Weird lag issue

Skean Dau

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

British Columbia, Canada

Me No Lickey Guilds!!

Mo/W

To be honest I am not sure it is even lag that is causing this. It seems all of a sudden hiccuping. It is really noticable on the character selection screen. The two fire piles in the background surge then halt then surge then halt etc etc.

When I am in game, it is the same thing. It looks like my whole comouter has been hit with the "cripple" condition doing that lurch forward then lag like my player is limping.

I ran aquamark to check the video card (Radeon x800 xt) which played out fine. I have done no driver updates nor any changes to the puter. I tried it with my security off so it can't be that.

Is there some sort of analysis I can do to pinpoint my problem. All other applications are running smoothly, as well as other games.

Another online game seems to be picking up some lag, but not like this. Is there a way to check the connection and if so, what would "bad" numbers be.

thanks!

Numa Pompilius

Numa Pompilius

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

At an Insit.. Intis... a house.

Live Forever Or Die Trying [GLHF]

W/Me

Like I mentioned in another thread, check for any programs which poll the computer at a regular interval. The most common culprit is various hardware monitors which checks the temperature of the CPU. I expect most motherboards and many graphics cards come with such non-essential applications today.

lord_shar

lord_shar

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jul 2005

near SF, CA

I noticed my system getting hit by similar online performance lag. I pinned down the culprit to someone performing a port-scan against my PC's network connection, aparently looking for a back-door into my system. I upgraded my router to a full firewall with SPI, and the lag completely disappeared.

In my case, an online intruder was attempting to gain access into my system and compromising performance in the process. If you have any sort of firewall logging, I strongly recommend examining the logs and seeing if any port-scans are being detected against your network connection.

Loviatar

Underworld Spelunker

Join Date: Feb 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Numa Pompilius
Like I mentioned in another thread, check for any programs which poll the computer at a regular interval. The most common culprit is various hardware monitors which checks the temperature of the CPU. I expect most motherboards and many graphics cards come with such non-essential applications today.
i checked some time ago and double checked again. (no measurable change in 2005 marks)

those monitors have no effect on real life performance.

maybe some do but not any i have ever heard of from manufactrers have that effect as the tech boards would explode saying whatever you do dont install (insert monitor of choice) because it will hit your FPS to an unacceptable level.

possibly some spyware or other nasty is trying to call home perhaps?

Numa Pompilius

Numa Pompilius

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

At an Insit.. Intis... a house.

Live Forever Or Die Trying [GLHF]

W/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Loviatar
i checked some time ago and double checked again. (no measurable change in 2005 marks)

those monitors have no effect on real life performance.
Well in at least two cases which I've seen they have an effect on real life performance, but not on benchmarks... I tested my problem with 3dmark, and I could see stuttering, but when I got rid of the hardware monitor and the visible stuttering disappeared, the score in 3dmark didn't change.

Skean Dau

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

British Columbia, Canada

Me No Lickey Guilds!!

Mo/W

Ok, well I have done everything I can think of, and am having no luck. If it is my internet connection, how would I test it (I am on a cable modem) and what numbers as results would I be looking for?

Loviatar

Underworld Spelunker

Join Date: Feb 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Skean Dau
Ok, well I have done everything I can think of, and am having no luck. If it is my internet connection, how would I test it (I am on a cable modem) and what numbers as results would I be looking for?
my SBC tech uses this one

http://www.broadbandreports.com/spee...com/1086203887

Skean Dau

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

British Columbia, Canada

Me No Lickey Guilds!!

Mo/W

Ok using that I am getting Dowload value of 1262 and upload value of 132. SHould there be that much of a difference????

And for yucks I just stood in twon and watched that little lightning bolt thingy in the top right of my screen shoot up to say 85.3 MB and still climing...that is not supposed to happen.

Now what do I do???

EternalTempest

EternalTempest

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2005

United States

Dark Side Ofthe Moon [DSM]

E/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Loviatar
That is a very cool link but your link to a specific result that's already tested.
http://www.broadbandreports.com/speedtests/

Not a bad site at all. I was getting the same "Download 1262 and upload value of 132" every time.

Fallen_Angel

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2005

Skean Dau: Any updates on this? This sounds like the same thing that has started happened to me today, although it only appears to be effecting GW. I have no issues browsing websites, checking mail or even playing CS. Nothing on my system has changed since yesterday and GW was running fine up until today.

