Hi - just looking for some help with a strange problem.

I have the GOG version of Clive Barkers Undying and half way through a game, my characters pace slowed significantly. I reloaded an old save and although it worked fine previously, the character was once again moving slowly.

After trying nGlide and various other solutions on the game specific forum, I resorted to uninstalling and reinstalling the game and starting from scratch. It worked fine for a while and then the slow movement problem happened again – in a completely different chapter to the first occurrence of this issue.

I gave up and then started playing Half Life 2 (Steam). About half way through that game my character did the same thing! Again, I tried old saves - same problem. There were some solutions for console commands (sv_alternateticks 0) which didn't work. Neither did starting a new game or reinstalling from scratch.

It’s weird that the same thing happened for both games on different platforms.

My laptop specs;
- i5 460m processor
- Win 7 x64
- NVidia GT 420 Graphics
- 8GB RAM

I’d appreciate any help or suggestions.

Most likely either a power saving or a thermal problem.

1) Your computer might be configured to go into power saving mode under specific circumstances. E.g. after a specific time of inactivity, if the battery's charge gets too low, etc. Make sure all power saving options are switched off. Because saving power means throttling the CPU and GPU which leads to sluggish performance in games. If you use your laptop primarily for playing and don't move it around often I suggest you remove the battery and hook it up directly to a power outlet.

If you have switched off power saving and have connected the computer to a power outlet and it still happens you might want to try the following:

2) Over time dust collects inside every computer. Dust restrains the airflow and thus the cooling of important parts, mainly the CPU and GPU again. Every modern computer has temperature sensors and when the temperature gets too hot the CPU or GPU gets throttled to prevent damage to the hardware because high performance means high power consumption which in turn means more heat. You can check if it is a temperature problem by switching the computer off, let it cool down for an hour and then try to play again. If it works fine at the beginning and after a while it starts to get sluggish again it is most likely a temperature problem. Or you could use a software that reads the temperature sensors and constantly records the values while you play.

If the CPU or GPU really get too hot you have to open your computer and clean it thoroughly. I suggest you download and read the service manual for your laptop beforehand. Laptops can be a bit difficult to dis-/reassemble. Make sure that the ventilators are ok and clean the cooling fins with compressed air.

Thanks for the reply.

Any idea why it would happen only with first person shooters? Just to clarify, nothing else in Half Life 2 or Clive Barkers Undying slows down...only the character. Every other game genre works perfectly.

Since your reply:

- I have adjusted the power saving modes back to default. Then uninstalled, reinstalled, shut down, rebooted and I still get the same problem.

- I'm pretty sure it's not an overheating problem. I keep my laptop on a cooler pad (which I have done for ages) and that keeps it cool. Also, I play games that need a higher spec than HL2 and CBU without any problems.


Thanks again.

Default is bad. Default for Laptops is that power saving is switched on. Make sure you switch it off.

Why only on 1st person shooters? Because these are usually the most taxing games for the CPU and GPU. I think it is very strange though that only the character would slow down. The whole game should become slower if that happens.

Dust gets into the computer, cooler pad or not. Sooner or later cleaning it on the inside will be necessary..

Curious problem. You say the game speed doesn't change, but the character moves slower suddenly? Like you accidentally hit Caps-Lock (disable auto-run)?

Not necessarily, the games might very well use different methods for calculating animation speed, NPC movement speed, and player movement speed.

To rule out overheating, you can check at least the CPU temperatures with something like CoreTemp. I don't recall now if it shows also GPU temperatures, or if you need a separate utility for that.

Do you have vsync enabled for those games? Maybe it would help against overheating?

Thanks for the replies. I’ve changed the power saving option off and run the cpu/gpu temp tests and put the results below. I was hoping it was that but HL2 doesn’t have a toggle walk/run and if I press and hold walk, the character slows down even more. I've downloaded and installed Argus Monitor (which is a handy little tool btw) and while playing Half Life 2 for 15 minutes (with MS Outlook and 5 Chrome tabs running) the results peaked at:

CPU Temps:
Core 1/2 - 78 Deg C
Core 3/4 - 82 Deg C

GPU Temp - 76 Deg C

GPU Load - 97%

HD Temp - 35 Deg C

By doing a few google searches, the temperatures all seem within the expected range. Also, the GPU load, while high, is not unusual. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Just to add - I've recently played Dead Space and Alice Madness Returns recently on the same laptop. Both have higher spec requirements than HL2 and they ran flawlessly. It may be a coincidence but I keep coming back to the same thing - FPS seem the only genre affected

Very funny. I have the same problem that my character is walking veeeeeery slow. There is no key for running. I have to jump in a area to continue the game-progress. Very strange bug. I never had this with my old physical copy which i still own but i cannot use it anymore. I can install it but it doesn't start after double-click.

I have seen this happen with some older games that do not handle high frame rates very well. Forcing V-Sync or limiting the framerate to 60 fps should solve it.

PC Gaming Wiki doesn't list this issue or any issue with high framerate, but I'd agree with the advice of forcing v-synch or capping the framerate and seeing if that works. A lot of old games have issues with v-sync off or framerates above 60, as said above me. Maybe the wiki guys didn't play far enough in.

There are some games where a high framerate will just randomly cause one little issue late in the game with a door not opening or something weird like that.

Yeah, a lot of older games need to locked to 30fps, 60fps...and/or maybe need a V-Sync.

Fallout 3, FO: NV, and FO4 (as it, without mods) really need a lock to 30fps or 60fps...or the physics go out the windows completely, for example.

And some older games, use different DirectX versions; older versions. For that, you'd need a DX Wrapper like DGVoodoo.

IIRC, for Undying - I had to use DGVoodoo to sort out most of my problems w/ framerates and pacing; and lock it to 60fps.

Did you hit the walk/slow down key by any chance? That key in that game(Undying) tends to slow the protagonist down to a crawl. There is also a key that does this is HL2 as well.

That's a little hot. I would have a look in the vents with a small flashlight to see if there's any dust or fluff in there.