City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

lag-like graphics freeze?

Fulmens

By Fulmens,
Posted on: 2009-05-24 19:00 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs

 

Posted

I'm probably going to leave out important info. . . I'll do my best.

I've got a fairly new computer with a Nvidia 9800GFX+ . When I'm playing CoH sometimes - not very often- the graphics will just sort of freeze. A few seconds later (order of 30 seconds?) it will start running again. The CPU during this time seems to show no activity.

Sometimes if I alt-tab to another window, or ctl-alt-del to bring up the task manager, it seems to help. That could be "I alt-tab and it doesn't take until the computer works itself out."

I believe I'm running the 6.14.11.8208 drivers.

Things that seem to not be the problem:
* I thought it might be because I (possibly stupidly) had the firewall on while playing, but I turned it off and it just happened again.

* My new computer shows temperatures on the case for the CPU, HDD and "sys" (I don't know where it's measuring system temps) and they're around 27 to 30 C- warm for a room, cool for a human. So THAT doesn't seem to be the problem.

* I'm running stuff at very high graphical settings, but it seems fine except for once every hour or so when it just goes on strike.

* Shortly after getting the computer (it's like six weeks old), the power supply crapped out. I had the problem before the supply failed, and I have it again with the new supply.

Anyone recognize this problem? What other info would you like?

Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.

So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
I've got a fairly new computer with a Nvidia 9800GFX+ . When I'm playing CoH sometimes - not very often- the graphics will just sort of freeze. A few seconds later (order of 30 seconds?) it will start running again. The CPU during this time seems to show no activity.

[/ QUOTE ]

Please post your CoH Helper info at least, and preferably also your Hijack This.

Just to get it out of the way, are you using a SSD (Solid State Disk)? There are known problems with the majority of these currently on the market, with occasionally multi-second "hangs". If this may apply to you, I can direct you to some more info.

The next most likely suspect is something else on your network. Try using the /netgraph 1 command to display network performance. It should look like a short green lawn, possibly with the occasional taller bits of green. If you see spikes of other colors, you have network issues of some sort.

Some likely suspects:

* We've had reports of game consoles (PS3, possibly Xbox 360) set to allow multimedia browsing hammering the network badly every so often. Turn off their multimedia features.

* Other people sharing the network connection, intended or otherwise. Is there anyone else in the household? Is your wireless secure?

* Other programs running on your computer. Anti-virus updates and Steam are common culprits, but all sorts of (mostly) legit programs connect to the network on their own to check for updates these days. (The Apple updater for Windows is particularly annoying, as it grabs focus but doesn't switch to the top; looks like an input hang.)

* Infections. Malware, Spyware, actual viruses or worms, etc. The Hijack This logs are particularly useful for spotting this sort of thing. While many of these cause visible problems, if your computer has been made part of a "zombie" botnet, you may not notice any major changes until much later.

Miuramir, Windchime, Sariel the Golden, Scarlet Antinomist...
Casino Extortion #4031: Neutral, Council+Custom [SFMA/MLMA/SLMA/FHMA/CFMA]
Bad Candy #87938: Neutral, Custom [SFMA/MLMA/SLMA/FHMA/HFMA]
CoH Helper * HijackThis

 

Posted

I've had this a couple times, but both times it only happened on an Arachnos base map with a huge room in it. I think it might be corelated.

 

Posted

Still a problem. I managed to get it to happen with netgraph running and it goes "nice little lawn BIG GIANT GREEN BLOCK nice little lawn". It looks like the "you have just opened the market" or "you just zoned" green block, but much much longer in duration. Like 45 seconds to a minute.

My wife shares the connection and she doesn't have these problems.

Will post my CoH Helper and HijackThis logs later.

Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.

So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Still a problem. I managed to get it to happen with netgraph running and it goes "nice little lawn BIG GIANT GREEN BLOCK nice little lawn". It looks like the "you have just opened the market" or "you just zoned" green block, but much much longer in duration. Like 45 seconds to a minute.

My wife shares the connection and she doesn't have these problems.

[/ QUOTE ]

Odd. The net graph would seem to indicate that it's a network-related problem, but the other evidence would seem to indicate that it's not. Are you perhaps using the built-in network on your motherboard, or a lower-end add-on network card? Some of these save money by depending on the CPU to do more of the work, so could show seeming network problems if your computer is merely "busy" enough that the network-handling tasks are being delayed.

Do you have any sort of search or indexing feature on? Is your anti-virus conducting background checks of some sort? It seems like there's something that's waking up every so often and keeping your system partially occupied for a bit.

Do you log chat or combat to disk? Hypothetically I could see that being an intermittent issue, if it buffers then does a delayed write. Or perhaps Windows Search is trying to index the chat logs as it gets added to?

