Alright, I AM FED UP WITH THIS!

Darkomen

New Member
Ok, to start this post - No one here knows me, but I hope this doesn't stop you from helping me out here.

I am so fed up with these PCs, for the last 2 years I have been wasting thousands of dollars simply for a Gaming Computer

For the last year I have been suffering greatly playing games like Half-Life 2 at 20 or less FPS, playing Black and White 2 at 15 or less FPS, Playing Rome: Total War at less than 7 FPS with only 15,000 troops. Worst of all I usually have to put graphics to low-crappy-quality to get a decent perfomance, but even then it's not good. I get lag spikes, computer crashes, In general I get a bad experience, and lots of cash down the drain. It's really getting me pissed off and I feel like smashing this piece of junk to pieces, then burning my local computer store.

All my Local Computer store has done is make me BUY MORE.

My specs are considered High-End, so what the HELL is going on. I have the latest drivers .. I've tried tweaking, overclocking, I've restored this computer twice praying it would fix the problem.

Specs:

OP: Windows XP Home Edition
BIOS: Asus K8N-E Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3200+ 2.2GHZ
Memory: 1536MB RAM
Video Card: Radeon x800 XL

Please .. Please help me. I want a good gaming experience for once.

And no, I don't mean playing Pac-Man.

Thanks in advance.
 
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I agree with you, that system should play about anything out. Do you still have your system OC'd?
 
My specs are considered High-End, so what the HELL is going on.
Im not suggesting it isnt but i do have to ask, "says who?"

I have the latest drivers
Well lets get some version numbers in here... :) Also, what BIOS rev do you have? Chip core? :) (and what PSU? how about your temps?)
 
Fuzz said:
I agree with you, that system should play about anything out. Do you still have your system OC'd?

OC'D?

Praetor said:
Im not suggesting it isnt but i do have to ask, "says who?"


Well lets get some version numbers in here... :) Also, what BIOS rev do you have? Chip core? :) (and what PSU? how about your temps?)

Many of people I know say it's a high-end system, and just from my own experience.

I'm not sure what your talking about, the BIOS rev and Chip Core?

I'm not sure which PSU I have, i'll look into that. I do know it had "Butterfly" in it's name.

I do know my computer is always cool, and my fans are always on the highest they can be unless I'm sleeping and just leaving something to DL.
 
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overclocked. i explain it in oc 101 but odds are you've not ocd the machine

i'm not sure what your talking about, the BIOS rev and chip core?
have a look at QUESTIONS 101 ... do a register dump from CPUz and attach that :)

i'm not sure which PSU i have, i'll look into that. i do know it had "butterfly" in it's name.
ok that means you've got a Thermaltake model (and not a great one for voltage stability at that)

i do know my computer is always cool,
not that i doubt you... but can you quantifiy? :).
 
do you use any P2P programs like limewire kazza or any thing like that? you might just have ltos of spyware, or other programs that are taking up all your system resourcses.
 
Praetor said:
overclocked. i explain it in oc 101 but odds are you've not ocd the machine


have a look at QUESTIONS 101 ... do a register dump from CPUz and attach that :)


ok that means you've got a Thermaltake model (and not a great one for voltage stability at that)


not that i doubt you... but can you quantifiy? :).

I have tried Overlocking the Video Card once or twice, but it didn't seem to improve much so I switched it back to normal.

I've used that program and made a register dump. Attached it to the thread.

I'd approx about 40-60 degrees when I feel the back of the computer.

EDIT: The file was too big, so I trimmed off some of the beginning part.

Code:
 Number of CPUs			1
APIC ID				0
Name				AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Code name			NewCastle
Specification			AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+
Family/Model/Stepping		FC0
Extended Family/Model		F/C
Brand ID			4
Package				Socket 754
Core Stepping			DH7-CG
Technology			0.13µ
Instructions Sets		MMX, Extended MMX, 3DNow!, Extended 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, x86-64
Clock Speed			2210.7 MHz
Clock multiplier		x11.0
HTT Bus Frequency		201.0 MHz
P-Rating			3200+
L1 Data Cache			64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64 Bytes line size
L1 Instruction Cache		64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64 Bytes line size
L2 Cache			512 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64 Bytes line size
L2 Speed			2210.7 MHz (Full)
L2 Location			On Chip
L2 Data Prefetch Logic		yes
L2 Bus Width			128 bits

