So ive been monitoring my cpu usage because i have been experience lag on EVERYTHING i do. if i open google chrome, mmf2, MS paint, Anything it rockets to anywhere from 65-100% usage. i used to be able to play black ops, mass effect 2, borderlands, world at war, and tons of other games max graphics settings absolutely no lag, but now if i try to play any game like that it starts out choppy, than slowly just gets more and more choppy more and more laggy and will eventually start freezing and unfreezing randomly. i cant even run fl studio 10 anymore because it just freezes cuz my cpu rockets and maxes out. What is going on? ive been searching and searching for any answer and i cant seem to figure it out. ive already discovered that my video card is a bad model (which is why tigerdirect no longer sells it.) and over heats a lot. after shutting my computer down after about 1 hour of use my video card is hot to the touch, but would that be causing cpu spikes? my heat sink for the processor is barely warm, the motherboard is warm, my hard drive is somewhat hot. but even if i boot the system after its cooled i still get major cpu spikes constantly? i get payed tomorrow and i was going to buy a new (and much better) video card, but i dont know if that will fix the problem or if i should buy a new processor first, or what? cuz at this point, i cant do anything on my computer, and i spent a good deal of money on it for it to jsut suddenly start degrading so fast. also, ive performed a defrag, i run ccleaner every day, ive run scans for virus's and for malware, both came up with nothing. my specs are...
intel pentium D CPU 3.00Ghz
4.0GB ram
ati radeon hd 4850 graphics card
Idk what the motherboard is, i forget.
also, i have an ide hard drive, not a sata.
If anyone could tell me what i should do i would greatly appreciate it. like i said, i plan to buy a few new parts for my computer, but i dont have the money to do it all right now, what do i need to get to stop this madness?
[Game design makes my brain feel like its gonna explode.]
The best thing to do in a situation like this, is to open msconfig, check Hide Microsoft Services, and uncheck everything you don't absolutely need.
Another good piece of advice is to go into your task manager and order the list in usage of both ram and cpu usage and simply kill off any programs that you know you don't need, Google programs you aren't familiar with (as many of them could be required for Windows to run properly), and kill off anything you think is using an excessive amount of your computers resources.
The other suggestion would be to download Spybot S&D and one of a list of free virus scanners, namely either Avast or Microsoft Security Essentials, are two good ones.
If you mentioned this in your post, forgive me. I didn't read the whole thing. Hopefully any of this helps.
lol ive already tried all of that, though i appreciate the reply. im thinking my video card is either causing an overheat or my processor is going bad, not sure which... idk. guess i buy one and if that doesnt fix it buy the other part next week? my hard drive could be going bad too... i dunno. i really dont know.
[Game design makes my brain feel like its gonna explode.]
Originally Posted by Silveraura The best thing to do in a situation like this, is to
install linux.
This might be a good option for people who enjoy tinkering with their computer frequently and often adjusting stuff and getting their hands dirty, but remember... not all of us like spending more time working on our computer than we do our projects or playing games. I prefer an operating system that's a little more self-maintenance than Linux, but doesn't hold your hand through the pink fluffy gardens of pony's and unicorns, like a Mac. And for now, that operating system is Windows.
Nothing against Linux, your average computer user, even your average programmer, is going to feel more at home with Windows. Linux has a pretty small niche and because of that, serves to it incredibly well... but as soon as you start trying to recruit people from outside of that niche, you're only hurting the operating systems good name; people wont to be able to use it right and dismiss it as junk.
FIRST AND FOREMOST: Check your motherboard capacitors to see if any are blown.
Monitor your CPU temperature with speedfan.
An overheating videocard usually doesn't cause a loss or major loss in FPS, and once they reach a certain temperature they usually just shut off all together (screen turns black, but you may still have sound etc.)
Processors will run less stable at higher temperatures, freeze up, etc - or if they're just messed up in general.
It sounds more like a processor problem to me, but you're best off just swapping parts if it isn't a heat problem. I'm pretty sure Pentium Ds are socket 775 so you can probably upgrade to a better processor for about $80.
By the way: If you plan to buy several new parts for your computer you may just want to save a few extra bucks and build one. $250ish in parts (before case price) can run most games out now if you don't care about max settings.
An overheating videocard usually doesn't cause a loss or major loss in FPS, and once they reach a certain temperature they usually just shut off all together (screen turns black, but you may still have sound etc.)
