I can't take this anymore

[Reach]

ok...theres a piccie of my thing lol

oh and i tryed setting sm to top priority on the list thing...it helped...on easier songs. the hard ones still lagged

[Synthlight]

Reach.. I would be willing to help you but first we need to know a little more about your computer configuration. Processor, graphics card, ram.. ram type, directX/direct3d versions.. There is no reason that XP should run stepmania slower unless you are overloading your system and available ram is a problem or you have so much junk running that the processor is bogged down. Do the ctrl-alt-delete thing and give me screen shots of all the tabbed areas besides networking.

Cheers,

Synthlight

[Cenright]

Oh yeah, I forgot about directX.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.aspx

That might help.

[Reach]

mmm i got

750 mhz
g-force 2 card...64 mb i think.
direct x 9 im pretty sure...i installed halo and it like downloaded itself.
don't think i have direct 3d
128 mb...don't know what kind

that was just offhand...uh if you need more info i might be able to get it

and i know it shouldn't be...it didn't before and i ran a bunch of stuff. it just started doing it since i got xp. its not OMFG CRAZY lag but its enough to screw me up really badly, or even fail songs i could pass before.

hes another screenshot...

users is just me (my name) says active and the first one just has ffr on it, windows media player and uh and aim chat.

[Cenright]

The Program Name? means I am not completely familiar with the program. Do you know the names of these programs? The one with the green arrows sounds like anti-virus software, but I can't tell very well with just this picture.

I know that you can end the processes that are shown with that mark by them, but you might want to do it in services. I'll get the picture in a second.

[Cenright]

Here is the services panel where you set and un-set services.


You right click on the service, click properties, and then select Automatic, Manual, or Disabled.

NOTE.
Almost never do you want to disable a service. You just want to change it from Automatic to Manual




The services you see are pretty much the barebone minimums that are actually needed to run the computer. If you have it this low, you will see a big difference in performance, but you want to be careful with what you change.
You might want to take a screen shot of the services. Click Status to sort status and then click Startup Type to make the sorting easier.

[Cenright]

Well I have to start a session of homework, so I wont be able to keep this up. It is due by midnight and I haven't even started. I hope I helped some.

[makaveli121212]

xp has nothing to do with it...basically your computer isnt that good at 750 mhz and the gforce 2 is subpar ram isnt good, you should have at least 256...you need to upgrade all 3

[tnyhwk900]

750 MHZ? 128 MEGS?

ROFFLE.

[d0ot]

Concerning the EM_EXEC.exe process -

Reach, do you have a Logitech mouse? I remember seeing that process before in my task manager, disabled it a while ago and didn't seem to have any problems, but it turns out its a mouse driver (oh noes) program (see first attachment)

I found the name of the process by going into Start Menu -> Run -> type in "msconfig", then going to the "Startup" tab, you should see a screen like this (see second attachment).

The checked items are the ones that startup normally with windows, such as the system processes, and other things (see third attachment).

The unchecked processes are those annoying spyware shitbags (sahagent, GMT) that you can never seem to uninstall, and ICQ because I hate it :P
If you figure out for sure the processes that you don't want to load on startup, you can uncheck the box.
As for stepmania, as said before, get your monitor refresh rate as high as possible (usually 75 Hz) and run stepmania in windowed mode. You can also try installing a different version and see if that works, but it probably won't do much. An extra 256 mb stick of ram (DDR ram, it allows you to play DDR on your computer :P) wouldn't hurt either, xp is a bigger resource hog than 98.


P.S. 1st post, wee

[Reach]

i can run halo without lag....

and most games that don't require stats over my limits.

and i can't run sm? -__-

how come it worked before without lag then? lol

thats what i don't get...meh.

edit: yea logitec mouse...

don't see anything wrong with my vid card. most new games only require a 32 meg card, maybe 64...but they'll still run fine without having like omg 256 meg card.


ill try getting more ram...i know it isn't that expensive. processor will have to wait :S

[Synthlight]

Reach.. spend the $25 and buy yourself another 128mb of ram. Your life will be so much easier. I would recommend a new computer but some people don't have that kind of budget to work with.

Cheers,

Synthlight

[Reach]

no...no i dont lol.

k ill get some more ram :S

my parents are just cheap...and i don't have enough money for this shit.

i got 25 bucks easy though XD

<-- still doesn't understand why it would run fine on 98 and not now :S o well

[Privateer]

Eh, I IM'd you with ideas.

[makaveli121212]

best buys got some nice deals on ram...actually when i went the other day they had some 512 ram on sale for less then the 256ram...weird, but i dont recommend having any less then 512 mb of ram now-a-days...if you can keep most of the songs in memory they wont lag...and thats a guarantee...shop around though, some places have it cheap...like i said best buy is just crazy by my house