Degrading performance

[DarkDobe]

I recently purchased an HP Pavilion DV9000 laptop
- Intel Core2 T7200 at 2.00ghz (Dual core)
- 2048 ram
-64 Bit Operating System - Windows Vista Ultimate
-NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600

For the first month, I had no problems with the machine. No crashes, viruses/spy ware all taken care of by AVG and Windows itself.
Only recently, I've noticed an alarming rate of degrading performance during use, and I cannot figure out what's causing it.

I play allot of games, and this is where the problems arise. Unreal Tournament, World of Warcraft, and FEAR multi player are the largest culprits. They run fine for about 10 minutes, and then quickly drop to unplayable rates, and the computer itself usually freezes/crashes. These games used to run just fine when I bought the machine, but lately the performance drops allot, every single time I try to play.

I haven't a clue whether this could be some sort of overheating problem, yet other games like Call of Duty 2 manage to run well for long periods, though even that game has started to degrade (after about an hour or two playing).

I've tried playing with and without programs running in the background, yet it always ends the same way. 10-15 minutes into a game, it dies.

If anyone has any idea what I can do to try fix this annoying problem... please do tell.

 

[beef_jerky4104]

Have you defragmented latley?

 

[DarkDobe]

I defragmented the drives (there's 2, one primary one which I use for programs, and another for storage) when this first started to happen, and there's been no improvement.

I used the default windows defragger utility, but if theres a better one you could suggest? I don't think it's the drives, though.

 

[Route44]

Three questions:

1. Have you run your anti-virus and spyware programs to see if you are infected?

2. The first thing that struck me was an overheating problem. What surfaces are you playing this on and do you have anything to help in the cooling?

3. Have you Googled to see if there are any issues with gaming on your laptop, drivers, and components?

 

[DarkDobe]

1) I have an antivirus scanner that runs daily (AVG) and yes, I do realize that the scanning can degrade performance, and I've tried playing with and without the scanner running in the background. It degrades either way. Spyware, I have a scanner that runs every week.

2) I play on a wooden tabletop, or in my lap (It's a laptop...) One thing, whenever the games start to lag, I usualy hear the cooling fan kicking into overdrive, and minimizing the game DOES help. Oddly enough with WoW, if its dropped to low FPS, I can minimize the game, bring it back up, and the problem goes away for a few minutes.

3) I've googled about, and there isn't anything pertaining to my problem that I've been able to find. I see no reason why this laptop should have any problems playing a game like UT99. My old computer ran the game just fine.

 

[DarkDobe]

Updating: I've been running the games with my task manager/performance monitor open, and every time this performance drop happens, my CPU usage is at 100% for both cores. There's nothing out of the ordinary going on in the game/computer, yet it decides to jump to some obscene level every 5 or so minutes, and lasts about 15 seconds, or crashes entirely.

 

[Route44]

When I read you first reply I thought it had to be a heat issue, but your latest is one I have never heard of before. I would post this problem either in the Laptop forum OR the CPU forum.

 

[mephisto_007]

100% cpu usage? could be a virus, multiple check to see if it is not one. last resort try reformats and see if the problem is still pertain.

 

[DarkDobe]

What programs can you suggest for scanning viruses and spyware? I've been using AVG for both, and it's done a good job so far as I can tell.

 

[Condor]

try scan for spywares

 

[Route44]

What programs can you suggest for scanning viruses and spyware? I've been using AVG for both, and it's done a good job so far as I can tell.

Kaspersky, Trend-Micro, and Bit-defender all have free online scanners and they are good. It will take time to allow them to scan but it is worth it. I found Trend-Micro takes the longest to scan. I would begin with Kaspersky.

 

[DarkDobe]

I just finished a full scan with AVG anti virus: No viruses
and a full scan with AVG anti-spy ware turns up a few tracker cookies, which I get maybe 20 a week and clean out daily (fast scans).

I'll give the other scanners a shot, and hope that something is found... kinda Would be nice to find a solution, even if it is a virus.

In the meantime I've posted this same problem in the CPU thread (the 100% cpu usage thing)

 

[DarkDobe]

Scanned the computer using Kaspersky and Bit Defender. There are no viruses on this machine that they can find. No luck so far in fixing the problem either, I've gone so far as disabling Indexing on the folders in use, turning of Windows defender... Nothin. Still getting the 100% CPU usage and major slowdowns at intermittent times.

 

[magiclight]

WoW requires a very good system to run it with no lag ect it could just be that. or you have spyware/virus

 

[gluv4u2]

Update bios

Hey guys... I had a similar issue when playing games after awhile, and just heating in general. I had an older bios when I got my DV9035nr. IF I recall I was on f.12? By the time Vista came out (3 months later) there were 3 bios updates, then I didn't pay attention and went back about a month ago to check the bios updates and they were on F.2x. The latest Bios update fixed my crashing from heat problem (apparently there is a heat issue on the older bios verions). This wont fix the 100% CPU, but you can easily do a CTRL-ALT-DEL and check what process is pumping out that much usage. I found that when I use RMClock it ties up my usage, but in reality keep me cool and bursts up to what I need (otherwise I have my CPU undervolted also.. sweet deal my fan rarely comes on now, and game play is still smooth and much less heat comes out of the box).

 

[munch2477]

I had the same problem with my laptop and cs source. I felt like i tried everything. My laptop would start going so slow after 10-15 mins (never crashed though). It wasn't the tweaks and configs i used to solve my problem but it was the cooling of my laptop that solved everything for me. All the tweaks and such helped a little bit but i found that by raising your laptop up in the back about an inch or so and running a fan underneath, you can cool down your computer. I went from 60 fps in game to 100-120 just by cooling my laptop down. pretty ridiculous but it is worth a try.

 

[gluv4u2]

I agree

Ya.. definitely heat will be a problem in gaming on a laptop. I use CS-S also (sweet game). I do elevate it about an inch, but I dont actually put any Fans. On my DV9035nr, the bios made a difference on the fan and heat, but old methods like elevating will definitely lower your heat issue which in turn slows down the PC, but wouldn't explain the CPU usage peaking to 100%. g'luck! I personally picked up a cooling unit for my computer with dual fans.. its a good deal. You may want to look into HiJackthis:

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/programs.php


and see if you've got something hidden draining your system.