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my computer lags after I start it up

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  • Games
  • Computers
  • Windows Vista
  • Lag
Last response: in Windows Vista
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March 8, 2014 8:04:25 PM

When I turn on my computer everything is fine for 3 min then the rest of the time it lags untill it shuts off. Which sucks because games like empire total war and mount and blade will start to lag. I have check my processess and temperature and its neither of those. Please help me I want to get back to gaming.

My specs
Operating system- Windows Vista business 32 bit service pack 2

Processor- Intel core 2 duo cpu T7250 2.00 GHz and 2 GB of ram.

More about : computer lags start

March 11, 2014 12:05:11 PM

Software:
* processes - so you have no processes using up the CPU at all (other than the one game you are playing)?

What video card do you have? (brand and model number)

* Run a program that monitors the CPU temperature and clock rate

CPU-Z will give you the CPU core speed:
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
I don't know if it tells you temperatures. If not, maybe try something like speedfan for temperatures:
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

For the video card, the one from your manufacturer might be better, but this may also work:
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/


Now...

Open all these programs during the first 3 minutes while the computer is supposedly fast.
And write down or take pictures of:
CPU clock speed & temperatures
GPU core clock speed, GPU memory clock speed, GPU temperature

Then run the game in windowed mode (so you can easily see these programs) ... and when things slow down
record all these same settings again ... or only write down if any of them are different.

This might tell you if you have a hardware problem.



BTW, did you try removing/unstalling your old video card drivers and downloading the latest video card drivers directly from ATI or Nvidia?
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March 11, 2014 1:47:53 PM

You can also try changing what programs launch at start up to see if this help.

Press Windows key + R, type 'msconfig', select startup, deselect all things except anti-virus.

I know that we could inadvertently stop something from starting up you need, but let us diagnose the current issue as we will know the issue to the latter.

Also other things to try:
Scan computer for all types of infections
Test HDD
Test RAM
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March 14, 2014 4:00:14 PM

My cpu while playing empire total war is 45 to 60 percent and my cpu temps while playing for a couple of hours was 60 to 65 degrees Celsius. I have the latest driver for my computer from intel. I've had this same card before and games worked fine. Thanks for the reply.
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March 14, 2014 4:45:27 PM

Robert E Lee said:
My cpu while playing empire total war is 45 to 60 percent and my cpu temps while playing for a couple of hours was 60 to 65 degrees Celsius. I have the latest driver for my computer from intel. I've had this same card before and games worked fine. Thanks for the reply.

So... you have Intel Integrate Graphics ... and not an add-on video card?

In that case, if the system is shutting itself off it may be a failing power supply or CPU problem.

* Have you blown all the dust out of your system (especially on the CPU heatsink)?
* Does the CPU fan still run pretty well when gaming?
* Have a look at your motherboard to see if any of the capacitors are bulging:
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=195

You might be able to see if the system is reporting errors. Try this:
* Look at the Windows Event Viewer and try to find an event around the time of one of your crashes.
Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer > Windows Logs > System
Once there, you need to find the time right before the crash and right after the crash (aka when you restarted the computer). Read some of the items before the crash. Look, especially for any warnings or errors. If you see anything interesting, post it here.

* If your computer is actually crashing, it may be generating a crash dump that provides all the information you need to solve the problem.
* Right click on "Computer" and select "properties". Go to Advanced System Settings (which opens System Properties) > [Advanced] tab > under "Startup and Recovery" category, pick "Settings..."
* Make sure "Write an event to system log" is checked and "Kernal memory" dump is selected. The dump file location is probably listed as "%SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP ... which is the C:\Windows directory.
* If all of this is already turn on, then go looking for the C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP file. If the date on the file is the same date as your last crash, then the system might have created a dump of the crash... which might be the key to finding the problem.
* If the settings were not turned on... wait for the next crash and see if a dump file is created.
* If it creates a dump file everytime you crash, then maybe we can use that to figure out the cause.


Anyways, it might also help if you can provide an exact step-by-step of what happens from the time your turn on your computer till the time it crashes.


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March 15, 2014 5:00:19 PM

First I'll turn on my computer then after 3 to 5 minutes it will start to lag. Then ill put it in sleep mode and I'll open it back up and after a while it will lag again. Also I dont know how to check my heat sink. I dont want to take apart my computer without knowing anything. I have a dell latitude D630 if that helps.
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March 15, 2014 5:20:23 PM

You can remove the covers of the laptop without ever touching any parts inside. (there are covers designed to get access to RAM, Hard Drive, etc...).
So, just remove the covers, don't touch anything inside and blow out the dust.

