loadsofire
New Member
For close to a year now my friend has been having issues with his computer. I've tried to give him advice on how to fix it, but either he hasn't tried them, or they didn't work.
Basically the problem is that when he plays any sort of game (It can even be a very easy game to run like say... runescape) he can play smoothly for about 2 minutes, than about every minute after that he'll get huge lag spikes. The lag isn't connection lag, but more fps. It will freeze up on him, and run very slowly for about 10 seconds. Sometimes it takes a while to start happening, but after it happens once, it will happen fairly routinely afterwords.
I originally thought it was his videocard. He bought it on sale for like $50, and even though it was a fairly decent card, I assumed it was the problem. He bought another one and the problem was still there.
When he bought his computer it ran vista, and since vista sucks, he switched it back to XP, he hasn't gave me a solid answer on this but hes said two things. At first he said the problem wasn't there until the guy put XP on, but now hes telling me he thinks it was there before he took vista off (this was a while ago, so he doesn't really remember if the problem was there I guess... But it must not have because if it was there, he would have returned it.).
Hes very reluctant to bring it in to get fixed because the guy who he used to go to always ripped him off. I suggested he went to the place I buy my computer parts because for one they know what they're talking about, second, they're cheap.
I'm thinking its more of a software problem, not a hardware problem, but I'm not an expert. I'm pretty good at building computers, and I've always been able to fix my own computer problems, but I don't want to mess with someone else's computer too much.
Some of the things I think it may be:
Bad RAM
Windows XP
Processor
Hard Drive
One thing worth mentioning is that when he took his computer in to get switched to XP the guy "split his hard drive", he didn't know what it meant, and explains why he only has 83gb for his hard drive. Possibly the problem?
His computer stats from his xfire page:
Manufacturer:
System manufacturer
Processor:
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.6GHz
Memory:
2048MB RAM
Hard Drive:
83 GB
Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT
Monitor:
32' Insignia LCD 1080p TV
Sound Card:
Realtek HD Audio output
Speakers/Headphones:
Logitech Cyber Accoustics(Headset) Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound(Speakers)
Keyboard:
USB Root Hub
Mouse:
USB Root Hub
Mouse Surface:
A mousepad
Operating System:
Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090804-1435)
Motherboard:
Asus
Computer Case:
Basically the problem is that when he plays any sort of game (It can even be a very easy game to run like say... runescape) he can play smoothly for about 2 minutes, than about every minute after that he'll get huge lag spikes. The lag isn't connection lag, but more fps. It will freeze up on him, and run very slowly for about 10 seconds. Sometimes it takes a while to start happening, but after it happens once, it will happen fairly routinely afterwords.
I originally thought it was his videocard. He bought it on sale for like $50, and even though it was a fairly decent card, I assumed it was the problem. He bought another one and the problem was still there.
When he bought his computer it ran vista, and since vista sucks, he switched it back to XP, he hasn't gave me a solid answer on this but hes said two things. At first he said the problem wasn't there until the guy put XP on, but now hes telling me he thinks it was there before he took vista off (this was a while ago, so he doesn't really remember if the problem was there I guess... But it must not have because if it was there, he would have returned it.).
Hes very reluctant to bring it in to get fixed because the guy who he used to go to always ripped him off. I suggested he went to the place I buy my computer parts because for one they know what they're talking about, second, they're cheap.
I'm thinking its more of a software problem, not a hardware problem, but I'm not an expert. I'm pretty good at building computers, and I've always been able to fix my own computer problems, but I don't want to mess with someone else's computer too much.
Some of the things I think it may be:
Bad RAM
Windows XP
Processor
Hard Drive
One thing worth mentioning is that when he took his computer in to get switched to XP the guy "split his hard drive", he didn't know what it meant, and explains why he only has 83gb for his hard drive. Possibly the problem?
His computer stats from his xfire page:
Manufacturer:
System manufacturer
Processor:
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.6GHz
Memory:
2048MB RAM
Hard Drive:
83 GB
Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT
Monitor:
32' Insignia LCD 1080p TV
Sound Card:
Realtek HD Audio output
Speakers/Headphones:
Logitech Cyber Accoustics(Headset) Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound(Speakers)
Keyboard:
USB Root Hub
Mouse:
USB Root Hub
Mouse Surface:
A mousepad
Operating System:
Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090804-1435)
Motherboard:
Asus
Computer Case:
. How high does he have the graphics turned up, a 9500GT is not that good of a card. Or could be something as simple as a program kicking in, in the background.