Hardrive = Bottleneck?

Stavros

Stavros

Geek Trainee
I've been noticing that lately when I'm playing fairly graphics intensive games such as Axis and Allies or Battle for Middle Earth that my computer runs smoothly at the highest graphics settings, and then from no apparant cause "stutters" for around 15-45 seconds before returning to normal This process repeats itself constantly when I'm playing and seems to be unaffected by any video settings (it still happened as often with video settings at 640x480 low detail as 1024x768 ultra detail) or software updates to the hardware. My system should be more than capable of these type of games without this kind of slowdown. My system is as follows:

Intel Pentium 4 2.4C
Abit IC7/IC7-G(Intel i875P-ICH5)
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB
Kingston 1GB PC5400 DDR2 DIMM Memory
Maxtor 6L080J4 80GB (I don't know the speed)

I've been wondering if it could possibly be my harddrive that's the problem and is causing a bottleneck of the whole system? It is the oldest component, to the point where I do not recall what speed it is but could this impact my system that much? Any advice would be appreciated
 
It won't be your hard drive, an 80GB maxtor, even the slowest one they do is 7200RPM 2MB Cache, which will not give you problems. Even a 5200RPM hard drive won't give you that much of a noticable problem.

By the sounds of it there is something sending data, or using your CPU every X amount of time. This is most likely caused by Spyware or A Virus.

goto my file archive:
http://swg-planet.com/procalx/pafiledb/pafiledb.php

Check out the Spyware Removal and Prevention Section, and download spyware blaster and spybot search and destroy, make sure they are upto date and run the scans, remove anything that it finds.

If you don't have an Anti-Virus, or have Mc Fee or Norton, remove it temporarily and install AVG 7.0 in the Anti-Virus Section, Update and do a full scan.

Also make sure that MS Office and Windows are fully upto date with everything, remember having one patch missing can still leave your computer open for attack from the internet, which may cause you lag.

Also, remove any programs you do not use, do a full scan disk (full scan) and "fix all errors" and then run a defrag over night. (do these in safemode), when turning on your computer hold F8 or CTRL button then choose safemode when prompted.

Hope this helps, post back with your results.
 
Thanks for the quick response! My updates were all already up to date so it isn't that, I've installed both of the Spyware Apps and removed all 16 results found by Spybot S&D. I also ran a complete system scan with AVG 7.0 with no results. I'm planning on running the disk scan and defragger tonight so I"ll post back with the results of those. Thanks again!
 
Yep a HD ony sends data to the CPU and then RAM for loading. Once its loaded fully then its not used any more really. It could be that your CPU is having problems since its only a 2.4GHz P4 and a 9600pro running on highest detail level isn't always possible.
 
Ya but that wouldn't explain why I still have the problem at 640x480 resolution with all the settings to very low, I've been playing the game with people on slower computers that don't experience this issue, so before I start saving up for a new processor I just want to make sure that's the issue.

Edit: And I'm pretty sure the video card is ok cause one of the other guys I was comparing performance with had a ATI Radeon 9200 with no problems.
 
I ran the defragger and the disk check last night, it seems to have helped somewhat, but there is still some performance loss. However it has improved... So I don't know what's wrong, the problem didn't start until recently and there were no problems before with no changes made.
 
I would make sure that your memory is ok, download MemTest86, i believe its in the Download Zone, if not download it via the site (search google) follow the instructions and run a full test - If you get any errors of any sort you will need to RMA your memory as it is damaged or faulty.

As per usual, after completing this, post back with your results and details, whether positive or negative and we can work from there.
 
I ran the memory test through two passes using the default test set with no errors so I think the memory should be fine. Could it be the video card?
 
Stavros said:
I ran the memory test through two passes using the default test set with no errors so I think the memory should be fine. Could it be the video card?
Click to expand...
It could be the video card or your northbridge, but I think it's possible that it may be your Sound card. Check the heatsyncs on both the northbridge and the GPU to make sure you're not overheating. But if you have a poor quality sound card (or old/corrupted drivers), that could be the whole issue. Also, is DMA enabled for all of your IDE devices?
 
The soundcard is a creative SB Audigy LS so I guess it's a little outdated, but not that old? The northbridge and GPU seem fine, though my processor is reading at 48-50 degrees C. Is that high enough to cause performance issues? I am using the stock cooling fan for the processor though my case has another two fans for better airflow...
 
I think that may be the issue because after setting the sound to normal instead of 3d with EAX it seems to run much smoother. Would a newer soundcard not have this problem, or do you think my system just has a conflict with EAX?
 
I don't think it would help you much since it is known to lower frame rate. But I suppose getting a better soundcard may aleviate the problem slightly.
 
Alright thanks guys, I think I'll probably wait until my next system upgrade which should be fairly soon and upgrade the soundcard at that time.
 
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