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Hey, I'm new here and I don't have a ton of knowledge about computers and such but I have a bit of a problem. I play games on my computer but its not a high end computer, its a compaq pentium 4 with 512 RAM. I have played games like Starcraft, Counter-Strike, The Sims, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Warcraft III, and recently World of Warcraft on it. The problem is that no matter what the graphical power of the game every 2-4 minutes the screen will freeze (in game) and after about 5-10 seconds It'll will return to normal except for online games I'm not playing for that 5-10 seconds while everyone else still is. I'm pretty certain it's not the graphics card because I just bought a new one the other day (WoW wouldn't run on my old graphics card) and now it works fine except for that lag every 2-4 minutes. I saw on the internet someone suggest that you have at least 768 MB of RAM and 1GB is even better. I don't know if I should buy some more RAM or if the problem is something else. If anyone can give me some suggestions, that would be great.

First of Hello and Welcome to Techspot.

Is the lag consistaint timing? If so, you may have something running in the backround that is causing the problem.

Have you installed any new software?

As far as RAM goes, you could use some more as 512 is prett ylow for todays games.

Sean

Thanks, I'll be sure to check to see if there is any background programs, and I might just go and buy some RAM and return it if it doesn't help. Other than just pulling up windows task manager, is there any way to find out if there is some other programs bogging my computer down, or to stop them?

Thanks again.