Unknown lag

[xpedient]

My PC Specs:
Core 2 Quad 6600
Ati HD4650
2x 1gb Corsair
1tb Hitachi
500w PSU (Forgot the brand)

The problem is this, I was playing Dead Space 2 with this computer. I can play flawlessly with medium settings with 1366x768 as video resolution. After a few weeks I noticed that the game began to lag and the physics engine of the game just goes nuts. What I mean by that is for example, I pulled one of their bodies and I threw it, it's supposed to go from point A to point B right? But what I witnessed is somewhat hilarious, it went from point A to point B then to C, D, E, F, so on... While that is happening, the body, which I threw, is looking like a splatted fruit or somewhat like it.

So I took a screenshot of the problem, yes, it's a screenshot and you can't see the real problem without it but I will try to explain it...

See the "arm of the monster" above the ammo counter? That arm is moving up and down FAST... I mean it's insanely fast it's not normal. I've already finished this game without this problem so I know that that behavior isn't normal.

This is the fruit-splattered thing I was talking about earlier, the monster's body contours were like going everywhere randomly...

I can't describe the problem more in detail so I decided to use Fraps to capture it and to see it for yourselves, so that you can help me further... But to my surprise, Fraps seem to cancel out the problem. Whenever I turned on the recording, the game has no lag, no "up and down" thing while holding an item, and no "fruit-splattered" body. I turned the recording off, and there it is again, same problem, the 3 of it.

I am playing another game, Heroes of Newerth, and I also noticed the frame lag. But I think this game has no physics engine like Dead Space 2 so the two other problems didn't show up but I think it will if the game has it.

I also sometimes "feel" the lag even when using small to medium programs like chrome, photoshop, picasa...

So what do you guys think the problem is? I am clueless to what this is... I have a hunch this is hardware related because I just played this without installing anything or updating anything and it looked like this...

 

[-RockMan-]

Alright, when was the last time you did a defragg on your system ?
When was the last time you cleared up some free space on your c: drive ?
What I mean is, have you used windows current clean up tool to free up some clutter ?
Also, I might be wrong, but what is your current drivers for your ATI 4650 HD ?
It might be time for you to update your drivers for your VG card and see what happens.
That might fix your physics issue it might not, also check your cpu resources and see what is mostly active in task manager and the processes tab.
If your cpu is doing more 60% of work alone without game on, something may need to be turned off temporarily or not started up, so your computer isn't on slow motion mode.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Might want to go to Run, type msconfig. See what programs are starting up without your knowledge. In the startup tab.

 

[xpedient]

Alright, when was the last time you did a defragg on your system ?
When was the last time you cleared up some free space on your c: drive ?
What I mean is, have you used windows current clean up tool to free up some clutter ?
Also, I might be wrong, but what is your current drivers for your ATI 4650 HD ?
It might be time for you to update your drivers for your VG card and see what happens.
That might fix your physics issue it might not, also check your cpu resources and see what is mostly active in task manager and the processes tab.
If your cpu is doing more 60% of work alone without game on, something may need to be turned off temporarily or not started up, so your computer isn't on slow motion mode.

Defrag: Just a while ago, no change in the lag... I used HD Tach to check my HD and it seems there's nothin wrong with it, i got 187 mb/s on burst speed and 110 mb/s on average read
Free space: it's 85% that's 120gb worth of free space out of 150gb
Drivers for ATI: it's 10-11 yeah it's an old version but i've been using this version for a year now because i had bugs on graphics with the newer versions so I sticked to this one. But I will try to upgrade it tomorrow, I'm just observing my computer this time.
CPU resources: Nothing is opened except Google Chrome. Got Avast and USB Disk security on the tray.

I used to play with Photoshop, Chrome, CorelDraw, and Office applications before this lag appeared.

Might want to go to Run, type msconfig. See what programs are starting up without your knowledge. In the startup tab.

Okay I disabled all startup items except for CLIStart.exe (located at Ati folders so I think this is safe), USBGuard, and AvastUI. I will report back after I've done restarting and testing it with the game.


Update: So I've restarted with some startups and services disabled. Still lagging... As I search over the interwebzzzz, could this problem be related to power supply? Any opinions?

Update 2: It's a 500w power supply, not 450w. My bad...