Malware is also a distinct possibility in this day and age, unfortunately. I'd suggest some careful scans with good software and some cleanout of unneeded stuff / accumulated crud. MalwareBytes Anti-Malware and CCleaner would be a good start.

Miuramir, Windchime, Sariel the Golden, Scarlet Antinomist...
Casino Extortion #4031: Neutral, Council+Custom [SFMA/MLMA/SLMA/FHMA/CFMA]
Bad Candy #87938: Neutral, Custom [SFMA/MLMA/SLMA/FHMA/HFMA]
CoH Helper * HijackThis

 

Posted

Ah. useful stuff time.

---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.1.1.7---

DxDiag gathered at June 1, 2009 14:17 (-04:00)
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090206-1234)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: System Product Name
BIOS: BIOS Date: 07/15/08 16:43:11 Ver: 04.05
Central Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 7750 Dual-Core Processor, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.7GHz
Memory: 3328MB
.Net Memory Report: 2761MB out of 3327MB available
Page File: 4813MB (398MB currently in use)
C Drive: (Hitachi HDP725032GLA360) 283744MB out of 305234MB (92%) free
D Drive: (HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH22NP20) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DirectX Diag version: 5.03.2600.5512 (32-bit version)

Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.

No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor's Max Resolution: 1600,1200
Video Device Name: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+
Manufacturer / Chip: NVIDIA / GeForce 9800 GTX+
Video Memory: 1024.0 MB
Driver Version: 6.14.0011.8208
Driver Date: 2/18/2009 5:44:00 PM
Driver Language: English

Sound Device Description: Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
Driver File: t3.sys
Driver Version: 5.10.0000.0203
Driver Date: 10/17/2008 9:41:26 AM

Sound Device Description: HD Audio rear output
Driver File: viahduaa.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.1430
Driver Date: 2/13/2008 11:36:34 PM


WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: M3A78-CM
Motherboard Version: Rev X.0x
BIOS Manufacturer: American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Name: BIOS Date: 07/15/08 16:43:11 Ver: 04.05
BIOS Version: 071508 - 20080715
BIOS Release: 20080715000000.000000+000

Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1280x1024
3D Resolution: 1280x1024 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: Yes
Maximized: No
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: Yes

Physics Quality: Medium
Maximum Particles: 34332
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No

Anti-aliasing: 4x
Anisotropic Filtering: 16x
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: Low Quality
Bloom: 1.000 (turned off)
Depth of Field Enabled: No
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
Shader Detail: High

World Texture Level: Very High
Character Texture Level: Very High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 1.448
Entity Detail Level: 2.000
Shadows Enabled: Yes
Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of Extra Player FX Enabled: No
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes

Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 0.144
Music Sound Volume: 0.138

Show Advanced Graphics Options: Yes
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.600
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 599840 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 18.20090422.5T
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files\City of Heroes

Mod files in the Data directory
No modifications found

Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.

So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.

 

Posted

And HijackThis:

Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2
Scan saved at 2:20:00 PM, on 6/1/2009
Platform: Windows XP SP3 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP3 (6.00.2900.5512)
Boot mode: Normal

Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\Program Files\AVG\AVG8\avgrsx.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\Program Files\VIA\VIAudioi\HDADeck\HDeck.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\RUNDLL32.EXE
C:\Program Files\Creative\Sound Blaster X-Fi\Console Launcher\CTAPR2.exe
C:\Program Files\Creative\Sound Blaster X-Fi\Volume Panel\VolPanlu.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Rundll32.exe
C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\jusched.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\AVG\AVG8\avgtray.exe
C:\Program Files\Creative\Shared Files\CTSched.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\CTsvcCDA.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\nvsvc32.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wscntfy.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\sb downloads\CohHelper.exe
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis\HijackThis.exe

