help using safe mode!

[Puma]

Background:

Recently I've been having trouble with my games (BF2, CS:S, Halo... pretty much all of them) in that they intermittently get huge framerate drops (from a normal 60 to 15 for example). Changing all the graphics and audio settings to low doesn't change it at all. About every 10 minutes, my games go from silky smooth to horribly choppy, and then recover after a few minutes. I've even monitored % CPU usage while running the game, and BF2 for example, uses the solid 50% (because of HT) and nothing else touches the CPU, even during the slow downs. I would think an interfering program would be using a lot of CPU.

Question:

Is there a way to boot in safe mode (or as close to it as possible) while still having graphics card functionality?

I'm trying to diagnose if it's a startup program that's slowing me down, but safe mode won't let me start any games. Also, would it be worth trying the games without HT? Or does it matter?

[rspassey]

I would check quickly for malware/spyware/viruses, but I have a feeling the problem is more closely related with your Video Card Drivers. Try either (1) install the latest drivers if you don't already have them or (2) - uninstall and then re-download and re-install the latest Video Card Drivers.

Out Of curiousity - what video card are you using.
And, did this just start happening, or has it been happening for a while?

If it just started to happen, perhaps you have a little overheating problem with your video card, try using compressed air to clean out the video card fan.

[Cricket]

Is your hard drive almost full?

You might want to consider adding more RAM since you are playing BF2.

Cricket

[Puma]

I forgot to say that I run virus/adware scans frequently, so I don't think it's that.

My card is a 6600GT and I'm using the latest drivers 81.89.

I have plenty of HD space, and 1GB of ram. I know BF2 appreciates 2GB, but this happens in other games where I'm not maxing out my ram.

The heat suggestion is interesting and I've considered this myself (possibly the CPU or GPU is throttling itself when it gets too hot?) The CPU at most gets to about 60C, which is pretty hot, but not out of the operating range. I haven't tested the GPU temps though... is there a good program to monitor that?

My case is admittedly not in the best airflow situation, but it hasn't been so hot that I've worried about it.

Concerning the history of this problem, it seems to come and go. I've had it before, but recently it's been back. In fact, if you're interested I have a few screenshots I took a couple years ago when I noticed this problem plaguing Prime95 (which points the problem towards the CPU). From 2004:

Normal Conditions

Spike in Action

During Seizure

[rspassey]

I am not 100% of what to make of those images, but I did notice in your task manager a few applications which don't need to be running.

In msconfig, you can safely disable SoundMan, Jusched, and Qttask and it won't hinder performance. When those applications are then needed (not all the time), and you manually start them up - such as Quick Time, the process will return to the task manager, but will refrain from automatically starting at start up.

[Puma]

I tried removing the side panel of my case (bringing the load temp on CPU to 55C), and the complete slow downs seemed to go away (yay!). I'm sure more ram would improve it for games like BF2, but this might just be a heat issue. Does the CPU normally back off if it gets too hot? The hottest it was ever getting before was about 66C (as measured today). I had just never heard of throttling for temps around 60C (i'm sure my bios is set to way more than that for the alarm temp).