# Computer: A hard worker with the wrong settings, or needing an upgrade?



## Enshou (Oct 31, 2008)

Hey folks,

I'm sure somebody is going to smash their head against the wall reading this one, but I figured there's no fish to catch if you never throw the rod. So I'll apologize in advance to the headwallers. 

My story is this: I'm a wacko art student wasting their time away on World of Warcraft. My goal is to figure out if there's a way to improve my computers performance before I return to classes next fall and before the WotLK expansion hits in two weeks. As such, WoW will be my benchmark to try and tell this narrative.  I started in 2004 averaging 30FPS. Later in the year and after several patches this dropped to average around 14. I purchased a new video card and a new power supply. This brought my FPS to 40.  However, tBC (the second expansion) released and my average FPS was again around 15.

Raiding any instances was nigh impossible, and for those familiar, I could not go to Karazhan because my FPS would be in the 4 range and in fights like Netherspite the game would literally have no frames whatsoever. I purchased a laptop for some literary class note taking and found that WoW averaged 20 FPS regardless of what was happening in game. Up until now I have been using my school laptop for gaming. 

Big no-no. My laptop is currently broken (2/3rds of the screen not showing) and needs to be shipped in for repairs. This will not happen before the WotLK release date and until then I'm on this PC. Which means I'd like it to work.

Now that we have the backstory, I'll link us up the computers set up. I have spoken with other people who have lesser settings and have no problem with this game, and truth be told WoW isn't very taxing. My question to you all is, can you spot a glaring error that would cause such major problems with this PC? Is it a RAM problem?  I've seen lots of people complain about my video card, but I'll let you be the judges. 

Alright: this fellow was a boxsale at the local futureshop (start cringing!). 
It's an Intel Pentium 4, 2.99GHz. (3, mark displays 2.994.) 1MB of L2 cache. 
The motherboard is an MS-7046. What's that, you say? I don't know-- I can't find anything on it. So here's an image of one on ebay. [CLICK]
There's currently two sticks of 512MB DDR ram inside. 
The video card is a Radeon X1950 Pro.
The power supply is 485W, an Enermax Noise Taker II.

Not too sure what much else more you'd need to know. If there is a question, I'll answer it to the  best of my ability. Obviously because I love answers. I love answers so much I'd give you a cookie if this F-17C neovo monitor wasn't in my way. 

In regards to the game itself, my settings are currently:
1280x1024 resolution, 24 colour x 24 depth x 4 multisample for multisampling, 75 Hz refresh rate, no Vsync and windowed mode. I have all settings set to high minus one tick lower on the shadow quality, no specular lighting, glow effects or death effects. Idled over an area that is already loaded I average 12 FPS. 

That was after 'testing.' Previously I ran this:
1024x768 resolution, 24 x 24 x 1 multisampling, 75Hz, Vsync, windowed mode. 
The rest of the info you can see [in this image]. This averaged 20 FPS in the same place as above, 15 while moving around, and 0-5 in instances. I am over 100% positive this machine can perform better than this. I'd open up ATI's catalyst controller, but I just updated it and it's refusing to open for me. Sorry.

What are your thoughts? Is this something that can be overcome by optimizing video card settings or purchasing another stick of 1GB ram? I have the intentions of running a registry, disk and driver cleanup and defrag. Just thought I'd throw this out there for the guru's to smack me upside the head and possibly set me straight. Or just smack me upside the head. Preferably the former. 

Alright! Thanks.


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## jaxxxon (Oct 31, 2008)

I'm assuming it's an X1950pro? If it is then you shouldn;t have any problems with this game.  WOW can be run on much older cards than that.  I personally would do a fresh install of windows.  

If your not happy doing that then run a full anti virus scan, spyware scan, check what programs are running/needed in msconfig and defrag your pc.


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## Enshou (Oct 31, 2008)

Unfortunately I did do a fresh install of Windows. It came as a media edition, however, the CDs were lost. I repurchased a home edition and had the same issues. It also persisted after a reformat some time later. I have also done a few defrags in the past, however, I intend to run Auslogics BoostSpeed on the sucker and see what happens. I'll come back with results when that happens, of course.

And yes, X1950Pro.
Thank you.


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## elixxx (Oct 31, 2008)

I think the FSAA is killing the performance. Have you tested whitout it?
Also latest drivers?


