Computer Crapping Out

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BFV Server Fund

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[rip|CoyotezEye]

K so here is the issue I am having.

My POS computer has never really run COD:BO great anyways between the slow load time & crap FPS occasionally dropping from 60 down to like 10 and lagging then back up to 60. But I was able to play.

Last week Time Warner was down for a good amount of time. When it came up I tried to play but had these issues:

1. Vent LAGS!!!! - It was as if everyone was talking in slow motion.
2. Game LAGS!!!! - My frames were constantly crashing
3. Game Doesnt LOAD - I got 1 game in last night when it switched maps it never loaded the new one.
4. Sound issues in game - In addition to the vent lag I was getting sound lag in game as well.

I tried to play BF2 instead last night and got the same issues with sound lag & game not loading. I then tried to play 1-player COD:BO and had the same issues as well.

1 - Is it the internet?
2 - Is it my video card?
3 - Is it my sound card?

I have been having another issue for awhile now which I believe is Video Card related. So I tend to believe it could be causing the other issues. Although not sure how or why it would effect the sound.

But the other issue I have been having is the computer screen would just go black randomly. Computer would be on but the monitor would go to sleep if you will but I cant get it to come back up without rebooting it. Then sometimes when I do reboot I get a error sound from the computer.  I assume this is a video card issue?

I think I have an older card I could try to slap in it.. If I can find it now to see if it is a video card issue. But if anyone else has any other ideas I am all ears. Otherwise I am out until next tax return. I was already planning & got the initial ok from the wife to build a new one then.

[rip|CoyotezEye]

I did get 1 round in but it was choppy. Sometime during the round I started having the vent issue then the game really dropping frames. After that round I could not play again for the rest of the night due to the issue.

I really hope it might be a cable issue & I can bitch to TW to fix it. But was hoping someone could verify for me. I cant afford to buy a new card until next year and even then was going to be tight with the rest of the crap I need for the new build.

The card is 2 years old Sapphire Radeon HD 100265HDMI 4830 512MB DDR3 HDMI - If you need that. The rest of the computer is 4? years old. +/-

[chiefjedi]

Coyote,
 Try and rule some of the possibilities out first. Unplug your internet and play a single player game. If the problem is still there then it's not internet related. Also try the single player game with the ethernet adapter disabled (if you are on XP, click "start", "my network places" then on the left "view my network connections" find your ethernet adapter, it will be called local connection, right click it and choose disable. if you are on vista/windows 7 look at the lower right side of task bar and find the little lan connection symbol, right click it and there is a link to go to your network settings (sorry I'm at work on a XP machine while typing this) on the next window there will be a link on the left to view your connections, find your local area lan connection, right click and disable)  See if the single player game works OK, if the problem is still there then it's not your NIC.
What I would try next is go to "start" then right click "my computer" choose "properties" then "hardware" then "device manager". First make sure there is no little yellow warning triangles in the list of hardware, if there is update the driver for that hardware and check the single player game again. If it's still not working right, find your audio device in the list (device manager) right click on it and disable. Try the single player game again, if it's still not working then we know it's not your audio causing it.
 Unfortunately we can't disable your video card and try a game for obvious reasons but I would try updating the graphics drivers, when you do this, uninstall the old ones first unplug the internet and reboot (because windows will try and reinstall it's own drivers from the net!) after reboot, install new drivers and try the single player game again, if still no joy try a older set of drivers........uninstall again, unplug and reboot.

 If after trying all this you still have the same issue, then maybe it's a virus, malware or some other software issue. Try clean booting the computer.............here is how --> click on "start" then in the search (click run on XP) type "msconfig" without the quotation marks and hit ENTER. The system config window will pop up. Click on the "services" tab at the top and on the services tab there will be a little check box at the bottom which says "Hide all microsoft services" put a check mark in that box, next click disable all. Now go to the "startup" tab and click disable all, then look at the list of items you just disabled and find all the ones that mention ATI or anything to do with your graphics and recheck them (we want them to start normally) you can also do this with the audio if you like, but don't let anything else startup, especially your antivirus. Now click OK and hit restart when it asks you to.

 What this does is starts your computer with the minimum services and programs needed to run the machine, plus your graphics and audio (if you checked it) Now try and play the game, if it runs OK then you have a software problem, maybe a virus or spyware or just some corrupt drivers.

Let me know what you find and I'll try and help. Also list everything you have.....like CPU, memory, hard drives, power supply, MOBO, operating system, antivirus, just as much info as possible.  


P.S. I should also mention that the graphics and audio don't play too nice together, you can have a audio issue that's caused by the graphics driver and vice versa.

[rip|CoyotezEye]

Damn thats a lot of words.

Anyways I tried again last night and it seemed to run crappy but normal crappy LOL. So Im hoping it was just Time Warner being shitty the other nights. I really hope they add FIOS my way. I will try again tonight.

If it runs like crap I will try some of those suggestions and go from there.

Thanks for the help.

[chiefjedi]

LOL, yeah that was a lot of words. Even if it runs like normal tonight, I would still go through the processes above, you may find something wrong and get a nice boost.

 I highly recommend the "clean boot" if you have a older system, I use to clean boot back in the Halo days when all I had was a standard Dell with a Geforce 2 graphics card, clean booting use to give me an extra 10 frames a second and made all the difference.

[rip|CoyotezEye]

I might do that. I do know I am due for a new pc so I planned on building the new one next year. Was hoping to limp by till then. I do know I have to get Win 7 though for BF3 before then and hope it will run it.

For Black Ops I do what I can. The frame crashes suck though. Just imagine how good I would be without them

But I will try a couple of those fixes when I can to see if it improves my FPS.

[rip|CoyotezEye]

K So I believe its the video card.

I ruled out internet when I disabled my network & played single player. Same issues. Ruled out sound card when I disabled my sound card.


I went ahead and downloaded updated drivers last night. Hoping it corrects it, will give it a shot tonight.

[rip|CoyotezEye]

Yeah so no go on the driver update. I still gotta try the clean boot but dont think it will do it.

I may have just won $100 gift card for Newegg... If so I might be able to come up with another $50-$100 cash to buy a new card which I will then put in my new build next year. But I gotta make sure I get the card first.


Anyone wanna recommend a somewhat decent card in the $100-$200 range.

I currently use ATI but I would think about Nvidia if anyone has a good recommendation on one. Or I would stay ATI. Need something that will run BF3 decently.


Oh current specs on my current rig for ya Chief:

Mobo = ASUS P5W DH Deluxe

CPU = Intel E6750

Heatsink = ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink

Video Card = Sapphire Radeon HD 4830 Video Card - 512MB GDDR3, PCI Express 2.0 x16

RAM = OCZ ATI CrossFire 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

Sound Card = Razer Barracuda AC-1 Gaming Audio Card

Hard Drive = Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YS 160GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive

I had (2) of those drives in RAID when I first set it up but it failed and I never put it back.

[rip|buzinator]

perhaps a GTX460 or 6870?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130565

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102913


actually it looks like there may even be some 560's under $200 now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130660