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Stuttering/Hitching in ALL games, really need help... please!
- Thread starter Javers
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2001
Drivers, possibly USB, could be the cause. Try running this while not in a game in your normal everyday desktop use (or even idle):
http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
If there are any bad drivers taking up too much of the systems time, it'll show up there. It's usually some bad driver or USB device (or that specific USB's device driver) causing the issue.
Also, if you've moved around your USB devices onto different ports, you may have problems with "ghost" devices on the system. This is what causes problems for my system constantly waking my monitors when idle.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/77614-device-manager-hidden-devices.html
This url is much easier to use and doesn't require you to edit your startup:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539
Once any hidden devices that are not used are removed, my system goes back to normal. Could be worth a try, although you have already tried with fresh installs.
[edit] Ugh. I didn't notice there was a 2nd page to the thread when I posted this.
[/edit]
[edit2] Did EarthDog not notice it either? Maybe I really wasn't not seeing things that weren't there.
[/url]
http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
If there are any bad drivers taking up too much of the systems time, it'll show up there. It's usually some bad driver or USB device (or that specific USB's device driver) causing the issue.
Also, if you've moved around your USB devices onto different ports, you may have problems with "ghost" devices on the system. This is what causes problems for my system constantly waking my monitors when idle.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/77614-device-manager-hidden-devices.html
This url is much easier to use and doesn't require you to edit your startup:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539
Once any hidden devices that are not used are removed, my system goes back to normal. Could be worth a try, although you have already tried with fresh installs.
[edit] Ugh. I didn't notice there was a 2nd page to the thread when I posted this.
[/edit][edit2] Did EarthDog not notice it either? Maybe I really wasn't not seeing things that weren't there.
[/url]
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Yeah I've tried VGA/DMI same issue. Turns out it's not the monitor. I have no idea what to do now... I've tested so much but the answer still isn't clear.
I've tried all of those drivers, it's made no difference.
At this point I think it's either the CPU, PSU, or the motherboard. I mean can the motherboard even cause an issue such as this?
I check my CPU readings and everything looks normal, I check my PSU voltages and everything looks normal. I just don't get it.
There's not a single spike or drop in the CPU readings when I hitch or stutter in a game. However, both my HDDs show spikes when it happens. Would that indicate a problem with both HDDs? Or maybe it's the SATA slots on the motherboard... But wouldn't the motherboard beep or come up with an error if that were the case?
I think the motherboard would only beep if the error happened when going through POST but am not sure.
Have you checked the drives for errors/bad sectors?
The fact that it does it on both the discreet GPU and on-board video woulld suggest, to me at least, that it is either a HDD, CPU, or MOBO issue (BF2 played good on 1g of DDR Ram, great on 2g of DDR Ram, so I cant imagine 8g of DDR3 being an issue) Or, a software issue.
Have you tried DX9? Someone else was having an issue with an older game, and tried the older version and it fixed their issues.
To narrow down whether or not it's the MOBO I'd look into whether or not the on-board and discreet share a PCI-e lane... Could have a bent pin on the CPU or MOBO causing the issue, worth double checking.
- Thread Starter
- #44
Yeah I've checked for bad sectors multiple times, nothing. DX9 didn't make a difference, it's not just BF2 with issues either. BF2 just has the weirdest problem. The other games hitch/stutter no matter what I'm doing in them actually. Like when I play rust I'll get constant mini freezes where it'll just hitch for a second.
Earthdog: The RAM is fine I've tested it multiple times now.
Mpegger: Latencymon hasn't picked up anything and I left it running for a few hours while I was out, good idea though.
I still think it's either the CPU or MOBO, just don't have anything definitive.
Earthdog: The RAM is fine I've tested it multiple times now.
Mpegger: Latencymon hasn't picked up anything and I left it running for a few hours while I was out, good idea though.
I still think it's either the CPU or MOBO, just don't have anything definitive.
- Thread Starter
- #46
Yeah sorry I meant to say that I did check for that, it's not filling up and paging at all. :\I didn't ask to test the ram, I was having you check to make sure, for some reason, its not filling up and paging out to your HDD.
- Thread Starter
- #47
So I notice that when I disable intel speedstep it doesn't actually get disabled and my CPU is still clocking down. It did not do this before these issues started. Would that be the fault of the CPU or the fault of the MOBO?
I also recorded a Metro 2033 benchmark where you can clearly see the hitching, but the fps barely moves if at all when it happens. It's also on the lowest settings and it's made no difference.
EDIT: Oh and I disabled all the Cstates that would still cause the CPU to clock down.
EDIT 2: Okay the processor thing was just the windows power options setting.
I also recorded a Metro 2033 benchmark where you can clearly see the hitching, but the fps barely moves if at all when it happens. It's also on the lowest settings and it's made no difference.
EDIT: Oh and I disabled all the Cstates that would still cause the CPU to clock down.
EDIT 2: Okay the processor thing was just the windows power options setting.
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- Thread Starter
- #52
Yeah I have, I mean is there a specific test I should run?
