Have you checked the HDD?
It's just an idea, but may cause your issue (freezing/slowing down for some time then goes normal): 4GB RAM may not be enough for those games you're playing (you may also have some other applications running in same time). Then your OS is using the virtual memory - uses space on HDD to write out the "overflowed" things. Now, if you're running that system for a while, having a lot of things on the storage and forced the use of virtual memory, it may happened that your HDD got very fragmented...
So, if I would be you, I would start assessing the HDD status...
It's just an idea, but may cause your issue (freezing/slowing down for some time then goes normal): 4GB RAM may not be enough for those games you're playing (you may also have some other applications running in same time). Then your OS is using the virtual memory - uses space on HDD to write out the "overflowed" things. Now, if you're running that system for a while, having a lot of things on the storage and forced the use of virtual memory, it may happened that your HDD got very fragmented...
So, if I would be you, I would start assessing the HDD status...
Glad to hear that you're making advances!
Yes, it really seems that your HDD was the cause. Using your game from an external HDD could be one solution. However, remember that the virtual memory/page file is still going to be written on the internal HDD (of course, if you didn't changed that already)... So, the continuous writing is still there to further defragment your disk.
What I would do, is that to defragment the internal HDD. Backup your system and data before doing that! If you never did that over those 2 years, actually you may get amazed from the changes...
About the memory... well, if you feel that 4GB is enough, it's OK with me! Is just what I said earlier, if the system is using virtual memory - it will slow it down. You still could play a little bit with the page file size though...
Using an SSD would make your system to start faster, loading the OS and applications will be faster. Not sure right now if your laptop HDD is SATA II or III... Anyway, the SSD will be faster than a HDD, just on SATA III connection you would feel the speed differences better.
And here comes an other thing: how did you connected the external drive with your game to the laptop? Also choose the faster connections for better performance!
Yes, it really seems that your HDD was the cause. Using your game from an external HDD could be one solution. However, remember that the virtual memory/page file is still going to be written on the internal HDD (of course, if you didn't changed that already)... So, the continuous writing is still there to further defragment your disk.
What I would do, is that to defragment the internal HDD. Backup your system and data before doing that! If you never did that over those 2 years, actually you may get amazed from the changes...
About the memory... well, if you feel that 4GB is enough, it's OK with me! Is just what I said earlier, if the system is using virtual memory - it will slow it down. You still could play a little bit with the page file size though...
Using an SSD would make your system to start faster, loading the OS and applications will be faster. Not sure right now if your laptop HDD is SATA II or III... Anyway, the SSD will be faster than a HDD, just on SATA III connection you would feel the speed differences better.
And here comes an other thing: how did you connected the external drive with your game to the laptop? Also choose the faster connections for better performance!
I'm sorry for not being more precise with that "virtual memory" thing :)... The other day was posting in more detail (check post #6): http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?15387-What-to-do-with-16gigs
If after reading it, still not clear (and of course, you're interested in), you could try a search on google... or let me know! By "playing with the page file size" I meant that there are settings for that, also in Windows - but you will see after some readings (or post back if you have problems with that)
Defragmentation has to be done regularly, actually you can set it up in Windows.
My point with connecting the the external drive from where you're loading your game through USB 2.0 may be slower than doing it through SATA II. Practically, if you have space on the internal drive, just run it from there (of course, after you did a maintenance on it: remove junk files and those you don't need, defragment, etc.)
If after reading it, still not clear (and of course, you're interested in), you could try a search on google... or let me know! By "playing with the page file size" I meant that there are settings for that, also in Windows - but you will see after some readings (or post back if you have problems with that)
Defragmentation has to be done regularly, actually you can set it up in Windows.
My point with connecting the the external drive from where you're loading your game through USB 2.0 may be slower than doing it through SATA II. Practically, if you have space on the internal drive, just run it from there (of course, after you did a maintenance on it: remove junk files and those you don't need, defragment, etc.)
