[SOLVED] General gaming problem?

[sensay]

Hi, not exactly sure if this is the best places to post my problem, its quite broad! Please move these if it needs to be moved

The following problem(s) i am having started after a particularly nasty virus and trojan attack. I ended up repartioning and reformatting my hdd so i am certain no infections remain. Since that point, a considerable drop in performance has occurred. (im not certain its to do with the attacks, or if its purely coincedental).

System Specs:

80GB 5400RPM Maxtor HDD
Socket 775 P4 Prescott
Asus Motherboard (cant recall model number, if needed i will find it)
1.5GB unmatched ram, running in dual channel (1 x 1GB 1 x 512MB)
NVIDIA Geforce 8600GT 256MB GDDR
550w Brandless PSU
Trust 5.1 Surround Card


I will use the game Guitar Hero 3 to describe the problems i am having, as i notice the effects in that game much more, being that i only just get 60 fps when everything is working a ok.

Prior to problems:

Ran the game at medium settings (1024x768 85hz refresh, fixed camera, no physics low crowd, high graphics) on a constant 58-60FPS

Since the reinstall:

At the games lowest possible settings, i will get approximately 10 seconds of full speed play at which point the frame rates progressively gets worse until about 20ishFPS. The degredation time is about 3 minutes from best to worst. There is audio popping and crackling, massive lag etc etc.

If i run the game with no stages and animations (just the fretboard) i get a longer run at 60 fps, and the frames will progressively drop down to about 40ish. Previously, if i ran the game this way, it would not drop a frame ever.

In other games i play there is an all round performance decrease as well, loss of frames from previous times ive played, pausing and hanging etc.

On to things i have tried and tested (theres a few)

I initially thought it must be my GPU as the problems seemed to indicate a temperature issue with the card. Using atitool to monitor the temperatures, i am idling at 50 and load at 69. Pretty much what it was on before and well the norm for my card.

I also tested my HDD extensively with seatools and found no problems there. I have reinstalled windows several times, and tried customizing the OS for performance benefits. This yeilded a very minor improvement.

I have tried using my onboard sound instead of my card.

I have tried disabling HT on my cpu, no benefits at all. Made things worse

I have tested my ram too.

I have NOT tested my PSU because im not really sure how too, and what the normal voltages are etc etc.

-----------

An oddity has also appeared in my device manager. Under 'System Devices' theres is an item 'PCI Device' with the error (Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing.) I get prompted to reinstall this mystery device each time i reboot my pc. I have no idea if its connected but it appeared at the same time as these problems, its also never appeared any of the other times i have reinstalled my OS so i dont think its a device i simply didnt know about or anything like that!

So, im really in a pickle here. Not sure what on earth it could be! Any response appreciated!

[Aus_Karlos]

Hi sensay and welcome to TSF,

After the format did you install all the drivers that came on the CD with your motherboard?
Also what other PCI devices do you have other than your sound card.

Make sure that DirectX and your graphical drivers are up-to-date.

[sensay]

Hi thanks for replying.

I dont have my motherboard CD anymore, and have reinstalled many times without it and not had these kind of problems. I guess i could get the files from the asus webpage and install them but im pretty sure its not that.

I have the latest WHQL drivers from nvidia, the same drivers i have previously used without problem.

Also, my direct x and everything else systemwise is totally up to date.

Basically, my machine worked fine one day, got a nasty virus attack, had to reinstall and its never worked right since, i have tried everything simple i can think of. Viruses cant stay on a system after a repartion and reformat can they?

As for pci devices, i have 2 pci slots (1 with sound card, other inaccessible because the gpu covers half of it :p ) and a pci-e 16 with my GPU in. No other devices at all, thats whats so confusing about it!

[Aus_Karlos]

Microsoft will fill in some drivers for the motherboard but they are only basic drivers that just run the system to get the full performance of your PC you need to install the required drivers for your motherboard.
If you get Everest from my sig this application can tell pretty much everything about your PC. Look under Motherboard for your make and model.

[sensay]

Ok, i will do that and post back the results. Though as i said, ive had much better performance with the same setup i am using now, so im really sure its not the cause.

Any other ideas in the meantime? Or thoughts on the pci device thing?

I appreciate all the help thus far!

[Aus_Karlos]

Well the other PCI deivce could be a number of things. Take a look at the back of your case and see what it looks like. does it have network plugs (Modem), sound card input/output. Could you take a screen shot of your device manager.

[sensay]

Ok, i reinstalled all the asus drivers for my motherboard, and the PCI device dissapeared, really have no idea what it was though. I tested at that point and still the same problems.

I then tried something new, i removed my sound card and dvd drive. Not sure why really, just cos i hadnt tried that yet i guess.

Anyway, it worked! I know have my full perfromance back, however if i put the card and dvd drive back the problems reoccur

Does this mean its a power supply problem? If it is, how do i diagnose what is wrong with it, and what risk is my sytem at by using a faulty psu? (the pc is on nearly 24/7)

Thanks for any help

[Aus_Karlos]

I think it could be your sound card. Sound Card drivers are notorious for messing up other system drivers. Un-install the sound card drivers and re-install them. If you can find some older drivers, see if they fix it. Ive had a look but wasn't able to find any.

Have you made sure (if you have one) that your On-Board sound is disabled. Get into your BIOS and check to see if its disabled. It might be named something like AC '97.

[sensay]

Problem resolved.

I tried the advice you gave above to no avail. Whilst reading up about my cpu, i discovered 'thermal throttling'. A feature i knew nothing about. What seems to have happened, being that its winter my ambient room temparuture is hotter than usual, that pushed my cpu to the point of throttling. Removing the sound card improved airflow and eased the problem.

This had been bugging me for several weeks, hence the reason i came here for help. Thanks for taking the time to try and help me aus_karlos i appreciate it a great deal. Needless to say i shall be back here if i have any other tech problems. :)

Thanks!

[Aus_Karlos]

No problem glad you sorted it out.