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Assist => Support => AA Support => Topic started by: Darthviox on Friday, November 29, 2013, 04:10:50 AM
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Hey what's going on guys? Its Darth. I've been having this annoying problem where my fps randomly drops CRAZY low, then stays there and doesn't raise back up. Basically, I'll be hitting around 45, 50, 60 fps throughout the game for the longest time. Then, about half-hour (or more, sometimes less, depends) it just randomly hits 9-11fps, and stays. Its highly disturbing and frustrating. I know it isn't the video/graphics card because I wouldn't stay at a constant high fps.. It is quite an old laptop (2009ish) I am running on, definitely not compatible with "high-powered gaming" but it shouldn't be THIS bad running a 2003 game, especially when I run it on the lowest settings possible. I've updated my drivers as well. Also, I have a cooling-pad so it doesn't get hot.
I've done basically everything. Lowered the settings clear to "lowest" - 800x600 res, still fps drops. Turned off all programs, did a disk defragment on the hard drive, cleaned the computer, scanned it. Also fixed the registry. Turned my color depth in graphic options to 16bit, instead of 32 bit. Removed the Window 7 customization. And I've also set the priority to above normal, and high. Still, nothing. I don't know what else to try honestly like.. :duh:
Any suggestions?
Thanks very much for the help!
-Darth
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hey there, where did u exacly did this? "Turned my color depth in graphic options to 16bit, instead of 32 bit" in armyops? pb cvars will kick you for it right?
try to open armyops.exe click console botton and type pb_system 0 and also pb_sleep 500 and pb_writecfg it might be punkbuster confliting with ur system. also download spybot maybe you have a trojan or somthing there
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It has to be heat. You can be using a cooling pad but a laptop of that age might already have the CPU/GPU cooler clogged with hair/dust and while the cooling pad will help, you're still not getting air past the heatsink fins.
This is what I've seen MANY times in laptops:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/464376/Images/DSCF0002.JPG)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/464376/Images/DSCF0003.JPG)
Grab yourself HWMonitor and Prime95. Run Small FFT's in Prime95 and watch temps in HWMonitor and post back. Also post what CPU you have (it should say in HWMonitor).
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hey there, where did u exacly did this? "Turned my color depth in graphic options to 16bit, instead of 32 bit" in armyops? pb cvars will kick you for it right?
try to open armyops.exe click console botton and type pb_system 0 and also pb_sleep 500 and pb_writecfg it might be punkbuster confliting with ur system. also download spybot maybe you have a trojan or somthing there
I did this from the desktop settings on my computer. (Right clicking > Graphic Options > Color Depth). I've also tried those commands.
It has to be heat. You can be using a cooling pad but a laptop of that age might already have the CPU/GPU cooler clogged with hair/dust and while the cooling pad will help, you're still not getting air past the heatsink fins
Yeah I think you may be right, because I don't see what else could be causing the problem. I'll download that program here in a few and post the pictures of before and after. =]
By the way I have a
Acer Aspire 5334
Intel (R) Celeron(R) 900 CPU
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Intel graphics and a single-core CPU doesn't look like it would do well even with AA. I would still bet heat though.
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Intel graphics and a single-core CPU doesn't look like it would do well even with AA. I would still bet heat though.
I know it has changed along the way but I started out with a P3 800MHz and a geforce 2 mx and a 56k software modem and I thought I was doing something. :oops:
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I never played an online game with dial-up, I'm impressed by those who have. Absolute warriors.
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I never played an online game with dial-up, I'm impressed by those who have. Absolute warriors.
Got a clanmember of mine living in one of those deserted Inuit areas of Canada, internet through Satellite I believe, steady 200 ping on US located servers.
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Intel graphics and a single-core CPU doesn't look like it would do well even with AA. I would still bet heat though.
Yeah I know it isn't the greatest for gaming :oops: but it still does the job and let's me play most games! :up:
I took a couple screenshots of the Prime95 and HWMonitor. How can I post them on this?
-Darth
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Got a clanmember of mine living in one of those deserted Inuit areas of Canada, internet through Satellite I believe, steady 200 ping on US located servers.
Satellite is miserable. I try to do remote work through it for some customers and for every mouse click it's 2-5 seconds delay. I'd almost rather have dial-up. Not to mention, Satellite has capped bandwidth.
Yeah I know it isn't the greatest for gaming :oops: but it still does the job and let's me play most games! :up:
I took a couple screenshots of the Prime95 and HWMonitor. How can I post them on this?
-Darth
Imgur.com is pretty good.
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Imgur.com is pretty good
Gotcha! Give me on a second and I'll post the before and after.
