Computer trouble

[CrazyFikus]

Recently I've had some wierd problems with my computer and I'm hoping you can help me.

When I had XP installed I could run Mass Effect 2 with with everything on high at 1280x720 and it would run perfectly, no drop in fps whatsoever. Less than a year ago I installed Win7 on the same machine (I also installed 2 additional gigs of RAM) and now the fps kinda choppy and the textures are low res, the game still runs, but I would like to have a smooth performance.

Now, I know, I installed Win7 wich takes a little more resources than XP blah blah blah...
Before you say anything, here's the wierd part: a couple of days ago I started the game and, to my surprise, it ran PERFECTLY, fps was smooth and textures were high res (I'm well aware how stupid this sounds), I played the game for several hours (Mordin, Archangel and Grunt recuitment missions) with no problems whatsoever. Then I restarted my computer and I was back to the low res/choppy fps crap.

Since then I scanned my computer with NOD32 a couple of times and found only a few minor trojans wich I got rid off easily, and the game is still choppy. Then I checked the task manager and found that I have fourteen svchost.exe processes (you're supposed to have several, around five, maybe even seven, but fourteen is just too much).

Can you please help me?

My configuration is:
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3 motherboard
Intel E6550 Dual Core 2.33 GHz
4 GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics card

 

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

Your processor isnt exactly the best grade, and use "Malwarebytes" instead of that horrendious NOD32. Check HDD space and run the usual Chkdsk crap as well. You might have too many Processes also (besides svchost.exe), if you run any fancy pancy gadgets like Widgets/Gadgets and things like rocketdock can add up too.

 

[CrazyFikus]

Your processor isnt exactly the best grade, and use "Malwarebytes" instead of that horrendious NOD32. Check HDD space and run the usual Chkdsk crap as well. You might have too many Processes also (besides svchost.exe), if you run any fancy pancy gadgets like Widgets/Gadgets and things like rocketdock can add up too.

I tried using Malwarebytes some time ago and was dissapointed, and as for widgets and gadgets I have none.

 

[thejdcole]

Have you considered that maybe you havn't updated your drivers for your graphics card or other related areas for use with win7? Just a thought, although win7 usually updates everything anyway. (recently i had to download 400MB worth of drivers for my gfx card because i forgot to for a while ;P)

 

[Tharwen]

Aha! I know this one!

I think...

Search your control panel, and if that fails, your entire C drive, for some sort of ATI configuration tool. Within that, there may well be an option called 'texture detail' which is set to low.

Also, it might already be automatically anti-aliasing (and causing the lag because the game is doing it as well). Try turning that off on this theoretical configuration utility thing and your lag might just disappear.

If you don't have this ATI software on your computer, then that's very likely not to be the issue and I apologise for being wrong and I hope you eventually find it within yourself to forgive me so that we can move on as just friends and forget about this whole messy event. It was a mistake and I never should have said those things to you. Again, I'm sorry.

 

[CrazyFikus]

Aha! I know this one!

I think...

Search your control panel, and if that fails, your entire C drive, for some sort of ATI configuration tool. Within that, there may well be an option called 'texture detail' which is set to low.

Also, it might already be automatically anti-aliasing (and causing the lag because the game is doing it as well). Try turning that off on this theoretical configuration utility thing and your lag might just disappear.

If you don't have this ATI software on your computer, then that's very likely not to be the issue and I apologise for being wrong and I hope you eventually find it within yourself to forgive me so that we can move on as just friends and forget about this whole messy event. It was a mistake and I never should have said those things to you. Again, I'm sorry.

Your advice actually worked, after fiddling in the Catalyst Control Center (thats how it's called) the game is running great now, and don't worry you will always be my friend

And as for you other lot, I still have fourteen svchost.exe processes running so could somebody please help about that? (And no, tried googling it and found nothing useful)

 

[PharCry]

I suppose, long story short, if in doubt backup and nuke. If the system is running smoothly (even with 14 svchost processes) try checking out the processes running in autoruns, disabling and restarting. Sorry for the rant but this topic caught my eye with what I'm doing, could go into more detail but I leave that to posts already made in other forums directed toward the subject of malware.

Coming from someone that works in IT and deals with at least 3-5 malware issues a week, if nothing is coming up as far as pop-ups or website redirection (ie you open a Google search link and you're given a random link) it's likely just random stuff in your startup list. Google "autoruns" and run that program from MS's site, then Google each process under the "Login" tab. Any Adobe, MS Office crap is unnecessary and can be unchecked, then go into the Drivers tab and uncheck any items that have a status on the far right of "cannot be found." Typically you'll see many instances of svchost running and that's ok. Personally, most that I've seen running as your user name instead of SYSTEM or others are questionable (most, but NOT ALL).

But of course, when in doubt, back up all of your save games, documents, music, installation programs, etc (ie evacuation) and then format the drive and reinstall everything (ie nuclear detonation). This is a sure-fire way to get rid of any and all malware but it also may involve quite a bit of rebuilding the system if you have a lot of custom apps, settings, etc.

asdf

EDIT: rewording

 

[Tharwen]

Aha! I know this one!

I think...

Search your control panel, and if that fails, your entire C drive, for some sort of ATI configuration tool. Within that, there may well be an option called 'texture detail' which is set to low.

Also, it might already be automatically anti-aliasing (and causing the lag because the game is doing it as well). Try turning that off on this theoretical configuration utility thing and your lag might just disappear.

If you don't have this ATI software on your computer, then that's very likely not to be the issue and I apologise for being wrong and I hope you eventually find it within yourself to forgive me so that we can move on as just friends and forget about this whole messy event. It was a mistake and I never should have said those things to you. Again, I'm sorry.

Your advice actually worked, after fiddling in the Catalyst Control Center (thats how it's called) the game is running great now, and don't worry you will always be my friend

And as for you other lot, I still have fourteen svchost.exe processes running so could somebody please help about that? (And no, tried googling it and found nothing useful)

You can't do anything about svchost.exe without breaking Windows (or using a different OS). It's basically where Microsoft stores the RAM-eating demons that keep Windows running.