Why is the lag so bad. WHY!!!!

So I play GW(the first one) on my laptop. Its a gateway MX3230. It has some "Unichrome Gpu" wich probably sux. It has 256 of RAM and i know that is a problem too. It has a 1.5ghz processor. I was at my grandparents and they have a dell dimmension desktop. It had 512 of ram and a intel graphics card with a 1.8ghx proccesor. It ran great! no lag what so ever and loadtime were fast. On my laptop it just seems to be getting worse. When i first bought the game ther were barley anyloadtimes and only some slight lag. NOw its unbearable. PLease help.
P.S i cant afford a new laptop so telling me what upgrading my RAM will do would be nice

chances are if its a regular laptop and not a very expensive one then you have a 5400rpm hdd as opposed to a desktops 7200rpm hdd... causing you to have longer load times. Also laptops tend to lag when it is overheating... make sure your laptop is on a desk/table and there is sufficient room for the heat to flow out of the holes in the bottom or sides... also check if you are running out of space on the laptop... check that you have atleast 500mb-1gb free for your virtual memory. Try defragmenting your laptop once in a while it might help on the load times. If the load times are unbearable such as it says defragmenting then when you have some time... right click on the guild wars shortcut and it should say "c:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Guild Wars.exe" on the shortcut target. add a -image to the target so it looks like this "c:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Guild Wars.exe" -image .... this will extract all your compressed gw files so you load maps faster instead of wasting time extracting.

I am having the same problem with my desktop computer. Not to mention quite a lot of people who were playing Alliance Battles today were complaining about the same thing. When I checked my CPU usage, the GW clients has taken up 99% of it's processing power. It had never done this before. Only a month ago, this usage was less than 10%. Whatever it is, it must probably involve an error during the updating process where Anet's preparing for Nightfall's release.

With the specs he metions he's more likely to have a 4,200 rpm driver that used to be the norm.

Check out this tread:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10014531

Maybe the same or not. Most people are reporting lag due to the last update.

i added the -image and it says it is not valid!!!!!

wafflesrok, did you put everything in quotes except the -image?

Should read exactly this in your run box:

"C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -image

yeh, and it says cannot find location

Heres your specs and unfortunatly you have one of the cheapest laptops available, think you can pick one up for about $400...

• Intel® Celeron® M processor 370 with 400MHz frontside bus, 1MB L2 cache and 1.5GHz processor speed
• 256MB DDR2 memory for multitasking power, expandable to 1GB
• DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive
• 40GB hard drive (4200 rpm)
• 14" WXGA TFT-LCD widescreen display with Ultrabright technology
40GB hard drive (4200 rpm)
• S3 Graphics UniChrome Pro integrated graphics with up to 64MB shared video memory
•4-in-1 digital media manager supports Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick and Memory Stick PRO
•2 high-speed USB 2.0 ports for fast digital video, audio and data transfer
•Built-in high-speed wireless LAN (802.11b/g) with SecureEasySetup; 10/100 Mbps Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector; V.92 high-speed data/fax modem

I outlined the "trouble" spots that are going to make GW just a laggy game.

•Take your 256MB to 512MB - 1024MB of RAM Which you can fix by getting another memory stick.
•4200 RPM Hard Drive is a dog and is the slowest drive on the market. Investing in a 10k or at least 5400 would help your loading issues out, they are fairly cheap and easy to install.
•The video is the biggest culprit for low frame rates and overall poor gaming performance. That card is not upgradable and it's using the system RAM, which takes your already minimum required down another 64MB. Other then adding a stick of RAM, not much you can do here.
•With the already low system requirements, try not to run via wireless. Wireless controllers will often drop packets over and above wired's typical lost packet rate, causing network lag and processor overhead.

Further more, new out-of-the box machines are "clean" and will often run well or above average before you start tacking on system crippling applications. Overtime, laptops are also notorious for overheating issues. Taking your machine to the store you bought or an authorized service provider for a good cleaning and systems check will not only prolong the life of lappy, but make it run happier and smoother. I'd suggest doing it all in one fell swoop; add some RAM, maybe upgrade the drive too and the guys that install them for you will clean it out by request too!