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## DirkDiggler (Oct 31, 2008)

What hard drive are you using?


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## Tatty_One (Oct 31, 2008)

Do you ovwerclock your 1950pro?  if not, there will definatly be some FPS to be gained there.


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## Enshou (Oct 31, 2008)

Elixxx: I'm not smart enough to understand FSAA. That would be Full Scene Anti-Aliasing, but that's about all I know about it. How would I turn this off?  I've installed my latest drivers. 

Dirk:  My harddrive is an ST3160021AS. That is, a Seagate Barracuda, 160GB SATA, 7200rpm. 

Tatty:  Again, I'm simply not smart enough!  Oh gosh. But no, my card is not overclocked. I wouldn't know about going about it, either, though I suppose I could do some reading. 

Also, I've recently performed a disk and registry clean, killed some background programs, defragged my disk and registry, used a memory optimizer, diagnosed directX and currently waiting on a wipe. Before the last two there was no effect.


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## jaxxxon (Oct 31, 2008)

"I'd open up ATI's catalyst controller, but I just updated it and it's refusing to open for me. Sorry."

You need to reinstall drivers, get the latest from here http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.HTML

Make sure you completely remove old drivers http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=52502 

Also what internet connection do you have?  Are you getting problems where there are more people? Could be your connection, if you are using wireless, try wired see if that helps at all.

To turn off FSAA (anti-aliasing) you need to go into CCC, if you can't go into CCC like you said above, that could be your whole problem.


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## Tatty_One (Oct 31, 2008)

Enshou said:


> Elixxx: I'm not smart enough to understand FSAA. That would be Full Scene Anti-Aliasing, but that's about all I know about it. How would I turn this off?  I've installed my latest drivers.
> 
> Dirk:  My harddrive is an ST3160021AS. That is, a Seagate Barracuda, 160GB SATA, 7200rpm.
> 
> ...



No need to read at this stage, download ATi tool from this site in the downloads section, install it and confirm when done and we can give you some extra horespower, you might be surprised at the performance benefits.


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## jaxxxon (Oct 31, 2008)

why would he need to overclock that card to play WoW?  my X1900XT played WoW with everything maxed out 6XAA 16XAF, it plays crysis at medium settings Far Cry 2 at medium-high settings WoW is a breeze for his card.  He has other problems, overclocking it won't help IMO.


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## Enshou (Oct 31, 2008)

Other problems indeed. Which may or may not be related to this CCC issue. As I said, I had reinstalled the driver before posting and it wasn't responding. I assumed this was because I hadn't restarted, however, it didn't work then either. I followed your link to fully remove the drivers, reinstalled, restarted, and it's still not responding. The odd thing is the  control device in the task bar is showing and I can access those options. However, clicking on the catalyst control center still yields nothing. 

Naturally I'd assume I had the wrong download. This is 8.10 I installed and regardless of where I look appears to be the correct one for this card. 


I don't have issues when there are more players around. I am on wireless but keep my machine next to the A+G etc and have tried it plugged in directly. I am using cable. This is speedtests results: 




For interests sake, in the task bar the anti aliasing is set to application managed. Adaptive anti-aliasing was available to disable. I loaded up WoW after disabling, and here's the interesting thing: it instantly fluctuated between 5 FPS and 56 FPS. I stepped outside and walked around a bit and its stabilized at 8-12 FPS. 

Tatty, I'll certainly look into that once I've figured out whats going wonko here. Extra horsepower is always good.


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## red268 (Oct 31, 2008)

I also had problems with not being able to open up CCC, even after doing the proper removal and reinstallation.

Try using a slightly older version, see if that works. 8.7 was good for me.


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## Enshou (Oct 31, 2008)

Thanks for the advice, Red. I installed 8.7 but I had the same problem. I backpedaled all the way to 7.10 and was able to get the CCC to load up. Funny enough, now I'm running at 8-10 FPS. 

With WoW up my card is at 78 celcius pushing 80. So far this is running it exactly the same as I was with the 8.10 driver. Turning off Adaptive again puts me fluctuating between 8 and 16 FPS. Modifying between high settings and low settings in game keeps me at the same rate, sometimes pushing 20 FPS. 

At this point I'm stumped.


