more problems... :(

Technology and Gaming Help and Support
#1

okay, so I keep getting lag issues about five minutes or less into playing any video game, basically a low FPS rate that screws everything up. does anyone know what might be causing this??? as ive siad a few times, my computer is an advent QC 6003 with 6gb of ram, and my graphics card is a Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT. recently I have had to perform a system recovery (NOT a system restore!) to cleanse the system of a virus problem and then had some work done on my computer to get some protection installed, but I think it had been happening before then. I also have been getting constant annoying error messages about something called ‘Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service’ that won’t go away, I’m wondering if there is a connection??
Any help would be much appreciated, but as you all know, I’m not exactly a computer Adept so keep it simple.

God bless

#2

So let me get this straight. You’ll launch a game, then a few minutes into it the frame rate drops?

If this is the case, does it hop back up to normal for a few seconds and then drop back down for a minute or so over and over?

#3

It could be overheating. Download speedfan to monitor your gpu and cpu temperatures. Overheating can be caused by dust buildup in the CPU and GPU fans. Canned air can be used to remove dust. If dust buildup is not the case, then you probably have a defective Video card or processor.

#4

pretty much

yeah i just discovered that it hops between periods (lasting a few minutes) of lag-normal

solution??

#5

Did this happen all of a sudden? Have you overclocked anything recently? Find the temperatures and then post them

#6

I’m not gonna lie, I nere exactly knew what overclocking was (you don’t need to explain, I just looked it up) so if I did overclock anything then I did so unwittingly and unknowingly, assuming that’s even possible…

#7

Ok, well play a game while running speedfan, let the game run for like 2 mins, and check your temps.

#8

it once happened to me, but also other than low fps, my computer kept shutting down every time I play a high-end game, at first I thought it was the VGA card overheating, but I checked it and it was fine, it turns out that my CPU fan wasn’t working probably, I bought a new fan and everything worked perfect. well am sorry if it really didn’t help, but I kinda related my issue to yours :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

#9

If it’s a desktop, look into a bigger CPU fan, if it’s a laptop, you need to get a cooling pad or something. Either way, remove any unnecessary programs before running a demanding game and make sure that no antivirus programs are actively scanning for threats while the game is running.

#10

will give this a shot, thanks.

VGA cards overheating and fans not working seem to be a reccurring suggestion, so I’ll look into this, thanks :slight_smile:

yeah it’s a desktop. I still don’t know how to get rid of those error messages I mentioned earlier so that might be related, but I have checked and it’s gone laggy in the past without them so I doubt it.

this thing about the fan not working or the motherboard overheating seems to kinda make sense.

EDIT: so I just installed Speedfan and it says my GPU temp. is 83 Degrees. I take it this isn’t good?

#11

Clean out the dust. You’ll probably need a shovel.

#12

well the average heat for GPU’s is around 50-70, if the temperature reached beyond 90 that’s where you should start worrying, but I guess 83 degrees is “okey” but not average

#13

hmm, well I was just playing TF2 with SpeedFan on, and nothing seemed to happen, weird :expressionless:

#14

tf2 is not exactly a gpu intensive game

#15

no but I’d had it regularly on TF2 beforehand. I also went on Assassin’s Creed: Revelations for a bit right after and still nothing, but I’ll try not to get my hopes up

EDIT 2: yeah id did it again just took longer this time. SpeedFan has a flaming Icon next to the parts which are apparently overheating (Incl. the GPU) so that must be it. how do I solve that??

#16

Get some canned air (or a bellow; you only have to buy it once plus it’s a great conversation piece) and blast the dust out of the video card. The 9800 is a pretty old card, so I’m assuming dust buildup is probably the problem. You could also check to see that all of your case fans are still working properly; it could be that one of them has burned out or is dying, causing hot air to build up in the case.

If you’re feeling really brave, you could try to disassemble the card, which would make cleaning the dust out a lot easier. You can probably google it and find a guide to do it safely.

#17

How are the CPU temps by the way? Have you checked how high your CPU’s safe range is? I used to get blue screens because my thermal paste wore off and I have some fucking unreal temps, it killed my motherboard somehow and I had to buy a new one.

#18

I had the same thing a while back – turned out to be PSUs. I don’t think that sounds like the op’s problem though. It does indeed sound like overheating, but if it’s not that, I don’t know. Maybe a hiccup in your internet connection? But that doesn’t really explain FPS problems to that extent… hmm.

#19

I was once playing a game with Jambo, we pretty much live on opposite sides of the world, and instead of having to deal with latency, I had to deal with the framerate going down. Silly Bungie and your odd Halo 3 programming.

bscly expect anything.

#20

I found the cause of the problem you were having.

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