TECH HELP REQUEST: Sluggishness

Hamza · 10-13-2006, 03:38 PM

Hi Forumite Techies!

This is my first post; after lurking on the forums and seeing the brilliance in force here, I'm hoping someone can answer my question. I'm running a DELL Inspiron 5150:

- Windows XP Home
- 3.1 ghz
- 512k ram
- Nvidia GEFORCE 5200

Here's my problem: Whenever I'm playing a game - and I play a wide variety, from graphics-intensive Battlefield 2 to Processor-intensive Victoria: Revolutions - things will eventually start getting sluggish, but nearly always when the little green light signifying Hard Drive action starts flickering. When it's done flickering, it returns to regular, terrific speeds. Why? It wasn't always this way, and when that light ISN'T flickering things swim along. How do I bring my laptop's performance back up to snuff?

Thanks for the help!

- Hamza

jljhlhl · 10-13-2006, 03:50 PM

What is the RPM of your HDD?

tlarkin · 10-13-2006, 03:52 PM

Did this not happen in the begining? My guess would be after playing the game for a while there is a memory leak, or something similiar causing slow performance and eventually possibly a lock up or a crash?

Hamza · 10-13-2006, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jljhlhl

What is the RPM of your HDD?

How would I check this?

Hamza · 10-13-2006, 03:54 PM

No crash. This always happens - and only happens - when my hard drive seems to be active, as indicated by a flickering green light on my computer case.

_simon_ · 10-13-2006, 03:55 PM

What are you running in the background?

i.e. is a spyware / antivirus / update etc check being run by one or more programs?

I would end as many tasks as you can in task manager and then run your game and see if it makes any difference.

Many moons ago when I ran XP, I had Panda Antivirus which for reasons myself nor panda tech support could fathom would spike the cpu usage at random which of course made game play very random and well.. crap!

meanman · 10-13-2006, 05:35 PM

not sure about the cause but 512 ram you should have atleast 1gig and you vid card is getting old to play modern games

10-13-2006, 03:38 PM	#1 (permalink)
Hamza New Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 3	TECH HELP REQUEST: Sluggishness Hi Forumite Techies! This is my first post; after lurking on the forums and seeing the brilliance in force here, I'm hoping someone can answer my question. I'm running a DELL Inspiron 5150: - Windows XP Home - 3.1 ghz - 512k ram - Nvidia GEFORCE 5200 Here's my problem: Whenever I'm playing a game - and I play a wide variety, from graphics-intensive Battlefield 2 to Processor-intensive Victoria: Revolutions - things will eventually start getting sluggish, but nearly always when the little green light signifying Hard Drive action starts flickering. When it's done flickering, it returns to regular, terrific speeds. Why? It wasn't always this way, and when that light ISN'T flickering things swim along. How do I bring my laptop's performance back up to snuff? Thanks for the help! - Hamza

10-13-2006, 03:50 PM	#2 (permalink)
jljhlhl Gold Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Calgary, AB, Canada Age: 16 Posts: 351	What is the RPM of your HDD? __________________ Dell Vostro 1500 Intel Core 2 Duo T5470 (1.6GHz) 1GB DDR2 667MHz RAM 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 80GB 5400RPM Hard Drive Windows XP Home

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10-13-2006, 03:52 PM	#3 (permalink)
tlarkin VIP Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 6,239	Did this not happen in the begining? My guess would be after playing the game for a while there is a memory leak, or something similiar causing slow performance and eventually possibly a lock up or a crash?

10-13-2006, 03:54 PM	#5 (permalink)
Hamza New Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 3	No crash. This always happens - and only happens - when my hard drive seems to be active, as indicated by a flickering green light on my computer case.

10-13-2006, 03:55 PM	#6 (permalink)
_simon_ Platinum Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 969	What are you running in the background? i.e. is a spyware / antivirus / update etc check being run by one or more programs? I would end as many tasks as you can in task manager and then run your game and see if it makes any difference. Many moons ago when I ran XP, I had Panda Antivirus which for reasons myself nor panda tech support could fathom would spike the cpu usage at random which of course made game play very random and well.. crap!

10-13-2006, 05:35 PM	#7 (permalink)
meanman Diamond Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: england Posts: 1,786	not sure about the cause but 512 ram you should have atleast 1gig and you vid card is getting old to play modern games