Skipping after a while of playing

Calculon · Post by **Calculon** » Fri Jul 13, 2001 1:13 pm

I started playing Team Fortress Classic again and everything is nice and smooth. After about an hour of playing, I notice slight skipping I've never had before. This is still playable, so I keep going. After another 20-30 mins, I'm getting these long skips like lag spikes. (My ping was never over 100). It's now unplayable, and I have to restart HL so its back to normal again. I've also noticed this didn't happen before the 1.1.0.6 patch. Any ideas?

- Windows ME
- Asus A7A266 Motherboard
- AMD Athlon Tbird 1.2 Ghz
- 256 MB RAM
- Voodoo5 5500 AGP
- SoundBlaster Live! Value
- Cable from RR

Everything is up-to-date (drivers)

Joe · Post by **Joe** » Fri Jul 13, 2001 1:17 pm

hard to say.. only thing that sounds near that is lack of memory but you seem to have a good amount of that.

Does this happen every time you play it, on every server?

Calculon · Post by **Calculon** » Fri Jul 13, 2001 1:20 pm

It happens everytime and on every server!

Also, I think 256 MB of RAM is plenty for HL and its mods.

Thanks for the reply! Any other suggestions?

Calculon · Post by **Calculon** » Fri Jul 13, 2001 1:24 pm

One more thing, this isn't a problem in single player game

FingerDemon · Post by **FingerDemon** » Fri Jul 13, 2001 6:06 pm

I don't know what is causing your problem, but a while back I started having a number of different problems with Half Life on my old slow machine that I couldn't diagnose. I ended up just saving my saved Single Player games. Backing up my altered .cfg files and uninstalling and reinstalling the whole thing. Sure, its an ugly solution. But the whole install process itself doesn't take that long and then run the patch for a full update to current and you are set. (After restoring any .cfgs or scripts of course)

I always used to cringe when I heard people suggest things like this before. But installs have gotten so fast that it often goes quicker than spending time online trying to find an answer to the problem. I have heard that gamers should regularly do the same thing with Windows, but I haven't gotten that hardcore yet :-)

The reason I would think it might help you in this case is that the behavior you describe sounds like what a program does when it has a memory leak. Some corrupted file or registry or something could have caused a clean up process not to work properly anymore and make your executable behave like it has a memory leak. If so, reinstalling should replace the corrupted stuff with clean versions, if the problem is being caused by HL.

But BEFORE you do all that, it occurs to me that you should probably check to see what you have running in the background and maybe turn it off before you play. You may have done this already, but a similar problem with one of these programs could cause your HalfLife trouble, I think.

Good luck with it,

FingerDemon

CoolJ · Post by **CoolJ** » Fri Jul 13, 2001 6:09 pm

When playing, open the console and type: Net_graph 5

That gives you your ping in real time. So If you get a spike, look at your ping in realtime, and you should see if your ping takes a high jump then goes backdown. If you just press "Tab" it gives you your average ping and you'd never know it if you get a small spike.

Can't think of why it would just start doing it after a hour, but atleast its a start.

What kinda graphic card you using? One issue with a game like rogue spear is that after playing a while, some graphics card start to overheat and cause choppyness! I know your not Playin RS But ya never know.

Calculon · Post by **Calculon** » Fri Jul 13, 2001 7:54 pm

FingerDemon, I don't think reinstalling the game will help. I have just replaced my HDD and install the game with the original disc. I also updated to 1.1.0.7.
BTW, it happened with old HHD also. And yes, I tried CTRL+ALT+Del and ended everything (except for explorer and systray) before I play.

CoolJ, I will try your tip the next time I play. I doubt it's a spike. I'm using Voodoo5 5500 AGP. As you know, 3dfx is no longer exist. Thus, no new driver is developed. This could be my problem.

Thanks for the replies! Please tell me if you have other suggestions. I'm running out of ideas!

Also, when I press Esc to get back to the menu screen (when the problem is at its peak), I notice my mouse movements are very jerky.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » Fri Jul 13, 2001 9:15 pm

Are you running HL in Open GL or Direct X?

Calculon · Post by **Calculon** » Fri Jul 13, 2001 9:39 pm

Direct 3D you mean? I'm running D3D

Joe · Post by **Joe** » Fri Jul 13, 2001 9:53 pm

lol

First change to Open GL and select the 3dfx mini driver from the drop down

You will most likely see a major improvment

CoolJ · Post by **CoolJ** » Fri Jul 13, 2001 10:50 pm

Originally posted by PING
lol

First change to Open GL and select the 3dfx mini driver from the drop down

You will most likely see a major improvment

Joe · Post by **Joe** » Sat Jul 14, 2001 12:04 am

Originally posted by CoolJ

Calculon · Post by **Calculon** » Sun Jul 15, 2001 3:40 pm

I tried switching to OpenGL, and noticed slight improvement in the graphics department. However, that problem remains!

I also tried the Net_graph suggestion, and I don't see any spike. It seems that my computer freezes momentary during the skipping, because it doesn't update my ping during that time.

Any other suggestions? Anything at all! I'm desperate!

HalfLifer · Post by **HalfLifer** » Sun Jul 15, 2001 3:44 pm

I get the same thing. In CS and TFC, when Im running around, every 7-10 steps I get a slight jerk.

Calculon · Post by **Calculon** » Sun Jul 15, 2001 3:49 pm

Oh, thank god somebody else has the same problem! I thought it's my computer that causes it!

HalfLifer, does it get worse the longer you play?

Stuman · Post by **Stuman** » Mon Jul 23, 2001 8:18 pm

Win ME users look for the OS patch that fixes a Mem Leak
that Micro$oft just admitted to knowing about but did nothing
until some people started to complain.

what happens is the memory alloted to an application
is not released back to the system.

I'll post the patch name and where to find it.

Maybe that will help, oh well just my $0.02 worth.

L8R,
-Stu

Jin · Post by **Jin** » Mon Jul 23, 2001 8:27 pm

Hey calculon check to make sure that the server you join doesn't have PunkBuster enabled. Goto this link, it has reports about how people with Asus won't be able to join any servers that have PunkBuster enabled. Not spamming, just trying to help.

http://www.planethalflife.com/news/sear ... earch=Asus

dablade · Post by **dablade** » Mon Jul 23, 2001 11:37 pm

i am getting the same problem. every few seconds my net graph shows spike in/out of network.. any suggestions? I just tweaked the system registry for my dsl connection. I used to play at another location and everything was cool now its blown up.