Very low frame rate and a few clues. [RESOLVED]

[Mana Dragon]

Power Supply (NEW - just got it yesterday)
TURBO STEAM 460W ATX 12V v2.2

Motherboard
8VTAI
Epox EP-8VTAI
1 socket 462

CPU
AMD Sempron

RAM
DIMM Corsair CMX1024-3200 One Gig
DIMM Corsair CMX512-3200C2 512 MB

Video Card
Radeon X700 Pro AGP 256MB

Hard Drive
Western Digital ATA 37.2 GB

OS --- Win XP




Whew. Okay, not sure if anyone sees the motherboard,cpu forum but I had trouble getting my computer to boot all the way up. Finally discovered it was the Power Supply.

What happened was over the course of the week, my game would stall out and sometimes booting up the computer, the computer wouldn't get past the logo screen, or Windows XP would load for 10 minutes. Eventually it got worse and worse and at one point, I'd load up my game and as soon as it loaded, my computer rebooted. Then a few hours later, the computer would boot up, but not even get past the logo screen. (Motherboard's logo). So I took it to the shop and we tested around and we didn't expect it to be the Power Supply. This allowed us to boot up the computer and my game with no problems.


However, since I installed the new Power Supply, I've noticed my game play is alot slower than usual. I'm definetly not a hardware guy, but I'm thinking my computer had 2 problems instead of 1. My FPS is constantly below 10 even in enclosed areas. Once the game remembers the spell I've casted graphically, the FPS won't drop since it's seen it before, but once it loads alot of NPCs or other characters and spells, it really slows up.



Normally, my fps can be around 50. I'm into World of Warcraft, yep, that big MMORPG...

Now that I stare at a wall, my fps barely even goes over 20.


Before I want to say it's a game-only issue, when I boot up my computer, and I click on the internet, the computer will slow up. Even my music will sound messed up, like it echoes, not loops, but echoes like it's fuzzy and picking up where it left off after the slow up is gone.

Once again, once the computer recognizes Google, or my music player, it won't slow up anymore if I was to close out of them, and re-open them. It's hard to explain it as if I was on Desktop, but I'm seeing the issue generally over the computer, not just the game.



So truthfully, I'm not sure where to post this, but I'm a gamer and this issue plays the greatest effect on my gameplay. I'm not sure how else to explain this, I wish I could record a clip and show you, but we might blame the clip because recording or frapsing can slow down the game anyway.

It's hard to explain things through typing it out, but if there needs to be better explaining, let me know and I'll try to re-word it. Thanks in advance.

[pharoah]

it could be your new power supply take a look at the "power supply selection" link in my sig.

[Mana Dragon]

Whew. The page is well constructed but it's a bit overwhelming after browsing through it. I'll try and take a better read but alot of this stuff is a foreign language to me, all I know is that I plugged in the power supply and my computer works... so it seems.

I'll try and figure it out, thanks.

[pharoah]

you have a link to your power supply i have never heard of that one.my concern it may be a cheapo"no offense",but that is a big mistake alot of people make.if its voltages are not stable neither will your computer.try this to check your voltages.check computer idle,and under load.

[Mana Dragon]

Well I'm hoping it's not after spending $50 on it, if so, I'm making a trip to eBay.

Here's the link to what I have and I'm going to try "that" real quick. =)

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p...pply&class=psu


Has a really cool blue light inside and is very quiet, but I hope I didn't make a mistake, but I guess it's a way of learning. You'll have to excuse me for being on the lower end of hardware knowledge :[

[pharoah]

yes try the sensors view program,and do as i said test voltages under both idle,and load.post back the results.

[Mana Dragon]

I was about to edit my post but there's a 30 minute limit, so here's the results:


Here's an image of the Sensor ma-jigger as I went and took a quick shower and let it sit still and as I was in-game.

http://www.knightsofmana.com/Misc/idle.JPG
http://www.knightsofmana.com/Misc/load.JPG

[pharoah]

The +12V maximum load is also important on PCs that have several drives and fans. The +5V rail is used mainly for the electronics of the PC components, and the +3.3V rail is used to power processors and memory,and your 3.3v rail is reading 2.69.i would have to say that could be the problem.

edit:check the hardware monitor in the bios,and see if its reading the same as sensors view.

[Mana Dragon]

I don't normally visit the BIOs so I'll just post what I saw that seemed relevant.

PC Health

Current Temp - 29 C
CPU Temp - 49 C
CPU Fan - 4891 RPM
Vcore - 1.58 V
Vio - 3.28 V
VDIMM - 2.68 V
VAGP - 1.58 V
VCC - 5.13 V
VBAT - 3.15 V
5VSB - 4.88 V

[pharoah]

i looked at your first post a little closer,and this issue is affecting eveything not only games.i somehow missed that the first time i looked at it.have you scanned your system for viruses,and spyware,also do you do regular maintenance like disk cleanup,and defragments.if not then do so it may help. a horribly fragmented drive can cause lag.

[Mana Dragon]

I scanned for viruses only to kill a few spyware, then I defragmented the drive to free up some space but it didn't resolve the dilema. :[

Should I go back to the shop and replace this supply with another? Is this just a bad wire?

[pharoah]

lets try this pull out your 512mb stick of ram,and try it with just the single 1 gig stick.i read the specs on that board,and it said it was dual channel memory capable.from what most say for good stable dual channel operation both ram sticks should match.

[Mana Dragon]

I think you need to pat yourself on the back because you called it on the money this time.

It's funny because for a long time I've had the gig and a half and had no problems but now pulling out the 512 MB Ram makes it feel like everythings back to normal. But it's a little slower, but that's expected because I dropped a stick of RAM.

Guess I'm going to go hunting for another Gig stick, but before I do, I was considering building another computer so I could get a better motherboard, a better processor and so forth. Should I just wait because there's that maybe chance of replacing RAM if I was to get a new motherboard?

That question is diverting away from the topic, but it's just a finisher I wanted to quickly toss out. My game play is definetly normal again.

edit-

Forgot to thank you for all the tips and information and help you've provided in this post! You have my deepest thanks.

[pharoah]

i am very glad i could help,and you are very welcome.a total system upgrade is always a good thing newer faster technologies etc.

[Indoril Nerevar]

I would get your other upgrades first before looking at new RAM. Most of the current motherboards are using DDR2 RAM, whereas you currently have DDR RAM. Check out what upgrades you want and can afford, and once you've picked the motherboard and CPU, then look for the RAM. That's the safest and cheapest way to go.

[Mana Dragon]

Roger that, thanks. I'll go off the topic of this post one last time and ask if there were any fav. brands you'd go for regarding motherboards and processors?

Anyways, thanks for the help and suggestions.

[Indoril Nerevar]

Well, for CPU's, you only have the choice of Intel and AMD. At the moment, Intel's Core 2 Duo is the best unit around for gaming, but AMD are still very good. My preference is AMD, but Intel does have the upper hand at the moment.

For motherboards, you can't go past Asus.

[Mana Dragon]

Alrighty, thanks alot! Consider this post resolved.