Lag in game menu, but not during gameplay?

[TheEvilMonkey01]

Hello, I have recently purchased a laptop (C2D 2.4GHz, Nvidia 320m, 4GB RAM) and have experienced lag in various game menu's, but not the game itself.
I have no idea what it could be, and I no my computer isn't a gaming rig, but I am curious as what it could be.
I have the latest graphics drivers and having Windows 7 32 bit installed.
Games that I have experienced this with are GTA Episodes from Liberty City, Just Cause 2 and Bioshock. In the game, all run at over 30fps, the menu just stutters.

I would appreciate your help, thanks.

 

[Tamz_msc]

Such lag is generally caused by looping videos or animations in the background of the game menu.It can even be caused by some background processes, but since the games run fine you have no need to worry!

 

[TheEvilMonkey01]

I guess... But say i wanted to select something in the menu, the cursor would stop responding for a couple of seconds, then it would move, then stop...It may also move suddenly if say I moved it whilst it was in a freeze period. It causes games to sometimes take ages to play as I would have to wait until the mouse responds. If you want to see what I mean, i could make a demonstration video? And some of the menus don't have an animation in the background.

 

[tkrl26]

I would tend to lean more towards its the game loading in the background, getting ready to play.... Since you have the system requirements to play, the one factor that is often forgotten about is HDD speed... A HDD spinning at 5400 RPMs is going to load programs pretty slow. By the time you start the game, it has finished loading into RAM...

This is just a shot in the dark though.... You might have a drive that spins at 7200, but I highly doubt it... Most manufactures put the 5400's in laptops b/c it generates less heat, and requires less power.

Added: Ontop of the OS using the page file, so while the game loads that HDD is swapping like crazy to make room for the game... in turn I would think it would appear as lag/ application timing out.

 

[TheEvilMonkey01]

I would tend to lean more towards its the game loading in the background, getting ready to play.... Since you have the system requirements to play, the one factor that is often forgotten about is HDD speed... A HDD spinning at 5400 RPMs is going to load programs pretty slow. By the time you start the game, it has finished loading into RAM...

This is just a shot in the dark though.... You might have a drive that spins at 7200, but I highly doubt it... Most manufactures put the 5400's in laptops b/c it generates less heat, and requires less power.

Added: Ontop of the OS using the page file, so while the game loads that HDD is swapping like crazy to make room for the game... in turn I would think it would appear as lag/ application timing out.

Good point, and yes you are right I have a 5400rpm HDD. I was thinking it was something to do with the loading, but it also occurs in pause menus, in the middle of the game, so i'm confused to why it stops responding for a minute, then continues after, repeatedly. I would have thought the game would have loaded since it wasn't happening in the game but in the menu it does stutter...oh well...I guess there is no fix. Plus the new GTA's are bad ports anyway...thanks for the help anyway

 

[Tamz_msc]

In that case your HDD is certainly the problem, it simply cannot run the games smoothly and has to wait for everything to load which is the cause for the lag.

 

[TheEvilMonkey01]

In that case your HDD is certainly the problem, it simply cannot run the games smoothly and has to wait for everything to load which is the cause for the lag.

Thanks. I was looking at a 5400rpm 500gb Scorpio Blue a while back which is apparently quite fast and also cheap. As tkrl26 mentioned before, a 7200rpm HDD would generate more heat and use more power. Is there any particular laptop hard drive anyone would recommend?

 

[Tamz_msc]

Here are some links:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145275
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136280

 

[daship]

You need a 7400 rpm drive, if you dont want the heat your only other choice is a SSD but they coast alot of $$$$