Thinkpads Forum

My t60-e81 has a T7200 CPU, 2G memory, x1400 graphic card. But
the display will still pause suddenly even when I play starcraft. The scene the display may pause is as follow: If you build a building in the game, there will be a green shadow of the building follow your mouse. When the shadow appear the game will stop and resume quickly with a high probability.
As we all know we can play starcraft fluently even using a 586. I also met the same problem when I play cs, warcraft.
At the beginning, I thought it was the problem of the graphic card driver. So I upgraded all of my driver including graphic card driver, mainbord driver, even my bios. But the problem was still here.
Then I bought it's the problem of the hardware. So I changed my mainboard. But the problem still there. Oh my god!
Who can help me?

are you using Vista on that T60? Pretty weird, i think you're overheating and that's why it's freezing. Are you playing on a flat level surface not like on your bed with sheets and all that?

I have the same problem with any Games I have tried other than a very old version of Civ 2, it is tearing based on the prominent active feature on a game field.

I have also tried changing every setting in every combination I can think of.

Running XP, not a heating issue

An suggestions would be greatly appreciated

I haven't played that game so I don't know.

But I can play doom 3 very smoothly at medium setting. Half life plays very well too. Snow blind project plays real nice too.

You might want to make sure you have your setting configured to max performance. You can also try some optimized ati driver. They do improve performance. One I can think of is Omega, and the other I forgot the name.

sdulyx wrote:My t60-e81 has a T7200 CPU, 2G memory, x1400 graphic card. But
the display will still pause suddenly even when I play starcraft. The scene the display may pause is as follow: If you build a building in the game, there will be a green shadow of the building follow your mouse. When the shadow appear the game will stop and resume quickly with a high probability.
As we all know we can play starcraft fluently even using a 586. I also met the same problem when I play cs, warcraft.
At the beginning, I thought it was the problem of the graphic card driver. So I upgraded all of my driver including graphic card driver, mainbord driver, even my bios. But the problem was still here.
Then I bought it's the problem of the hardware. So I changed my mainboard. But the problem still there. Oh my god!
Who can help me?

Too old games sometimes did not run fine on brand new hardware mostly wit Vista.

Fraggle wrote:I have the same problem with any Games I have tried other than a very old version of Civ 2, it is tearing based on the prominent active feature on a game field.

I have also tried changing every setting in every combination I can think of.

Running XP, not a heating issue

An suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Now I think it's may be the problem of my hard disk. What's the manufacture of your hard disk? Mine is made by TOSHIBA.

re: starcraft.
the starcraft code does not support speedstep to my knowlege. what makes it worse is that when starcraft is running, the cpu usage is 100% all the time. (i think this was done on purpose, otherwise it's a major bug that never got delt with)

my solution was to undervolt using nhc as well as setting to max battery in power manager.

this made my system stable / reasonably cool for more than 2 hours of playing.

hope this helps.

jkahng wrote:re: starcraft.
the starcraft code does not support speedstep to my knowlege. what makes it worse is that when starcraft is running, the cpu usage is 100% all the time. (i think this was done on purpose, otherwise it's a major bug that never got delt with)

my solution was to undervolt using nhc as well as setting to max battery in power manager.

this made my system stable / reasonably cool for more than 2 hours of playing.

hope this helps.

I have changed my setting to max performance, but the problem is still there. My friend's t60 can play starcraft very fluently. I only want to know what wrong is with my t60.

Take his hard disk and place it on your T60. You will see if it's an hardware or software issue...

quote
I have changed my setting to max performance, but the problem is still there. My friend's t60 can play starcraft very fluently. I only want to know what wrong is with my t60.
end quote

you should change the power setting to max battery not max performance. also change the graphics to low.
also monitor your cpu and gpu temps to see if they are within range.

starcraft runs on a pentium mmx 166. so no matter how low you set your performance setting to on your t60, it will run very well.

as for the harddrive, you should try pc doctor or toshiba's diag program to see if there are any problems with that..

Be sure that the PowerPlay setting in the Catalyst Control Center for Plugged In (AC) is set for "Maximum Performance".

I think you can update firstly your x1400 drivers.

If you shake your laptop, the harddrive-heads will park, and the computer pauses. You could try disabling the utility temporarily.

I have set my powerplay to max performance,updated my video driver to the latest version and disabled the APS. But it didn't change the situation.

sdulyx wrote:I have set my powerplay to max performance,updated my video driver to the latest version and disabled the APS. But it didn't change the situation.

I'm curious if you found a way to fix it. I have almost the exact machine as yours, but haven't tried StarCraft yet. I noticed though my screen is flickering at random.

I'll post here after I try playing SC.

P.S. I haven't checked what manufacturer of my HD is.

I have installed StarCraft and Diablo 2, and played for a while, everything seemed to be fine. BTW, my HD is made by Hitachi. But, I doubt it had anything to do with it.

I have change my ram to test the problem. The result showed that it has nothing to do with my ram. If there is no problem with my mainboard, it's may be the problem of my cpu or hard disk. Anyone who can give me a suggestion how to test my cpu and my hard disk.

Thanks a lot.

sorry to de-rail, but how well does a T60p or a T61 run CS?
i can imagine SC and D2 run perfectly , because their so old. but what about CS, warcraft 3, and maybe even world of warcraft?
i plan on getting the integrated video card because i wont be gaming much, but im just curious about the performance.