Ask WoW Insider: WoW runs slow
by Mark Crump 
May 12th 2008 at 9:00AM
Welcome to today's edition of Ask WoW Insider, in which we publish your questions for dissection by the peanut gallery -- now with extra snark and commentary by one of our writers. This week Nick writes in:
Hello to all the writers/columnists at WoWinsider! My name is Nick and I would greatly appreciate for your help/advice. My problem is that my PC, runs on windows XP home edition, is very VERY slow. I believe that it is because of an infestation of viruses, even though I run AVG free edition, Avast, and Spyhunter. I scan once a week and nothing comes up. My gameplay in WoW is very...laggy. If I am lucky enough, I'll get maybe, 10-20fps in Azeroth and 7-9fps in outlands/isle of quel'danas. It has been like this for a long time. I play a 70 bloodelf Mage, Evolves, on Lightbringer-US while I live in the east coast, even though its a west coast server. I understand that brings my latency up but still not as bad as 1fps EVERYTIME in shatt. I need some help to speed up my computer and maximize efficiency, any ideas/advice? Anything would help me because I'm desperate and am considering quitting WoW if this continues... :'(
Sincerely,
Nick
You haven't gotten into what your specs are, so I'm going to assume you've likely that you've got a PC that's a couple-three years old, at one point gave you decent performance, and you're having over-all system-level slowness. I'm also going to assume you've got a real video card and not an integrated video chip.
Running those toola are responsible first steps -- although I'm sure people will chime in on whether they are effective or not. But doing them shows you've given this some thought. It's unlikely the server location is adding to the lag.
Your best option is probably a system rebuild. Windows is famous for getting grunky (that's a technical term) after an install a few years old; more frequently if you've played just about every MMO like and uninstalls have made your hard drive look like it should be declared a Federal Disaster Area.
Commenters are likely to chime in with some things to try -- actually, I'm banking on it; that's why I'm tossing this out there. I'd start downloading all your drivers and backing up your data. I just went through this routine this weekend (my PC was at that "turn it on and go make a sandwich while it boots up stage) and it's quite liberating.
How about you tech-savvy readers? Got anything he should try before nuking it from orbit?
Got questions? Don't wait! Send them to us at ask AT wowinsider DOT com and your query could be up in lights here next week.
Filed under: Ask WoW Insider
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Aaron May 12th 2008 9:09AM
Ctrl-Alt-Delete, go into you task manager and look at your processes before booting WoW, sort them by memory usage. Take a look at whats running and is taking up more than 1,000K. The junk that's clogging your system has lots of paces to hide, but not here. So if you see something that says "Me Like slow your computer down 4KK at a time" go ahead and end that process and all of its ilk.
anonymoose May 12th 2008 10:25AM
"Ctrl-Alt-Delete, go into you task manager and look at your processes before booting WoW, sort them by memory usage. Take a look at whats running and is taking up more than 1,000K. The junk that's clogging your system has lots of paces to hide, but not here. So if you see something that says "Me Like slow your computer down 4KK at a time" go ahead and end that process and all of its ilk."
I have to say this is very dangerous advice--while running the task manager so you can figure out which processes are sucking the CPUs is a wise first choice--advising someone to simply kill the high useage resources is completely irresponsible.
Before you kill anything from your task mgr, please be sure to check each process at the following site to know what you are turning off, and the potential consequences
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm
(And by task mgr I mean the utility to see everything you have running and the CPU useage, not the lower right hand tool tray.)
Reddeth May 12th 2008 1:08PM
@anonymoose -
Nice link. Thanx.
Stormscape May 12th 2008 2:14PM
First off, THREE anti-malware programs would slow anybodies' machine down.
IMO that system is so far gone, a rebuild is inevitable, I think, so I'd just do it and get it over with. Once you've got a clean sleight, with Internet Explorer's settings set to "unusably secure" and you've got firefox and your basic other stuff set up,
get in the habit of hitting Ctrl+Alt+Delete and the processes tab before you do ANYTHING. Sort by username, because 99 times out of 100, anything you need to be worried about will be listed by your username, and not "system" or those others. Get used to looking at this list.
