Morgan Reed

Is your roommate also using wireless?

If not:

If you do not have a cable handy, can you think of anything that might happen at the same times you lag?

Cordless phones ringing, sometime cellular phones ringing, and microwaves are the common culprits. Are you close enough to neighbors where their use of these things might be occurring? (If you are in an apartment, it is very likely. If a house, not so much but it depends on if you are at an outside wall and how close your neighbors are.)

Also, you could borrow your roommates cable to verify it isn't the wireless.

I'm not going to touch the other stuff, as I am not as familiar with HijackThis logs as I would like to be.

But this is the first post I have seen mentioning a roommate, and I take it from the statement about his internet not having problems that means you are sharing his internet?

Can you verify that your access to the internet isn't limited or throttled for any reason? Do you still lag this bad when your are the only one online at your location?

If you do not have any problems when you are the only one online, then it is either his ISP, or the modem, or the router (I am assuming you are going through a router).

If you are still having problems even when you are the only one online, ask your roommate if he messed with any modem or router settings recently. He might have adjusted QoL settings that are limiting your access. (I'll not speculate on if this was intentional, as a joke or otherwise. ;-) )

As a shot in the dark suggestion, I would say reboot the modem and router if you can. It kind of goes without saying that this will interrupt internet usage, so only do it when everyone is aware the internet will stop working for a while.

If you are still having problems, there is one other thing I can think of besides the help others should be able to give you from your log posts. I'll check back and see if you need it. (It is one of those things that is not a good idea if it is unneeded, so I won't mention until it might be needed.)

I can't give you one definitive answer. There are too many variables.

But the attempt at the short answer is:

No two computers (hardware and software together) are exactly alike.

I have a problem running Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 on my Windows 7 64 bit system for some reason. I have researched the issue. Tried everyone elses "fixes" to their issues (compatibility mode, Disable Visual Themes, etc.) and it still crashes at the exact same spot.

My best guess, is there an internal piece of hardware (as in, not video card, not memory, or anything else that I can swap without solder and a schematic) that isn't "playing nice." Now, I can't even guess as to if it isn't playing nice with Windows 7, or the game itself.


It could be manufacturing: Those that are crashing have hardware that pass quality tests, but aren't actually working properly (I have had memory modules in the past that act like this. Pass every test I can throw at them, and still not work right.) Or, oddly enough, it could be the people that aren't crashing that are in this boat.

It could be software: OS has one bit that never installs right, the NCSoft launcher is written to specs supplied by Microsoft but Microsoft sent the wrong version of the specs, for some reason the launcher doesn't install properly with their OS, etc.

And all of this is without even talking about additional programs interfering.



My best, educated guess, is that something in the visuals part of i20 and/or the NCSoft launcher isn't working as some computers expect. All of the crashes/lockups appear to be visual related. Admittedly, I had one freeze in the middle of a loading screen, but I am betting that it froze while trying to load a visual piece of code.

Sometimes changing video drivers to an older version fixes that. It did in my case.

I think it might be related to Core I<number> processors where they have the ability to do their own video processing if you do not have a discrete video card installed, not being properly disabled when you do install a discrete video card. (It is supposed to be automatic and non-user adjustable.)

But I'm just guessing here.

I'd suggest going back one version of drivers.

For the Radeon HD series, the most recent is 11.5. I was having similar issues, and when I uninstalled those and installed 11.4 they disappeared.

I wanted to add an addendum here that does not disqualify Hyperstrikes post at all.

If you haven't done a defrag in a while, and especially if it has been a very long time, it will take a LONG time. Sometimes several hours.

It should still be done. But this is something people need to be aware of. It might be best, if at all possible, to set your power options to not put the computer to sleep/hybernate and start the defrag before you go to bed, or leave for work.

After the defrag is done, set your power options back as you like. And keep up on defragging. :-P

For reference: The old CoX launcher used to increase my fragmentation to 15% of the drive after every patch. The new launcher only seems to add 2%. So, a defrag after every patch might be in order.

Not at all.

Do not fall into the trap of calculating the games "innocence" because "everyone isn't suffering it."

Earlier today, in Imperial City on Virtue, the lag was horrendous. Multiple "MapServer" lag spikes (the kind that almost disconnect you), and "rubberbanding" like it was the new style.

That wasn't just the problem of the people logged in at that time. That was "game side."

I suspect there is a piece of hardware on NCSoft's side that is failing... Not dead yet, but working it's way towards dead. And with load balancing rotations, different people have the problems at different times. Like a switch with bad MAC address table memory modules. ((Just as an example.)) That would explain why some people have issues for a while, then they mysteriously disappear, and then others suffer it for a while.


I recommend checking your video drivers. If they are the newest and greatest from your card manufacturer, you might try rolling them back one version. That does fix it for some.

I did. And my client froze/crashed right upon entry to the zone after log in - not even involved in a trial at all.

I've had freeze/crashes while zoning, with the "progress bar" at only about 50%.

It is a hard thing to track down.

I solved my freeze/crashes by rolling back my video drivers (Catalyst 11.4 from 11.5). But that isn't the only issue. Tonight during a Rikti Mothership Raid, I tried scaling sown my graphics to alleviate the lag. I went from "Quality" on the slider down to "Minimum" and the lag was worse.

So, I am inclined to believe it revolves around graphics... But I can't claim with certainty it is NCSoft/Paragon side, or User/Player side.

I bet it is some combination, with a sprinkling of OS coding thrown in there. ((Windows does not always react the same way to the same circumstances across different machines.))