EternalTempest

EternalTempest

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2005

United States

Dark Side Ofthe Moon [DSM]

E/

I had it happen to me for the 1st time really bad in Sorrow's Furnace. It went away on it's own. Here is something neat I found.

I've been using the modified shortcut to show fps, etc that someone mentioned in these site to show fps.

"C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -perf display fps

its has three stats, the last one is "SEC" and it seems to be server communication. Reason being when it did happen to me, it was going to 0. Anything above 350 was ok, 400+ was smooth / no glitching at all.

T1Cybernetic

T1Cybernetic

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Sep 2005

Wakefield, West Yorkshire, Uk, Nr Earth

Alternate Evil Gamers [aeg]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Skean Dau
To be honest I am not sure it is even lag that is causing this. It seems all of a sudden hiccuping. It is really noticable on the character selection screen. The two fire piles in the background surge then halt then surge then halt etc etc.

When I am in game, it is the same thing. It looks like my whole comouter has been hit with the "cripple" condition doing that lurch forward then lag like my player is limping.

I ran aquamark to check the video card (Radeon x800 xt) which played out fine. I have done no driver updates nor any changes to the puter. I tried it with my security off so it can't be that.

Is there some sort of analysis I can do to pinpoint my problem. All other applications are running smoothly, as well as other games.

Another online game seems to be picking up some lag, but not like this. Is there a way to check the connection and if so, what would "bad" numbers be.

thanks!
That's exactly the same problem im suffering from and have
been suffering from for a very long time now, .

I was onto tech support for about three weeks with this problem
and nothing they or i could do fixed it, not even a slight change.

We both run the same video card too and i would definately 100% say
that it's not our video cards as i myself have benched mine to death
over the last six plus months and the same for the hole of my pc also...

And i can honestly say 100% that it's not my internet connection as i run
a hole bunch of other online, multiplayer games ie: Unreal Tournament,
Far Cry, Unreal Tournament 2004, SOF2, E.T etc etc and none of those
games suffer from the slightest bit of lag what so ever appart from the
occational spike from the servers every now and then but generaly all
of the other players on the servers get that same spike of lag at the
same time too, . so thats nothing to worry about.


"The Workaround" for me!

The only thing i have found to temporarily "fix" the problem is to reboot my
pc once or twice+ and then retry my guildwars connection and continue to
reboot and retry guildwars until i dont get that insane lag, i can tell instantly
from opening guildwars if i have lag or not because as you mensioned above
the login screen flickers and jerks around before i even type my username
or password...


"EDIT"

Forgot to add, i have two guildwars accounts one on the european servers
and one on the us servers, i myself am from the uk, but this isnt a case
of what servers im using it's lag before i even login to any of my accounts
and then continues to lag while im playing unless i go through the reboot
and retry steps above, .

lord_shar

lord_shar

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jul 2005

near SF, CA

I wonder if this could be Sony's DRM stealth-ware in action... It was just discovered recently, and Sony is taking lots of flak for it.

http://www.tgdaily.com/2005/11/09/so...key/index.html

T1Cybernetic

T1Cybernetic

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Sep 2005

Wakefield, West Yorkshire, Uk, Nr Earth

Alternate Evil Gamers [aeg]

N/

Had a look into that and alot of other spyware & adware plus viruses too
but to rule those out i backed everything up and tested before and after a
few re-installs of windows just so i could rule out any of that, and it
made no difference at all, just by reading this post made me feel a
hole lot better "Not alone" due to the fact that Skean Dau stated this...

Quote:
It is really noticable on the character selection screen. The two fire
piles in the background surge then halt then surge then halt etc etc.
And that is exactly what i suffer from when i load guildwars, from the moment
i am prompted to login until the last second it takes me to close guildwars i get
the exact same surge & halt movement from the character selection screen &
after i login i suffer from that same lag while playing.

Pretty annoying stuff as i havent been able to play much recently as im getting
a bit fed up of having to reboot and retry all the time just for a couple of hours
gaming, worth it when i do get a good connection to guildwars as i dont usualy
have to reboot my pc by choice for along time but some things require reboot's
in order for them to function properly, ...