Weird Lag and Graphics Disappearing after an Hour

[kllrwlf]

Here's my current setup for my 5-man.

3 toons on my main computer (no problems here)

2 toons on my secondary (the one with the problem)

Hardware:
Dell Optiplex GX270
Pentium 4 3.2Ghz
1 Gig of Ram (should upgrade to 2 gigs)
NVidia GeForce 6600 GT - 128 MB

Windows XP

WoW Settings:
The 2 toons are running at 640x1024
Lowest possible settings for both
MaxFPS 25

The problem is that for the first hour or so everything is fine. (25-30 fps, ~100ms)
After that hour or so, it lags pretty badly and the buildings disappear. (2-4 fps, ~100ms)

I tried logging out and logging back in, but the problem still shows up immediately.
I also quit WoW completely, logged back in after 10 minutes and the problem still shows up immediately.
Rebooting the computer and I'm able to play again.

I'm getting an upgrade for the memory to 2gb. Hoping that this would be the fix. And hoping that I don't have to buy another video card.

Any thoughts?

[ahnubis]

you need 2 gigs of ram. I think your computer is trying to use memory off your hardrive and as such its lagging your computer.

[kllrwlf]

you need 2 gigs of ram. I think your computer is trying to use memory off your hardrive and as such its lagging your computer.

Yeah, after thinking about it, I'll probably just need to upgrade the memory to 2 gigs.

If the video card was the problem, it wouldn't wait an hour. :)

[The IT Monkey]

I might ask what programs you are using to box with. Sounds like a memory leak issue to me.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

The fact that you reboot and it fixes the problem is NOT that you're low on RAM. It is that you have a memory leak somewhere. I'd guess in your video drivers or possibly an application. To do a quickie check on applications, try this:

--> Play WoW until you start experiencing the problem.
--> Close WoW
--> CTRL+ALT+DEL and open Task Manager
--> When Task Manager opens, go to the View menu and select "Select Columns"
--> In the "Select Columns" window that opens up, put a check in the boxes next to "Handle Count," "Thread Count" and "GDI Objects."
--> Click OK in the "Select Columns" window.
--> In the main Task Manager window, check the box in the bottom left to enable "Show processes from all users"

Once you do this, size the window up a bit and see if you have any programs using up lots of handles, threads or GDI objects. Those are usually your offending processes. Once you identify which ones are being bad boys, you can take steps to upgrade them to more-system-friendly versions or disable them so that they don't impact your gaming. As an example, here's a couple of screenies from my work laptop to give you some feel for what default processes might look like:

http://l00py.net/misc/TM_Handles.jpg
http://l00py.net/misc/TM_Threads.jpg
http://l00py.net/misc/TM_GDI.jpg

Note that the mysqld-nt.exe process taking up 33k handles is a known behavior but is not normal for anything else. :P I've had two bug situations similar to what you describe, but affecting another program and/or the entire system. One showed >200k handles open for that one process, the other showed >3k GDI objects. Note that you should research what the "offending" process actually is before you kill it. ;)

Hope this helps.

[jdraughn]

Sounds like your Video card was overheating. Maybe use a overclocking utlitity and underclock it slightly. take the cover off your case. Make sure the fan on it is working, ect...

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I'd be surprised if it was temperature. My PC stabilizes after about 5-7 minutes of WoW. His takes an hour to go into WTF stage. I'd guess it was something more subtle.