Games acting strangely...?

Question

Recently I've been getting into PC gaming. A year ago I bought a game called knights of the old republic, and it worked fine. A couple of months ago, I bought a new videocard. (nvidia geforce 6600 GT AGP) Installation was fine, and on this new video card I was able to play battlefront two. That game also ran smoothly. Two weeks ago, I bought oblivion. It started freezing about ten minuets into play. So, I re-installed windows, installed oblivion on a clean boot(after installing drivers) and it still didn't work. Thinking it was oblivions fault, I returned it for fable. Fable did the same thing, but my sys requirements are way above fable. And now battlefront 2 doesn't work either. I have a dual boot with gentoo, my system specs are 512MB RAM, 2.27GHZ processor(pentium 4), and nvidia geforce 6600 GT for AGP. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I was about to say that may be your PC doesn't meet the requirements of Oblivion. But, as you told that your PC could run some games perfectly in the past and now can't - I'm afraid something might be wrong with your PC, which generated after re-installing Windows & other drivers. You should re-check whether the installation was done in a proper manner. And make sure to update your video & audio drivers with latest driver updates available.

Anyway, you should go to http://www.systemrequirementslab.com & check whether your PC can run Elder Scrolls Oblivion. It's simple & easy. At the same time, you'll get to know your PC specifications.

Even tho your graphics card is good, the amount of RAM is still behind optimum. To play these-days games, I suggest you to have atleast 1 gigabyte of RAM. Upgrading your RAM upto 1 gig should not cost more than $30. A processor of 3.0 GHz, or atleast 2.8 GHz should also be considered. If you prefer dual core, go for AMD, little bit pricey, but you will get the best out of it.

Ok, let me give you a list of some simple tasks, which will boost your PC speed:

1. Run Disk clean-up. Then delete unused files. (start>program>accessories>sys... tools> disk clean-up)
2. Check for disk errors. (right click on a disk-drive>properties>tools >error checking)
3. Run disk defragmenter.
4. Delete cookies. (you can do it from your browser options: tools>internet options)
5. Delete cache. (you can do it from your browser options)
6. Delete all history files. (you can do it from your browser options, or, CTRL + H, then delete)
7. Empty recycle bin.
8. Delete unused icons & short-cuts from anywhere including desktop.
9. Uninstall any software or game that you use only once or twice in a week.
10. Delete temporary internet files. (you can do it from your browser options: tools>internet options)
11. Delete all recent files. (click on start, click run, then type "recent", delete all the files which show up)
12. Run a full virus scan. If any threat found, eliminate that completely.
13. Make sure you have installed Direct X 9.0c.

If you did all of these, restart your computer & play the game. See what happens. If you still find the game laggy, go to game options, video adjustments & select the resolution at something like 800x600 & try again. In most cases it helps.

If still trouble persists, contact the tech dept. of the game website.
Email them about the problem. Make sure to include your PC specs in the email.

Hope it helps. Happy playing!

Answer 2

Oblivion and Fable are both known for only doing well on systems with 3 Ghz+ processors and a gig of RAM, unless you go in and turn off several graphics options. My setup is just about the same specs. For Oblivion, turning off the grass helped a lot. As for Fable, no experience there - sorry.