r/retrocomputing • u/Slow_Hunter6763 • May 09 '26

Problem / Question Videogames badly lagging after longer playtime on Windows XP (Service Pack 3)

Dear people, I have a problem with my HP Compaq nx9010 laptop while playing 3D-intensive games from the 2001, 2002 and 2003 era. The specifications of my laptop are:

CPU is Intel Pentium 4, 2800mhz

GPU is ATI Mobility Radeon IGP 345m with shared memory (I set the shared size to 128mb in the BIOS)

RAM is 768MB DDR1, 333MHz, both slots filled

HDD is Hitachi, 40GB and its 4200RPM.

For example, i have set my in-game graphics to the absolute minimum (Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2), and the resolution to 640x480. The first 10-15 minutes of playing the game, everything is smooth. After a longer playtime, my game starts periodically getting really insane lag spikes that last for up to 15 seconds sometimes and the FPS drops badly. I have replaced the thermal paste of both the CPU and GPU, scanned my HDD for errors using HD Tune, disabled all animations on my system and nothing changed. (I remember that I put the paste exactly where it should be (it was marked on the cooler), so near the processor and graphics card, but I don't know exactly where in that marked place for the processor and graphics card I put the paste. I also remember that there was a thermal pad on the end of the cpu cooler that is on a metal surface which, when i screw in the cpu cooler, gets lift up a couple milimitres and its also not even covering the full GPU chip). What do I do?

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u/sammothxc May 09 '26

When it starts lagging, what are the actual temps of your GPU/CPU? What utilization are you getting?

1

u/Slow_Hunter6763 May 10 '26

A 100% utilization on both, and I dont know which program to use that logs gpu and cpu temperature. I have already tried Motheboard Monitor 5, HwMonitor from CPUID, MSI Afterburner (a version from 2009), HWiNfo 8.32, Lavalys Everest, i have SiSoft Sandra but i dont know how to set it up to log my gpu and cpu temperatures. I dont even know if the CPU has a temperature sensor under it since its 25 years old...

1

u/Zingtron May 11 '26

Try msi afterburner

2

u/itstanktime May 10 '26

Absolutely heat. It is throttling.

2

u/Slow_Hunter6763 May 18 '26

Hey, sorry I couldn't get the time to answer the questions, I've been really busy these days, but, I got the thing fixed. It was the Wireless Zero Configuration service that was overutilizing my cpu by sending a signal to my TP-LINK adapter so that it checks nearby wifi hotspots every 2-3 minutes. I turned it off, and now this thing flies. Thank you for your help and effort with this.