. I'm pretty sure its a wrong driver installation or i did something some wrong while reformatting. And router and modems should have nothing to do with fps drop right?

there really isn't all that much you can do WRONG when reformatting unless you made partitions and stuff like that. generally when you reformat, you can specify that you want the whole drive to be one gigantic partition, and that's generally the best way to clean it out. multiple partitions would be for dual booting your machine, installing multiple operating systems.

so you can rule out reformatting for the most part.

so you're saying that you installed the latest driver, and it hasn't improved?

if anything, try rolling it back to the previous driver. try uninstalling and reinstalling the game. check for patches and software updates for the game. make sure that your RAM isn't the problem. there is some really simply software you can download that helps. RAMBooster 2.0 is decent. it tells you your CPU speed, the percentage of free RAM, and offers an option to clear out a given amount of RAM which you can set with a scroll bar at the top.

the only other thing i can offer is for you to try to set a bigger page file on your hard drive. i'm not sure if you know how to do that or not. but here's the basic walkthrough just in case. start-->control panel-->system-->click advanced tab-->click Settings under the Performance section-->click advanced tab-->Virtual memory settings

Set "No paging file" first. then Reboot. once you've rebooted, go back to the same place and set a manual page file of about....2560 MB. that's about 2 gigs of hard drive space. more than enough for modern games.

that covers a bunch of the problems that might be software related. once those are out of the picture, then you have to start looking at hardware issues. failing RAM, failing video card, over heating, and a few other key issues. i'm not really sure what else to tell you because apart from that, there isn't very much you can do that doesn't involve buying new parts.

Thanks for helping link =]

so i have 2 drives, c and d, they've been split from one hard drive, and its been fine and really good untill i reformatted. And yes i've downloaded the lastest video card and i got it here:
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp/radeonx-xp

i've tried using the cd from my ati box, no difference.

Ok so i've tried the ram thingy and i have a screeshot of this below

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/8799/penisde4.png (http://imageshack.us)

i am interested in knowing about the bigger page file on the hard drive, so please tell me more about it

also i've checked my temperatures and got this
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/7381/penis123wa7.png (http://imageshack.us)

well, lets start with what it is. the page file is a little piece of the hard drive that gets used like RAM. occasionally, the OS and games and other things will throw information onto that piece of the hard drive to improve response times and the like. it's just like RAM...just...hard drive space. it's important to have an adequately sized page file, just as it is important to have enough RAM on the system. ever get a message that said the application ran out of virtual memory? virtual memory is the page file. i used to get one of those messages all the time when i tried to play Halo back when it first came out. but back then, i didn't know all that i know now.

i also, unknown to you, did you a favor. the way i had you reset your page file size made it reorganize itself on your hard drive =D. what it does is, it erases whatever page file you used to have, which by now is fragmented to high hell, and it starts a brand new, unfragmented page file right at the START of the hard drive. and it will NEVER fragment again. at least as far as i know.

so yeah. having a huge pagefile at least 2 gigs in size will help in small part to improving frames. i currently try to play call of duty 2 on this hunk of crap i call a machine. and i used to get maybe 15-20 frames max. then i cleaned out my hard drive, my registry, got a Ram booster, reset the page file, and presto. i now get 25-30 frames. on a resolution of 800x600, in some places it gets as high as 40-60 frames. occasionally it sky rockets if i look at a bland piece of texture to like...110 frames a second. but as soon as i look away it goes down again. either way, its playable.

right now, you've done 90% of the things i would have done if i wanted better frame rates. just about the only thing you haven't done is clean out the registry, and that barely does anything anyhow. i just did that for the sake of doing it and learning.

from what it looks like, i don't think its the RAM or the temperatures. they look fairly normal to me. and having that much RAM free is just about average. it's not the same program i used, but it's close enough.

not sure what else to tell you in order to improve the frames. its not spyware or viruses, its not the RAM, its not...anything really. its abnormal. and i'm honestly unsure what to do about it. i'm trying to avoid telling you to buy more RAM because you said it worked fine before. the only other thing i can think of is some sort of a hardware failure with your graphics card. and i'm not an expert on what to do with that. try cleaning any dust and whatever might be on it. make sure it isn't bent, cracked, or cracking, and see if there is any visible physical damage to the card. aside from that, i've done all i can to help. try running another game and see if the frames do the same thing. that might help to tell if its the card or not.

if you want to know more about something, i'll do my best. just ask. but from here, with helping the frames, i can only wish you best of luck.

ok my problem is, im hitting constant 100, like no matter what, all of a sudden it drops to 60-20. 10 to 20 seconds later it would rise back up. And it happens every minute or so. It used to hit constant 100, like no matter what its just ... please if you can continue to help me fix this problem that would be great. and thanks for helping me this whole time. i apreciate you taking time to help me with this problem.

hey would this problem be like my computer slowing down or something, cause its happenning every minute from constant 100 to 60-20. would my hard drive be ****ed or something or what. should i buy a new hard drive?

