Please Help Me, Computer Issue

ice2k4

ice2k4

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Location
Brooklyn, New York
Ok before I start, I'd like to ask that no one post the anwser get a new pc, cause it's not going to help me much. So here's my problem:

Every maybe 5 minutes I get huge fps and cpu usage problems. Well the fps is caused by the cpu usage. My System Idle Process will drop from 99 to 1 (which makes your CPU usage 100%) which pretty much causes about 4 fpm. Yes I did say frames per minute. This happens in both low graphic and high graphic games, such as Counter-Strike and Natural-Selection or even in simple games like f*cking Monopoly. It's never a certain process that takes up CPU when this happens, and some times it even divides out between diferent processes. Now I thought this my be a problem with my graphic card (NVIDIA Geforce FX 5500 128mb RAM,) so I bought a new graphic card (ATI Radeon 9550 256mb RAM.) Didn't fix any problems. So I called up my computer's tech support, turns out my warranty has expired. I asked my freind, what he thought might help, he told me to try reformatting. Ok I reformatted. Still didn't do a damned thing. I am now stuck here without being able to play any games with a clean system (virus scanned every day) and have a brand new graphic card. Oh and btw I'm to poor to go get it fixed my one of these top notch guys. I'll list my specs below, if that helps, but I doubt it. I'll try any suggestion you throw at me.

Specs-
Emachine T1600
AMD Athelon XP Processor
Windows XP Home Edition
256 MB RAM
Video Card- ATI Radeon 9550 256 MB RAM
System Integrated Sound Card- VIA
40 GB Hard Drive
 
Moderator Action: Moved to CompTalk.

And pls reduce your sig to 5 lines in normal font, inclusive of empty lines per the forum rules. Thks. ;)
 
Disable the virus scanner when playing games.

What else do you have installed?
 
Your ram might be affecting something. Even if its not i suggest you get more cus 256 is the bare minimum for XP
 
I would get an additional 256mb RAM if at all possible. Lack of RAM probably isn't causing your specific problem, but it will definetly help performance.

I don't have any idea right offhand what your problem might be, but some general things to try offhand:
-be doubly sure that you've killed the realtime scan portion of your antivirus, they're good at hiding that sometimes
-be sure you have the latest drivers for everything
-try disabling sound (I would disable the onboard sound in your BIOS) and see if it helps; if it does you might need to buy a sound card
 
This has happened to me also. My CPU will suddenly go to 100% usage while playing civ. Twice this has happened now. I have 1GB of RAM. My computer will be fine then suddenly the CPU will go to 100% and the only way to stop it is to shut my computer off.
 
I wouldn't recommend this unless nothing else works, nor am I sure it could fix the problem. Awhile ago I was having problems with 3D graphics. I formatted my computer and all the problems went away; sometimes a fresh start is the best choice.
 
most likely you have processes running in the background taking up too much memory.

if that doesn't work try
more ram
new processor
make sure CDs/CD tray is not damage.

if none of those work
get a new PC that isn't an Emachine, in my experience Emachines are only useful as a doorstop or paperweight.
 
I have no idea what's wrong with it, but try checking basic things like checking that all the cables inside are connected properly.

Also you might try underclocking your processor by reducing the FSB in the bios from 100mhz (I presume it's 100mhz at the moment) to 80 or so, just to see if the processor is dying. My computer kept randomly crashing (not with those symptoms though) and after I underclocked it it worked for some reason. Try it, it might work, but it probably wont...

@fetus: he's already reformatted it.
 
MarineCorps said:
This has happened to me also. My CPU will suddenly go to 100% usage while playing civ. Twice this has happened now. I have 1GB of RAM. My computer will be fine then suddenly the CPU will go to 100% and the only way to stop it is to shut my computer off.
Click to expand...

Well currently I'm posting my problems on four different gaming problems, and I just made a post on a technical support forum. Here is the link to the topic I found that had people with the same problem. http://www.cybertechhelp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=441953&posted=1#post441953. Most people have recommened I use MBM5 (MotherBoard Monitor 5) to make sure that all my voltages and temperatures arent too high nor too low. Here is the log file to MBM5: http://njbutter.com/s1l3nt/mbmlog.txt
If anyone sees anything suspicious, please tell.

Shadylookin said:
most likely you have processes running in the background taking up too much memory.

if that doesn't work try
more ram
new processor
make sure CDs/CD tray is not damage.

if none of those work
get a new PC that isn't an Emachine, in my experience Emachines are only useful as a doorstop or paperweight.
Click to expand...

I asked that people do not post these types of replies. Telling me I need a new PC is obvious, it's not helping me.

Mise said:
I have no idea what's wrong with it, but try checking basic things like checking that all the cables inside are connected properly.

Also you might try underclocking your processor by reducing the FSB in the bios from 100mhz (I presume it's 100mhz at the moment) to 80 or so, just to see if the processor is dying. My computer kept randomly crashing (not with those symptoms though) and after I underclocked it it worked for some reason. Try it, it might work, but it probably wont...

@fetus: he's already reformatted it.
Click to expand...

How do I underclock. I tried to do it by acessing BIOS features when the computer boots by pressing the delete key continuosly, but I didn't see any options for FSB.
 
check the background processes/ one of them may be hogging the memory and cpu so you get 100% cpu usage
 
well as a former computer tech i can tell you one thing. We used to see alot of this from Emachines. For some stupid reason the processor in them just decides to go bonkers. Run a thousand processes in the background and nobody has ANY clue why. We actually replaced hundreds of emachines for this defect. Now this was a few yrs ago,and they were Intels, not AMD. If you are looking for a purchase solution, id recommend just getting a new mother board and plopping all yer stuff onto it. ALso a proc too. BUT thats up to you.
I know how you feel, im running a celeron 500. Mainly cause i cant afford a faster one. So i am buying my new on piece by piece. Ill give u a website for a great place that sells parts and systems whole. Now its a canadain shop but these guys are one of the few compter places on the market I trust. Good luck and last question, how are your video card drivers? I had a similar problem with my brothers PC ( P4 3.6 that I built from scratch for him) and it turns out he was using the drivers that came with the card. Updated the driver and no problems from there. Now I know this may be a simplistic solution and you have possibly checked it already, but it never hurts.
www.canadacomputers.com <--- my favorite PC parts site.

Ciao
 
Hopefully it is not some hardware issue otherwise it would be difficult to find out. Below are a few ideas.
You say that you scan for viruses, but do you scan for spyware? You can download Spybot and/or Adware for free.

The suggestion of updating the drivers is good one. Update all of them, not jsut the obvious ones

Is the problem happening only when playing games? or also when just browsing the internet, using Word...?
If it happens only with games try to check whether you should be able to play those games with your machine using this software
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/games/gameadvisor/default.mspx
It is an extremely crude tool, and it lists only few games, but it might help

Something really out of the box
If the software and hardware you want to use is compatible with Win98 and you have the Win98 disks around, you could try to downgrade fom WinXP (which means reformatting the whole thing again and doing a clean install). WinXP is such a resource hog that is taxing your machine.
 
Milan's Warrior said:
Something really out of the box
If the software and hardware you want to use is compatible with Win98 and you have the Win98 disks around, you could try to downgrade fom WinXP (which means reformatting the whole thing again and doing a clean install). WinXP is such a resource hog that is taxing your machine.
Click to expand...

or a quicker note. if it will work in 98 right click on the icon, go to compatibility and set it so its compatible with 98. That way the game thinks its running in 98 NOT XP. Ive had to do this before. Worked for me.
 
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