2Box / wife's Computer help for those with the knowledge ...

[Gunrack]

Below is the 2Box/wife computer's information from HP. Now here is the situation. It "plays" everquest.. but.. zoning times are HORRIBLE.. I mean from 5 minutes at the least to 15 minutes at times and logging on is a 20 minute ordeal. I am actually a little puzzled since my main computer is only 800 MHZ and this one is 1.5 GHZ and my main one works flawlesly... now the reason for this post is.. I know I could just buy a crap load of RAM and a new video card and bam.. done... but is it really necessary? I do not know.. hence my post..

Was wondering if someone could tell me here if its definitetly RAM/VIDEO CARD/RAM issue or 'maybe' the preloaded software? if you guys's answer is simply.. get new video card and ram cause thats all the problem is.. then... which of those is top priority? I am trying to spend the least amount of money to make it "more playeable" Please any ideas?

P.S. I've had this computer for 2 years now.. I've used it to 2BOX but mainly to powerlevel friends while I was playing etc.. never have dared to use it on raids and such to zone cause I don't trust it... tried to get my wife to play and it was a failure due to the fact that if she died.. (which she learned to notmind too mluch) she had to wait 5 minutes to the least just to start CR for herself.. so help would be greatly appreciated as I am in the military and might be going to a remote assignment (not with my wife) for a year... and if she could play EQ with me that would be great.

Computer Product Number
P5160A

Country Sold In
USA and Canada (including Quebec)

Chassis Features
Front I/O
2 - USB
1 - 1394

Chassis Bays
2 - 5.25" CD external
1 - 3.5" HDD internal
1 - 3.5" FDD external
1 - 3.5" other



Processor / FSB Speed
Pentium (R) 4 1.5 GHz/ 400

Motherboard
PGA423 Intel 850

I/O on Motherboard
10/100 BT
1394 (no ext. cable)
Motherboard slots
3 PCI
1 AGP
4 RIMM
Memory
RAM
128MB

Maximum
2GB

Speed
PC800/PC600

Type
RDRAM (Rambus)

RIMM Slots
4 RIMM (pairs required)



Hard drive
60 GB

Optical drives
16x DVD
8x4x32 CDRW
Keyboard / Mouse
· Illuminated One Touch Internet Keyboard
· USB Optical Scroller

Modem / Audio
Lucent Cheetah 2 V.92 modem
Creative Ensoniq Floyd LC PCI sound card
Graphics
GeForce2 MX 200 32 MB graphics card

Speakers
Polk Audio E series speakers (right and left)

Software and revision
· 13NAbABCH2
· 13WWbPA2

Other
StudioDV CD in box

Operating system source
Microsoft (R) Windows Me (Millennium Edition)

Software
Productivity / Finance
Microsoft Works 6.0
Microsoft Money 2001
Education / Reference
Encarta 2000 Encyclopedia
Imaging
Photo Center by ArcSoft (R)
Entertainment
Music Match Jukebox (with HP Themes)
User Choice Icon (URL - //mysoftwarechoice.com)
CDRW / DVD
Direct CD by Adaptec
Easy CD Creator by Adaptec
UDF Reader by Adaptec
Acrobat Readers by Adobe (R)
WinDVD 2000
HP Pavilionware
Ehelp / Motive / PC Doctor
HP Tour Guide (Desktop Agent Tour)
HP Surfboard (HP Internet Center)
HP Pavilion User's Guide (on-line) (linked to eHelp)
Internet applications
Trellix : Web authoring software
Trellix : Web tutorial (flash demo)
AOL 6.0 Canada
AOL 5.0 ISP
CompuServe 2000 ISP
Earthlink
AT&T Canada ISP
AT&T WorldNet US ISP
Disney Daily Blast ISP

[Haass]

Memory
RAM
128MB


Start there. That's not enough.

[Sackett]

Graphics
GeForce2 MX 200 32 MB graphics card


I had this in my computer. I had zoneing issues along with lag like no other. I upgraded to a : GeForce 4 128 MB card. After installing it EQ runs a lot better.

[Brutul]

RAM is definitely your problem, get more, at least 256 MB, 512 if you can afford it.

2 of my 3 computers have GF2's, zone times are not a problem. It's your RAM

[Kellaen]

Yep ram, you're prolly running some of the new models too (another major ram hog) Get at least 512 if you want models on or the system will bog down bad anytime you think of zoning.

[Kadah]

Also defrag your hard drive once a month trust me that does wander's..
If your using dial up get rid of it and use DSl Cable
One thing that also increased speed was in options you can have zones saved to HD for faster zone in, that takes up a bit of space but not that much.

But 512 ram min, dsl/cable anything but dial up. and a better video card and you should be spanky

[Gunrack]

thanks for the help!

[Gunrack]

thanks for the help guys.

[Biggwinz]

Lack of RAM is probably your biggest hold up at the moment.

Turning of Luclin Models

Also if you run DSL or Cable in your EQ dir open up datarate.txt. If I remember right the number in there is 3 change that upwards with 9 being the max. This will also help with zone times.

[Ealsur Helevorn]

I use a Gf2 64Mb and I have no probs with zoning. Once, one of my RAM sticks (was a 256mb one) kinda moved and was only using half of its total ram (so I was running at 128), the zoning difference was terrible (dont ask how a mem stick can use half of it's ram just cause it move *shrugs*). Anyway, I have 512 now, and like everyone said, its yours RAM, get 256 or 512 if you can and dont turn all Luclin models on, if you want, use yours, your wife's char ones, and a couple more like horses :)

Also, if you notice a LOT of harddrive activity, its another sign of low memory :)

[Graal the Dorf]

As others have mentioned, RAM is your weakest link. When there isn't enough room in RAM to hold all of the texture and model info (and with 128, there isn't) then those textures and models have to be swapped out to the hard drive. I'm guessing the hard drive is also a bit slow too to get zone times as bad as you are getting. The easiest solution is to get another stick of RAM.

Another thing to do is make sure you don't have a bunch of crap running in the background that is going to eat up RAM while you are running EQ. Close your antivirus software, messenger programs, etc. while running EQ.