Can't Play Video Games, For Advanced Techs

[reflect]

As for your sound, possibility. Is it a sepparate sound card? Or onboard ASUS sound? If you have a sound card, try removing it and using the ASUS sound (with latest driver). If you have to use a sound card, try moving it AWAY from the video card, in a lower slot.

I have a separate sound card, I will try using only the ASUS sound card. This one is in the lowest slow though, away from the video card.

Another question for ya. When playing, does the "lag" part happen at regular intervals? I would check your Scheduled tasks and see that there isn't some stupid thing running like every 10 seconds or something. McAfee update check is known to do things like this. And try shutting down and closing every possible background task you can before playing.

The lag happens when certain creatures appear, or when a lot of creatures appear. Probably a sign that my graphics card or CPU is too slow.

Also, despite your game's quality settings, check through the nvidia settings and make sure something is not set to high. Turn AA off and so forth. Poke around, if something can be turned down, try it. This is done in Windows, not in the game, of course.

I had the nvidia helper thing that sat in the system tray, but my monitor would flicker whenever I clicked on it, or right-clicked my mouse for that matter, or deleted video files, so I got rid of it. I don't know what was causing it, but when I got rid of the program, everything went back to normal. Is there any other way to do this?

As for a non-game test, see if you can get a trial of 3DMark 03. I would use 03, based on your vid card. Cause you wouldn't be able to support the tests in the newer versions. Run that benchmark or whatever the trial is. Or any other video card benchmark tool you can download. See what happens. Post the results.
I assume you also have the latest DirectX installed?

I attached my benchmark score...1231. I think it's time for an upgrade, and I have high concerns that my processor is broken. is the 3200 the fastest A-socket AMD?

 

[crazdude]

lol, my pc isnt very good, its got an ahtnolgn 3500 2.2 ghz, 512 ram, intergrated radeon exprss 200 graphics, 250 hdd and i can play day of defeat source, css, hl2 dm and med setting, this guy's computer shud run better than mine, but what i dont ge tis that i tried playing the hl2 demo, and it runs like ****, when hl2 dm runs smooth enough, why is this?

 

[Vigilante]

Despite the fact that your video card "should" handle the graphics better, I think maybe it's just warn out with age and heat. Perhaps it's just not as good as it used to be? Perhaps it is started to get RAM errors, hence random bugs with different games.

It's hard to troubleshoot this issue much longer until you at least borow a video card that's better and try it.

You can change your nVidia settings without the task bar tool. Right-click the desktop and choose Properties. Then Settings tab. Then Advanced button. You should have your nVidia settings available somewhere in here in one of the tabs or buttons. I think you might also have an nVidia control panel applet. So check the Control Panel.

A score of 1231 on 3DMark 03 is not the worst in the world. I used to play Battlefield 1942 and HL1 on a score of 800. But that score could really explain HL2 and D3 etc... Especially when that card (I think) doesn't support DX9 natively.

As for crazdude, your specs are pretty similar. All that really matters is the vid, ram and CPU. Your CPU is a few ticks faster, you have enough RAM to run those games, and your integrated graphics are probably pretty close to his FX.
Couldn't say why the demo plays different then real. Odd.

And one last thing, your 3200+ is just fine IMHO. Only because I'm attached to it, and it's what I use for my primary gaming machine. So unless you plan on encoding and compressing videos while playing HL2, I don't think you need a new CPU. And treasure that CPU, as it's not being sold much anymore, prices skyrocketed, you are lucky to have one. When I bought mine, on sale, it was a decent price. A month later it was $100 more. And now it's more still. Now all you get for Socket A's are Semprons. And the Athlons are better in my mind. But you can't get them much now, not unless for a pretty penny. At least what I've seen. So buck up chipper!

 

[kirock]

Hello again!

Did you ever got into the BIOS and set the FSB from 100MHz to 200MHz?
i.e. you're at 100X11=1.1GHz instead of 200MHz x11=2.2GHz right now.

It's hard to say what a CPU designed to operate at 2.2GHz would perform like at 1/2 that frequency. The Front Side Bus is the main data bus between the RAM and CPU, all of this was designed to operate at twice the freq, so the RAM is way slowed down too. The RAM passes the data to the video so that transfer rate is way off spec.

I have the Athlon B 1.1GHz and the FX 5200 and it runs great (previous post here), but if I turned down the FSB to 50MHz would I see it 1/2 the performance or something worse? MY guess is something worse. You know what?.. I'm going to go try, assuming the mobo BIOS will let me go that low. I'll post back my findings.

Cheers.

 

[reflect]

I tried setting the FBS to 200mhz, but if I do that and try to load windows I get a memory dump error as soon as I get in. Since the CPU transfers information to the ram, is it safe to say that my ram is no up to speed or something like that? Or would it only be a processor issue. I'll attach the mini-dump files below...