CPU Usage Spikes While Running Old Games

[Wellsmang]

I need your brains for a moment.

Up until about a month ago my computer ran games fine. I could play Left For Dead etc no lag.

Anyways I installed the original F.E.A.R and it lags intermittently at random points. I tried playing my NBA 2K10 game, a game that has NEVER lagged for me, and it too now lags in spurts.

I turned on my meters and noted that my CPU usage is running at about 40% then all of sudden will spike to a 100% without warning.

I don't know what the **** is going on. Ive ran malware, avg, spybot etc and tried to flush out stuff that way... nothing. I've defragged... nothing. The only thing I can think of is that my video card is dying or my RAM is hurting.

My pc is:

Vista
4400+ AMD Athlon 64x dual core
2GB DDR2
320 GB HD
GeForce 8500 GT 1GB Vid Card

Your thoughts?

 

[Trotter]

Try updating your graphics drivers. FEAR may have screwed yours when you installed it as some games install some graphics stuff when the game itself is installed.

Also, try to see what program(s) are hogging the CPU. Run the game windowed and have Task Manager open with applications listed by CPU usage.