Google everything you see on it, usually just scanning the blurbs on the search-results page is enough to tell you if it is malicious or not.
Again, get used to looking at this list, and remember to hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete before and after doing ANYTHING else. Once you get into the habit, it'll only take you a few seconds to scan the list, and anything that shouldn't be there will jump out at you and you can immediately go play "Search and Delete" if its obviously bad, or google it first if you're unsure.
jrb May 13th 2008 9:09AM
i'd second the call for rebuild. some tips once you've done that
- once you have drivers installed, set up a non-administrative user, and ALWAYS run as that user apart from when you need to install software. ALWAYS! This is what macs and linux force you to do.
- keep windows up-to-date
- run spyware blaster (http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html) - it's not a scanner, it populates IE and Firefox with safe and unsafe sites, thus blocking most known ad/spyware
- be VERY wary of random anti spyware tools, registry cleaners, system optimisers. a lot of them do more harm than good, and can in some cases infect your pc with crap
- if you still want to run Anti-Virus (although you don't so much need to if you're running as a non-admin), get a good reputable one, no one that shows up in a google search. Only go for the antivirus product, not the all-in-one internet security which really hog system resources like a bitch, and aren't really necessary.
these simple steps, especially step 1, will keep you and your PC clean and sane.
Kizorblade May 12th 2008 9:12AM
Backup important data, reformat it
Or
Backup important data, get a new computer
Oh, and if you do have an integrated graphics card... get an external one
Turning down the resolution etc. helps too :)
Sakerin May 12th 2008 1:06PM
The correct term would be a discrete video card. The term external implies that the video card is outside of the computer, which is highly unlikely (there are a limited number of solutions that utilize this type of connection but none of them are useful for gaming).
Faldrath May 12th 2008 9:15AM
Not sure how Avast and AVG interact, but, from my experience, antivirus programs hate coexisting - and they're probably taking up a good chunk of your memory while they fight.
But yeah, without knowing your computer spec, it's hard to give advice. You may just have very little RAM, or an integrated video card, or a slow CPU, or not very much free HD space, or all of the above... lots of things could be causing it.
dirtysteve May 12th 2008 9:30AM
I didn't even catch that while reading the email but I can almost guarantee thats part of the problem.
I used to see that all the time where I worked, Customer would install their antivirus of choice without removing the trial that came with their computer. It would grind everything to a halt.
Baluki May 12th 2008 1:14PM
Actually, I'm currently running both Avast and AVG with no problems, and no slowdowns.
I've been a long-time AVG user, but I wanted to evaluate Avast because it doesn't seem like AVG loads itself immediately into memory (or whatever). Both seem good, and I don't know which to stick with.
wyrd May 12th 2008 1:25PM
I would definitely only tun one form of AV at a time. That is definitely eating into the available resources.
Ray May 12th 2008 9:18AM
It could be the server he is playing on. I recently switched servers and I find my new one extremely laggy and makes my WoW play like crap. My friend switched servers with me aswell and his runs fine and if anything better then our old server. Make note, I am running on a laptop which is 5 months old (so it can't be my system) and the server is based out of Chicago and I am in Toronto, Canada.
Faldrath May 12th 2008 9:36AM
Latency and FPS are mostly unrelated. I'm in Brazil, playing in an East coast server, and my latency usually hovers around 250-450ms (which is bad, but very playable). My FPS can go from 70-80 in Outland/Azeroth, to 20-40 in Shatt and 5-10 during boss fights in 25-man raids - my computer is 4 years old, though.
Yaimano May 12th 2008 10:33AM
Like was said, fps and latency are totally unrelated. I can get over 1k ms and nothing changes graphically. And your laptop could be the problem even if it is 5 months old, a lot still have integrated graphics or otherwise poor hardware.