				eax		ebx		ecx		edx
Function 00000000		00000001	68747541	444d4163	69746e65
Function 00000001		00000fc0	00000800	00000000	078bfbff
Function 80000000		80000018	68747541	444d4163	69746e65
Function 80000001		00000fc0	0000010a	00000000	e1d3fbff
Function 80000002		20444d41	6c687441	74286e6f	3620296d
Function 80000003		72502034	7365636f	20726f73	30303233
Function 80000004		0000002b	00000000	00000000	00000000
Function 80000005		ff08ff08	ff20ff20	40020140	40020140
Function 80000006		00000000	42004200	02008140	00000000
Function 80000007		00000000	00000000	00000000	0000000f
Function 80000008		00003028	00000000	00000000	00000000
Function 80000009		00000000	00000000	00000000	00000000
Function 8000000a		00000000	00000000	00000000	00000000
Function 8000000b		00000000	00000000	00000000	00000000
Function 8000000c		00000000	00000000	00000000	00000000
Function 8000000d		00000000	00000000	00000000	00000000
Function 8000000e		00000000	00000000	00000000	00000000
Function 8000000f		00000000	00000000	00000000	00000000
Function 80000010		00000000	00000000	00000000	00000000
Function 80000011		00000000	00000000	00000000	00000000
Function 80000012		00000000	00000000	00000000	00000000
Function 80000013		00000000	00000000	00000000	00000000
Function 80000014		00000000	00000000	00000000	00000000
Function 80000015		00000000	00000000	00000000	00000000
Function 80000016		00000000	00000000	00000000	00000000
Function 80000017		00000000	00000000	00000000	00000000
Function 80000018		00000000	00000000	00000000	00000000

				edx		eax
MSR C0010041			00004E20	0000020E
MSR C0010042			00000202	000E0E0E
MSR C0010015			00000000	0E000000
 

Attachments

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Xycron said:
do you use any P2P programs like limewire kazza or any thing like that? you might just have ltos of spyware, or other programs that are taking up all your system resourcses.

Nope, nothing like that. I also do lots of regular Malware scans.

I don't have any services or anything taking up too many resources, only the occasional Zone Labs when I'm browsing and downloading.
 
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okay. first off realize that not all drivers are created equal. Make sure you get them from the manufacturer of your GPU and that you uninstall the old ones first. Same goes for chipset drivers.

Looking at your settings, I notice you are running unmatched ram, one stick of which is really slow. You might consider getting two matching sticks. May I suggest Corsair XLL paired ram? I'm not sure if this is a dual channel board or not, but it does make a difference. Also make sure you adjust your RAMBUS to match your FSB.
 
vortmax said:
okay. first off realize that not all drivers are created equal. Make sure you get them from the manufacturer of your GPU and that you uninstall the old ones first. Same goes for chipset drivers.

Looking at your settings, I notice you are running unmatched ram, one stick of which is really slow. You might consider getting two matching sticks. May I suggest Corsair XLL paired ram? I'm not sure if this is a dual channel board or not, but it does make a difference. Also make sure you adjust your RAMBUS to match your FSB.

Thanks for the reply vortmax.

But could you explain further. What is a GPU? How would I uninstall the old drivers, and then install the new ones.

For the RAM, would it be better to get paired Corsair XLLs, or just upgrade the slower ram stick.

And what is a RAMBUS and FSB, are they the manufacturers of the RAM? How would I adjust them to match.
 
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gpu is the graphics card. You can uninstall the drivers in the device manager or the add remove programs thing in the control panel (depending on the card). So just download the new driver, uninstall the old one, restart and install the new one.

You can upgrade the slower stick, just get one that matches the faster one. Try and get the same brand too. I like the Corsiar Ram because they test the 2 DIMMS on a Nforce chipset to verify they are perfectly matched for Dual channel before shipping them out.

A bus is how the ram or processor communicates to the rest of the board. So a RAMBUS controls dataflow to and from the Ram and the FSB (Front side bus) controls dataflow through the processor. It's pointless to have one of the buses running faster then the other. It can cause some slowdowns. Some will claim it won't matter, but I noticed a difference when I was taxing the system.

You adjust them in the BIOS. Change the rambus to match the FSB. Remember the FSB will probably be listed in terms of core speed. So the FSB is the core time multiplier (also listed). You can also just look up the FSB speed for your chip.
 
gpu is the graphics card. You can uninstall the drivers in the device manager or the add remove programs thing in the control panel (depending on the card). So just download the new driver, uninstall the old one, restart and install the new one.

Uninstalled Graphic Cards drivers, then installed latest ones. No improvements.

You can upgrade the slower stick, just get one that matches the faster one. Try and get the same brand too. I like the Corsiar Ram because they test the 2 DIMMS on a Nforce chipset to verify they are perfectly matched for Dual channel before shipping them out.

I'll upgrade the stick tomorrow.

You adjust them in the BIOS. Change the rambus to match the FSB. Remember the FSB will probably be listed in terms of core speed. So the FSB is the core time multiplier (also listed). You can also just look up the FSB speed for your chip.

I went into the BIOS (By pressing Del when the computer starts up) and I couldn't find anything related to Rambus or FSB. I couldn't even find anything related for RAM for that matter.
 
oh....it's a dell bios? You might be SOL on that adjustment. It is a nice tweak but it's shouldn't make that system run that crappy.
 
vortmax said:
oh....it's a dell bios? You might be SOL on that adjustment. It is a nice tweak but it's shouldn't make that system run that crappy.
Sorry, this is like the 3rd time being such a noob, but what is a SOL/what does SOL mean?

randruff said:
Bad HDD sectors? Slow RAM? Defrag?