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## TRIPTEX_CAN (Oct 31, 2008)

I couldnt get my x1950pro to work with that exact same PSU. It caused crashing, high temps, and low fps. It doesnt have enough juice on either +12v rail for the card.


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## DirkDiggler (Oct 31, 2008)

It probably isn't the hard drive, since you said it was SATA and in good condition.  I am leaning towards something to do with the video card or it's drivers, but I am not familiar with ATI video cards.


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## Enshou (Oct 31, 2008)

TRIPTEX_MTL said:


> I couldnt get my x1950pro to work with that exact same PSU. It caused crashing, high temps, and low fps. It doesnt have enough juice on either +12v rail for the card.



Really?
I've never had crashing issues and this is the first time I've seen it hitting 80 degrees. The card itself is only 256mb and the +12V  total for the PSU is 32A. The two rails are listed as 22A each. Shouldn't that be enough? I could understand if it was running somewhere around the 20 range. It'd be a shame to replace a part that is relatively new (purchased when I got the video card to support it) if it isn't the problem.


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## Darren (Oct 31, 2008)

Enshou,

Your hardware is old, really old. If it was any other game I'd tell you to buy at least a mainstream GPU of this generation, but WOW is old as well and isn't very taxing hence why I would agree that your system should be able to max out WOW at a respectable frame rate (25-40 FPS)

Remember that WOW is an online game so bear in mind it could be other influences that are hindering your experience such as high ping. Please do a speed test at the following website so we can out rule ping as a factor http://www.SpeedTest.net


Edit:



Enshou said:


> Hey Dar,
> Yeah, it is old. I've had the machine for a while. I've been using my laptop so it hasn't been upgraded a lot. Just a stick of 512mb RAM, the x1950pro and PSU.
> 
> I did a speed test up above, but I did another one again regardless. The results were relatively the same. The download speed was a bit faster and the ping was a bit higher.



The speed test looks respectable, and so does the ping 

This is really puzzling. Download a application called GPU-Z. It will give us information regarding your GPU, clock/memory speed etc. Perhaps your card is down clocked for whatever reason. Also did you purchase the graphics card from eBay or a non reputation place? because it could be a different card with its ID changed via a bios flash. Download GPU-Z and we will find out! 

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/


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## Enshou (Oct 31, 2008)

Hey Dar, 
Yeah, it is old. I've had the machine for a while. I've been using my laptop so it hasn't been upgraded a lot. Just a stick of 512mb RAM, the x1950pro and PSU. 

I did a speed test up above, but I did another one again regardless. The results were relatively the same. The download speed was a bit faster and the ping was a bit higher.


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## red268 (Oct 31, 2008)

This may sound silly, but how dusty is it?
Take it outside, give it a good blow and see what comes out. It can actually make the world od difference .... maybe not in this case, but it's worth doing none the less!!


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## TRIPTEX_CAN (Oct 31, 2008)

Enshou said:


> Really?
> I've never had crashing issues and this is the first time I've seen it hitting 80 degrees. The card itself is only 256mb and the +12V  total for the PSU is 32A. The two rails are listed as 22A each. Shouldn't that be enough? I could understand if it was running somewhere around the 20 range. It'd be a shame to replace a part that is relatively new (purchased when I got the video card to support it) if it isn't the problem.



Im just telling you my experience. Your PSU isnt 36A its 22A each @ peak load which you will never get from the PSU. Think closer to 18A per rail. 

Replacing the PSU was the only change I made and my system became stable. I too had a P4 CPU at the time. You dont have to take my work for it. You should exhaust every option first before trying a new PSU. I would recommend a Corsair VX550 though, should you choose to listen to me.


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## Enshou (Oct 31, 2008)

TRIPTEX_MTL said:


> Corsair VX550


I'll definitely look into it. I might just splurge and replace the entire thing if it comes to that, though. At least that way I'll have a machine to snap onto a local network or something. 

And you know Red... That's a very good idea. It didn't cross my mind. After all, it has been sitting relatively unused for about a year now. It probably will make a world of difference!

edit;
Just saw your edit Dar, I'll get back to you in a moment.

Alright. I downloaded and opened that program while WoW was running and my PC crashed, so here's the info after turning it back on (...woops). 










