Just need a solution...

[Squallo]

Every five minutes when I'm playing any online game, my computer will lag uncontrollably for 10 seconds straight. If there is music or sound it turns out like this "l-l-l-l-l-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-g-g-g-g-g-g" (suppose to be "lag"). It's even happened while I was just on my desktop listening to music on the Internet. This is my system's settings

RAM: 512MB
Graphic Card:Nvidia Geforce FX 5500
CPU: 1.6Ghz

I have Windows XP and Comcast High Speed Internet. What should I do?

[Icemage]

Re: Just need a solution...

(1) If you are using an on-board audio card, go get yourself a dedicated audio card. The on-board cards use up system resources which would otherwise be available for your applications. This card need not be terribly expensive - usually $15-20 will get you acceptable performance (though you can always opt for more).

(2) Upgrade your RAM to at least 1 GB. WinXP barely runs under 512MB.


Icemage

[Murphie]

Re: Just need a solution...

You might want to consider a RAM upgrade. More memory will really help your PC with slowdown due to multiple things going on at once.

[Squallo]

Re: Just need a solution...

So 1GB should be fine? (Well actually it's all my computer will fit). Thanks for the help! Will see what happens...

[Mhurron]

Re: Just need a solution...

Are you using Service Pack 2? Go into the Event viewer, under the System Log and see if there are any warnings with the source being TCP/IP along the lines of 'TCP/IP has reached the security limit imposed on the number of concurrent TCP connect attempts.'

There are lots of things that could be wrong, but that one is a result of a braindead decision from MS.

[Squallo]

Re: Just need a solution...

That was fine, but as I checked through the system log there were repeatitive instances where a warning symbol appeared next to Dhcp and PlugPlayManager (mainly for PlugPlayManager). This was the message or description of the malfunction for the PlugPlayManager

Timed out sending notification of device interface change to window of "MyTest"

And for the Dhcp warnings, this was the description...

Your computer was not able to renew its address from the network (from the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address 00080234C110. The following error occurred:

The operation was canceled by the user. . Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server.

So if anyone has any idea of what could be causing either problem repeatively, please reply... Thanks!

[Thrasher]

Re: Just need a solution...

When windows runs out of physical memory (your ram) it uses space on the hard drive (virtual memory) and that could cause some slowdown (If your hard drive has to spin up to speed first thats a major killer). Thats why they keep saying get more memory.

Did try and update your sound card drivers yet? This could help.(I would uninstall them first and reinstall the newest drivers)


What do you have running in the background? One (or two or three....) of your background services could be slowing your pc down. If you don't know what something is Google it. Windows Startup Inspector is a Nice (free) program for this. Try and disable any background services that are not needed, that program (and google) should help you decide if its needed or not.


And the dhcp error i don't think you need to worry much about that unless you are losing your network connection allot.


And the cpu cycle savings from buying a sound card are considered quit minimal anymore (unless your planing on spending $100 dollars plus) but you should still consider it.

[Mhurron]

Re: Just need a solution...

[size=2]That was fine, but as I checked through the system log there were repeatitive instances where a warning symbol appeared next to Dhcp and PlugPlayManager (mainly for PlugPlayManager). This was the message or description of the malfunction for the PlugPlayManager [size=1]

Timed out sending notification of device interface change to window of "MyTest"

Sounds harmless, but you would have to look up the event ID to see exactly what it's talking about.

And for the Dhcp warnings, this was the description...

[size=1]Your computer was not able to renew its address from the network (from the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address 00080234C110. The following error occurred:

The operation was canceled by the user. . Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server.

You may have a second NIC defined on your system, for instance a nVidia nForce board that has a Firewire port on it will install an ieee1394 Ethernet device that would be used for a Firewire nic. Chances are its unconfigured so Windows keeps trying to talk to a DHCP server to get an address. Look at Networking Connections to see if you have more connections defined then you should, just disable whatever you don't use. This ones also probably harmless but tonnes of warnings in logs make it harder to actually find if something is wrong.

[Squallo]

Re: Just need a solution...

I've been fiddling and fiddling, but no solution. The only network connection I have is an Intel(R) PRO/100 VM Network Connection. But as I was looking through the Device Manager I found this...

One of my Network adapters had an error (an "(!)") before it. I went into properties and this is what it said...

"This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)"

I went to Troubleshoot and it suggested that I uninstall and reinstall the device. I tried to "Update Driver" but my wizard couldn't find another driver that was better or could match my driver. Could this be what is causing my problem?

Thanks for all the help so far everyone!