How to get rid of lag on Vista

[thegreginator]

HOW TO MAKE PJ64K LAG A LOT LESS ON VISTA

I have Windows Vista on a laptop, and with limited processing power, I have had a lot of trouble getting pj64k (or pj64ve) to run without lag. My games would always play at about 40 fps, whether online or not, regardless of settings, graphics plugins used, etc. The following is a solution guide to getting rid of almost all of this lag (my games now run at a solid 60 fps):

1. Go to Control Panel -> System and Maintenance. Click Power Options and select maximum performance. (This will kill battery life, so if you want you can change it back to a more battery-friendly mode after you're done playing)

2. Next, still in Control Panel -> System and Maintenance, go to Performance Information and Tools. On the left go to adjust visual effects. Click the circle that says Adjust for best performance and hit apply. (Again, if you really want you can change this back after playing).

3. Now go to Control Panel -> Appearance and Personalization -> Personalization -> Display Settings. The resolution here will probably be at its highest. The lower you drag it, the more it will help reduce lag. Just go as low as you care to. Going too low may have problems, I just lowered it one notch and it helped with lag a lot.


Sorry if this is common knowledge, but my games lagged very badly and I could never figure out why. Hope this helps everyone like it helped me.

I've just been playing console for the last year (ever since I got my new computer), but now that I can play online again without lag problems, I'll be playing a lot more p2p games. Hit me up on AIM at thegreginator84 if you want to play.

 

[NixxxoN]

Best solution (if you have a limited cpu power) is to get rid of vista and get back to XP.
Or if you love Win Vista, another solution is to get rid of your old computer...

Vista = slower XP with a better appearance, thats all.

 

[Superstar]

His computer would lag the same with XP, more or less. Depends on his RAM.

His computer just isn't too good.

Vista doesn't hog CPU last I checked. Just RAM, and maybe GFX [which almost all laptops have a pissy graphics "card"].

 

[NixxxoN]

I know 3 people that they switched to vista and they all say vista is slower.

BTW, laptops suck if you don't ever move it from your home. A normal PC is way better and cheaper.

 

[Superstar]

By new Vista, you mean Windows 7? The "new" Vista?

Compared to 2000, XP was an incompatible resource hog too, you know. I still think XP > Vista, but you got to call an egg an egg [0.o]. Even then, telling someone to downgrade to XP is bad advice. The system costs $90 off Newegg, and then with backing up files, and that you have to spend a day waiting for it to install, well, it's more work than it's worth. Maybe you can partition [the sweet thing is that you can transfer files between Windows partitions], but then you got to defragment to have more room to partition on, and the Vista defragmenter just SUCKS. Defrags take a while too. You can pirate, but then you need a good internet connection [depends on where you live], and if you want to work with that hassle.

Also, if lowering your resolution makes it better your graphics card is likely your bottleneck. Shame they can't be replaced, but maybe that's what I needed to remove lag in my laptop [2.0Ghz Dual Core is good for system tasks, but for single threaded apps, just disgusting].

I completely agree with laptop vs PC comparison though. I have a laptop, but it's for non-gaming uses.

 

[NixxxoN]

By new Vista, you mean Windows 7? The "new" Vista?

Compared to 2000, XP was an incompatible resource hog too, you know. I still think XP > Vista, but you got to call an egg an egg [0.o]. Even then, telling someone to downgrade to XP is bad advice. The system costs $90 off Newegg, and then with backing up files, and that you have to spend a day waiting for it to install, well, it's more work than it's worth. Maybe you can partition [the sweet thing is that you can transfer files between Windows partitions], but then you got to defragment to have more room to partition on, and the Vista defragmenter just SUCKS. Defrags take a while too. You can pirate, but then you need a good internet connection [depends on where you live], and if you want to work with that hassle.

Also, if lowering your resolution makes it better your graphics card is likely your bottleneck. Shame they can't be replaced, but maybe that's what I needed to remove lag in my laptop [2.0Ghz Dual Core is good for system tasks, but for single threaded apps, just disgusting].

I completely agree with laptop vs PC comparison though. I have a laptop, but it's for non-gaming uses.

It's worth going back to XP if your system is relatively slow. You can always have vista for a new pc I mean. Vista hasnt got anything useful in comparison to XP.
Laptop vs PC is ridiculous, not even a contest:

Laptop advantages:
-Portable
-Small size

Laptop disatvantages:
-Much more expensive
-Can't upgrade easily
-Expensive to maintain
-Easily breakable
-Small screen
-Less powerful
-Integrated Keyboard and Mouse are worse
-Estimated useful life: 3-4 years (normal PC 10 years)

 

[Superstar]

PC it depends. If you get it from one of the cheaper brands expect it to only last 3-4 years useful. If you build it yourself, expect a high initial cost but MASSIVE upgradeability.

