Please help me run my games.

[sandycay]

My comfiguration is
AMD Athlon[tm] 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+ 2.6 GHz
4 GB RAM
Samsung 19" Sync Master
NVIDIA 9400 GT

All the games are starting fine, but they stops periodically. I play games like farcry, NFS undercover, etc. Even low end games like fifa 2008, nfs most wanted, even the old game desert storm are facing the same issue. My CPU usage suddenlly goes to 100% periodically after every 2-3 mins.
i have no idea waht is happening. When i check task manager, services.exe is eating a lot of cpu. I stopd services, still the same problem. I know 9400gt is not good enough, but its atleast good for very low end games like conflict desert storm.

 

[Mem]

sandycay welcome to the forums,we could do with more info like what OS you are using ,anyway have you tried installing latest drivers for your video card and update your DX9.0c to latest version(can be installed in all Windows version including Vista and Win7) from here http://www.filehippo.com/download_directx/.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Welcome to the forums!

It is odd that it works fine for several minutes and then becomes unplayable. Here are a few general tips.

1. You can use Process Explorer (much more detailed than the one bundled with Windows) to see exactly what is causing that 100% CPU spike:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

2. Make sure you do not have a ton of unnecessary programs running in the background (like a dozen items in your tray when you try to game).

3. Make sure your system is not infected with viruses or spyware (which can kill PC performance):
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=98805

4. Verify the integrity of your Windows install:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/verify-the-integrity-of-windows-vista-system-files/

5. Make sure you have applied all of the latest OS patches and the latest version of DX (as Mem mentioned)

6. Make sure all of your drivers are up-to-date (video card and motherboard chipset drivers especially).

Good luck!

 

[tviceman]

It sounds like you may have an issue with the current installation of your operating system, or there is a program being loaded when your computer starts up that is causing this issue when you start playing a game or doing another computer intensive task. Search google for ccleaner (yes, 2 c's), and download this utility.

Run it to clean up your system registry, eliminate waste files on your hard drive, and check your computer's start up programs. You can choose which programs to disable or flat out remove from starting up. Installing programs such as itunes, instant messenger, open office, microsoft office, and thousands of other common applications like to force your computer to load files into memory or execute at start up and can massively slow down your system if too many load up at once.

Make sure you don't have other utilities running, like a defrag or antivirus program running that may interfere when you try to play games.

Short of that, updating your video card drivers might help (but probably not with this problem though) and my only other suggestion would be to wipe your hard drive clean by doing a fresh windows install.

 

[sandycay]

Thanks all for replying, i really appreciate your help . I'll try to reinstall windows them try again and follow all the steps.
It was a shock for me that bad graphic game like cricket 2007 is not running properly. I even tried to close all the services from msconfig. I use Game Booster too. I was wondering whether processor could be a problem of any kind. How is amd 5000+?

My os is Windows XP, DirectX 9.0c (4.09)
Display mode 1360x768(32 bit)(60Hz)
Display driver is up to date.(plz let me know if you need any other info)

 

[Hyperlite]

Sounds like a spyware/malware/virus issue to me! In my experience, thats what most frequently causes inexplicable spikes in CPU usage. Your processor should be up to the task. if you can, try a clean format and see if that fixes the problem!

 

[El Guaraguao]

Using CCleaner on a regular basis and defraging your drive wouldn't hurt.

 

[tviceman]

Don't use gamebooster. It's not needed for modern systems.

 

[manimal]

I experienced stutters on a seagate 1tb 32mg cache drive. Replacing it with a Caviar black fixed it. I still have that drive but it just stores media now. It passed every test.

 

[exar333]

Welcome to the forums!

It is odd that it works fine for several minutes and then becomes unplayable. Here are a few general tips.

1. You can use Process Explorer (much more detailed than the one bundled with Windows) to see exactly what is causing that 100% CPU spike:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

2. Make sure you do not have a ton of unnecessary programs running in the background (like a dozen items in your tray when you try to game).

3. Make sure your system is not infected with viruses or spyware (which can kill PC performance):
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=98805

4. Verify the integrity of your Windows install:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/verify-the-integrity-of-windows-vista-system-files/

5. Make sure you have applied all of the latest OS patches and the latest version of DX (as Mem mentioned)

6. Make sure all of your drivers are up-to-date (video card and motherboard chipset drivers especially).

Good luck!