IF ANYONE ELSE PLEASE CAN HELP ME WITH THIS PROBLEM THAT WOULD BE GREAT IM STARTING TO GET PISSED.

Your +12V rail voltage is way above normal values. What brand and wattage is your PSU? Post the details on ur PSU sticker.

the slowing down wouldn't be because of the hard drive. your hard drive is fine from what i can tell. don't worry about that. if you started getting blue screens of death, then you'd have to worry about something happening with your memory or hard drive. so rule that out.

my guess is it would be processor related, or as Rage seems to suspect, a power supply problem. you might have overloaded the power supply and it's struggling to keep a constant flow of power to all your computer components. counter strike is somewhat graphics intensive, and it might cause your video card to have to work really hard. and that draws on the power. so if anything, the outcome of this might be that you need a new power supply. and those aren't too expensive. but it's still a pain. a brand new 550 watt supply might cost you upwards of 60 dollars-90 dollars depending on the brand/quality. i saw a very nice one that cost 99.99. it supplied 630 watts of power. which on your rig would be like attaching a power plant to a toy car. but hey...at least you wouldn't have to worry about power problems. search around on newegg for one BUT ONLY IF WE IN FACT FIND IT TO BE YOUR POWER THAT'S THE PROBLEM!

we're not saying it is. its a conjecture. either way, i'm throwing in some extra information just in case.

at this point we aren't sure EXACTLY what the problem is. we can only suspect. post your details for your power supply, and it might help us pinpoint. if that doesn't work, we'll look at another potential problem. so keep the info coming.

i'm subscribed to this thread, so...i'll keep on reading the posts. i'll try to help. but i'm warning you now, i'm no expert on hardware related problems. i'm still learning about this aspect.

hey guys, once i again i appreciate how you guys are taking your time to solve this issue.

so i took a took inside my computer and i found out my power supple is 400w and the brand was Rion. im guessing thats not enough?

also one thing, i just realized that my power button, the switch thing for my power supply thing is jammed. i wouldn't say jammed or whatever but you can turn it off. like you press it and the button just flings back. would this be something too?

i wouldn't be too worried about the power button. maybe clean it out and such and make sure it doesn't get stuck. that would suck.

as for the power supply, i'm not sure. with the specs you've got, it should be kinda ok. but i know next to nothing about the power consumption idea...no idea how it works really...maybe Rage knows more than I do.

It isn't anything to do with the processor because the SpeedStep technology only slows down the core when it's idle, not when under load. So that only leaves your PSU. It's enough, but most crappy PSUs like yours aren't able to output a steady 400W at normal temps at all. It'd probably be putting out only about 350W. It's the only part of your system that doesn't check out and before it dies, I think it's better you replace it. This (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171014) is a good-quality, inexpensive PSU if you're willing to take avail of the heavy rebate.

the only thing to watch out for with the rebates is the time it takes and the constant hounding you have to do when you want your rebate money back. most cases, it takes a month to get the money back.

...why didn't you recommend the same one to me, rage? =D i kinda want that one now. it's lookin better and cheaper than that OCZ you showed me before. i won't take the rebate...but wow. i'd buy it.

nosebleed, you can have it...unless i get to it first! HA!

well the power button its like broken i guess you can say. like you cant turn it off. you press it and the button flies back, its really hard to explain. so would this be the problem? any other problems possible to cause this bs

...unable to turn it off through the power button isn't really an issue. i can't understand why it would do that, but using Start>Shutdown will suffice so it shouldn't be that big of a deal. it wouldn't be causing power fluctuations as far as i can tell. i think you can be pretty certain that if you replaced the power supply your problems will sort themselves out from there.

alright when i got time ill see if i can get it and tell you then in the mean time keep posting on any other possible issues if you can =] THANKS ALOT GUYS

what type of psu do you recommend me to get?

one that's inexpensive and still has some punch in it. rage sort of taught me all i know about power supplies.

the thing you'll want to look at for the most part is the 12v rail. there are three rails in a power supply. 3.3v, 5v, and 12v. they all add together to give you the total wattage. but all we care about is the 12v.

the reason we care about what the 12v in particular has is because your cpu and video card draw their power from that rail. so you want to have a good amount of power floating around in there to power them.

so in order to figure out what the 12v has, you have to subtract the 3.3 and 5v from the equation. but to do that, we have to convert everything to watts. everything is in volts right now.

there are two numbers we want to work with when we're converting and subtracting those two voltages.

with any given psu, it'll list the rail type, and the amperages it gets at those rails. simply click the specifications tab, and scroll down to the "Output" section.

it will generally look something like this:
Output +3.3V@20A,+5V@20A,+12V1@16A,+12V2@16A,

-12V@0.8A, +5VSB@2.0A

we only want the first two numbers there anyway. 3.3v@20Amps and 5v@20Amps. so, now we convert them to watts. watts= amps*volts.