I don't think this is true. Maybe sometimes, but videocards don't just shut off or freeze. The main CPU will push itself at full speed until it ultimately overheats and shuts down, freezes, or blue screens from instability. Videocard processors however, don't do that. They're meant to handle a lot, and usually throttle themselves as they start to overheat. If you overclock it, and it's not able to throttle itself well enough, it becomes unstable and you'll start to get screen artifacts like pink sprites or distorted polygons.
So yeah, CPU's run full capacity till they overheat and shut off or become unstable and crash.
GPU's throttle themselves as they overheat and show instability through artifacts which could ultimately crash the game.
I've never seen a videocard just shut off, due to heat. If that happens, you probably have a different and probably more severe problem entirely.
Ive done a good deal of searching through google, and i think ive come to the conclusion that its my video card. first off, i think its damn near fried. second, i saw many other people who had said they had the same problem, got a better video card or downgraded to one that didnt heat up as much and their cpu spikes vanished. ill try a new video card and if that doesnt fix it, at least i get a new video card, than next paycheck ill get a processor. but as i said, ive researched and found that unless your processor is overheating, which its not (checked with speedfan) it shouldnt cause cpu spikes.
got another weird problem, windows media player is causing my cpu to max out. i read online and other people were having the same problem, but i cant seem to fix it the way they did, i can use winamp just fine without it hogging cpu. anyone know why thats happening?
[Game design makes my brain feel like its gonna explode.]
If you suspect it's your videocard, just take it out and plug your monitor into your board directly. Most motherboards have onboard video. It's horrible for doing just about anything with but I wouldn't go out and buy a new videocard based on the suspicion that it's shot. If you take it out and switch to onboard and the spikes vanish, then you know.
And if you're using onboard and you suspect it's your onboard graphics that are causing the issue, just buy a whole new motherboard. Once anything like that occurs to a motherboard, it grows rapidly like a cancer and anything you do is just going to prolong the issue from ultimately showing it's ugly face again.
Siven, if you think its your videocard you could try baking it or taking a heatgun to it. If your computer starts working properly after that you can go about your ways until it occurs again, then at least you know what part to replace .
Google it.
Originally Posted by Silveraura
Originally Posted by GamesterXIII
An overheating videocard usually doesn't cause a loss or major loss in FPS, and once they reach a certain temperature they usually just shut off all together (screen turns black, but you may still have sound etc.)
I don't think this is true. Maybe sometimes, but videocards don't just shut off or freeze. The main CPU will push itself at full speed until it ultimately overheats and shuts down, freezes, or blue screens from instability. Videocard processors however, don't do that. They're meant to handle a lot, and usually throttle themselves as they start to overheat. If you overclock it, and it's not able to throttle itself well enough, it becomes unstable and you'll start to get screen artifacts like pink sprites or distorted polygons.
It is. I think you're pretty much saying what I did. "videocards don't just shut off or freeze." - They don't usually cause major FPS drops. CPUs can and WILL if they are overheating.
I just wanna say thanks so much for all the comments. just tried what silveraura said to do and plugged my monitor into the on board after disconnecting the video card (not sure why i never thought to try that.) and i opened my game. the onboard a weak pos, so full screen the game ran slow, but strangly, it didnt lag, it was just slower. no choppy frame rate, it still ran smooth. when i shrunk the screen the game ran fine, no lag, no choppy-ness, no cpu spikes when too many visual effects were going on. no cpu spikes when opening programs, etc. my cpu leveled at 0-6%, when opening a program it went anywhere from 15-60%, but never maxed out. with mmf2 and google chrome open i idle at 1-10% so now im sure its my video card, what a pos it is... its discontinued now if i remember correctly, probably because of this problem. i can tell you this, im not happy with ati, and im going to switch to Nvidia, guess most games are right when they say "Nvidia, the way its meant to be played" lol. oh well i guess. thanks a ton everyone! imma order this tomorrow.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5483322&RSort=4&csid=ITD&body=#ReviewStart
60 out of 63 reviews rating it 5.0 out of 5.0 on all areas? i think ill give it a try
[Game design makes my brain feel like its gonna explode.]
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Edited by GamesterXIII
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so now im sure its my video card, what a pos it is... its discontinued now if i remember correctly, probably because of this problem. i can tell you this, im not happy with ati, and im going to switch to Nvidia, guess most games are right when they say "Nvidia, the way its meant to be played" lol. oh well i guess. thanks a ton everyone! imma order this tomorrow.
