Hello, This is my first time using this site, so I am not sure if i'm in the right place, but here goes:

About 3-4 days ago, I was fiddling with my laptop (Dell Inspiron 1150) to try and improve its graphics. I turned the video paging file all the way up to 1500mb, before resetting it. Now, whenever I play warcraft 3, I get these periodic spikes (bout 1ce every 30sec) where my frames per sec go from 18+ to 1, and i have no idea what could cause it.
Any help is appreciated.

P.S. - Recently my cooling fan has stopped "revving up" to a speed that cools the laptop, might this be the problem?

Sure the fan could be doing it. If the fan doesn't work like it's supposed to, the computer could be compensating by throttling down the CPU. Have you blown compressed air through the fan openings to clean them out?

Aside from that since it can't hurt to dust it out, I would look into other things, first. Did you try putting the video page file back down?

"It's like Gomer Pyle in Bangkok!"

Its to my understanding that video paging sets aside hard drive space which is used for storing graphic files and textures, as opposed to storing them in RAM which is 50x or so faster. So when Your onboard video card needs to process a games 3d information it retrieves it from your slow HDD, instead of your RAM (shared RAM that is). Since most notebooks do not have dedicated video ram they must share RAM with the system, and if i'm not mistaken this was your intention right, to increase the amount of available video ram. If so, then you need to enter your bios and change the AGP aperture size accordenly, I'd say 128mb since your laptop only has 512mb of memory.

abit is7 i856pe
Prescott 2.8ghz @ 4004Mhz 286x14
FSB @ 1144Mhz
512x2 in dual config @ 430mhz
9800 se unlocked & clocked @ 444mhz/800mhz

Ok, I am not a very tech-savvy person, so i was wondering how I might access bios to see/edit the AGP aperture or w/e?

When you boot up, text flashes across the screen, this is called a post (series of tests), and it should mention at the bottom what key to push to enter the bios. The Most common is the Delete key or one of the f-keys. Scroll through the bios until you find "AGP aperture size", should be under "chipset features". If its at 128mb set it to 256mb. I would also set the "video paging file" back to default or delete it alltogether.

BTW: Where were you given the option to alter The "video paging file"?

abit is7 i856pe
Prescott 2.8ghz @ 4004Mhz 286x14
FSB @ 1144Mhz
512x2 in dual config @ 430mhz
9800 se unlocked & clocked @ 444mhz/800mhz

Ok, heres an update:

1. Reset Paging file to automatic (i.e. System managed size). No Change. (FYI to get paging file, right-click My Computer, Select properties, under the advanced tab there should be a settings button for video paging, w/e.)

2. Dont have compressed air available, will try to clean fan later.

3. Accessed bios in boot menu, said my "level 2 cache" was 128mb, dont know if thats what you meant, had nothing about video memory, and wouldnt let me edit any numbers except date and time.

Thanks for your help guys, im clueless why this just started.

That's referring to your Celeron CPU, and it should read 128K, not MB.

Look around more.

"President Bush is doing everything he can to lower gas prices, including...making the oil companies so rich that maybe they'll get sick of money."

Ok, roadblock:

Dell is really cool and locks their BIOS setting, so unless there's a way to open the AGP aperture w/o changing BIOS, its not gonna happen.

That's because no one knows what they're doing; only Dell does. So pay homage to the good folks at Dell. ;-)

"President Bush is doing everything he can to help lower gas prices...including making oil companies so rich that maybe they'll get sick of money and pass the savings on to you."

Lol, nice,

But, I have to give credit were credit is truly due: thank you heropsycho.
It was indeed the cooling fan that was acting up. I hadnt cleaned it out since I got my laptop last year, and there was next to no air coming out of it. A couple of blasts of air later and I has the smoothest graphics ive seen in a long time. Thanks guys.

No prob. :-)

"President Bush is doing everything he can to lower gas prices, including...making the oil companies so rich that maybe they'll get sick of money."