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.yahoo.com/
O2 - BHO: AcroIEHelperStub - {18DF081C-E8AD-4283-A596-FA578C2EBDC3} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelperShim.dll
O2 - BHO: WormRadar.com IESiteBlocker.NavFilter - {3CA2F312-6F6E-4B53-A66E-4E65E497C8C0} - C:\Program Files\AVG\AVG8\avgssie.dll
O2 - BHO: Google Toolbar Helper - {AA58ED58-01DD-4d91-8333-CF10577473F7} - C:\Program Files\Google\Google Toolbar\GoogleToolbar.dll
O2 - BHO: Google Toolbar Notifier BHO - {AF69DE43-7D58-4638-B6FA-CE66B5AD205D} - C:\Program Files\Google\GoogleToolbarNotifier\5.1.1309.3572\s wg.dll
O2 - BHO: Google Dictionary Compression sdch - {C84D72FE-E17D-4195-BB24-76C02E2E7C4E} - C:\Program Files\Google\Google Toolbar\Component\fastsearch_A8904FB862BD9564.dll
O2 - BHO: Java(tm) Plug-In 2 SSV Helper - {DBC80044-A445-435b-BC74-9C25C1C588A9} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\jp2ssv.dll
O2 - BHO: JQSIEStartDetectorImpl - {E7E6F031-17CE-4C07-BC86-EABFE594F69C} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\lib\deploy\jqs\ie\jqs_plugin.dll
O3 - Toolbar: Google Toolbar - {2318C2B1-4965-11d4-9B18-009027A5CD4F} - C:\Program Files\Google\Google Toolbar\GoogleToolbar.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HDAudDeck] C:\Program Files\VIA\VIAudioi\HDADeck\HDeck.exe 1
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NvCplDaemon] RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\NvCpl.dll,NvStartup
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [nwiz] nwiz.exe /install
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NvMediaCenter] RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\NvMcTray.dll,NvTaskbarInit
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [CTAPR2] "C:\Program Files\Creative\Sound Blaster X-Fi\Console Launcher\CTAPR2.exe" /r
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [VolPanel] "C:\Program Files\Creative\Sound Blaster X-Fi\Volume Panel\VolPanlu.exe" /r
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SPIRun] Rundll32 SPIRun.dll,RunDLLEntry
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SunJavaUpdateSched] "C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\jusched.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AVG8_TRAY] C:\PROGRA~1\AVG\AVG8\avgtray.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Adobe Reader Speed Launcher] "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\Reader_sl.exe"
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [CreativeTaskScheduler] "C:\Program Files\Creative\Shared Files\CTSched.exe" /logon
O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office12\EXCEL.EXE/3000
O9 - Extra button: Research - {92780B25-18CC-41C8-B9BE-3C9C571A8263} - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office12\REFIEBAR.DLL
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {e2e2dd38-d088-4134-82b7-f2ba38496583} - C:\WINDOWS\Network Diagnostic\xpnetdiag.exe
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: @xpsp3res.dll,-20001 - {e2e2dd38-d088-4134-82b7-f2ba38496583} - C:\WINDOWS\Network Diagnostic\xpnetdiag.exe
O9 - Extra button: Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Windows Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O16 - DPF: {F6ACF75C-C32C-447B-9BEF-46B766368D29} (Creative Software AutoUpdate Support Package) - http://ccfiles.creative.com/Web/soft...5108/CTPID.cab
O18 - Protocol: linkscanner - {F274614C-63F8-47D5-A4D1-FBDDE494F8D1} - C:\Program Files\AVG\AVG8\avgpp.dll
O18 - Filter: x-sdch - {B1759355-3EEC-4C1E-B0F1-B719FE26E377} - C:\Program Files\Google\Google Toolbar\Component\fastsearch_A8904FB862BD9564.dll
O20 - Winlogon Notify: avgrsstarter - C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\avgrsstx.dll
O23 - Service: Creative Service for CDROM Access - Creative Technology Ltd - C:\WINDOWS\system32\CTsvcCDA.exe
O23 - Service: Google Software Updater (gusvc) - Google - C:\Program Files\Google\Common\Google Updater\GoogleUpdaterService.exe
O23 - Service: NVIDIA Display Driver Service (NVSvc) - NVIDIA Corporation - C:\WINDOWS\system32\nvsvc32.exe

--
End of file - 4946 bytes

Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.

So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Monitor's Max Resolution: 1600,1200
Resolution: 1280x1024
3D Resolution: 1280x1024 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: Yes

[/ QUOTE ]

The above seems odd. If this is a LCD monitor, you'll get considerably better looking results using it at its native resolution (not just the game, your desktop and everything). Your card should be up for it. If you want to trim down the 3D for performance reasons, set the actual resolution to match your desktop and your monitor, and then use the RenderScale to reduce the 3D load.

I'm not an expert, but looking over things you've got a lot of sound-related stuff, which has been problematic in the past. You've got enough main memory that the startup item cruft shouldn't be hurting you too badly on memory, but it can't hurt to clean it out and one of them might be "waking up" periodically and causing your problem.

Miuramir, Windchime, Sariel the Golden, Scarlet Antinomist...
Casino Extortion #4031: Neutral, Council+Custom [SFMA/MLMA/SLMA/FHMA/CFMA]
Bad Candy #87938: Neutral, Custom [SFMA/MLMA/SLMA/FHMA/HFMA]
CoH Helper * HijackThis

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Anything there look juicy?

I thought I disabled the Google Thingy on startup, but maybe it's enabled itself.

[/ QUOTE ]

The evil Google toolbar keeps reinstalling GoogleUpdater. Any google app will install it without permission. I just wrestled with a GoogleUpdater file that kept reappearing even though I removed it through the Task Manager, MSConfig, and windows services manager! I had to physically delete the .exe and .msi files to stop that from happening.

Right now, I consider MicroSoft to be less evil than Google.

Consider that carefully.

Mark my words, within two years, there will be a Federal investigation of Google that will pale in comparison to the anti-trust cases against M$.

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