I purchased the card from Futureshop. It's basically the Canadian version of Best Buy. In fact, I think Best Buy owns it now.


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## Darren (Oct 31, 2008)

Enshou,


After inspecting the GPU-Z screen shots it would appear that your GPU is indeed genuine as everything on the screen shot matches up to the specification listed here: http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/186/ATI_X1950_Pro.html.


To be fair your CPU is approximately five yours old. You didn't specify in detail about your CPU, if you're unsure download CPU-Z from: http://www.cpuid.com/download/cpuz_148.zip - if its a single core Prescott or Northwood you can buy a Pentium D 9-series which is a cheap dual core solution, alternatively if you're currently running Pentium D I'd suggest you buy a cheap motherboard that will sport a Core 2 Duo E8xxx series. The bottom line is your hardware is old and if you are serious about playing new games such as WotLK you'll have to ditch the old hardware.

So my advice is if you intend on playing the expansion is to invest in a cheap dual core solution and the x1950 probably wasn't a wise purchase either, as it stands you barely meet the recommended requirements for Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

After referring the official specification: 
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=10960856615&sid=1




PC System Requirements 

OS: Windows XP (Service Pack 3), Windows Vista (Service Pack 1) 

Processor: 

Minimum: Intel Pentium 4 1.3 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1500+ 


Recommended: *Dual-core processor, such as the Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2*

Memory: 

Minimum: 512 MB RAM (1GB for Vista users) 


Recommended: *1 GB RAM (2 GB for Vista users)*

Video: 

Minimum: 3D graphics processor with Hardware Transform and Lighting with 32 MB VRAM 
Such as an ATI Radeon 7200 or NVIDIA GeForce 2 class card or better 


Recommended: 3D graphics processor with Vertex and Pixel Shader capability with 128 MB VRAM 
Such as an ATI Radeon X1600 or NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT class card or better


In any event, the game would be border-line playable


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## Enshou (Oct 31, 2008)

From what I understand here my PC is well within the minimum standards for it to play WotLK, the third expansion. That said, it should not be having the trouble it is running tBC, the second expansion. 

Here is CPU-Z's results.


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## Darren (Oct 31, 2008)

Enshou said:


> From what I understand here my PC is well within the minimum standards for it to play WotLK, the third expansion. That said, it should not be having the trouble it is running tBC, the second expansion.



Remember with new expansions the game developers are adding additional detail to the game, e.g. increased textures, better-detailed models, bigger world environment, so it is only natural that the newer expansions will have a higher requirement than the original.


Remember the game developers "minimum requirements" are the basic specification to launch game at very low details and low frame rate. Even the "recommended" requirements are the bear minimum to run the game at an acceptable frame rate at medium details. To run a game at full settings at a decent frame rate you ideally need hardware that is beyond what the developer's state. - Remember the game developers are not your friend; they want profit and if they announce that their game requires a beast of a computer know one would buy the game.

Thanks for providing the screenshot of CPU-z 

 Your processor was released on "June 2004" and is a single core processor. I would presume that it is your CPU which could be bottlenecking your graphics card. A 5 year old CPU which wasn't awfully fast when it was first released, especially when coupled with a "sort of ok for old games" graphics card (x1950 Pro) is bound to produce inferior frame rates. 

You have two solution: upgrade to a Pentium D 900-series CPU which is dual core (they are extremely cheap) - I think your current motherboard supports it but I can double check if you request.  The PD 900-series are quite old as well so don't expect it to play new games such as Far Cry 2 but it's a cheap replacement CPU.

Alternatively you could buy a cheap socket 775 motherboard and a E-series  Core 2 Duo. I would recommend this route.


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## Enshou (Oct 31, 2008)

Darren said:


> Remember with new expansions the game developers are adding additional detail to the game, e.g. increased textures, better-detailed models, bigger world environment, so it is only natural that the newer expansions will have a higher requirement than the original.
> 
> 
> Remember the game developers "minimum requirements" are the basic specification to launch game at very low details and low frame rate. Even the "recommended" requirements are the bear minimum to run the game at an acceptable frame rate at medium details. To run a game at full settings at a decent frame rate you ideally need hardware that is beyond what the developer's state. - Remember the game developers are not your friend; they want profit and if they announce that, their game requires a beast of a computer know one would buy the game.



