Lag in all games (even 10 year old games)

Hi guys,

This is the config I have:

AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core Processor 6000+
2 GB DDR2 RaM
ASUS M2N-MX SE Mobo
ATI 4870 HD with the latest drivers
Windows 7 32 bit
CM 690 Advanced II cabinet
Tagan 500 PSU

I have a very peculiar problem on my pc, which I haven't been able to solve since a long time which has emerged suddenly. The thing is, all my 3d Games lag. All in the sense, even games like half life, a game which I could play on my Celeron based pc around 10 years ago! Considering the setup I have, this really makes me sick to the core. I know that I don't have the latest and the greatest system on this earth but certainly PC should be able to play Half life for Christ's sake!

What happens is that all the games plays normally for about 5-10 seconds, then suddenly the game will lag for like about 3-4 seconds, then again play well for another 5-10 seconds, then another lag. When I open task manager, my CPU utilization becomes 100% for those brief periods. And it's not any process that's getting 100%, its just my explorer.exe getting 100%.

This problem first happened to me around 6 months ago, but after a brief stint of one month the problem suddenly vanished without me doing anything. But this time, this problem just refuses to go.

Now here's a list of the things that I have tried.

Restoring a clean image of my windows 7 from backup.
Reinstalling windows 7
Playing without drivers immediately after installation.
Using the latest ATI drivers
Using the old ATI drivers
Defragging my partitions
Disc checking my hard drive for errors.
Virus scanning/Malware scanning my partitions
Disabling anti-virus and other background utilities while playing.
Installing windows XP
Blowing the dust off the CPU with a blower. (A lot of dust got cleaned this way)
Removing and reinserting the RAM modules into the mobo.
Playing immediately after starting the PC, to find out if the problem is heating. I even bought a very good Cooler Master cabinet to ensure this. And I know for sure, that heating is not a problem.

Additional info:
Games tried: (Both on full graphics with everything on and lowest graphics)

Trine
Half life: Opposing force and Blue Shift
Half life 2: Episode 1
Dungeons and Dragons Online
Vindictus
and a host of others.

I could play all the above games on full graphics with everything maxed out. But after this problem, these games refuse to play even on the lowest settings. As you can see, I have tried out almost everything I could. But yet I was unable to solve the problem. I was hoping you guys could help me find out what the problem could be.

varunnagwekar said:

Hi guys,

This is the config I have:

AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core Processor 6000+
2 GB DDR2 RaM
ASUS M2N-MX SE Mobo
ATI 4870 HD with the latest drivers
Windows 7 32 bit
CM 690 Advanced II cabinet
Tagan 500 PSU

I have a very peculiar problem on my pc, which I haven't been able to solve since a long time which has emerged suddenly. The thing is, all my 3d Games lag. All in the sense, even games like half life, a game which I could play on my Celeron based pc around 10 years ago! Considering the setup I have, this really makes me sick to the core. I know that I don't have the latest and the greatest system on this earth but certainly PC should be able to play Half life for Christ's sake!

What happens is that all the games plays normally for about 5-10 seconds, then suddenly the game will lag for like about 3-4 seconds, then again play well for another 5-10 seconds, then another lag. When I open task manager, my CPU utilization becomes 100% for those brief periods. And it's not any process that's getting 100%, its just my explorer.exe getting 100%.

This problem first happened to me around 6 months ago, but after a brief stint of one month the problem suddenly vanished without me doing anything. But this time, this problem just refuses to go.

Now here's a list of the things that I have tried.

Restoring a clean image of my windows 7 from backup.
Reinstalling windows 7
Playing without drivers immediately after installation.
Using the latest ATI drivers
Using the old ATI drivers
Defragging my partitions
Disc checking my hard drive for errors.
Virus scanning/Malware scanning my partitions
Disabling anti-virus and other background utilities while playing.
Installing windows XP
Blowing the dust off the CPU with a blower. (A lot of dust got cleaned this way)
Removing and reinserting the RAM modules into the mobo.
Playing immediately after starting the PC, to find out if the problem is heating. I even bought a very good Cooler Master cabinet to ensure this. And I know for sure, that heating is not a problem.

Additional info:
Games tried: (Both on full graphics with everything on and lowest graphics)

Trine
Half life: Opposing force and Blue Shift
Half life 2: Episode 1
Dungeons and Dragons Online
Vindictus
and a host of others.

I could play all the above games on full graphics with everything maxed out. But after this problem, these games refuse to play even on the lowest settings. As you can see, I have tried out almost everything I could. But yet I was unable to solve the problem. I was hoping you guys could help me find out what the problem could be.

Often lagging/latency is caused by a bad driver please download this free latency check and run it. DPC Latency Checker


let us know the results


Ken J

Well, I did as you told. I installed the software, and ran Half Life 2: Episode 1 on full graphics. Attachment One, is s what I got.

According to the DPC Latency site, I then also tried to disable the drivers and play the game. I disabled a lot of non-essential drives, audio drivers, etc. but to no avail. I left the "system devices" part alone, as there were too many drivers to disable and constantly disabling those other drivers and re-starting the game really tested my patience, lol!

Hope I did good...

Alot of problems with Half Life and Half Life 2 are caused by overclocking. The game for some reason unknown to me does not like overclocking setting that are just below where it becomes unstable.

I would try:

1. Taking out any extra PCI/PCI-E cards

2. Set all of the overclocking settings in the bios to standard. Also do the same if you are using software overclocking as well.

3. If that does not fix the issue the take all but one stick of ram out and try that or just run memtest for 12 hours or both.

4. Try another power supply.

As you go along you can eliminate a hardware problem. Post what happened.

Um what about the dco or hot fix for amd systems. In xp sp2 or before you had to install it and the ms hot fix manually. I think xp sp3 and or vista auto installed it, I guess w7 does too.

I would google and check any way. As a fact, I think I remember they later added it to vista. With out the dco or hot fix, you could have all sorts of problems from lag to speeding up, or even moving your mouse across your desk top.

Ha ha folks say it was not needed for vista etc. I see later it surely was added.

Best I understand, AMD can not truly multi thread or like intel or like ms likes it, and causes probs for amd. So the hot fix makes say a amd dual core say 2.4 each core, tricks the os or system into thinking its just 1 large core cpu at 4.8. Where intel can trick the system into thinking it has more cores than it does with ht.

I wonder if after all is said, maybe amd false advertises when speaking on multi threading. I am not sure amd can really do it, or in windows anyway.. I like amd fine, my last 2 systems was amd.

I do not know if it will help or not, just an idea maybe..