I have had my Dell XPS Generation 5 system since August 05 and while it has ran quite well, I have begun to notice issues in the last few months.
My specs are:
P4 3.8 GHZ HT
2GB DDR2 600+MHZ Dual-Channel
ATI Radeon X850 XT PE
I have had my videocard replaced once before for a reason I cannot remember and most recently I had my whole motherboard replaced in an attempt to figure out what the heck is wrong.
So first I will describe the issue. One which I can't seem to nail down as a net issue or a video issue, a cpu issue or whatever.
In the Half-Life 2 based games like CS:Source and HL2
M, whenever I load up a level (I have tried it with no players also), the level will skip and skip and skip as I walk through it until I have seen every part of it. After that, no skipping.
In Battlefield 2, In the last two months, it has become pretty unstable because as I am playing the game at least once or twice every minute, the game gets skippy and stops for a second or two or jitters. On 64-Player servers and even much much lower. In single player the game runs perfectly. Heres another thing. When I turn all the graphics settings down to their lowest, the game runs without any skipping/lag in Multiplayer. How can I run it fine jacked up in SP, but not MP?
Now, the area where I have noticed the issue alot more. World of Warcraft. I had an older Gateway and I knew how bad the game would thrash and skip. But when I got the system with 2GB of ram, it rarely ever did these split second complete stops as I walk through enviroments or instances. But now they are here. I lowered the settings to their lowest here too, and while I noticed there was less lag, at the lowest settings I probably shouldn't see much of any skipping/lag.
I have tried several other games, both online and off. For instance the Movies chops up as I pan the camera around, but nowhere else and I have tried some other FPS and get the same issue to varying degrees.
This is probably unrelated, but I began noticing issue with COD2. With the new 1.2 patch that added Punkbuster, the game is always hopping and skipping around as I play, but not in SinglePlayer. I think that is some sort of issue between Punkbuster and my system, but I can't pinpoint it, because I also get the jumping in Quake 3 (and I can't really know if the same issue if affecting BF2). I have tried all the reccomended methods tinkering with PBSystem and PBSleep and adding a config but I cant seem to pinpoint it. It FEELS like the lag is still there when PB is off, but I don't know if its a placebo.
So now my mission is to narrow it down. Having replaced my video card once and most recently my motherboard, I am doubting that those two are the issue (even though most of it sounds like the card).
I have reformatted my system several times and I began worrying if maybe I had been wearing down the drive to the point of causing severe latency. I installed WoW on my second (barely used) hard drive and found that the lag/skipping remained, so I believe the drives are safe.
As for the memory, I have ran several diagnostics tests that Dell reccomended and have found nothing. They have also been reseated. So I have not a clue.
Dell is currently in the process of replacing the CPU as thats what they believe is the last signifigant thing to try. I know of no way of testing its stability or to know if its truly working right.
As for all the issues that seem to deal with my internet. I have ran speed tests and my ISP road runner believes them to be well within the reccomended speeds. I also have a linksys router which many people would bring up first, and yes I have ran it without the router and I still get these issues.
So basically I am lost, my warranty runs out in August and I need to find a solution fast because this computer shouldn't be doing this. I am running on a clean windows install with new drivers and everything.
Any help, reccomendations or advice would be appreciated.
My specs are:
P4 3.8 GHZ HT
2GB DDR2 600+MHZ Dual-Channel
ATI Radeon X850 XT PE
I have had my videocard replaced once before for a reason I cannot remember and most recently I had my whole motherboard replaced in an attempt to figure out what the heck is wrong.
So first I will describe the issue. One which I can't seem to nail down as a net issue or a video issue, a cpu issue or whatever.
In the Half-Life 2 based games like CS:Source and HL2
M, whenever I load up a level (I have tried it with no players also), the level will skip and skip and skip as I walk through it until I have seen every part of it. After that, no skipping.In Battlefield 2, In the last two months, it has become pretty unstable because as I am playing the game at least once or twice every minute, the game gets skippy and stops for a second or two or jitters. On 64-Player servers and even much much lower. In single player the game runs perfectly. Heres another thing. When I turn all the graphics settings down to their lowest, the game runs without any skipping/lag in Multiplayer. How can I run it fine jacked up in SP, but not MP?
Now, the area where I have noticed the issue alot more. World of Warcraft. I had an older Gateway and I knew how bad the game would thrash and skip. But when I got the system with 2GB of ram, it rarely ever did these split second complete stops as I walk through enviroments or instances. But now they are here. I lowered the settings to their lowest here too, and while I noticed there was less lag, at the lowest settings I probably shouldn't see much of any skipping/lag.
I have tried several other games, both online and off. For instance the Movies chops up as I pan the camera around, but nowhere else and I have tried some other FPS and get the same issue to varying degrees.
This is probably unrelated, but I began noticing issue with COD2. With the new 1.2 patch that added Punkbuster, the game is always hopping and skipping around as I play, but not in SinglePlayer. I think that is some sort of issue between Punkbuster and my system, but I can't pinpoint it, because I also get the jumping in Quake 3 (and I can't really know if the same issue if affecting BF2). I have tried all the reccomended methods tinkering with PBSystem and PBSleep and adding a config but I cant seem to pinpoint it. It FEELS like the lag is still there when PB is off, but I don't know if its a placebo.
So now my mission is to narrow it down. Having replaced my video card once and most recently my motherboard, I am doubting that those two are the issue (even though most of it sounds like the card).
I have reformatted my system several times and I began worrying if maybe I had been wearing down the drive to the point of causing severe latency. I installed WoW on my second (barely used) hard drive and found that the lag/skipping remained, so I believe the drives are safe.
As for the memory, I have ran several diagnostics tests that Dell reccomended and have found nothing. They have also been reseated. So I have not a clue.
Dell is currently in the process of replacing the CPU as thats what they believe is the last signifigant thing to try. I know of no way of testing its stability or to know if its truly working right.
As for all the issues that seem to deal with my internet. I have ran speed tests and my ISP road runner believes them to be well within the reccomended speeds. I also have a linksys router which many people would bring up first, and yes I have ran it without the router and I still get these issues.
So basically I am lost, my warranty runs out in August and I need to find a solution fast because this computer shouldn't be doing this. I am running on a clean windows install with new drivers and everything.
Any help, reccomendations or advice would be appreciated.
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