3.3*20= 66
5*20= 100
total=166 watts.

now subtract that from the total wattage offered by the power supply. 500-166 = 334.

what that number is, is the total wattage offered by the 12v rail. now all we have to do is convert to amps. amps = watts/volts.

so it's 334 watts/ 12v == 27.83333333333333333 amps.

generally, anywhere between 22 and 25 amps is good. so look for a power supply that's roughly 60-90 dollars that has a good amperage on the 12v rail.

now you can figure out whether or not the power supply is good or not. that one i just showed you is pretty decent. but so is the one rage showed you.

here for instance is the one i'm buying.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341010

it gets around 27.6 amps for the 12v rail. and it costs about 90 bucks.

BUT be careful of which one you choose. depending on the system, you may need more than that. may want to find one that offers somewhat higher amperages to be safe.

hey i wonder if anyone is still available to help, well i got a brand new, same power supply (got it for free... so yeah) and i guess this problem hasn't been fixed. i will go with your advice you guys gave and get that ocz 650 watt psu as soon as i can. Thanks alot of again

if anyone else has any info on how to fix problem please post so

This (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10006757) PSU is of far better quality than the OCZ one and provides 41A on the +12V rail. Try it and let us know what happens.

btw Rage, i added you a while ago. bubble-a3roXD@hotmail.com.

Thanks alot again for your help and everyone else. I'm going to get that psu you reccomended me. Btw, after i got the new psu (same one), my computer seems to not slow down anymore, but the the +12V rail seems to still be around 12.95 and sooner or later im guessing its going to slow down again so im going to go with your advice and get that psu.

hi, i got a whole new motherboard and psu and my +12V rail is 11.93, i guess its fixed? thanks alot guys for all your help and rage!

Is it steady at that value? If it is, congratulations, you're all set. Good luck and hope to see you around! :)

here is my temperate and voltage thing atm

Looks okay to me. :)

This is a common issue.

What happens, is your computer is capable of pushing out 100fps when the textures and other game data are in your RAM.

Chances are, the game is polling your hard drive to load textures (as you look in a 360 or move to a new area with new objects in the game), which then has to push them into your RAM. Once they are in the RAM, the FPS normalizes at 100fps, but during the texture loading, it drops significantly because of how slow the hard drive is.

The simple fix is adding 1GB of ram.

I suspect if you hit Alt-Tab while gaming and inspected peak memory use in task manage for the .exe of the game that was running, you'd discover it exceeded 1GB.

You could also try turning texture quality down a notch to see if it will drop your paging file usage enough to reduce the fps drops.

It wouldn't help much methinks. He used to get a constant FPS before, so the game going to swapfile shouldn't be an issue this time around. Also, a 7200RPM HDD is fast enough for almost any game IMO. The reason I pinpointed a PSU problem is because his +12V rail was around 13V, which indicates an overloaded PSU.

Looks like his problem is fixed, per above. For the record, 7200RPM drives will diminish FPS greatly if they are used to pull textures on modern games. They are very slow and the biggest bottleneck on any gaming system. That includes 10,000RPM and 15,000RPM in RAID or otherwise. Still the slowest component. The reason most people don't realize this is because the bulk of information IS in the RAM. It's the spillover that isn't. Normally when people get terribly inconsistent frame rates you can take the case off and even listen to hear if the harddrive is seeking lots of information (grinding away) when you make certain movements (say walking through a large map and turning corners). This will only be noticeable if you are over your current RAM use, obviously.

You are correct there. You can't beat the seek time of a 10000RPM drive. But most gaming PCs nowadays have at least 1GB of RAM and most of the ones I've seen here at TS have 2GB as a standard, so times are a-changing. But I agree, more RAM would net him a stutter-free gaming experience.

I think your problem might be is some unwanted routene, it may be a process call, or a access to HDD or may be a virus too? examine your pc through, via task manager to confirm that you are not cheated by some spyware or hacker tools. watch your pc's activity for sometime when it is idle,
after this you can come to a conclusion.

haha i know its been a while, but thanks guy, i guess my problem was my psu

i got a new one and its fine now but not the best in terms of when i first built this computer

i was just wondering, do any of you guys have tips of how to make your computer run faster and how to keep stuff being stored in hard drive instead of ram instead of memory getting jammed into my ram since i only have a 1gb ram and maybe i may upgrade

also, i may upgrade graphic cards, cheap and decent ones, and if you don't remember, mine was ati radeon x1600