Troubleshooting Computer Performance Issues on Notebook

[Dal]

I'm not sure if this is a hardware or software problem. My notebook doesn't seem to do work as it should. E.g. I couldn't run 3D modeling program and as soon as I install it the computer slows down. And when running games like typing of the dead and chess master, the computer hangs (everytime). The computer has 2.2GHz. 256Mb RAM. and a capable graphic card. Eventhough it's running on full power with AC pluged in it's not doing enough work as my older PIII 450MHz computer.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Originally posted by Dal
I'm not sure if this is a hardware or software problem. My notebook doesn't seem to do work as it should. E.g. I couldn't run 3D modeling program and as soon as I install it the computer slows down. And when running games like typing of the dead and chess master, the computer hangs (everytime). The computer has 2.2GHz. 256Mb RAM. and a capable graphic card. Eventhough it's running on full power with AC pluged in it's not doing enough work as my older PIII 450MHz computer.

What kind of graphics card is in your laptop?

 

[Dal]

This is what I found in the system info.

Name Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller
Adapter Type Intel(R) 82852/82855 Graphics Controller, Intel Corporation compatible
Adapter Description Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller
Adapter RAM 64.00 MB (67,108,864 bytes)

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Originally posted by Dal
This is what I found in the system info.

Name Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller
Adapter Type Intel(R) 82852/82855 Graphics Controller, Intel Corporation compatible
Adapter Description Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller
Adapter RAM 64.00 MB (67,108,864 bytes)

I think that's your problem. The Intel(R) 82852/82855 graphic controller is an integrated graphic solution. It's without any dedicated video ram. It merely earmarks part of your system ram. So if it has control of 64mb then your system ram is down to 192mb.

 

[Dal]

I see now. Thanks Greg.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Originally posted by Dal
I see now. Thanks Greg.

http://www.passmark.com/products/pt.htm

Download that, run all the benchmarks and tell me what number you get.

 

[Dal]

Math Mark- 319.3
2D Graphic Mark- 145.1
Memory Mark- 310.9
Disk Mark- 57.7
CD Mark- 61.6
3D Graphic Mark- 101.8
MMX Mark- 296.5
PassMark Rating- 190.9
Mega FLOPs- 469.0

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

3D Graphic Mark- 101.8

This is your problem. Very low.

I have a GeForce4 that's about 2 years old and I have a 3D Graphic Mark of about 750.

See if whomever you bought the laptop from will let you upgrade.

 

[Dal]

Greg, I don't quite get it. The graphic bar to the left shows that for 3D GraphicMark, possible out comes are minimum of 0 and maximum of 200.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Originally posted by Dal
Greg, I don't quite get it. The graphic bar to the left shows that for 3D GraphicMark, possible out comes are minimum of 0 and maximum of 200.

Hmm mine goes to 800. It is quite possible the range is relative to your mark.

 

[BoulderHead]

0.02

I wonder how resource intensive the 3D modeling program is?
Typing of the dead and Chess Master I have run successfully on 486 computers, if I’m not horribly forgetful, which is why I suspect software first, faulty hardware second.

 

[Dal]

Originally posted by BoulderHead
I wonder how resource intensive the 3D modeling program is?
Typing of the dead and Chess Master I have run successfully on 486 computers, if I’m not horribly forgetful, which is why I suspect software first, faulty hardware second.

It's 3Dstudiomax. It did fine on my older 450MHz, 128 RAM computer. To my knowledge the difference comes when rendering the scene so normally slower computers should be able to handle it too. But I don't expect much on that program anyway.
And the games I mentioned, they're not slowing at all. The problem is that the computer kept on hanging at some point.

 

[dduardo]

AH HA! I run 3d studio max and had the same slow down at first. The problem was the video mode used by 3dsmax.

I bet your running in Direct 3d Mode. If so then switch to OpenGL Mode. That should fix the problem. If you want to use direct 3d then i suggest upgrading your video driver to the lastest and installing directx 9.

 

[Dal]

Originally posted by dduardo
AH HA! I run 3d studio max and had the same slow down at first. The problem was the video mode used by 3dsmax.

I bet your running in Direct 3d Mode. If so then switch to OpenGL Mode. That should fix the problem. If you want to use direct 3d then i suggest upgrading your video driver to the lastest and installing directx 9.

Thanks. That should explain the slowdown.

 

[Sting]

I know that Greg answered your question but just curious: If you didn't attempt to install the program, does you computer still slow down (or hang)?

My computer tends to have the same problem. I tried removing some of the files that magically download onto my computer without me knowing and it seemed to help a little.

 

[Dal]

I noticed that out of 256Mb of RAM, only 70Mb are avaliable as free memory. One reason is that windows XP takes a lot of memory to run and the other is that my video adaptor uses about 60Mb of my memory. The solution (for me) might be to upgrade RAM or to run as little application as possible simultaneously. I don't have automatic downloading programs but I do have others running in background that I can't remove, like antivirus, power management ultilities,...etc.