Helpsies please! ^_^

Post by **TheDrizzit** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 6:42 am

OK, on some of my computer games (not all) the cinematics opening including company ads and all of the cinematics in between levels) start off fine for like the first second then slow down and skip. The audio goes in bursts too. Any help? Ii've done bought more memory to increase the RAM to a point I shouldn't need anymore and I have a video card that at least meets the req's (Radeon 9200) --it's not great but it meets the reqs...but still...what's going on? Anyone know anything about this type of problem? I'd appreciate it cuz I like watching the cine's NOT in slowmotion...

Post by **psi29a** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 1:08 pm

If your compuer is a p4 and uses Hyper-Threading, turn it off. Some games are not thread safe, I found this out the hard way with various games using SMP which isn't trivial to turn off (ya gotta remove the damn CPU first).

Anywho, make sure the game you are playing is multi-CPU safe. If it isn't, it will cause issues where sound and video come and go in bursts, skip or otherwise just act wonky.

Post by **halfnhalf** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 7:34 pm

Just meeting requirements usually wont give any enjoyable performance for playing games. Also just because you have a lot of ram doesnt mean anything if each ram is different from each other. Ex. PC 3200 is different from a PC 6400, then there are DDR2 800 and DDR 433. Then you have to understand that some computers require you to use a weaker ram then have your 2 gb ram chips placed in.

Best advice, just make use you always exceed the minium requirements and get a new video card, 9200 LOL my laptop has a better video card then that.

Post by **TheDrizzit** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 1:34 am

^_^ i bought that thing in 2003!! It was for Lords of the Realm III but interestingly, its running worse now a days when it worked perfectly back then. I even have a better computer now, minus the graphics card. But still it worked back then so what's wrong now? I don't have the hyper-threading thing you talked about Psi, so I have NO clue whats going on. It happens on Star Wars: Empire at War as well. it's very aggrivating...

Post by **psi29a** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 2:14 am

The other possiblity is that you may have something running in the background that you don't know about, gobbling up CPU time. Do the typical checking for spyware and looking at your system processes to make sure nothing is eating CPU or RAM.

Post by **TheDrizzit** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 4:38 am

hmmmm...**innie minnie miny moe's the processes** which ones were important again? I know the explorer one stays...hmmm but what else? Found some juicy SOB's but I don't know if I kill them if my comp will go kaput. ^_^

Also, looking at video cards now, any recommendations from your experiences? I got about 200 dollars to spare at the moment...should be enough for a decent upgrade especially from the cards I was looking at. But, just didn't know if you guys had any cards that have wowed you?? Thanks for the help felllas!

Also...is it possible to buy a card TOO powerful for your computer?

Post by **psi29a** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 12:56 pm

If it worked fine before and over time has slowed down, then buying a better video card won't solve the problem. It may help eliviate symtoms but that is it.

When was the last time you de-fragmented your hard-drive?

Post by **Devil_Dante** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 2:33 pm

There is a nice program called hitman pro that removes a lot of spyware and adware that may eat your CPU.

Post by **TheDrizzit** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 5:51 pm

Yesterday! ^_^ I've defragged the hell out of my computer over the last two weeks. Not really...just like twice I think. One as the System Defragmenter and another came with my Norton System Works thingy and it was called Speed Disk. Ummmm....oh yeah, I cancelled a lot of those processes that ate up some of the RAM and then the cine's went perfectly but without sound. In fact, the whole sound on my computer went out. No iTunes or anything until I restarted. I know the explorer.exe is one keeper on the processes, any other important ones? And I am going to check out that Hitman pro now, my Norton has AntiSpyware but it lacks the Spyware scan (I think it does it with the virus scan) that my McAfee had so it's worth a shot.

And I just think its time to up the video card anyway. I mean, for all of my games mine at least meets the minimum requirements so I think it's not that but I want to upgrade anyway because I've been pondering that for a long time.

I went onto Newegg and checked out their NVidia page and it had this new card that required its own type of motherboard!! I didn't know they could do that!! haha...so i was wondering, if I buy a Radeon X1900, should it be all computer compatible since it said nothing like system requirements or anything? I don't want to fry my computer or anything...then I would have no cinematics at all! ^_^

Post by **TheDrizzit** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 3:23 am

OK, I have a new find in this problem. After killing multiple processes that ate up the memory (picking random ones that I don't know what they did) I hit something. My Dynasty Warriors 4 Hyper game worked but it had no sound. Usually it won't make it past the main menu for when I "Press any Key" it will kill itself and return to desktop. So, if it's the sound working that kills the game, do you guys have any solutions that could help?

EDIT: it was something like svchost.exe cuz I just did it again...I hate my computer. I love all the others I hear about that are awesome...but I hate mine...

Post by **Gaiseric** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 4:14 am

TheDrizzit wrote:I went onto Newegg and checked out their NVidia page and it had this new card that required its own type of motherboard!! I didn't know they could do that!! haha...so i was wondering, if I buy a Radeon X1900, should it be all computer compatible since it said nothing like system requirements or anything? I don't want to fry my computer or anything...then I would have no cinematics at all! ^_^

As far as I know all videocards either use the AGP slot or PCI Express. I am not sure about the new motherboards that support dual videocards, but just figure out what yours has(probably AGP if its older) and get a card to match. Though newer cards use more juice, so you might want to make sure your power supply can handle it. Otehr than that, you should be fine.

Post by **TheDrizzit** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 5:47 pm

OK, I opened up my computer and I have 3 PCI slots then one other slot that I can't figure out. It's black and has a weird lever on the end of it. I don't know if its a PCI express or a AGP slot. Can anyone identify? I sure as hell don't want to buy the wrong kind. ^_^