Since I'm new here, I'm going to use mechBgon's template.
Overview of the problem
Two games so far have been having lag issues
Full description of the problem and symptoms
The lag problem is repetitive. It happens about every 10-15 minutes, and lasts about 2-3 minutes each time. The first instance I had of this was while playing WoW (I just signed up for a trail account to waste some time). Normally I see myself having around 45 or so FPS, and this lag brings it down to 4-5 FPS.
At first I thought it was a game issue, as I did try a couple of graphics options changes and at first it seemed to have worked, but it only made it take about 30 minutes before it first happened, and then it went back to its normal 10-15 minute cycle. However while playing Splinter Cell tonight I found that I was encountering the same issue while playing this game, so I changed the point of blame from WoW to my machine.
Did it work normally at one time, or has the problem always existed?
For both of these games, this issue has occurred every time I have played them.
Is the problem consistent and repeatable, or entirely random, or semi-random?
As stated prior, each time I play I encounter the issue, and the issue repeats itself regularly during play.
I already tried these steps:
I haven't tried anything with Splinter Cell, but I have tried a few things for WoW as suggested in WoW's tech support forum. Mainly this involved enabling triple buffering and I believe I turned off Transparency. This, as mentioned above, is what caused the game to run normally (in fact I got better FPS after this) for about 30 minutes before the lag issue returned (again, the issue usually happens every 10-15 minutes whether I just log in for the first time or not, and this is the only time it caused the game to take longer than that before the lag appeared). They also suggested to run this DPC Latency Checker program they mentioned, which I did for both WoW and S.C. and saw no abnormal changes in its monitoring for either one.
My software:
I'm running WinXP SP3, did not have any firewall or antivirus programs running, nor anything else intentional besides maybe a web browser (which I also closed at one point, but it didn't change the outcome).
My hardware:
This is a system I purchased a few months ago from a friend of mine.
Motherboard brand & model: MSI Amethyst-M
CPU model (and is it overclocked?): AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Socket 939) I don't believe it's overclocked. MMX(+), 3DNow!(+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, x86-64 instructions
Video card(s) brand & model: nVidia GeForce 8400 GS (512 MB DDR2) with 190.62 drivers
RAM modules brand & model: 2048 MB DDR via 4 512MB PC3200 chips, 3 MOSEL 1 Hyundai, all four show 2.5V for voltage
Power supply brand & model: Unknown
Other information that might be relevant
Let's see... WoW plays windowed, S.C. has no windowed option. There are a couple other games I play on this machine and I haven't noticed this lag issue with them. The motherboard is SATA capable, but both HDD's are IDE. Windows on C, everything else on D. I've been pondering if it may be an issue with a possibly dying IDE cable. Can't find a BIOS update for the mobo. All help is very much appreciated, and if you need any further information to make some diagnosis please ask and I'll do what I can to get that information. Thank you!
Overview of the problem
Two games so far have been having lag issues
Full description of the problem and symptoms
The lag problem is repetitive. It happens about every 10-15 minutes, and lasts about 2-3 minutes each time. The first instance I had of this was while playing WoW (I just signed up for a trail account to waste some time). Normally I see myself having around 45 or so FPS, and this lag brings it down to 4-5 FPS.
At first I thought it was a game issue, as I did try a couple of graphics options changes and at first it seemed to have worked, but it only made it take about 30 minutes before it first happened, and then it went back to its normal 10-15 minute cycle. However while playing Splinter Cell tonight I found that I was encountering the same issue while playing this game, so I changed the point of blame from WoW to my machine.
Did it work normally at one time, or has the problem always existed?
For both of these games, this issue has occurred every time I have played them.
Is the problem consistent and repeatable, or entirely random, or semi-random?
As stated prior, each time I play I encounter the issue, and the issue repeats itself regularly during play.
I already tried these steps:
I haven't tried anything with Splinter Cell, but I have tried a few things for WoW as suggested in WoW's tech support forum. Mainly this involved enabling triple buffering and I believe I turned off Transparency. This, as mentioned above, is what caused the game to run normally (in fact I got better FPS after this) for about 30 minutes before the lag issue returned (again, the issue usually happens every 10-15 minutes whether I just log in for the first time or not, and this is the only time it caused the game to take longer than that before the lag appeared). They also suggested to run this DPC Latency Checker program they mentioned, which I did for both WoW and S.C. and saw no abnormal changes in its monitoring for either one.
My software:
I'm running WinXP SP3, did not have any firewall or antivirus programs running, nor anything else intentional besides maybe a web browser (which I also closed at one point, but it didn't change the outcome).
My hardware:
This is a system I purchased a few months ago from a friend of mine.
Motherboard brand & model: MSI Amethyst-M
CPU model (and is it overclocked?): AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Socket 939) I don't believe it's overclocked. MMX(+), 3DNow!(+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, x86-64 instructions
Video card(s) brand & model: nVidia GeForce 8400 GS (512 MB DDR2) with 190.62 drivers
RAM modules brand & model: 2048 MB DDR via 4 512MB PC3200 chips, 3 MOSEL 1 Hyundai, all four show 2.5V for voltage
Power supply brand & model: Unknown
Other information that might be relevant
Let's see... WoW plays windowed, S.C. has no windowed option. There are a couple other games I play on this machine and I haven't noticed this lag issue with them. The motherboard is SATA capable, but both HDD's are IDE. Windows on C, everything else on D. I've been pondering if it may be an issue with a possibly dying IDE cable. Can't find a BIOS update for the mobo. All help is very much appreciated, and if you need any further information to make some diagnosis please ask and I'll do what I can to get that information. Thank you!
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