Windows 7 Win 7 installed on Laptop, Great cept in Games -They freeze, run, freeze, etc

[JETninja]

Machine (Laptop):
Dell I9300 1.6 Ghz Pentium M @2GHz, 2Gb DDR, GoForce 6800 256MB, 8X DVD, 250GB WD HD, Win 7 HP.

Until last week this lappy had the old original Fujistu 80Gb HD and Win XP Pro SP3. I play several older online games (Silkroad Online, Battlefield Europe, Steam games) and they all played great since I got in in 2005.

After 4yrs it had some major issue last week that I couldn't recover from, so I picked up a WD Blue 250GB HD and had Win 7 Home Premuim (bought 4 copies for all the PC's here) and installed both.

After much driver searching, everything works awesome on it except my games. They keep doing a Pause - Pause - Pause. I have been digging into everything, all sorts of video drivers, etc and nothing has helped. Wonder if its something with the Dell 1350 or Broadcom 440x controller, or 3D acceleration. I've looked for the latest drivers from all over but nothing has helped. Surfing, Videos, Office 2007 all work great. It never crashes. DX Diag shows no issues. Running the GPU at stock or OC settings makes no difference. Running them as Admin and in Compatibility mode is no help. Device manager shows no issues either.

Any ideas? I tend to think it either something in the network part of it ir 3D acceleration. Note, my much older and less powerful desktop is running Win 7 RC and has no issues with games. (I race in several rFactor Leagues) (it's a hacked nForce2 Abit NFS-7 MB, AMD-XPM 1700 CPU running at 2.3Ghz, Geforce 6600GT, 4 HD's, etc and it runs Win 7 quite well even though nVidia never even supported Vista!)

Also the network here is very solid, a Buffalo 54G and all the laptops connect great, and like I said - no issues gaming with Win XP before.

As soon as I launch a game, the freezes start. And only in games.

Thanks for reading!

 

[ChatGPT]

It sounds like you've put quite a bit of effort into troubleshooting the issue with your games on your Dell laptop after upgrading to Windows 7 Home Premium. The fact that everything else seems to be working fine except for gaming points towards a specific issue related to gaming performance. Here are some troubleshooting steps and ideas that might help resolve the pauses you are experiencing: 1. Compatibility Mode: You've mentioned trying compatibility mode, but it's worth revisiting to ensure it's set correctly. Right-click on the game's executable file, go to Properties, then Compatibility tab, and try different compatibility modes like Windows XP SP3 or Vista. 2. Graphics Drivers: - Update Graphics Drivers: Ensure you have the latest drivers installed for your GeForce GoForce 6800 256MB GPU. Visit the NVIDIA website to download and install the latest drivers compatible with Windows 7. - Clean Driver Installation: Consider performing a clean installation of the graphics drivers using tools like Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to remove any remnants of old drivers before installing the new ones. 3. DirectX: - DirectX Update: Ensure your DirectX version is up to date. Sometimes updating DirectX can improve compatibility and performance in games. 4. Network Drivers: - Update Network Drivers: Update the drivers for your Dell 1350 or Broadcom 440x network controllers. Network issues can sometimes interfere with game performance. 5. Power Settings: - High-Performance Mode: Ensure that your laptop is set to high-performance mode in the power settings to maximize the system's performance during gaming. 6. Background Processes: - Disable Background Apps: Close any unnecessary background applications and processes that may be consuming resources while gaming. Use Task Manager to identify resource-intensive processes. 7. Temperature: Check the temperature of your system while gaming to ensure that overheating is not causing performance issues. Use monitoring software like HWMonitor to keep an eye on temperatures. 8. Game Settings: - Lower Graphics Settings: Try lowering the in-game graphics settings to reduce the strain on the GPU and see if performance improves. - Fullscreen Mode: Running games in fullscreen mode rather than windowed mode can sometimes improve performance. 9. Security Software: - Antivirus Exclusions: Add your games to the exclusion list of your antivirus software to prevent them from being scanned during gameplay, which can cause periodic freezes. 10. Hardware Acceleration: - Disable Hardware Acceleration: In some cases, disabling hardware acceleration in the game settings or in your graphics card settings might help. By systematically going through these steps, you may be able to pinpoint the cause of the pauses in your games and hopefully improve their performance on your Dell laptop running Windows 7. If the issue persists, it might be worth checking for game-specific patches or contacting the game developers for further assistance.