Graphical Stutter/Flicker and Occasional Forced Reboot Issues

I'm having some issues that have exhausted my knowledge so I come to the gurus seeking wisdom.

Quick History
Following the release of i17, I started noticing a slight stutter/flicker while traveling outside of instanced maps. Combined with a small amount of rubberbanding when I got near large groups of players, I assumed it might work itself out and kept playing. After one of the patches the situation grew worse with a game client crash when exiting to desktop. The crash reports, some of which I allowed to be sent, said the error was in CG.DLL. Last week I downloaded the most recent drivers for my ATI card and now the game is practically unplayable. The crash is gone but the stutter is so pronounced that I do not enjoy the game at all.

The Stutter
The best illustration is when I'm running any toggle. The animation around the power icon in the tray orbits clockwise. It might go from two o'clock to four o'clock smoothly then it flickers and jumps to six o'clock. The animation makes it to about 8 o'clock before it flickers again and appears at ten o'clock. This continues, always flickering, always dropping frames. My frame rate averages from 15-25 on an outdoor map and 20-35 on an indoor instance. And there are peaks and valleys in this. One more painful side effect of this is an old annoyance has returned. Occasionally, while running the game, my computer will crash to a reboot status. I've turned off automatic restart under Startup and Recovery. This crash seems random, but it hits after at least 30 minutes of play while I have other applications running (Opera and Trillian most often).

What I've Done, the Short Version
Following the advice of a person or two from the boards, I backed my ATI drivers to the 9.3.1 Legacy drivers for my X1300/X1550 series card. I used Driver Cleaner after removing the "old" drivers, disabled the ATI Hot Poller and ATI Smart services, removed a RealTek data mining application, and did not install CCC. My OS is Windows XP and I made sure I had all the latest updates there. I also updated the DirectX 9.0c drivers. I try to keep my system as streamlined as possible, but I'll admit things slip past me from time to time.

Below are the log files from COH Helper and Hijack This. Any help, comments, suggestions, or requests for info are welcome. I promise not to ask too many facepalm inducing questions.

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Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2
Scan saved at 5:07:06 PM, on 7/28/2010
Platform: Windows XP SP3 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v8.00 (8.00.6001.18702)
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\Explorer.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ZoneLabs\vsmon.exe
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\aswUpdSv.exe
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashServ.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashWebSv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wscntfy.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\ALWILS~1\Avast4\ashDisp.exe
C:\Program Files\Zone Labs\ZoneAlarm\zlclient.exe
C:\Program Files\Opera\opera.exe
C:\Program Files\Trillian\trillian.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\notepad.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\notepad.exe
C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis\HijackThis.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [avast!] C:\PROGRA~1\ALWILS~1\Avast4\ashDisp.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ZoneAlarm Client] "C:\Program Files\Zone Labs\ZoneAlarm\zlclient.exe"
O23 - Service: avast! iAVS4 Control Service (aswUpdSv) - ALWIL Software - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\aswUpdSv.exe
O23 - Service: avast! Antivirus - ALWIL Software - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashServ.exe
O23 - Service: avast! Mail Scanner - ALWIL Software - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashMaiSv.exe
O23 - Service: avast! Web Scanner - ALWIL Software - C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashWebSv.exe
O23 - Service: Google Update Service (gupdate) (gupdate) - Google Inc. - C:\Program Files\Google\Update\GoogleUpdate.exe
O23 - Service: TrueVector Internet Monitor (vsmon) - Check Point Software Technologies LTD - C:\WINDOWS\system32\ZoneLabs\vsmon.exe

--
End of file - 1877 bytes


---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.2.0.2---

DxDiag gathered at July 28, 2010 16:05 (-05:00)
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.100216-1514)
System Manufacturer: MSI
System Model: MS-7194
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Central Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 4000+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.4GHz
Memory: 3072MB
.Net Memory Report: 2362MB out of 3071MB available
Page File: 3329MB (606MB currently in use)
C Drive: (ST3160812A) 6594MB out of 152617MB (4%) free
D Drive: (SAMSUNG SP4002H) 3004MB out of 38201MB (7%) free
E Drive: (ST3200822A) 984MB out of 48014MB (2%) free
F Drive: (ST3200822A) 1710MB out of 48218MB (3%) free
G Drive: (ST3200822A) 24631MB out of 46955MB (52%) free
H Drive: (ST3200822A) 42439MB out of 47583MB (89%) free
I Drive: (Optiarc DVD RW AD-7170A) 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.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor: SyncMaster 940BW/199BW/941BW, SyncMaster Magic CX915BW(Digital)
Monitor's Max Resolution: 1440,900
Video Device Name: Radeon X1300/X1550 Series
Manufacturer / Chip: ATI Technologies Inc. / ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x7142)
Video Memory: 256.0 MB
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6925
Driver Date: 4/27/2009 11:40:59 PM
Driver Language: English

Sound Device Description: Realtek HD Audio output
Driver File: RtkHDAud.sys
Driver Version: 5.10.0000.5172
Driver Date: 9/23/2005 6:56:28 PM


WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: MSI
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: MS-7194
Motherboard Version: 1A
BIOS Manufacturer: American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Name: Default System BIOS
BIOS Version: A M I - 2000613
BIOS Release: 20060213000000.000000+000


Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1440x853
3D Resolution: 1440x853 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: No
Maximized: Yes
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: Yes


Physics Quality: None
Maximum Particles: 25050
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No


Anti-aliasing: Off
Anisotropic Filtering: None
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: None
Bloom: 1.000 (turned off)
Depth of Field Enabled: No
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: No
Shader Detail: Unknown (5)


