For quite awhile now anytime I attempt to play any sort of game with Nintendo graphics or higher on my computer it freezes up after a short time of game play.
This isn’t the only problem with games; the framerates I get are terrible when people are on the screen.
I have a decent ATI video card which should run much better than it does, but it isnt’ just the ATI, I have tried the most advanced Geforces but I still get the poor frames. My computer is a 1.8 mhz gateway with 256 ram and 60 gigs. It should be performing way better. What can I do to fix this? I’ve reformatted and bought different video cards but cannot find a fix.
I would be tempted just to reformatt, again, buy a new video card and some ram and be done with it, but I don’t even know if that would work.
Try reducing the resolution to 800x600 and playing. Have you installed the latest DirectX drivers ? Have you installed the latest drivers for your ATI card ?
There’s your problem right there! A pocket calculator has more power! (Just giving you grief…I’m sure you meant 1.8Ghz).
It is hard to tell from what you wrote what your problems might be.
[ul]
[li]What version of Windows are you running? [/li]
[li]Have you patched Windows to the most recent patch level ( Windows Update )? [/li]
[li]Have you updated your video card drivers to the most recent available ( ATI Customer Care )?[/li]
[li]Do you have the most recent version of DirectX running (also from Microsoft)?[/li]
[li]What are the video settings you are running in your games? Even the most bleeding edge fast video cards out there can show noticeable slowdown with all the video settings pushed to the max (be especially cautious of shadows and anti-aliasing* as they gobble an inordinate amount of resources). Try lowering resolution and color depth as well. I have yet to be able to notice a difference between 32-bit and 16-bit color depths in a game.[/li]
[li]Have you checked your BIOS settings? There are several options in the computer’s BIOS that affect video performance…some drastically. Unfortunately companies like Dell and Gateway seem to severly limit the options available to the user in the BIOS (probably to keep people from fiddling about in there and causing them to call for support when they mess it up). Still…you might check.[/li]
[li]Are there any background apps running? Shut down everything before playing a game (disable virus scanning for instance).[/li][/ul]
There could be some other things as well but those are the most obvious that come to mind just now. Let us know if any of it helps.
[sub]*-The very latest generation of video cards (Radeon and GeForce) seem to handle anti-aliasing without reducing framerates but in general anti-aliasing can lay a pretty big hit on the game’s framerate.[/sub]
It sounds like it could be a video card overheating issue, too. Consider installing an additional case fan for better ventilation. These latest-and-greatest video cards dissipate a lot of power, and need good ventilation to keep cool.
I’m running Windows ME. As far as drivers go for ME and my video card I have all the latest updates. I know, for sure, that it isn’t my video settings that are freezing it up because I have tried ALL of them multiple times.
The only thing I haven’t tried is better ventilation. I’ll put a fan on it the next time I’m playing.
Also, games I’m trying to play include Counter-Strike & Unreal.
As a temporary test, you can take the cover off the PC and have a small room fan blowing on it. If this solves the problem, it’s definitely an overheating issue. You might even want to install more than one additional case fan.
Many games (such as Unreal) have an FPS (frames per second) counter that can be displayed on-screen. Enable that and run a few tests for yourself. Set your resolution to 800x600 (or even 640x480), color depth to 16 and turn the in-game settings ALL the way down (or off if appropriate). Run the game and see what kind of speed you’re getting. Play awhile too so you can see if it runs quickly for a bit and then slows down after playing awhile. Go back and start increasing settings to see how those affect gameplay.
Also, exactly what video card are you using? You said it is a ‘decent’ ATI card but you might be surprised…some cards you think are decent aren’t so decent at all and Dell and Gateway in particular skimp on the video cards to lower costs (of course they do offer optional high-end systems with good video but their mainstream stuff is lacking in this department).
I’m with Q.E.D.. Check to make sure the existing fans are running smoothly. This includes the fan in the power supply. Over time general usage and gunk (dust, smoke, pet hair, etc) can cause the fans to slow down or stop completely. Heat will cause your computer to act very strange (OS errors, unprompted re-boots, etc).
Did these games run okay in the past? If so, you may have some other software on your system that’s causing the slowdown. Before running a game, use the tasklist (ctrl-alt-delete) to end any tasks other than explorer and systray. If that helps, you can start trying to figure out which specific program is the culprit.
Games like Counter Strike and Half Life back in the days ran perfectly, as well as other games that required a good video card. I said decent ATI is what I have in now, but I have tried Geforce 4 and ATI 8500, with the same results. Terrible frames with people on the screen and freezing up.
I have no idea who made my motherboard…whoever makes gateway motherboards I guess.
Well, if you have tried different vid cards, even dif brands then it isn’t the video cards that are causing the problems. It’s some conflict in your system. I don’t know winME at all…but from everything i have heard it sucks…heck, most people think win98 is a better os. The only problem with what you have described is it could be literaly hundreds of reason for your problem…finding the right one could be difficult.
It could be a hardware problem and buying new stuff MAY fix it…but if you don’t replace the correct part you will be just throwing away money. It may not be a hardware problem at all, maybe software.
Bleh, i had some suggestions listed but it could be so many things i was making a huge post.
We need more info if you would…you mentioned that you have winME, 1.8 ghz processor (i assume pentium?), 256 mb ram. We need to know the rest of your specs. Exact vid card (plus drivers you have tried), soundcard, exact model of your gateway…anything else you think might be relevant. Heat could be an issue so if you can check that through your bios that could help. Maybe post a screenshot of the problems you are describing to better help us help you.
Q.E.D., heat could be the problem but i doubt it as the radeon 8500 was a pretty cool running vid card. Would take some major heat to make problems with it (i had one). But opening up the case and blowing air into it is an easy way to check so SP might as well try it.
