I need help with games/music.

[conetah]

alright Im pretty sure this is the right place to post the problem. sorry if it isnt.

ok here we go. whenever i play music it like lags like crazy. the music does. it will play like 1 sec of song and then it will have like a little pause in the song. sort of like its streaming or something but its not. whenever i play music the cpu usage is around 40% to 80%.

when i play games I will log on to the server my ping is around 70, (pretty good for the game i play) and it will just act like its streaming. everything is just really choppy. it just chops around but my ping stays the same. I know its not my internet.

and when i try to watch a video or something on the internet it loads really fast and when i play it it just shops it up in little .5 second bits.

when ever i want to access my start bar it take anywere from 15 second to 3 minutes.

it seems whenever i move my mouse or type on my keyboard the problems get worse. ( the skipping happens more often, start menu takes longer).

all this just started happening just one random day. it was fine the day before and the day after it started being gay like that.
so annoying. I have spybot sd lavasoft adaware personal and nortons, i have ran them all and it doesnt solve anything. I have ran speed disk defrag and all that jazz.

well guys I really hope you guys can help me becuase its annoying!!!!! any help will be appreciated

[Ralck]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

It sounds like you may have something else using CPU when you try to do this stuff. When was the last time you ran things like Spybot S&D, Adaware (with vx2 cleaner), and a virus scan? You very well could have a virus.

The other issue could be hardware. Please list your system specs (see link in my sig). When was the last time you blew your case out? Grab a can of compressed air and blow the case out of all the little dust bunnies living in there! Also, while the case is open, make sure all the fans spin when you start your computer up. If one of them does not, then replace it as soon as possible! Before you replace it though, you could keep the side off and use a desk fan blowing directly into the computer to keep the heat down.

[conetah]

there is the system specs (that i could find) but last time i ran virus scan, maybe a week ago, spybot s&d was the first thing i ran when it started acting up but that was 2 weeks ago, i jsut downloaded vx2 cleaner so i think ill try that, and you know i think my fan actuall might be out, it was making alot of funny noises, ill open it up and look. if its dusty does it make that big of a difference? i guess my question is i know dust affects it but how much?


motherboard:Micro-Star International, MSI MS-6701 (Medion OEM), 3 PCI, 1 AGP(not sure if the last things right)

cpu: Intel Pentium, Intel Pentium 4 - 2800 MHz (21 x 133), and i cant find socket type.

RAM-

Video Card- Nvidia,NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X, agp, 64 mb, doesnt say sli or crossfire,

Hard Drive - Barracuda ATA V 120023, ATA? dont know, 120 GB

Power Supply- Tyco Electronics, SVT?, 300 V,

[vaio]

Socket 478 Northwood?

Edit.........As well as cleaning out your rig it would be a good idea to reseat the components as they can come loose over time.

May be unrelated but worth doing nonetheless.

[Ralck]

In response to your question, Yes! Dust can cause a unbelievabel amount of problems, including enormous amounts of heat. You wouldn't think those little bunnies were very harmful, but they like to trap the heat inside and keep it there. ;)

My guess is it is possibly the fan/dust (heat problem). One way to help make sure of that is to run Sensor's View (in my sig) and report the temperatures. Also, just out of curiosity, report the voltages and fan speeds as well. If the temperatures are too high, this is an indication. Another sure fire way to tell about this, is try the desk fan method out: point a desk fan directly inside the case with the side off. If your computer works much better like this, then that's also a sign of too much heat.

Good luck and tell us if the desk fan helps at all!

[conetah]

well ill tell you right now that the desk fan method is failing on me. just as slow. I will list the rpm etc.

cpu fan: 0 rpm (i dont see a fan so who knows)
sys fan: 2110 rpms

VCoreA: 1.49 Volts
+3.3V 3.28V
+5V 5.11V
+12V 11.70V
-5v -5.05v
-12v -11.90v
+5VSB 4.99 V
+VBAT 3.15V

CPU 97 degrees f
SYS 103 degrees f
HD0 99 degrees f

this is all with the side off and fan doing

[Ralck]

I converted your temps into Celsius (easier for us to determine good or bad temps in C) and they seem fine. This does not seem like an overheating problem, so I don't think you need to worry about that.
I'm not sure I asked this before, but what is your power supply? Make/model, wattage, and amps (can read off side of PSU) on each rail? This could be the cause of the problems.
If it's not the PSU, then I'm leaning to either a virus/spyware that's taking CPU away from your stuff, or it could just be drivers. Open Device Manager and check if there are any yellow alerts. Make sure you select View -> Show Hidden Devices. Grab drivers for anything in yellow, and also see if there are any motherboard chipset or graphics driver updates. Install those drivers, but remember to uninstall the old ones first (easiest in Safe mode).

Let us know what you find here and good luck!

Edit: I just saw your voltages on the previous post. They look good, but follow up with that other PSU info.

[conetah]

this is probably a really nooby question but how do i get into the device manager, ive been there but i forget where it is. and the PSU is the box inside your computer where the power comes into?

[conetah]

this is probably a really nooby question but how do i get into the device manager, ive been there but i forget where it is. and the PSU is the box inside your computer where the power comes into?

I think this is what you need. this is what i think is what i think is on my psu inside my compy



is that what you need? I hopes so

[conetah]

bump !

[daminox]

Device Manager: Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Hardware. But Everest is a much better program imo.

40-80% CPU usage is what's slowing you down. What's causing it is most likely a virus, from my experiences. I once had the same problem- no applications or programs running and my CPU% was sky-high. A nasty worm was at the base of it.

When you notice these extreme slow-downs, and u look at ur processes list, what programs are eating up ur CPU? Your media player?
What's curious is how these problems seemed to pop up practically overnight; thus dust seems an unlikely culprit.

[gamerman0203]

I would have to concur with daminox on this one. power supply is adequate, although not great. Dust can cuase a world of problems, but with your temps being where they are, that is not worry right now (although youo still should clean periodically). There are free anti-virus programs out there if you don't already have one. Google 'AVG Free' or 'Avast'; they are free of charge virus progs for home users. Good luck!

[conetah]

well i just checked my device managers and everything in there looks a ok.
I just finished downloading those 2 programs and i am about to run them. anyone have any other free virus/trojan detectors?

[conetah]

seeing that i ran all those virus scans and junk and they didnt turn back anything but 1 measly add aware would it be a pausable solution to reinstall windows?

[gamerman0203]

reformat and reinstall might not be a bad idea, but could be a little extreme. Just make sure you backup anthing that you want to keep on external drive of some sort or cd/dvd. However, if you reformat and reinstall, make sure you scan the files that you backed up before you transfer them back to the hard drive.

[conetah]

yes of course i would scan them, anyways, how exactly would i do that? would i have to uninstall this version? ive tried it before and when its starting would ask me to choose between this version and the uncompleted install. anyways basically how do you do it?