System Performance

New guy here, was hoping to receive some advice.

I would like to increase my system performance.

Sys specs:

Dell Inspiron XPS Notebook
Pentium 4
3.4 GHz
2GB RAM
100GB HDD
Radeon 9700 gfx
Windows XP SP2


Overall, I have a good computer, I stay on top of virus definitions, I currently run Norton. I keep up with malware, and have a pretty good understanding of how to do so. I have my system optimized for performance using tweaks from websites like tweakxp.com etc...

Within the last year I upgraded my RAM from 1GB to 2. However, I hardly noticed any change in performance, and lately, it may be worse. I bought Kingmax brand RAM from newegg.com, yes, I got a great deal, but I read the reviews, and all signs pointed to it being a good purchase. I have considered buying corsair or crucial instead, but its a bit pricey.

I don't play many computer games, but the ones I do play aren't games that are big on graphics; command and conquers gen. zero hour, sim city 4, and thats really it. I have a laptop cooling unit that it sits ontop, and that really keeps it cool during gameplay, but I still have very slow gameplay and hangups. It's really annoying and I know this computer and its componants are more than enough to run those games.

So, I tried to update my drivers, but my laptop won't allow me to use the latest drivers download from ATI's website. I have to use the drivers that Dell provides on thier drivers page- which are about a year old.

I have considered reformatting, buying better brand name RAM, or buying a better video card, but before I go and spend money on something, I want to be sure about what I am doing.

I get really high cpu usage in the windows task manager. It spikes whenever I use more than 1 or 2 programs at a time (which it didnt used to do) and when I play command and conquer, its at close to %100 usage while I play. I have reinstalled it several times to no avail and I have the latest update for that as well.

Sorry to be so long winded, I hope someone takes the time to read this and shed some light on my problem. Thanks for your time.

 

Well Norton is bloatware, which will just slow down your pc, although it is effective against malware. You might be able to speed up your pc a tad bit if you used a substitute, try our anti-viruses provided on the site, they are free, as effective as Norton, and use up less resources.

 

Yeah I have heard that before, but would Norton have that much of an impact on my system performance ? I don't notice any high marks from norton tasks in the manager, but there are several norton processes running at a time.

i have 34 tasks running, none of which are high.

 

The several Norton processes running can slow down your pc sometimes, because those several processes are using up alot of resources

 

ok, thanks for the feedback!

also, here is a screenshot of my resource meter you can see the fluxuations from when I am playing (its really high) to when i minimize the game (its low) and then when i start the game back up, it FLIES for the 1st 5 or 6 seconds, but then it just slows right back down again. and when i minimize the game again, you can see where the spikes are when the game is maximized.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c69/jhoyman/sysperformance.jpg

 

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c69/jhoyman/processes.jpg

i have several instances of various programs that are running. those that stand out to me are norton, ati, and svchost.exe, which sounds important, but 6 instances ? all in all there are 41 services running at startup, which i think is too many, but what should I cut out ?

 

41? Whoa man thats alot of processes, that can increase your boot time dramatically and slow down your system, take control of those processes

If you have CCleaner, you can disable any programs you do not want run on bootup

 

Also read what Major Attitude has in another thread:

 

ok, i turned off a bunch of stuff....lets see if that improves things

 

Just make sure whatever you turned off isnt a critical service or process as your can mess up your pc real fast.

 

i did, i looked over the guide and went from there, however, i am now running 24 or 25 processes, yet the gameplay did not improve. -=\

its got to be something else. i am currently uninstalling norton, and will try again.

 

ok i uninstalled norton, i am down to 17 processes running at startup. it boots up more quickly, and i would say there is improvement there, however gameplay has not changed much, if at all. i would say it has slightly, but not enough to notice a real difference, gameplay still sucks. any more ideas ? i am really leaning toward a total reformat, but I would rather not have to. is it my gfx card ? my ram suck ?

 

What video card do you curently have? And maybe those drivers from ATI are what you need for better game performance.

 

ati mobility radeon 9700 is what i have. i have the latest drivers that dell offers, but not the latest release from ati, i tried installing them and i get an error. it seems that i can only install drivers that dell has geared toward their systems. i don't know. oh, and one other note, i am definitely running c&c generals zero hour with the lowest gfx settings possible. it doesnt make a bit of difference. as soon as i get 10 seconds into the game, it goes from running fast to extremely sluggish to where the game would take easily more than twice the time to play it.

 

I'm gonna ask a silly question... Do you have a wireless card? I have seen them cause some conflicts with gameplay. Also, what do you have installed in your PCI 1 slot? That may interfere with graphics, as well, slowing down the game... I just encountered this last month, and it was my wireless PCI card.

 

yeah i have a built in wireless card. it came with the computer, sorry, i dont know what a PCI 1 slot is, please explain.

 

i downloaded everest ultimate edition, and i have plenty of information about my computer, i just don't know what to post that would help. one thing i did notice that i think i need to get fixed is my cpu temperature. its currently at 72 C. I read online that it should be somewhere around 50 C, is this accurate ?

 

ok, i cleaned out my heatsinks and fans or whatever they are called on my notebook and there was a lot of dust in there. my cpu temp is now at 46 C. I'll check and see if the gameplay has changed...

 

ok for those who care, i figured out my problem, i needed to clean out my heatsinks or fans or whatever they are. they were full of dust ! so, now my temp is consistantly at 41C and i am playing c&c gen zh with no problems, i am so happy. thanks to those who bothered to reply.

 

Well I was leading to the solution that maybe your pc is overheating but since you've reached it yourself, then theres no need and I was glad to help any way I could.