Author Topic: System performance problem  (Read 2977 times)

Minstrel

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System performance problem
« on: September 11, 2009, 05:25:21 PM »
Right, having a wee bit of a problem. Sometimes occurs on NWN, but generally on other games as well. Hoping I can find some help here.

Problem is, after a short while playing any game (Around 10-20 minutes, depending on the graphical intensity of the game), my computer starts throwing a wobbler. There is no change in sound, no flashing lights, nothing closing down, but the FPS of the game I'm playing drops to around 4, which renders most games unplayable. However, after a minute or two in this state, it will revert to it's normal state, and carry on that way for another five minutes before dropping back down to ridiculously low FPS again. This will continue until I close the game.

I think it's to do with my graphics card. It has begun heating up -very- quickly (It's an old Nvidia 8500 GT).

Things I have tried:

New driver
Leaving system off to cool card (This added about 10 minutes to the time before the cycle begun)
Checking the fan (It's still working...)

Any thoughts?

LeslieMS

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Re: System performance problem
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2009, 05:43:58 PM »
Well when I had similar issues, I merely had my super darling husband, who is massively technical minded, add a better heatsink to both the video card and the processor... Which solved the issue.  In the case of my video card he also mounted an extra fan to help move the air and cool  better.  I stand corrected he just informed me that he put a more powerful cooling fan in later since the extra one [while helpful] wasn't cooling enough either.

Another thing that makes a big difference for me is weekly defragging of the drive and cleaning junk files from the hard drive.  I use Crap Cleaner.  www.ccleaner.com 

I like crap cleaner because it is simple, thourough, plus I have never had an issue where it has messed things up like some cleaning programs I have tried in the past, and best of all its free.  Due to the amount of web surfing and use my computer gets, I run Crap Cleaner daily, sometimes more than daily.
On the subject of cleaning, make sure the air intake/outflow areas of the computer are free of dust and debris since if it cannot breathe it cannot cool down properly even with heatsinks and fans.
Also it is still a good idea to run the windows based disk clean up program to clear the 'old compressed files' monthly

some other things you can do [that I have also done in the past] is to decrease the visual effects for windows [especially in Windows XP] while playing, and (I know no one likes to do this) on the games that have the most trouble with it overheating run them at lower settings.

IF you have had the computer a while and this has recently become an issue I strongly recommend hunting up a new video card before the old one gives out completely.

Minstrel

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Re: System performance problem
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2009, 09:14:34 AM »
IF you have had the computer a while and this has recently become an issue I strongly recommend hunting up a new video card before the old one gives out completely.

Too late. It did.

Just went and bought myself a nice new one, and might have inadvertently broken my RAM whilst doing so. -_-''

Still, I can run my computer again.

LeslieMS

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Re: System performance problem
« Reply #3 on: September 12, 2009, 03:07:15 PM »
 :(
Yeah when doing anything with a computer be extremely careful of static discharge as that poses an immensely catastrophic danger to the Memory and the motherboard itself.

Fortunately Memory is not that expensive to replace if you know where to look.
try ebay or www.tigerdirect.com

Well glad you have a nice new shiny one =) that always is a good thing.  And so long as you have enough memory remaining to still run the game just remove the bad stick of memory and continue on =)

Here is wishing you and your computer the best of luck... If you are like me I get a bit attached to mine and it is almost painful when it isn't running right, lol I know, but I am hopelessly attached to mine... its a requirement of daily existence.

Minstrel

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Re: System performance problem
« Reply #4 on: September 12, 2009, 06:00:38 PM »
Whoops, the RAM wasn't broken, I just put it in incompetently.

Fixed now, and running better than ever. :D

Psyche

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Re: System performance problem
« Reply #5 on: September 12, 2009, 08:17:40 PM »
Whoops, the RAM wasn't broken, I just put it in incompetently.

Fixed now, and running better than ever. :D

If there were a smiley for 'Fail' i would use it.

Minstrel

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Re: System performance problem
« Reply #6 on: September 13, 2009, 05:59:33 AM »
I was being too gentle with it.

Turned out it just needed cramming in forcefully and locking in place.

X5Alexander

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Re: System performance problem
« Reply #7 on: September 13, 2009, 10:21:10 AM »
I was being too gentle with it.

Turned out it just needed cramming in forcefully and locking in place.

yep, gotta love the installation process for valuable and possibly fragile hardware.

LeslieMS

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Re: System performance problem
« Reply #8 on: September 13, 2009, 07:00:56 PM »
I was being too gentle with it.

Turned out it just needed cramming in forcefully and locking in place.

yep, gotta love the installation process for valuable and possibly fragile hardware.

Sounds about right heheheheehehe