I really appreciate everyone taking their time to ask so many questions and try to help me out.
Elycien, your post was appreciated.
I’m looking into everyones suggestions and on phone with tech support as we speak. These crooks at gateway are saying my warranty is over and charging like 2 bucks a minute what the hell.
I’m one of those people but I was trying to refrain from saying so since it is considered an opinion that is a no-no in GQ. Still…I can’t help it. WinME does suck and while I don’t have statistical evidence to prove it my job for years has been fixing computers and I feel WinME is the worst of the bunch from a great deal of personal experience. I personally reverted back to Win98 from WinME and was much happier (although I’m now on to WinXP).
Again, you might check the BIOS on your computer. Being a Gateway it is quite possible you will not have these options but look for AGP Aperature Size, AGP 4x Mode, AGP Driving Control and Fast Write. Be warned however that making changes may make your system unstable or not work at all. If you make a mistake you should be able to go back in and revert your changes but you never know. The appropriate settings will relate to the video card you have. You mess around with these at your own risk.
It has been mentioned already but to reiterate make certain NO other programs are running in the background. Use CTRL-ALT-DEL to bring up your Task Manager and End Task everything EXCEPT Systray and Explorer.
Scan for viruses.
Run Ad-aware to clean out spyware. It may seem silly but I have seen PCs with enough spyware on them that the performance of the PC noticably suffered.
Delete unused programs and miscellaneous items, clear the cache on your browser, delete everything out of your TEMP directory and defrag your PC. This may allow your swap file (virtual memory) to be bigger. If it is too small your PC may be trying to swap info in and out of there more than necessary. You can sometimes see this if you notice a lot of disk access when you aren’t doing anything. Disk access will slow down any game regardless of the video card (unless you have a SCSI hard drive but I seriously doubt you do).
These are admittedly all shots in the dark but they are reasonable and simple things to try. As a last resort you may try re-installing your operating system (as in completely erase what is there and start over). Win95/Win98/WinME all suffered from instability problems over time till eventually a re-build was the best answer. This depended on how the PC was used but it was not at all uncommon. Unfortunately re-building can be a major hassle. Just be sure to get ALL relevant drivers before you blow away your OS or your headaches will go through the roof.
Hey,
I know saying your problem is ME is considered an opinion, but I intend to offer enough evidence to prove that it is fact. First off I’ll give my credentials: I have two A.S.'s in Computer Science 1 in programming, the other in networking, I am currently working on, among other B.S.'s, a B.S. in Computer Science, maybe that qualifies me to say something.
Short and sweet: I’ve been working on a computer in the house running WinMe on a gateway for about 2 years now. During those two years, fighting hang-ups (freezes) has been a constant struggle. My first attempt at resolution: buy more ram. BE CAREFUL some gateways use a proprietary standard for their memory. What this means is Yes they will run industry standard RAM… for a while, then performance will begin to degrade, and they will either auto-restart or hang-up. BTW to define: for a while - from the time you turn the computer on, till you begin memory intensive activities (in some cases this can be boot-up).
Second. Know your processor. Gateway might have slapped you a lovely Pentium VII 1.8 terahertz Celeron in there. Which is to say, it doesn’t really matter how fast your CPU is, it has no cache what-so-ever. A CPU without cache is restricted to the speed of access of whatever device it is currently interacting with. Performance mis-match between internal computer devices causes numerous problems and caching pre-fetched instructions is a way computer engineer’s have gotten around some of these issues.
Third. The OS itself. ME is supposed to be a transitional OS between 98Se and NT 4.0+. Problem is 98Se runs over DOS, to an extent. NT does not use DOS (this is why you can no longer format a disk adding system files from a DOS prompt grrrrr). So in this transitional OS you have to ask yourself how one goes from apples to oranges.
Lastly in my own experience, I took the machine I mentioned earlier, set it up with OS 2k. I now use if for a internet host, file host, and print host accross a half-wired/half-wireless network, serving on average 2 and up to 5 other systems and it has froze, hung-up, and crashed a total of 0 times. It has currently been running uninterrupted for over 70 days.
In conclusion, my advice to ya is… Dude get a Dell! Though not because it’s a better machine (they are using proprietary memory as well), but because they have a much better support staff. If you were with them, you wouldn’t have to post your problem here.
Also, what is the the percent of system resource for RAM when you first boot up the computer. This will tell you how loaded up the system is before you tax it with the games.
Depending on how ME works you could either right click on MY COMPUTER and click the properties button and it will give you the percentage or you can CTRL+ALT+DEL and click the task manager tab and then the performance tab to get the numbers.
Let us know this number.
You should be 85% or higher (depending on what you have on the startup log). You may consider clearing out some of the startup programs if you find that your resources are taxed heavily on startup.
This is a common problem with users who don`t manage their files.
“Q.E.D., heat could be the problem but i doubt it as the radeon 8500 was a pretty cool running vid card.”
I would say heat also, not the video card per se, but the computer. There are always tons of posts like this as soon as summer comes around. The computers heat up, see. More fans for the computer would be the first thing to try or take the case off & aim a big fan at it & if it works fine then you know its a heat thing.
I recall reading on a cite once about some tests on Windows ME. It seems that ME has a hard time releasing memory after programs are closed down. They ran some extensive tests and noted when they opened an application the ram it used, and then when they closed the apps the ram didn’t return to the ‘free’ pool. They ended up nicknaming ME “Memory Eater” because of this problem. I wish I could find the cite, but it escapes me at this point. I just thought this was relevant to declining performance the OP is experiencing.
maybe that qualifies me to say something.