I don't know I feel like I've exhausted everything I can do without having another computer to test at this point, just can't figure this out.
Recently tried playing Rust and I get hitching every couple of seconds when moving. I also jump forward like 10 feet the first time I pull out an item when I join a server. Really weird stuff.
EDIT: I just ran LatencyMon again and actually got an error reading this time.
"Your system seems to have difficulty handling real-time audio and other tasks. You may experience drop outs, clicks or pops due to buffer underruns. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates."
My BIOS is fully updated so I guess this means I may have an issue with my PSU or CPU?'
My highest reported hard pagefault resolution time bar is maxing out waaaaay in the red.
I've been looking this up a bit and I'm seeing that this may mean there's an issue with my SATA ports on my MOBO... is this a possibility? Or is this my RAM actually paging out and not showing me anywhere else...
I don't know I feel like I've exhausted everything I can do without having another computer to test at this point, just can't figure this out.
Recently tried playing Rust and I get hitching every couple of seconds when moving. I also jump forward like 10 feet the first time I pull out an item when I join a server. Really weird stuff.
EDIT: I just ran LatencyMon again and actually got an error reading this time.
"Your system seems to have difficulty handling real-time audio and other tasks. You may experience drop outs, clicks or pops due to buffer underruns. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates."
My BIOS is fully updated so I guess this means I may have an issue with my PSU or CPU?'
My highest reported hard pagefault resolution time bar is maxing out waaaaay in the red.
I've been looking this up a bit and I'm seeing that this may mean there's an issue with my SATA ports on my MOBO... is this a possibility? Or is this my RAM actually paging out and not showing me anywhere else...
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- Thread Starter
- #53
Not looking good lol, and it's only going up...
Gonna try disabling what it says.
Also:
More recent, pretty much the same:
Something is seriously wrong. Showed these to a buddy of mine and he thinks it may be the mobo having connection issues to the ports.
Gonna try disabling what it says.
Also:
More recent, pretty much the same:
Something is seriously wrong. Showed these to a buddy of mine and he thinks it may be the mobo having connection issues to the ports.
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- Thread Starter
- #55
They're up to date.
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2001
Another train of thought: Is it stutter because something outside the game is causing the stutter, or is it stuttering because the game itself is having problems?
MSI Afterburner (as I'm sure other software) will allow you to see Frametime, which tells you how long it took the video card to process a single frame of the game. Normally, anything higher then 16ms spent on a single frame is going to cause FPS drops, which can appear as stuttering. What I saw in your example video looks very much like that. By all accounts, a game that old should run butter smooth at 60fps, but if the game engine wasn't optimized, or the current video driver isn't optimized for that game, too much eye candy on that wasn't optimized, etc, etc, you can still get stuttering because of high frametimes. I have a couple of oldies like that; some that have the occasional high frametime, others that constantly have high frametimes. They should run 60fps+ no problem with my setup, yet rarely do.
If you have a 2nd monitor, you can watch your frametime while you game to get an idea of what is going on game wise. Have Latencymon open as well, maybe you can see if there is a high dpc/hard pagefault that coincides with the high frametime.
MSI Afterburner (as I'm sure other software) will allow you to see Frametime, which tells you how long it took the video card to process a single frame of the game. Normally, anything higher then 16ms spent on a single frame is going to cause FPS drops, which can appear as stuttering. What I saw in your example video looks very much like that. By all accounts, a game that old should run butter smooth at 60fps, but if the game engine wasn't optimized, or the current video driver isn't optimized for that game, too much eye candy on that wasn't optimized, etc, etc, you can still get stuttering because of high frametimes. I have a couple of oldies like that; some that have the occasional high frametime, others that constantly have high frametimes. They should run 60fps+ no problem with my setup, yet rarely do.
If you have a 2nd monitor, you can watch your frametime while you game to get an idea of what is going on game wise. Have Latencymon open as well, maybe you can see if there is a high dpc/hard pagefault that coincides with the high frametime.
^^ Single card, but worth a shot...
You mentioned audio issues from Latencymon, right?
Then try rolling it back one version...
You mentioned audio issues from Latencymon, right?
- Thread Starter
- #58
Well I tried this and didn't see anything strange like that. I've also rolled back my GPU drivers to a time where these games ran perfectly fine for months. Thoughtful idea, but I don't think it's the issue.
Not so sure it's telling me I have a straight up audio issue, it's just saying my computer is slowing down so much it's having trouble performing audio and other tasks. I did try rolling the drivers back though, no dice.
I am a bit confused with your post 'tried this didn't see anything strange like that' - what does that mean, you tried the frametime in MSI AB and didn't see anything above 16ms?
At this point, I would try anything suggested to you that you did not already do.
At this point, I would try anything suggested to you that you did not already do.
- Thread Starter
- #60
Yes that's what I meant sorry, the only game it jumped up over 16 ms on was Rust. I can actually see that game microfreezing though so that was expected. BF2 stayed at 11-12ms the entire time.
