My computer

[eracheff]

Ok.....so I built my computer like a year ago. For the first 8 months it was awesome!! I love gaming so I play alot of online gaming. I have a cable modem. But recently every game I played would get this lag like thing going for 2 mintues then just stop. This isnt just on Multiplayer it is also on Single Player. So I reinstalled all my games, still does it. So I decided to reformat my whole harddrive! I was sure that this would work. But it is still happening!!! It cant be my internet cuz it happens on single player. I dont know what to do?!?!??!?!?! I need help?!??!?!?!

[eracheff]

Ok.....so I built my computer like a year ago. For the first 8 months it was awesome!! I love gaming so I play alot of online gaming. I have a cable modem. But recently every game I played would get this lag like thing going for 2 mintues then just stop I can barely move when this happens. This isnt just on Multiplayer it is also on Single Player. So I reinstalled all my games, still does it. So I decided to reformat my whole harddrive! I was sure that this would work. But it is still happening!!! It cant be my internet cuz it happens on single player. I dont know what to do?!?!??!?!?! I need help?!??!?!?!

[Markoman01027]

Hello Eracheff,

Update your Video Card Drivers & Update to DX8. Also patch the games that you are playing.

[doctorgonzo]

What I would do is this: start over again fresh, then install the games one at a time. After you install a game, test it out to see if it works. Doing this will take some time, but it will help narrow down what the problem is.

[Computer Hobbyist]

My guess is that at some point (maybe a lot of points) you have upgraded or added new software. Figure out what you added just before the system slowed down. You might check for viri as well, but in today's software environment antiviri and viri can have similar looking effects You mght just find that a routine upgrade of your AV software is slowing your system.

I like the idea of adding one game at a time, but do that a little more broadly and add one software package of any type at a time.

CH

[eracheff]

None of those things have helped. I installed DirectX9 got new drivers for my video card. Got a new patch for Jedi Knight II outcast. Still I cant even play in it Single {Player. I dont understand it.........I can play for 5 minutes then it begins to lag for 5 then I can play etc etc I just erased everything on my harddrive to handle this problem!!!!

[Alienware_Dude]

You reformatted? Did it fix the problem?

[Blakhart]

What else do you have installed, say like kazaa and so on?

[reboot]

Maybe your CDROM is dragging, and not reading fast enough.
It's also possible your swap file is getting overused.
How many other apps/processes are running at the same time?
How much free RAM is available before and during gameplay?
Have you disabled any anti-virus scanner?
Have you turned off indexing service?
Have you enabled DMA for the CDROM (or if it's enabled, have you turned it off)?
Have you run Adaware and Spybot?
Have you emptied out the temp folders after game install?
How much free space is left on the hard drive?
What operating system?

[eracheff]

What is a swap file????

I turned off almost all of the apps possible to turn off

how can I tell how much ram is available??

I dont have an antivirus running.....unless there is a built in antivirus on my OS

what is indexing service??? and how do you turn it off???

What is DMA and how do you turn it on or off????

I havent run adaware or SpyBot

I havent emptied the temp folders.........how would that make a difference???

there is about 17 gigs free on my harddrive

I am running Windows ME


P.S. Reformatting didnt help this problem.

[reboot]

A swap file is what's used when you run out of RAM.
With Windows ME, you're not going to get great performance anyhow, but sometimes this can be tweaked.
I just don't know enough about ME to be much help (I deal more with Win98 and XP), but HAL9000 should be along, and he's our resident expert on it.
The first thing you should do, is turn off system restore, unless you really need that option enabled. Right click on My Computer, and select Properties. It's one of the tabs on that popup.
Second, empty c:\windows\temp. Just delete EVERYTHING. It's not needed.
Go get Adaware from http://lavasoft.element5.com/software/adaware/ and Spybot from http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=download
Install and run them, deleting everything they find.
Do you have Kazaa, or other filesharing software installed?