World Texture Level: Medium
Character Texture Level: Very High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 0.800
Entity Detail Level: 1.000
Shadows Enabled: Yes
Shadow Mode: Disabled
Shadow Map Shader: Unknown (0)
Environmental Reflections: Disabled
Advanced Occlusion Settings: No
Ambient Occlusion: Off
Occlusion Strength: Off
Blur: Bilateral
Ambient Resolution: Performance


Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: Yes
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes

Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 1.000
Music Sound Volume: 0.600

Show Advanced Graphics Options: Yes
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.250
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 389627 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 1800.201006040036.8T
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files\City of Heroes

Mod files in the Data directory
.\sound\Ogg\BoomBox has 4 files
.\texts\English\Menus has 10 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\city has 1 file
.\texture_library\MAPS\Midnight_Squad has 1 file
.\texture_library\MAPS\Safeguard has 9 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\sewers has 44 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\static has 32 files
.\texture_library\V_MAPS\Outdoor_Missions has 9 files
.\texture_library\V_MAPS\Static has 16 files

At 4% free on the C drive where the game is loaded I'm going to guarantee you that the game files are fragmented severely. Every time the game is patched every file is rewritten to the drive and moved around. On a drive with not a lot of free space available it will dice those files up into a thousand pieces and will contribute to jittery performance.

I use Auslogics Disk Defrag which is both fast and allows you to defrag individual folders. Defraggler also can do that but is much slower. You may also want to look at CCleaner, which can find and remove temp files better than the Disk Cleanup utility that comes with Windows. You could temporarily move the piggs folder (95% of the game files by size) to one of your less filled drives before the defrag to give the defragmenter some needed room to work with and then move the piggs folder back when you that's done.

I would expect a defrag to take quite a while with a drive with so little free space. It may be something to start before going to bed.

I try to keep to a schedule of defragging my hard drive at least once a month and/or after every major patch. With all the stuff I've done recently, I'll admit I'm probably due for a defrag. Hmm... One more thing added to the list.

I'd also kill the size on the System Volume Information Folder: http://indrajitc.wordpress.com/2008/...e-information/

I'd recommend freeing up quite a bit of the space on your C: drive. Windows doesn't care if it has 42 Gb of Free Space if that 42 GB is less than 20% of the space on the drive.

The use of 42 is just an example, not an indication of how much space you have on your drive. It's just a number I like.

How's your netgraph, smooth or choppy as well? (/netgraph 1)

Disable shadows and see what that does for you. Yes the world will look funky but it will possibly help clear up what is wrong.

Other than the game starts using more and more memory the longer it runs. The box may heat up over time so maybe a thermal issue?

You have a very clean system from the sense of few background items running. I don't see anything which may periodically hog the CPU. You are running in a window so it's not refresh rates.

So in an indoor mission, standing still in an empty corridor or room with no critters in sight, does it stutter?

I think there is now the graphfps command.

A lot of the problems that are like this seem to be with machines running Win XP with 4GB of RAM and an ATI video card. This may seem extreme, but has anyone with this problem and set of specs tried removing enough memory from their system to drop it down to 2GB, and then run City again? Win XP 32bit sometimes acts squirrelly with more than 2GB of system memory...

you can test the heat idea with Uningine's benchmarks: http://unigine.com/download/

They have looping modes and will render through OpenGL (same API as CoH uses).

Theoretically, they should run against your aging graphics card... I actually haven't tried it since I don't have any x1x00 series cards on hand.

Once again, thanks for the help and suggestions. You folks rock. It appears that part of the problem was a faulty fan on my video card. A friend had a spare Radeon HD2400 card so I replaced the old X1300. Updated my drivers, staying with version 9.3, as je_saist recommended. The stutter is still there. I've not installed CCC. Will it help? Also I've noticed that ATI installs two services: ATI Hotkey Poller and ATI Smart. I've been disabling them both as it appeared Smart was resetting the Hotkey Poller everytime I disabled it. Am I wrong and should I re-enable it?

Using graphfps I noticed a red spike appearing on the graph for each stutter. I used settings 1, 2, and 4. Each time I'd see mostly green bars with red spikes. The spikes are actually worse with the new card than the old.

I've compiled new reports for Tech Support. If anyone here wishes to see them please let me know. It's been over a week since I've been able to play on Live and I'm anxious to get this resolved, one way or the other.

You still have this problem? The reason I ask is because I came across this thread having my own stuttering problem, and I managed to fix it after a few hours.

My fix: Disabling chat logging. What happened was that now that I got my 3rd Tier1 henchman, my combat log suddenly grew huge. I kept on thinking it was a problem with the particle physics, but this thread prompted me to do a fragmentation analysis. The result? 6 MB chat log with 500 fragments. Once I disabled chat logging, everything was fine.

I dunno if this would help you, because I don't know your exact situation (when it occurs, etc.). For me everything made sense because I would only stutter during heavy combat situations.

I'm getting stuttering, too. Ihave a GTX 260nvidia card, core i7 intel 2.6 ghz, 6 gigs ddr3, and raptor hard drive.
Attempting to disable chat logging when iget home. I downloaded a new install of the client last noght as well as new drivers. Anytime there were AoEs or lots of animations my framerate would drop from 70ish to as low as t fps.

My netgraph was clear as I can tell. After I reinstalled windows 7 64 bit, the gameplay was smooth, it's all of a sudden gotten worse. Hopefully I can resolve it.

*sidenote* I booted into my install of Mac OS X and gamed for about 30 mins with no stuttering or netgraph blips.I'm on a 10 meg cable connection (non-wireless)

I deleted and redownloaded the client as well as removed my video drivers and update to new ones. I also disabled real time in the Microsoft Security Essentials. and it seems to have fixed my stuttering..for now.