Computer help so I can play Options

[Estrelleta]

Hey guys,

For the last couple months I've had computer related lag that prevents me from playing tetris.

On Tetris Friends I randomly get a few seconds of totally unresponsive gameplay, massive amounts of misdrops that are not my fault, and just in general feels like syrup despite almost maximum tuning.

On Nullpomino my fps counter never seems to stay at 60 fps instead ranging from something like 7 fps to 300 fps. Even when it says 60 fps it feels really slow and unevenly so (so I know it's not a case of too slow DAS). Sometimes I also get 20 or even more seconds of the game not responding at all while my oponent continues to send garbage. So I also misdrop like crazy and usually lose.

I have tried a lot of different things to solve this problem such as running antivirus and antimalware software, uninstalling programs, deleting files from my computer, deleting temporary internet files, deleting cookies, disabling the extra flash plugins on chrome, using other browsers besides chrome, restarting my computer, closing all programs and browser tabs except TF or Nullpomino, and otherwise trying to improve my game experience with very, very little improvement.

My computer is just under 2 years old. Before this I only got the typical amount of lag for tetris friends but could play well enough and was able to play nullpomino with no problems (some lag in 6 player rooms but not preventing me from enjoying the game).

I also get these problems in single player for tetris friends and nullpomino both. This problem has been preventing me from enjoying tetris.

I don't want to switch games so please don't suggest that.

What could be the problem? What can I try next?
Thanks in advance.

Also, if this is the wrong spot for the topic, please move it.

[caffeine]

You might have some background processes / bloatware going on. If it were me, I'd back up everything important on a flash drive and reformat the harddrive. Then, I'd install Microsoft security essentials. Also, maybe upgrade the ram.

The alternative would be to go through the "remove programs" list for anything unneeded, check your startup programs / msconfig, run spybot and other scans, and check the task manager for bloatware, etc.

[myndzi]

If you don't mind, I can look into it in detail via remote assistance or something. Sounds like there's more to it than just background processes; something is probably misbehaving...

[Rosti_LFC]

To sort of elaborate a bit on what caffeine kinda said, and going on the desktop screenshot you posted a week or two ago, remove all your virus stuff except for Microsoft Security Essentials and Spybot S&D (though I'd remove that too if you still don't have enough performance).

You're running on a netbook (right?), which has very limited power (you probably should have mentioned this - it's more important than how old it is). It's going to struggle a bit to play Tetris games as it is, but the fact that you seem to have like three anti-virus programs running isn't going to do you any favours. I run no AV stuff on my netbook because any of the ones I've tried just slow it down way too much (and I mostly use Ubuntu on it anyway because it's faster - which might be another, albeit more drastic, option to consider).

Also, for the record, running antivirus software is almost never going to help performance. All they do is add processes that constantly use CPU and HDD time in the background, and if you've already got a virus they're typically not as likely to find it if you didn't already have it installed beforehand.

[Estrelleta]

To sort of elaborate a bit on what caffeine kinda said, and going on the desktop screenshot you posted a week or two ago, remove all your virus stuff except for Microsoft Security Essentials and Spybot S&D (though I'd remove that too if you still don't have enough performance).

You're running on a netbook (right?), which has very limited power (you probably should have mentioned this - it's more important than how old it is). It's going to struggle a bit to play Tetris games as it is, but the fact that you seem to have like three anti-virus programs running isn't going to do you any favours. I run no AV stuff on my netbook because any of the ones I've tried just slow it down way too much (and I mostly use Ubuntu on it anyway because it's faster - which might be another, albeit more drastic, option to consider).

Also, for the record, running antivirus software is almost never going to help performance. All they do is add processes that constantly use CPU and HDD time in the background, and if you've already got a virus they're typically not as likely to find it if you didn't already have it installed beforehand.

It's not a netbook, it's an hp probook 6550b which before this ran TF and nullpomino fine. I'm not sure what you mean by its power or how I look that up. I'm not actually running the AV programs all the time, just did so to see if there was a virus slowing it down (found and deleted a few things, but hasn't made a difference). I've got those programs set to run only if I tell them to, not in the background.

[Rosti_LFC]

OK, in which case you really should have enough CPU to run Tetris Friends and it's a different problem

First off, try defragging your hard drive. I doubt it'll make a wonder of difference but it should definitely help if you've not done it in a while (or ever). Also, how much hard drive space do you have left? If it starts getting particularly low then that could impact performance.

At some point fire up Nullpomino, check it's running slow, and then press Ctrl+Shift+Delete to bring up the task-manager, click "Show processes from all users", and see if there's anything using a sizeable amount of CPU.

For more faff, press Windows + R, type "msconfig" and press enter, go to the "Startup" tab, and list everything listed there under "Startup Item". It'll probably be quite a long list. I then might be able to pick up a few that could be problematic.

[Estrelleta]

- Tried defrag, hasn't made a difference.

- Over half my hard drive space is still free.

- Will try that. EDIT: I just did this and couldn't find anything of interest using up that much CPU (CPU usage was ranging from 6-15% which doesn't seem bad to me, but I know nothing about computers). Only Chrome because I had it open but even when I try playing having ONLY nullpomino open, it still runs poorly.

- Myndzi had a go at that I think.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

[Rosti_LFC]

If you had a specific date when it went from "working fine" to "not working fine" then I expect there might be a possible way to work around that, but I doubt you do.

Updating graphics drivers and such might also help, though I think the chance of success is fairly low.

[Estrelleta]

There's no specific date cause it was a fairly gradual change. I started to notice I could never run TF or nullpo well a couple of months ago (previously I sometimes had to restart my computer, or close a few programs, but not always, and this was sufficient).

Myndzi is going to have a more in depth look, I'll let you guys know how that goes.

Thanks.

---

EDIT:

Thanks to Blink, Rosti and Myndzi's efforts, my computer performance has improved significantly already. (I have tried TF fairly satisfactorily and nullpo single player mode).

Thanks for your patience and time. I really appreciate it.

Thanks also to Caffeine for answering the thread too.

[Estrelleta]

Myndzi has finished resolving the problem, thanks to all who participated in this. I really appreciate your time and effort.

And I look forward to kicking your butts at tetris now