Absolutely. I'm used to this as well. I've been running it on my laptop at minimum settings with 20 FPS. I expect my PC as it is should be able to do the same with WotLK, let alone tBC. Or at the very least with a sustained 15 FPS -- Right now, its getting to that only if the game is not doing anything and there isn't a lot on the screen. Running instances is not possible. I know the PC isn't very up to date, but this much it should be able to handle, which makes me wonder if there is something wrong somewhere. As someone pointed out, it may be that my power supply doesn't have the right amperage. 

As for upgrading, if I can't solve this issue just by trying to "fix" an error that might be causing the problem, I'd likely just do a complete upgrade of everything. New motherboard, new card, new case so I stop breaking my hands on Medion's cruel jokes. It's not necessary, of course, but I prefer to be able to leave my machines for a few years without needing major tweaking. This one is due for a re haul, but I don't see why it can't handle tBC's load. 

Thanks for the help though mates; I did manage to get the machine to respond a little bit better, which is a plus, and learned a few things too.


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## erocker (Oct 31, 2008)

Have you made sure that you have the latest chipset drivers installed for your motherboard?
Also, be sure to have DX9 updated. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&displaylang=en


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## Darren (Oct 31, 2008)

A new power supply "might" improve stability however it will not improve graphical performance, especially when dealing with old hardware which doesn't require much PSU efficiency.  Could you provide your laptop's specification as you state that it performs better than your PC, I would like to know why.

Download HD Tach and run the both the short and long test and report back the findings. If your hard disk drive had a slow read/write transfer it could have a bearing on performance. http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach

Also can you load up WOW go into a busy lobby, minimize the game press "CRTL+ALT+DEL" to access the task manager and take a print screen of the performance tab. - I want to see your CPU and memory usage.


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## Enshou (Oct 31, 2008)

Darren said:


> Download HD Tach and run the both the short and long test and report back the findings. If your hard disk drive had a slow read/write transfer it could have a bearing on performance. http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach



Short test:







Long test:








Darren said:


> Also can you load up WOW go into a busy lobby, minimize the game press "CRTL+ALT+DEL" to access the task manager and take a print screen of the performance tab. - I want to see your CPU and memory usage.



Minimized:





Not minimized:





Additionally, this is a screencap in game with the FPS and showing what it was trying to draw at the time. 
[CLICK]

This is my laptop. Basically the only difference is the dualcore and the extra gig of memory.

erocker: Thanks for the link, I'll try that next.


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## Darren (Oct 31, 2008)

If you've got an IDE or SATA 150 then the average speed is correct, however if your hard disk is SATA II 300 you should expect a average reading of between 60-70 MB.
From the screenshot it doesn't look like the CPU is struggling when minimized, however maximized it looks like its struggling a lot. The worrying component is your ram, approximately 1.07 GBs of ram is being used - your computer has only 2x512MB - warning flag!

Also strangely, task manager is detecting your CPU as dual core. But according to Intel's site its single core: http://www.intel.com/support/processors/sb/CS-028241.htm , strange.

Edit:



Enshou said:


> It's just a regular old SATA. The harddrive came with the computer. Which, as we've already established, is embarrassingly old.



In that case the average read/write is normal, we can outrule the hard disk as a problem 



Enshou said:


> It's just a regular old SATA. The harddrive came with the computer. Which, as we've already established, is embarrassingly old.
> It being detected as a dual core might have something to do with its hyper threading? It's basically faking being a dual core.
> 
> Keep in mind I'm running firefox and WoW. I also have trillian running all the time. Firefox is always sucking up whatever it can! Whether or not it would affect anything to that degree, I don't know. You say its a warning flag. What of?



I dont know much about hyperthreading but it could very well be the reason why "two cores" are being detected. To be fair you should have enough ram to accommodate FireFox, messenger etc in addtion to WOW. I wouldn't be suprised it it peeked at around 1.5 GB during a long gaming session - When the computer runs out of ram it borrows from the hard disk drive which is upto 1000x slower.

I don't know much about hyper threading but it could very well be the reason why "two cores" are being detected. To be fair you should have enough ram to accommodate the allocations such as Firefox, messenger etc in addition to WOW. I wouldn't be surprised it peeked at around 1.5 GB during a long gaming session - When the computer runs out of ram it borrows from the hard disk drive which is up to 1000x slower.

