Computer "cycling" problem

[jcright]

I need some help with my computer.

I have an acer aspire with a dual core and a dell laptop with a dual core. I also have an hp with single processor. All three are laptops. The hp is the oldest, has less ram, less harddrive and smaller processor than the acer and dell.

I like to do a lot of gaming. When I play my hp, I don't usually have problems. Any lag time is pretty minimal. When I play the acer or dell, it's a different story. I seem to get cyclical lag. So it'll be lag free for a few minutes, then it'll bog down, then it'll free up again, then bog down. It'll do this the entire time I'm playing. On all machines I usually shut off any processes that I know aren't necessary. Why are my two "newer" laptops lagging vs. my oldest one? I would have thought that both machines could easily out perform my old laptop.

I only notice this when I'm playing a game. When I'm using MS Word, or e-mail it doesn't do this.

So I'm wondering if there is a configuration problem with the dual core? Or, maybe there is a configuration problem with the video card?

Your thoughts are appreciated.

John

 

[NiobiumTragedy]

Try updating the drivers on your hardware. Also clean the inside of the computer out and make sure the fans are all free of dirt and dust.

 

[Cute Tink]

Without having any more information, I would suggest getting a couple free programs to check out your systems: Malwarebytes and Advanced System Care. They are just maintenance programs, although ASC has a gaming booster that is supposed to speed up your system for gaming.

What operating systems do you have on these laptops? If you have an older OS (like XP) on your HP, it probably uses up less RAM than a newer one (like Windows 7).

You can also go into System->Advanced and click the Performance Settings to optimize your computer for active programs to try to get a little more of a boost.

 

[Nanopants]

It sounds like these newer laptops are underutilizing ram to me.

I haven't run into a problem yet with my windows 7 system, but I have noticed that it seems to be a little more conservative when allocating physical ram for running processes as compared to XP. That's just my best guess.

 

[Qyöt27]

The fact that it's cyclical generally makes me think that it's a background process that periodically turns on, works for a while, and then turns off again. Like antivirus software is wont to do. Or Windows' Automatic Updates.

Other things to take note of:
*The type/speed of RAM being used, not just the amount.
*The virtual paging file and how much it gets used.
*OS versions, as mentioned above.
*The speed of the hard drive (maybe).
*Differing performance between graphics card vendors and driver versions.
*The games themselves being run, and at what quality level.

 

[jcright]

The HP has xp. The dell has vista. My acer started with xp but now has 7...however, it had the same problems with xp as it does with 7.

With the dell and acer I typically turn off every process that I know can be turned off so that I'm less likely to have this problem. With the hp, I never do this because I never have this problem.

I'll try the asc and look for performance settings, hopefully those will do the trick.

Thanks

 

[Cute Tink]

I don't like Vista. Every laptop I have seen with Vista has speed issues. I think it might be your OS in that case.

With the 7, it might have challenges with all the fancy effects it has to make it look nicer. I have no issues with my laptop with 7, but I have 8 gigs of RAM and an I-5 processor, so I think it might be better suited to keep up.

 

[paul1149]

I would try ProcDump from MS SysInternals to try to find a resource hog. Also run chkdsk /r for sector errors, but have a full backup before doing so, as I've seen it waste installations. I also would run sfc /scannow to verify system files.