Okay, here's before:
(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FxWloO3A.jpg%3F1&hash=57256a36afd2ed601dffaa2acbf42960)
Let the test run a little bit then I had to leave so this is what it got to, pretty sure it is the heat:
(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FoUvzkG3.jpg%3F1&hash=b58ae9a2ae9295e534a0ac070991b203)
-Darth
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That's pretty damn hot for a 35W CPU. From what I can tell, thermal shutdown is at 105C and you're at 89C so there might be throttling going on or perhaps instability. Who knows though, with gaming it might be going higher. Why don't you leave HWMonitor open and play AA until your FPS drops real low. Be sure to close out of Prime95.
Post back with another screenshot.
Do you own an air compressor or know anyone that owns one?
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That's pretty damn hot for a 35W CPU. From what I can tell, thermal shutdown is at 105C and you're at 89C so there might be throttling going on or perhaps instability. Who knows though, with gaming it might be going higher. Why don't you leave HWMonitor open and play AA until your FPS drops real low. Be sure to close out of Prime95.
Post back with another screenshot.
Do you own an air compressor or know anyone that owns one?
Okay, so whenever my FPS drops you just want me to tab out of the game and screen shot the monitor?
Yeah I have someone who has a air-duster by the way.
By the way when you say "throttling or instability" is that meaning that's whats causing it to suddenly DROP so fast? Also, which one should I be looking at? The one that's my most concerned? Core # -256?
Okay, I played some AA, here's the screenshot I got when my FPS dropped.
(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FNfXc01h.jpg&hash=c63257db884ced8bd9962a2fea0b0f6b)
-Darth
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I'm betting that the CPU is throttling itself back (reducing performance to reduce it's heat output to prevent thermal runaway) and that's the problem.
An "air duster" isn't really the same thing as an air compressor. You want a lot of PSI (unless you're comfortable enough to disassemble the laptop?).
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I'm betting that the CPU is throttling itself back (reducing performance to reduce it's heat output to prevent thermal runaway) and that's the problem.
An "air duster" isn't really the same thing as an air compressor. You want a lot of PSI (unless you're comfortable enough to disassemble the laptop?).
Ahhh I see. Well I'm taking it up to my fathers house whenever he's available he said he'll strip it apart and clean it all out. He also told me it was probably dust build up in the fans, etc. (I just figured since it wasn't "hot" it wasn't the heating problem.)
So basically I just should get this cleaned out then, and see if that fixes the problem?
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Does your father know how to disassemble laptops? They can be easily screwed up by improper assembly. I've seen laptops poorly re-assembled by Staples for a repair. If it's being disassembled, the fan will have to come off the heatsink in order to get all the crud out, once that's done, it should perform well. The heatsink doesn't have to come off the CPU but if it does, be sure to buy a new thermal pad for the chipset and put on some quality TIM compound on the CPU, don't re-use any of it.
Being that it's a few years old and the fan has probably overheated from trying to push the extremely hot air, it might also be a good idea to replace it while you're in there. They're usually $10 on eBay for a new one. Definitely do this if the fan is rattling or making much noise now.
If I had money to spare, I'd bet this would solve your issue.
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Does your father know how to disassemble laptops? They can be easily screwed up by improper assembly. I've seen laptops poorly re-assembled by Staples for a repair. If it's being disassembled, the fan will have to come off the heatsink in order to get all the crud out, once that's done, it should perform well. The heatsink doesn't have to come off the CPU but if it does, be sure to buy a new thermal pad for the chipset and put on some quality TIM compound on the CPU, don't re-use any of it.
Being that it's a few years old and the fan has probably overheated from trying to push the extremely hot air, it might also be a good idea to replace it while you're in there. They're usually $10 on eBay for a new one. Definitely do this if the fan is rattling or making much noise now.
If I had money to spare, I'd bet this would solve your issue.
Ahhh okay! Thanks man, definitely appreciate the help. Also, yeah he does. He's being working on computers for years lol. He's usually the one I head to with a problem, but I figured maybe it was something outside that could be fixed instead of inside. But I will definitely keep you updated on after the clean-up if it's improved. :)
Until then, its off with restarting the game every so often. :P
Btw, staples?! Who does that?! Lol.
Also, what's the best specs to get if I wanted to run nearly every game? (Just wondering)
-Darth
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If I were you, I would honestly not play between now and then. Stressing your computer like that isn't good. There's been cases from manufacturers where certain models of laptops (hell even PS3's had this issue) where the heat/cool cycles will break or weaken the solder joints and basically brick your computer.
You could solve this issue by shooting blasts of air into the CPU cooler vents but that just pushes the dust around inside and breaks it up a bit, doesn't solve the problem as well as a disassembly would.
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If I were you, I would honestly not play between now and then. Stressing your computer like that isn't good. There's been cases from manufacturers where certain models of laptops (hell even PS3's had this issue) where the heat/cool cycles will break or weaken the solder joints and basically brick your computer.
You could solve this issue by shooting blasts of air into the CPU cooler vents but that just pushes the dust around inside and breaks it up a bit, doesn't solve the problem as well as a disassembly would.
I will take your word on this, I will lay off the play time until I can get this cleaned out. I would shoot some air into it, but I don't have any at the moment lol.