Go to the start menu, go to "run" and type in "DXDIAG" and verify that DirectDraw, Direct 3D,  and AGP texture is enabled with acceleration.

Edit 2:



elixxx said:


> FSAA, is the ingame multisampling. Disable it or set to 1x. FSAA eats memory Bandwidth and GPU. Im sure it will solve the bad fps your having.




100% agree.


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## Enshou (Oct 31, 2008)

It's just a regular old SATA. The harddrive came with the computer. Which, as we've already established, is embarrassingly old. 
It being detected as a dual core might have something to do with its hyper threading? It's basically faking being a dual core. 

Keep in mind I'm running firefox and WoW. I also have trillian running all the time. Firefox is always sucking up whatever it can! Whether or not it would affect anything to that degree, I don't know. You say its a warning flag. What of?


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## DarkMatter (Oct 31, 2008)

Take the cooler out and replace the thermal paste, after cleaning well both the cooler and the chip. You said a year without usig it? And after 4 years using it. Both things alone can make the paste to get dry, both combined... I bet you find something sand-like instead of a paste.


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## elixxx (Oct 31, 2008)

FSAA, is the ingame multisampling. Disable it or set to 1x. FSAA eats memory Bandwidth and GPU. Im sure it will solve the bad fps your having.


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## mc-dexter (Nov 1, 2008)

ok i've not read all the thread, but one thing i did notice, your slow HDD, sata at that, i've had the same problem, you dont happen to have a partition at all do you? if so back up your data, delete partitions, formated, re-install and should be fine, well near as, your hdd is prob on its way out as you might of guessed., or might just not like a partition as sata's don't do them very well.


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## Katanai (Nov 1, 2008)

Well, I dunno what to say man. That computer should run WOW flawless, there's no question there and it shouldn't need any upgrades at all. Something is definitely wrong though. The only good suggestion you got in this thread is that it could  be the PSU. I can think of more though... But first of all we need to know if this is a WOW specific problem or not. Do you have another game there? If not try to get hold of a new game, something like COD4. We need to know if its doing this only in WOW or in all games.


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## Enshou (Nov 2, 2008)

Hey folks, thanks for the responses. Was gone for a day.

Darren: I did a directX diagnoses before, but every thing is running fine.

Darkmatter: Haha! Yeah. Most likely. But I'll leave it for now. Once other things start dying I have intentions just to replace the entire machine. 

elixx: I run WoW with 24 x 24 x 1 already. I did it with 4 for testing earlier, as well as with 24 x 16 x 1 and vice versa.

Dex: I haven't noticed my hard drive being slow with anything else, nor does it make noise. Maybe it'll spontaneously combust, though.  Yes, I have a partition. I use it to store data and the other to store executables so when I reformat I don't lose my information.  However, I've always ran it like this, and it posed no issue in the past. Would it become harder on the hard drive as it got older?

Kat:  I do, but they're even less intensive than WoW is. 

Anyway, here's the weird and random information update of today. I get my FPS to stabilize at 20 and break 40, but this only occurs if I have firefox up streaming something from, say, youtube. I managed to do the same with windows media player and its visualizer. 

...How exactly does that make ANY sense?


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## mc-dexter (Nov 2, 2008)

Enshou said:


> Hey folks, thanks for the responses. Was gone for a day.
> 
> Dex: I haven't noticed my hard drive being slow with anything else, nor does it make noise. Maybe it'll spontaneously combust, though.  Yes, I have a partition. I use it to store data and the other to store executables so when I reformat I don't lose my information.  However, I've always ran it like this, and it posed no issue in the past. Would it become harder on the hard drive as it got older?



as the HDD's get older, just like anything else Hardware related, age will show signs of aging after a certain amount of time, maybe i guessed wrong about your problem, but i know im right about hardware showing signs of age, lol.


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## red268 (Nov 2, 2008)

There's a good chance I'm way off the ball here .... but .... could it be the graphics card isn't getting itself in to 3D mode? Do other games work ok? If it's only WoW, maybe for some unknown reason it's not kicking the gpu in properly?!

I'm just chucking an idea in here. Hoping this might make something click in someone elses brains?