HDD Sectors? I'm going to upgrade the slow Ram piece today ..see if that makes a difference.

I've tried defraging and loads of other things.
 
for the last year i have been suffering greatly playing games like half-life 2 at 20 or less fps, playing black and white 2 at 15 or less fps, playing rome: total war at less than 7 fps with only 15,000 troops. worst of all i usually have to put graphics to low-crappy-quality to get a decent perfomance, but even then it's not good. i get lag spikes, computer crashes, in general i get a bad experience, and lots of cash down the drain
i assume you are doing all your tests and diagnostics in singleplayer mode... multiplayer mode performance is a whole other balLGAme

looking at your settings, i notice you are running unmatched ram, one stick of which is really slow. you might consider getting two matching sticks. may i suggest Corsair xll paired RAM?
that wont affect system stability that much


i'd approx about 40-60 degrees when i feel the back of the computer.
ok lets get some actual numbers. see QUESTIONS 101.. there's a link to a progRAM called ASUS probe.

and what is a ramBUS and FSB, are they the manufacturers of the RAM? how would i adjust them to match.
RAM 101
CPU 101.

Uninstalled Graphic Cards drivers, then installed latest ones. No improvements.
Just for the record, the latest would be Catalyst 5.9?

I'll upgrade the stick tomorrow.
No need there ... running with what you've got is plenty fine.

I went into the BIOS (By pressing Del when the computer starts up) and I couldn't find anything related to Rambus or FSB. I couldn't even find anything related for RAM for that matter.
You wont. "FSB" will be called "core clock" (since athlon64s do not have a fsb)

oh....it's a dell bios?
Who said it was a Dell?

Sorry, this is like the 3rd time being such a noob, but what is a SOL/what does SOL mean?
Shit out of luck.

HDD Sectors? I'm going to upgrade the slow Ram piece today ..see if that makes a difference.
It wont make that kinda difference


I suspect your problem is that your RAM is clocked at half its rated speed (which still shouldnt make THAT much of a difference but ya never know). Can you check the following:
  1. Enter BIOS
  2. Advanced Menu
  3. Select "JumperFree Configuration"
  4. What is the value for "Mode Select"?
  5. What is the value for "DDR RAM Voltage"?

  1. Enter BIOS
  2. Advanced Menu
  3. Select "Chipset"
  4. What is the value for "MemClock Mode"?
  5. What is the value for "MemClock Value"? (you may not see this field ... if you do, it should say either 333 or 400)
 
Praetor said:
i assume you are doing all your tests and diagnostics in singleplayer mode... multiplayer mode performance is a whole other balLGAme

Yeah i'm quite aware of that ..most of the games I mentioned were SP, and that's pretty pathetic.

ok lets get some actual numbers. see QUESTIONS 101.. there's a link to a progRAM called ASUS probe.

Ran the program. I only had a few small things up.

CPU Temp: 46 C / 113 F STATUS: OK
MB Temp: 36 C / 98 F STATUS: OK
CPU Fan: 4927 STATUS: OK
Power Fan: 3409 STATUS: OK
Chassic Fan: 2789 STATUS: OK
+12v: 11.712 STATUS: OK
+5v: 5.026 STATUS: OK
+3.3v: 3.28 STATUS: OK
+VCore: 1.488 STATUS: OK

Just for the record, the latest would be Catalyst 5.9?

Downloaded from Ati.com - this is the .exe

5-10_xp-2k_dd_cp_wdm_27256.exe

No need there ... running with what you've got is plenty fine.

Ah, ok =)

You wont. "FSB" will be called "core clock" (since athlon64s do not have a fsb)

Ok.

I suspect your problem is that your RAM is clocked at half its rated speed (which still shouldnt make THAT much of a difference but ya never know). Can you check the following:
  1. Enter BIOS
  2. Advanced Menu
  3. Select "JumperFree Configuration"
  4. What is the value for "Mode Select"?
  5. What is the value for "DDR RAM Voltage"?
  1. Enter BIOS
  2. Advanced Menu
  3. Select "Chipset"
  4. What is the value for "MemClock Mode"?
  5. What is the value for "MemClock Value"? (you may not see this field ... if you do, it should say either 333 or 400)

Doing it now, i'll edit this post once I've done it.

Well I decided to just tell you what it was configured to in every option:


Jumperfree Configuration:

AI Overclock Tuner - Standard
AGP Overclock in MHz - 66
DDRRAM Voltage - Auto
AGP Voltage - 1.5V

Chipset:

Memclock Mode - Auto
MCT Timing Mode - auto
1T/2T Timing - Auto
Master ECC Enabled - Enabled
Audio Codec Interface - Auto
Primary Video - AGP
Aperture Size - 256MB
AGP FW Enable - Auto
AGP Sideband Address - Auto
 
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