Honestly, I can run the game on great graphics as well too, which is why I couldn't understand no matter what I used it still made the FPS drop. So, if I get the fans, etc cleaned you think it'll help run where it'll stop the drops and stuff?
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If you get bored just look up BGA reballing :)
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If you get bored just look up BGA reballing :)
Will do. Looking it up right now. :style:
-Darth
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Hey spanky, finally got my laptop cleaned out completely. Took around 4 hours to do so. Its definitely A LOT cooler now. The heatsink was clogged and the fans. Dirty dirty. The FPS fluctuates now. It drops to 15 sometimes but shoots back up to 30-45 or fps. (Before it would usually drop, and stay massively low)
I literally JUST finished playing around with the game.. took a quick screen shot, and this is how the temps sit when I'm not playing games. So it stays like this playing and off the game.
Heck, I can even run AA3 just a little bit now. Still a little FPS problems on there, but it showed a difference too. ;)
(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FePkMHBt.jpg&hash=0393347e8c376d615190305b9f4c6ac8)
EDIT: I'm also having lag spikes out the :censored: not sure on the route to take for this one. My ping is sky rocketing a lot, and I have no clue why. (Around like 150+) I have great internet connection. But it also seems like my game does a little glitchy type stuff. As if it is rendering something real quick. But I feel like it may be the lag spikes of the connection, any way to by pass this highly annoyance high ping? Anyway I can possibly drop it down?
-Darth
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Half the temperature... very nice!
Since your ping skyrockets and you're on a laptop, I would blame WiFi first (I always do). Run Pingtest.net and Speedtest.net and post the results here.
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Yes definitely a big difference!
Okay, I captured screen shots from both sites. Here's what I got.
Pingtest.net
(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FYQCs5Ly.jpg&hash=6ac0ede47286d98dc99993bbee25d278)
Speedtest.net
(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FWchJR4w.jpg&hash=dcc06189c0c14fd1664be919857a33af)
-Darth
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The jitter might be an issue. Can you try a Pingtest from a further location?
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Absolutely. Should there be a button to where I can test from different locations?
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There should be. When you start you can either select a location or automatically have it choose one for you.
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Ahhh, I found it lol. Alright, I did another test.
(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FhCwU1hi.jpg&hash=92c07446eb6a5aea7da349d78b2bd826)
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You still don't have any packet loss. Jitter is probably a factor. Do you have the latest drivers for your WiFi? Try rebooting your router before gaming as well.
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I think it may have to do with the servers I am playing on? Because I just got out of a game and was pulling a 38 ping in it. So, I don't know lol. Uhm, yeah all the drivers are updated. I'll also give the router a restart just for an extra boost.
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try to ping the ip of server you played on, see if its stable, im playing now on wifi for a week and get lots of lag spikes
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Yeah, WiFi is is crap for stable connection IMHO. Even with a great connections and all that you'll still have "freak" events where it laggs the hell out of you. That's why I play with a cable, even though I use a laptop.
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Yeah, WiFi is is crap for stable connection IMHO. Even with a great connections and all that you'll still have "freak" events where it laggs the hell out of you. That's why I play with a cable, even though I use a laptop.
Yeah, I even used a cable as well running from my modem into my laptop. And I was still having quite some lag spikes.
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Yeah, I even used a cable as well running from my modem into my laptop. And I was still having quite some lag spikes.
Could just be the server you're in too. Anyone else using your internet connection? Do you have a password on your WiFi?
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are you sure it is related to your Internet and not "Input" lag? can you try another game?
defrag your HD, disable unwanted programs/services, make a bigger PageFile(2.5x ur RAM should be fine) etc.
oh, type: "pb_sleep 500" on console, without quotes.
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do forget to do pb_writecfg once you do pb_sleep 500 to save it. :up:
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Could just be the server you're in too. Anyone else using your internet connection? Do you have a password on your WiFi?
Yeah I was thinking it may be the server as well. Yes, I have some people on mine, but it never usually slows my internet speed. I had a couple on it the other day when I was hitting 70ish ping.
are you sure it is related to your Internet and not "Input" lag? can you try another game?
defrag your HD, disable unwanted programs/services, make a bigger PageFile(2.5x ur RAM should be fine) etc.
oh, type: "pb_sleep 500" on console, without quotes.
It actually possibly could be the input lag, that's why I was thinking as well. I've already defragged my HD once. And I always disable unnecessary things while gaming. And what do you mean "make a bigger PageFile?
I will also try the sleep 500.
do forget to do pb_writecfg once you do pb_sleep 500 to save it. :up:
Lol! Thank you. =]
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http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/change-the-size-of-virtual-memory
Set the Min. and Max. size with the same value(like "3072" wich is 3gb). I would set it to 1.5x or 2x of my curret RAM.
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So you mean set it higher than my current RAM?
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Just set it so that Windows automatically manages it.