Other than that you will need to try the other things mentioned:
* Press CTRL+ALT+DEL and open the task manager. Then go to the "processes" tab. Then when your game starts to slow down, look at this program and see if any of the processes are using more than 00 CPU. Tell us which ones.
* Check the Event log in the way I described earlier.
* Check the crash dump in the way I described earlier.

Unless you can provide this information, there is not really any way we can help you. (We need this kind of detailed information to find the problem.)
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March 16, 2014 3:46:40 PM

I cleaned my computer from all the dust. There was quite a bit of dust in there. When I played the game the only processes that were above 00 was the game empire.exe, whitch was 50, system idle protection whitch was 80, svchost was 6. Taskmgr was 11, explorer.exe was 2, dwm.exe was 2, mpcmdrun.exe was 2, wuauclt.exe was 1, system was also 1. And at this time my cpu was 65 and my physical memory was 41. At this time it is still lagging bad.
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March 17, 2014 1:54:33 PM

Robert E Lee said:
I cleaned my computer from all the dust. There was quite a bit of dust in there. When I played the game the only processes that were above 00 was the game empire.exe, whitch was 50, system idle protection whitch was 80, svchost was 6. Taskmgr was 11, explorer.exe was 2, dwm.exe was 2, mpcmdrun.exe was 2, wuauclt.exe was 1, system was also 1. And at this time my cpu was 65 and my physical memory was 41. At this time it is still lagging bad.

So far so good. Well, sortof: I was hoping cleaning the dust would fix it. :( 
At this point, here's how you can probably find the cause for sure.
In your first post you said:
"When I turn on my computer everything is fine for 3 min then the rest of the time it lags untill it shuts off."

When a computer crashes like this, it generally will create an error report of what really happened. This report will usually tell you exactly what is causing the problem. So... if you really do want to know the cause, you will need to take some time to try out these two things:

Event Log
The easiest thing to check, is the Windows Event Log. Sometimes your computer will list the error in there.
So... wait till the next time your computer shuts itself off and do this after you reboot:
1. Open Event Viewer by going to: Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer
2. In Event Viewer, in the left pane, click on Windows Logs > System
3. A whole bunch of logs should show up to the right. You can try looking for any warning or errors that occurred before your last crash or you can just send a copy of the log to me for me to look at.
4. Right click on the "System" folder ... you know the one from earlier in the Left pane under: Event Viewer (Local) > Windows Logs > System
5. Right click on the "System" folder and select "Save Events As..."
6. Save it to a file and send the file to me (aka put the file online somewhere so I can download it).

Crash Dump
The Event Log might be enough to figure out the problem, but if not, you can also try this technique.
1. Right click on "Computer" (in the start menu) and select "properties". Go to Advanced System Settings. Then go to the [Advanced] tab. You will see a Startup and Recovery" category, pick "Settings..."
2. Make sure "Write an event to system log" is checked and "Kernal memory" dump is selected. The dump file location is probably listed as "%SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP
3. Now wait for the next crash and system to shut off.... After you reboot the computer go looking for the C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP file.
4. Post a copy of that file online for me to download (unless you know how to study it yourself).

These should tell you what it causing the computer to shutdown. Whether it will be possible to fix, is another story.
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March 17, 2014 5:50:35 PM

When I said it shuts off I meant when I turn it off. I am sorry for the misunderstanding.
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March 17, 2014 6:16:53 PM

Robert E Lee said:
When I said it shuts off I meant when I turn it off. I am sorry for the misunderstanding.

1. Ahh... ok then. Still the event log might help. If there is a software/driver crash or if the cpu is throttling down, all of that might be in the Event Log, so if you can wait for the next slowdown and then save a copy of the event log that might help a lot.
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March 24, 2014 2:42:41 PM

I checked my event log and only error there was was level quality watcher 32 stopped working.
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March 24, 2014 2:59:51 PM

Maybe it is malware -- stuff that maybe even an antivirus won't find:
http://malwaretips.com/blogs/level-quality-watcher-remo...

* You can try removing it that way.
* Or you can try a factory restore of the whole compute using the factory restore CD... or the Windows installation CD (backup your data first).
Of course, if you reinstall the OS, you should first find out how you got the program on your computer in the first place, so you don't accidentally get it again.

* If you don't think it is malware, you could try sending me a copy of the event log (you can use private message) so I can have a look. There might be useful things in there (like if the processor is throttling) that would narrow down the cause.
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March 25, 2014 3:21:38 PM

I think I found the problem when my computer slow down the system idle protection is 88 to 91 cpu.
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March 25, 2014 3:26:13 PM

System Idle Process means the percent of your CPU not being used. So, when your computer slows down and you see that the System Idle Process is 88-91, that means barely any of your CPU is being used... which is a good thing as it means nothing is using up all your CPU (and probably the CPU is not the cause of the slowdown or any rogue processes)
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