aargh! I need help with my meter!

[BirdieExpress]

I haven't played in a long time and have since changed all my pc gear. I used to have a perfectly smooth meter several years ago. Recently I reloaded my game (from the disk) to my new computer, and I even upgraded the video card to an NVidia 5200. But I CANNOT get a smooth meter! It's playable, but not at all what I want, sometimes better than others but mostly bad. Worst thing is the quick slow down right before the 6 snap and I hit between 6 and 7 o'clock most often, but then it sometimes skips past 6 to near 5'oclock before it registers. It also gets jumpy near the top and it sometimes registers near 1 'clock when it seems like I hit it 1 pixel past 12. My timing is a little rusty, but this is not a normal meter (trust me )

I've shut down all unnecessary game options, defragged, disk cleanup, spybot cleaner, etc. I've shut down programs from my system tray and even do Task Manager and make sure everything under Applications is closed. In my system tray all I have is a volume icon, Nvidea icon, and my Nortons icon with the red x (red x from diabling auto protect). Meter is the same quality whether I am online or offline.

Any ideas besides getting a new computer?????

[terrell]

run task manager again, click on the processes tab, and left click cpu twice. that will order processes by the % of cpu cycles used from most to least. the first item should be system idle process. the second will be the culprit that's messing with your swing meter.

[Freefaller]

T is likely correct, but I have this vague recollection of alot of complaints about the 5200 when it came out 3 or 4 years ago. Don't quote me on this, like I said it's a vague memory.

[terrell]

you are totally correct, free'. next to the integrated intel chipsets, the fx5200 is the worst graphics adapter in terms of playability and links (unofficial observation here and linkscorner). i say worst, i have no technical data to support that assumption, but it seems to rear its ugly head quite often (maybe it's just a really popular card?).

before i bought my current 6200, i tried to purchase a 5200, just to see if it was as bad as everyone said it was. i was determined to prove anything in the right hands would work. but i ended up buying a 256 mb 6200 on ebay for less than i could get a 128 mb 5200. my unofficial independent analysis went out the window.

sidenote: my 6200 runs links on vista great, replacing an mx4000 which experienced missing ball in flight, legs missing up to the knees on greens, missing 3d objects, e.g. ballwashers, carts, alligators, etc.

[BirdieExpress]

Thanks for the input! I'll move forward with the knowledge that I have a cheap computer and a crappy video card. An equipment upgrade may in my future.

FYI - When I check Task Manager nothing but common system files pop up to the top. System Idle has about 97%-98% of the resources with the others bouncing around between any number of processes (mostly svchost.exe, msmsgs.exe, crss.exe, lsass.exe). I played a few holes and hit a big meter glitch and clicked over to see LUCOM~ eating up alot of resources, which is the Nortons Auto Live Update, and I went and shut that down to manual updates.

[terrell]

yep, 9 times outta 10 the blip will be coming from some program auto-updating. i used to have norton internet security several years ago, but it got to be way too much of a resource hog. i've since moved to zonealarm internet security suite, and i leave it going during links rounds with no problems. however, i've read the latest and greatest nis is slimmed down from the versions i had.

looking at the processes tab won't always catch a process stealing cpu cycles away from the swing meter. ya might take a look at the performance tab. if you see periodic blips (over 20 percent), those will definitely affect the swing meter.

'nother good tool for narrowing down swing meter demons. if you see a generic process like svchost popping up, add the pid column to the display. once you have the pid, run tasklist /svc to see what services are running within that process. sometimes greek, sometimes useful.

[EasyEd]

Having had a 5200 in my previous machine, I must confess I had no problems with it when running Links. The only problem I had was the cheap fan installed by Maddog. Noisy little bugger. After many unsuccessful attemps by manufacturer to fix, I gave up and went elsewhere. BTW, I have approximately 6 or 7 of the little fella in my shop so terrell if you STILL want to experiment, I'll be more than happy to send you one. Cheers... Ed

[terrell]

thanks for the offer ed, but i don't need one now. i'm extremely cheap (trying to retire by 50 (just 20 years to go)), and the last thing i need is more computer stuff laying around the house.

my guess is the fx5200's could work just fine in the right hands. i'm thinking they are plentiful because they were cheap in their heyday, and nvidia drivers (70 series) were the worst. i'd say those two reasons contributed greatly to their bad press.