But yeah reading this story immediately set of "that's bad" alarms when I saw he runs two types of AV software. Don't do it.
Chris Anthony May 12th 2008 4:31PM
I kind of giggle whenever I see someone talk about latency under 500ms as "bad". The first six months I played WOW, I did so on a dial-up connection that ran to 33.6 at best (there was no cable, DSL, or satellite service due to the remote location); after latencies of three full seconds or more, 250-400ms sounds like pure luxury. :)
Gaelric May 12th 2008 9:18AM
I find that running too many addons slows down my wow performance. I am over 100 addons now most of which are ace2. But I see a very big difference if I disable them and try to run vanilla wow.
Its really hard for me to do this because I addons may be my favorite part of the game.
If you are only running two or three then this probably isn't your issue.
Some other steps you can take to speed up performance without a complete reformat and reinstall include:
Running a defragmenter
buy/installing more RAM
Uninstalling all those programs you don't use.
Checking what programs run when you start your computer is msconfig.sys and disabling those things that run in the background like ituneshelper and things like that. Individually they don't take up much memory, but if you have a lot of them running go ahead and stop them.
Good luck
stonekiller May 12th 2008 1:32PM
After reading the persons email, a few things come to mind. However without knowing the hardware spec's of this persons machine it may very well be in need of some upgrading.
My suggeation is uninstall either AVG or Avast, both are very capable AV solutions by them selves but will conflict with each other if they are both running at the same time.
Secondly run a defrag on your computer, performance gains are to be made by running that over night.
Drivers, especially video drivers can make a world of difference in performance.
An obscure but surprisingly relevant. Make sure that your fan and heatsync on your CPU are clean and free of dust. Newer generations of Intel cpu's will slow down if they are getting excessively hot, the CPU will clock down automatically to save it's self from being damaged. This will reduce performance dramatically. Seen it happen many times.
And as a final and kind of last straw, format and re-install windows. Sometimes a clean install of everything is just what is needed. Personally I try to do a fresh install at least once a year if not every 6 months.
Good luck!
dirtysteve May 12th 2008 9:29AM
With so little information on the system it's hard to give solid advice but heres a couple of ideas...
It sounds like the machine may need RAM 20 FPS is not horrible (from a non hardcore gamer POV) but the harsh drop in Shatt suggests the system can't handle the extra people which usually means the system only has 512 MB up that to 1GB if possible and it will make worlds of difference.
If the OS install is a few years old you may need to reinstall, or it may just need a defrag, if it's really bad the Windows utility may not be able to help in which case go get Diskkeeper (free 30 day trial on their website, google it) or some other disk utility to clean things up a bit.
If you have a lot of programs running on you system tray (the icons on the bottom right bar) that will slow you down, consider turning off as much as you can.
Same goes in game with Addons. My wife does this and it bugs me, sh has an older computer that runs WOW ok until she installs two dozen addons, then it runs at around 5 fps in cities and raids.
Umm lets see... what else?
If you computer emits grinding or clicking noises that could be a sign of a slowing or failing hard drive. Most systems have a hard drive test in the BIOS (hit del or f1 or whatever to load when the computer is turning on) that you can run that MAY tell you if theirs problems.
I've had good results using Trend Micro's house call online virus/spyware scanner if you think it's a virus or malware (strange icons or behavior are some signs of this). You can find it here housecall.trendmicro.com
These lots more you can do but thats a good start :D
I will gladly clarify any of this as needed, just ask.
mdmadph May 12th 2008 9:29AM
If he's like everyone else who I've ever helped out because their Windows PC was "running slow," it's just the 35 or so applications running in the lower-right hand Task Manager. -_-'
GrizzlyAdams May 12th 2008 11:05PM
You are referring to the system tray, task manager is something completely different.
System Tray: tiny icons at the bottom right corner of the taskbar.
Task Manager: application which lets you find out whats using up resources on your computer.