Gaming is very slow on my 8200

Girl · December 12th, 2002, 12:35 AM

Here's the specs:
P4 1.7
384MB
40gig 5400
64MB GF4 Go
WinXP Home, SP1

When gaming...specifically Age of Mythology...the game is just very slow. It seems to have quick bursts of speed where the units move normally and then all of a sudden its just like slow motion.
I've tried disabling every background app (norton was really the only one) and I've also disabled SpeedStep so the processor is always running at 1.7 (even though it shows as 1.69).
I've disabled the graphic detail in the game to LOW instead of HIGH, and I've tried every resolution at both 16-bit and 32-bit. Nothing seems to make a difference. In fact, 1600x1200 runs about the same as 1024x768.

Any suggestions? Thanks!
Whitney

Avicus · December 12th, 2002, 03:48 PM

I have the same specs except I have an ATI 9k instead of the nvidia card. I haven't done too much gaming with it, but it runs CS and the Unreal tournament beta nicely. Not sure what's up with yours.

lobo_pac · December 12th, 2002, 04:02 PM

is it when playing online or just single player? regardless....seems like you should have better results. i had problems with age of empires II on my lappy when playing online with multiplayer games. it was a 233mhz with 48mb of ram though.

lastEvolution · December 12th, 2002, 07:41 PM

Try defragging the hard drive. It should help.

5atanic · December 12th, 2002, 07:59 PM

Try getting updated drivers for your video card.. could be a driver issue here.. not really sure.. but give it a shot!

JayMan · December 12th, 2002, 08:10 PM

I'd suggest getting the latest drivers for your video chipset....

JayMan

JayMan · December 12th, 2002, 08:11 PM

Oh, WELCOME TO TECHIMO!!!! Enjoy your stay here! And come back often!

hehe sorry for not realising earlier....

JayMan

Girl · December 12th, 2002, 08:44 PM

Thanks for your suggestions guys. I'm defragging- it's taking forever so that was probably the problem. I guess it never occured to me because the laptop is still very new. What is weird is that Wolfenstein and WacCraft III all run smoothly.
I also updated my video drivers.
I'm going Christmas shopping right now so when I get home hopefully my defrag will be done and I can launch up the game and see if it made a difference.

Thanks again!

Thanks for the welcome also. I've always been kinda lurking in the background but finally decided to post.

5atanic · December 12th, 2002, 08:48 PM

Try getting Diskeeper Workstation/Server if you don't like the long defrag times.. since they are faster defraggers than the built-in ones on Windows XP..

Girl · December 14th, 2002, 03:36 AM

Well even though my drive was 65% fragmented, it made no difference at all.
I also updated my drivers, and they are the latest from Nvidia's site. (Yes I uninstalled first)

I am playing multiplayer over a 100mps LAN. My boyfriend is on my desktop, an Athlon XP 1800 w/Ti4600 and he has no problems- so I don't think its a network issue.

I have no idea what to try next...any more suggestions?