memory

[bxgy]

:green4 I'm having problems with my machine, it's a Gateway, P/4. 2GHZ with 768 MB of ram, when I first bought it, it had 256 MB of ram and when I would play a game, it would lag and the ole "virtual memory" too low would appear. Well, I added an extra 512MB of memory and everything worked better with no lagging what so ever, I even put in a new Radeon video card (9800 Pro). But in the last couple of days my games seem to be lagging again. Should I invest in some more memory to bring it up to 1 GB or just throw the whole thing out the window? Does memory wear out? I turn-off everything before I use the games and it doesn't help. Does anyone have any suggestions? I would appreciate any help. I am pretty frustrated and going broke.

[wonderboy2005]

what do you mean by 'throw the whole thing out the window'? are you planning on ditching the system entirely? If so, dont do that.

I don't think you even need to upgrade the memory. IMO, the worst case scenario would be reinstalling windows.

Memory does wear out in a sense - but if that were the case, I think you'd be having more problems than just laggy games.

First off, we need to know what OS you are using. Tell us that, then we can go someplace.

[bxgy]

I use Windows XP Home with the SP2.

[WackoTacko]

does it lag in both single player and multiplayer??
sp2 is known to get in the way of multiplayer games

[Omyn]

Correct Drivers/Software?

Latest video card software/newest DirectX installation?

Maybe you are having power problems.

What are all the devices in your computer?
What is the manufacturer/weight/rated output in wattage of your power supply?

A power supply that is insufficent in providing enough power for all your devices infact could be the problem when you try running intensive applications.

A problem with a power supply can cause so many problems, and still have your computer able to turn on that most people never even think about it.

Try taking out the video card and putting whatever you had in back, then see if your problem is fixed.

[Krypt0]

" ...But in the last couple of days my games seem to be lagging again"

was this before or after installing SP2?

Also, Omyn makes some very good points. Check some of those out.

[DigitalJunkie]

Were they the newer games or still the same games? New games today, needs faster CPUs than 2Ghz to play smoothly!

[bxgy]

One is a brand new game, on mutiplayer it seems to work fine just on singleplayer is where lagging occurs, I think I'll reinstall my memory and check for proper mounting of video card. I'm stumped.

[DwarfBaby]

One is a brand new game, on mutiplayer it seems to work fine just on singleplayer is where lagging occurs, I think I'll reinstall my memory and check for proper mounting of video card. I'm stumped.

I'm not sure what you mean by reinstall your memory or why you would do such a thing. You might want to reinstall Windows instead. First run Adaware, then spybot, then Reg Mechanic. This will solve about %90 of software problems, which is what your having. If this doesn't work reinstall Windows.

I highly doubt this is a memory problem. Memory problems almost always cause errors and random system freezes, not frame lag, but there is a chance that a program you are using has a memory leak, which might cause a lag. But either way this is a software issue not hardware problem.

[Mels_Smileys45]

After you have cleaned up your system you could try Powerstrip http://entechtaiwan.net/util/ps.shtm for overclocking your GPU and memory.

[bxgy]

Thanks fellow forum friends, I have solved (I hope) my lagging and slow start-up. I use bellsouth dsl and they have a program that "tunes" the connection and helps you restore a setting if something fails. Everytime my system would start, it would go through a lengthy process of testing my connectivity and I found out my modem wasn't recognized at start-up. Well, I did a restore of my system to a time when it was working properly and removed the bellsouth program. I am pleased to tell you my system works fine now (knock on wood]. Just goes to show you can d/l too many tools that are really not needed. Again, I want to thank you all for your advice and couldn't have done it without it. http://help.bellsouth.net/sdcuser/asp/dsl/default.asp