+1.

Probably some virus or spyware causing the CPU spikes.

If you can swing it, grab a newer graphics card such as a 8800GT/9800GT/9600GT/4670/4830 etc. for around $50. Keep your eyes open for a good deal, or even grab a used one from the FS/FT forums or ebay. For the price of a game, you would have a GPU that would last you a couple more years and give a nice performance boost to the games you are playing. The 9400 probably won't cut it for a lot of the DX11 games down the pipe, and something a little better would help a lot. Your CPU is still pretty decent, and you have plenty of RAM.

 

[McRhea]

Make sure you don't have other utilities running, like a defrag or antivirus program running that may interfere when you try to play games.

+1 to all the comments about an antivirus program running in the background.

Before you go through the trouble of reformatting, make sure your antivirus isn't doing a scan of your system. I've also run into the problem of the antivirus interferring with my games, causing really bad stutters every 10 seconds or so.

Make sure a scan isn't running, and if the problem still exists, temporarily disable your antivirus while gaming to see if that helps. If neither of those things helps, then proceed with reformatting (backup all the files you want to keep first.)

 

[sandycay]

+1 to all the comments about an antivirus program running in the background.

Before you go through the trouble of reformatting, make sure your antivirus isn't doing a scan of your system. I've also run into the problem of the antivirus interferring with my games, causing really bad stutters every 10 seconds or so.

Make sure a scan isn't running, and if the problem still exists, temporarily disable your antivirus while gaming to see if that helps. If neither of those things helps, then proceed with reformatting (backup all the files you want to keep first.)

Again thanks all. I ran ccleaner, defraged. Still the same problem. I tried to swiftly switch to taskmanager at the time game stops, it seems that the problem is services.exe and explorer.exe, everytime this happens, they seems to eating atleast 80-85%. I disabled anti virus too.

Regarding video cards, i will go for something better. I just want to make sure everything else is fine, as very low end games are facing the same problem.

 

[McRhea]

Again thanks all. I ran ccleaner, defraged. Still the same problem. I tried to swiftly switch to taskmanager at the time game stops, it seems that the problem is services.exe and explorer.exe, everytime this happens, they seems to eating atleast 80-85%. I disabled anti virus too.

Regarding video cards, i will go for something better. I just want to make sure everything else is fine, as very low end games are facing the same problem.

Backup your important files (pictures, save games, etc) and just reformat then. You should do that about once a year anyway.

 

[sandycay]

Guys, i formatted my pc, still the same problem, can processor be a problem sometimes??
Thanks.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Guys, i formatted my pc, still the same problem, can processor be a problem sometimes??
Thanks.

Hmm...

Is your motherboard's bios up-to-date? Sometimes it does not know what to do with newer types of ram (for the motherboard) and throttles things back.

Another thing you might want to try is memtest86 to make sure your RAM is OK.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memtest86

 

[McRhea]

Tell us the extent of the reformat you did. Did you patch windows before plugging it into the internet? Are you behind a router and firewall?

Just because you reformatted doesn't mean you can't get infected within minutes of hooking a "clean" computer up to the internet.

 

[Rhoxed]

are you dust free?

the processor isnt throttling is it? check core speed when slowdowns happen

 

[Mem]

Did you try installing the AMD dual core cpu driver and optimizer for XP ?...they can be found here http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/dynamicDetails.aspx?ListID=c5cd2c08-1432-4756-aafa-4d9dc646342f&ItemID=153
and here http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/dyn...cd2c08-1432-4756-aafa-4d9dc646342f&ItemID=173

 

[sandycay]

I reformatted, windows firewall is up. processor doesn't seem to be throttling. And i have all the cpu drivers, but not optimizers.

However, i changed RAM, which helped a bit. The duration between all the breakages now extended. A bit playable. I always checked whenever it stoped, usually services.exe or explorer is sucking most of the CPU.

 

[sandycay]

Thank you all . RAM was the problem. It was a great help. Now i am able to play almost all the games. Sorry for being late in thanking you all. Have a great new year ahead !!
Thanks again.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Glad that you figured out what the problem was and that you were able to fix it. I had some ram issues once that caused bizarre problems. When I finally tested the ram, it showed thousands of errors in the memory test application after only a few moments.