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## imperialreign (Nov 2, 2008)

There's no reason why your setup should be able to handle WoW just fine.  As much as that P4 and 1950 are a bit old, they're both more than capable of the task.



It kinda sounds to me, after you mentioned how it's running with Firefox up, that the game isn't being prioritized correctly, perhaps your A/V software is buggaring it down, or your communication hardware.  I mearly skimmed the thread so far, but I don't recall seeing anywhere a mention of what kind of connection you have . . . DSL, hard-line, or are you wireless to a router?  If it's wireless, and if you've changed routers recently (or ISPs), it's possible the router is capping your in-game connection speed as well.



A couple of quick things to try real quick, though, first - when you load up the game, ALT+TAB back to the desktop, the bring up taskmanager.  Click on the 'aplications' tab, highlight WoW, r-click and select 'go to process' - it should switch over and show you the exact process running, r-click on that, and go to 'set affinity,' make sure CPU 0 and CPU 1 are selected.  If that doesn't cause any change, repeat the above, and make sure only CPU 0 is selected.  You can also try and set the system priority of the process as well, by following the above but selecting 'set priority' instead.  Try setting it to above normal or high - although this could cause other programs in the background to slow to a crawl . . .


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## Jaisin (Nov 3, 2008)

Maybe you should get your laptop fixed and stop QQing.  L2upgrade nub.

Or open task manager and make sure you don't have a million useless processes running,  I can't tell you how many people have junked up their decent hardware with useless background processes.


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## Wile E (Nov 3, 2008)

Did you update your DirectX? As far as the Catalyst not opening, make sure you have all the .NET frameworks installed.

And just by skimming the thread, and seeing your screenshots of task manager above, you are running out of ram and hitting the pagefile. Disable all the useless startup stuff, and maybe look to getting a little more ram.


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## Enshou (Nov 3, 2008)

I just skimmed the last few posts because I'm in a hurry, however ...

imperial:  I have cable. I'm using wireless right now but have tried it plugged directly into the line. It is not a new network, router or ISP. Everything seems normal in the task manager. I've set the priority before, but it's usually more effect with PS CS3 since I tend to do more than just WoW when it's running. 

jaisin:  you posted WHILE you were talking to me on AIM? About something I had already said! You're a freak show. Maybe you should fix my laptop for me and buy me new upgrades~.

wile e:  the updates thing is funny here. My computer didn't have service pack 3 yet since it's been dormant since before May. However that also prompted me to upgrade everything else, so directX and the .NET frameworks are installed. As for startup programs, I have 6. The only one I would probably disable would be reader. The rest are pretty normal... ctfmon, rundll, etc. 

I think the RAM part would make the biggest difference right now, like you said. As it was, nothing particularly seemed to help it. From what I can tell just messing with it the past few days, I think it might just be having difficulty processing the textures. I get no difference in my frames based on resolution or multisampling/aliasing options, nor from view distances or spell details or cranking/minimizing Blizzards new shadow features. However, there is a marginal difference (5-10~frames) when changing the texture resolutions and filtering. 

Like I said, I had stuck another 512kb of RAM into the machine before to bring it to 1GB. However, it was actually my brother who went out, purchased the RAM and installed it as I was out at the time. Thusly I don't know what was actually put in. Therein might be the biggest problem! ... Which would be annoying after all this time. If it continues behaving as it is (25 average), I'll simply leave it and try WotLK on it. If it doesn't work at all, I'll likely just upgrade the entire computer. If it runs like it was running tBC before, I'll open it up and check the RAM and likely fix whatever issue arises then with the goal of a compatible 2GB. It could be something complex or it could be as simple as a HD/RAM issue. Guess we'll see!

Thanks for all the help folks, its appreciated. It certainly is an odd little device.


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## Jaisin (Nov 3, 2008)

If you have a cd / dvd burner you can try loading up a live linux distribution such as knoppix and just WINE-ing the game, maybe windows is the problem.

 Basically, you download the iso, burn it to cd / dvd, restart your computer and make it boot from the cd.  

From http://www.wowwiki.com/Wine_(software)



> Method 3. Copy or run from Win
> 
> You can also just install WoW in Windows and then copy the entire World of Warcraft folder over from your Windows installation.
> 
> ...



Back up your important files, its worth a shot.


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