I can upgrade up to 16GB RAM, and any Intel Core 2 I want. Meaning once that quad core 3Ghz gets cheap, I'm getting it.

Laptop advantages are huge, actually. So much so that Gaming PC + Cheap Laptop > Gaming Laptop for the same price. Once you set a home network as well it's even better.

If your system is slow you can upgrade it for cheaper than it costs to get XP. Depends on your computer.

 

[MattNF]

Just buy some RAM. >_> It's like $20 for 2GB. Bam. Lag problems gone.

 

[Superstar]

Depends on the computer. My laptop has 3GB RAM and it runs PJ64k meh.

 

[Skrlx]

I'm actually considering saving up for a alienware desktop.. but i hear alot of people saying alienware overprices their computers and that you can build your own equivelant for thousands of dollars less.

i've built PC's for years so i kinda agree now i'm in the HUNT for some parts

but i dunno

 

[Lawrencelot]

I have a laptop with XP. How do I make my games lag less?

Btw, I don't have much lag unless I'm wireless, with wireless internet I have these annoying lagspikes that appear every x seconds

 

[NixxxoN]

I have a laptop with XP. How do I make my games lag less?

Btw, I don't have much lag unless I'm wireless, with wireless internet I have these annoying lagspikes that appear every x seconds

to avoid lag and to run the emulator very smoothly:

1) Have a powerful PC with a lot of RAM memory.
2) Have a good graphics card (Nvidia GeForce for example).
3) Have your PC clean of virus/spyware.
4) Don't use a wireless connection but cable connection.

 

[Superstar]

Ah, yes. Wireless just sucks. My MAIN reason for lag. I'd still have some lag on my laptop but wireless is just disgusting.

EVEN if you fix that auto-update every 60 seconds deal, it's still bad.

Good graphics card is fairly important. Maybe not THAT important, but it helps.

 

[Lawrencelot]

Ah, yes. Wireless just sucks. My MAIN reason for lag. I'd still have some lag on my laptop but wireless is just disgusting.

EVEN if you fix that auto-update every 60 seconds deal, it's still bad.

Good graphics card is fairly important. Maybe not THAT important, but it helps.

What? autoupdate every 60 seconds? What is it and how do I fix it?

 

[Superstar]

Ok, first of all, apparently your wireless dingy likes to check for new routers every 60 seconds. Which is why if you leave hibernation in a new area, you see your old routers first, then later it changes to the new routers. Pretty annoying.

To test if you have the problem, put this in your command prompt
ping ip -t

Replace ip with your router's IP address. If that ping goes to like 80 or 200 every 60 seconds or so, you have the problem. Even then, this number might be unstable. On my desktop I get <1ms but on my laptop it changes between 1-4ms. If it's 8ms normally or so, get closer to the router, point up the attenas, change your wireless channel.

The fix, obviously, is to stop Vista from searching every 60 seconds. But now here's the problem, once you do that, you can no longer find routers, not even manually. You'll need to learn how to turn it off, and how to turn it back on when you stop playing.

I'm not on my laptop so I can't copy paste what I have. Try this though:
http://www.overclock.net/windows/294052-vista-lag-spikes-every-30sec-fixed.html

Without restarting. Try before and after and see if it works. Also try Vista anti-lag, but I hear you need to rollback to XP drivers [lol] before it works.

 

[Lawrencelot]

How many of this applies to XP? Because the ms do change every 60 seconds or so but i have xp

 

[Superstar]

All of it except you have XP drivers so it should work.

 

[firo]

I was getting the 30 second lag spikes and decided to find a solution when I got vista. Disabling the wireless service can work in Vista, but can disconnect you from the network if you don't use a separate client. Instead of doing that, I recommend this:

http://www.martin-majowski.de/wlanoptimizer/

Which is a small program that can begin at startup which overrides the default settings for the Vista network. There is no need to change any registry settings or roll back drivers. It has worked very well for me and has virtually eliminated all the lag that I could cause with the lag spikes. I doubt that any difference will be seen in XP.

When I had XP. the best solution for a similar problem is to disable the "wireless zero connection" service after you have connected to the network. You would need to go to run and type in "services.msc" and scroll down until you see "wireless zero connection" to right click and disable it. It's a pain to do it each time the computer starts up, but it will solve the problem.

I work often with computers and I would recommend building a computer as opposed to buying one from Alienware. The main factor in emulation speed is the processor, so I would recommend an upgrade in that if PJ or Mupen run slow. (ram couldn't hurt either and it is getting cheap) I have run both emulators fine with integrated graphics on the past laptopts I have used.