Look what happens when i try and race, grr!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMu4wivVj84&fmt=18

I have so far tried...

took the PC apart and cleaned all fans and vents out, plus checked all connectors.

Took the gfx card out and cleaned it thoroughly.

Put a bigger fan from a spare PSU i had on top of the GFX card above the smaller inbuilt fan to give it better cooling if that was the cause

Changed the CPU for an identical known good one from a donor machine that i was given that has hardly been used, plus i used the heatsink and fan from the donor machine because it is bigger.

Scanned for viruses and malware using malwarebytes anti malware, adaware se, and avg 8.0, all came back clean.

Gone through my services list and set things up according to blackvipers service guide for windows 7.

Shouted, swore, and cried a little bit.

So, it happens with other apps/games too?

Well not really, as the only other 2 games i have got on here are carmageddon 2 and nascar heat, both of which would run on a 486 from the early 90's lol, so i havent really got anything else game wise that is complicated enough to test it on.

Oh yeah, full specs would probably help.

Windows 7 RC, Pentium 4 2.53 ghz, 1gb of RAM, ATI HD2600 Pro 512mb (agp) graphics card, im thinking of shoehorning a 2nd PSU into the case to run all the fans and drives, the let the main PSU run the mobo and the cards, as i only have a 250w PSU, so i don't know if that would help or not really.

EDIT: The case my pc is in has room for another PSU, so thats what im gonna try. I will post with an update if it fixes it, or if it doesnt.

Well either your video card is almost dead, or your hard drive is doing some really heavy loading while you're playing (which would explain the dips in fps). Dunno. Do you have another video card to try? I'm not sure it's just a single component causing these issues, it seems like a combination of factors are causing it to screw up. Did you have XP on that computer before? Did anything like this ever happen before?

You could try:

> Download a demo of a game released in the last couple of years or so and see how it handles it.
> Reinstall LFS (extract the installer to another folder somewhere)
> Reinstall/update drivers
> Check GPU temps (GPU-Z - it can log them to file as well)
> If you've got a more powerful PSU somewhere, try it - dodgy PSUs can cause all manner of weird and wonderful problems.
> Test the RAM (unlikely to be the problem, but you never know)
> Check over your motherboard for any capacitors that look like they've been oozing.

I did something completely different lol.

I got the PC that i was given recently (which was intended for spares for mine) and after putting all the drives back in, PSU back in, CPU back on, etc.... It booted up perfectly on XP as it did before.

So i put my hd2600 in that PC, installed the AGP hotfix version 9.9 drivers, installed LFS, and lynces reflection pack and hi res skies, the whole lot,and..

With a res of 1024x768@32 bit, AA/AF on full (8x and 16x, i forget which is which, but max on both anyway) Haze effect on, sky on, trees flags rubber on basic, Z buffer on 24, everything else set to hi res...

A rock solid 70FPS!

Needless to say i will not go back to my previous machine now, plus this one can have 2gb ram maximum as this one has a different mobo (MSI MS-6533/G) whereas the other one (gigabyte ga8simlnf) can only accept 1gb.

It only has 512 in at the moment, but more ram can only help more for day to day PC use.

Plus the MSI board IS overclockable, oh yes!! I should be able to get this 2.53 CPU upto the 3gig mark hopefully, and even if i cook the CPU (unlikely), i have an identical one in the other PC, win/win situation!

Quote from danthebangerboy :

I did something completely different lol.

I got the PC that i was given recently (which was intended for spares for mine) and after putting all the drives back in, PSU back in, CPU back on, etc.... It booted up perfectly on XP as it did before.

So i put my hd2600 in that PC, installed the AGP hotfix version 9.9 drivers, installed LFS, and lynces reflection pack and hi res skies, the whole lot,and..

With a res of 1024x768@32 bit, AA/AF on full (8x and 16x, i forget which is which, but max on both anyway) Haze effect on, sky on, trees flags rubber on basic, Z buffer on 24, everything else set to hi res...

A rock solid 70FPS!

Needless to say i will not go back to my previous machine now, plus this one can have 2gb ram maximum as this one has a different mobo (MSI MS-6533/G) whereas the other one (gigabyte ga8simlnf) can only accept 1gb.

It only has 512 in at the moment, but more ram can only help more for day to day PC use.

Plus the MSI board IS overclockable, oh yes!! I should be able to get this 2.53 CPU upto the 3gig mark hopefully, and even if i cook the CPU (unlikely), i have an identical one in the other PC, win/win situation!

Nice to hear that u got it sorted, tho as someone else said; try a different PSU and/or RAM stick(s).

As for the overclocking, i dont think it will give u anything tbh.. a p4 is so old, and tbh crappy, so it might give u like.. 5 fps, which in my pov, aint much. So i think u should run on this comp and start saving for a better one They aint so expensive now aday, so ull get away pretty (read: most likely) cheap..

GL mate