Bad Company 2 stuttering ONLY AFTER 2-3 minutes of playing it

[nogills]

Hey guys, I got Battlefield: Bad Company 2 a few days ago, and whenever I play (SP or MP), it runs smooth for about 2 or 3 minutes, then starts lagging and stuttering and just runs very choppy...almost unplayable. Does anyone know why? I have the latest drivers and everything. Heres my specs:

Windows 7 32-bit
Nvidia 8800M GTX 512MB
Intel 2 Core Extreme X7900 @2.80gHz
4gigs RAM

All of my settings are the lowest possible, I even went into the config file and made it only use directX 9. Like I said, it runs perfectly for a couple of minutes, and the rest of the time, no matter if I change maps or anything, it becomes extremely choppy. Does anyone think that my CPU/GPU are getting too hot? I looked at the temps during gameplay and my CPU gets around 80, sometimes even above 90, and my graphics card stays around 80. Anyone got an idea??

Thanks,
-Taylor

 

[zerocool84]

If you are having problems with any games always set your gpu/cpu to stock to see if it fixes the problem.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

That seems too high a temperature for the CPU.

Run prime95 or orthos while monitoring temps and CPU speed to see if the CPU is down-clocking itself due to overheating.

 

[Sylvanas]

If your CPU gets too hot it could be using 'thermal throttling' where it clocks the CPU back down to keep the temperature below a certain threshold. Check if throttling is enabled in the BIOS. Ensure you are using the latest drivers for motherboard and GPU (that's the 197.13 Nvidia drivers for your 8800). Also make sure you don't have any background processes running that soak up CPU cycles/RAM.

 

[digitaldurandal]

I had an intel Quad hit 90s because the stupid pushpin style HSF fasteners are terrible. Make sure you have everything properly secured.

 

[bob4432]

way too hot - you need to re-apply as5 correctly and make sure the fan works and is making good contact.

also, when was the last time you cleaned out your machine dust wise? i know recently i hadn't cleaned my machine for about 6mos (i live in dusty phx, az) and my gpu(4850) would hit 80C, after cleaning it it maxes @ 62C.

what type of airflow does your case have?

 

[toyota]

way too hot - you need to re-apply as5 correctly and make sure the fan works and is making good contact.

also, when was the last time you cleaned out your machine dust wise? i know recently i hadn't cleaned my machine for about 6mos (i live in dusty phx, az) and my gpu(4850) would hit 80C, after cleaning it it maxes @ 62C.

what type of airflow does your case have?

its a laptop

 

[bob4432]

its a laptop

regardless, need to get more air moving through it then. those temps, things are going to start throttling like zerocool talks about, thus creating the stuttering more than likely.

also, laptops can still be blown out too, i know i do my 2 every time i do my other machines.

 

[nogills]

hey guys, sorry it took a while to respond my internet cut out. Anyways, yeah I have run orthos before when trying to undervolt, but even running orthos before undervolting it would make my CPU get to like 100 degrees and would almost overheat, so I don't wanna run that again. I tried undervolting and still it didn't help. My drivers are all up to date and I've actually tried a few others one and nothing helped. I have not cleaned out my fans and that might be the problem. Im a little scared to open up my laptop because ive never done it before and I'm not very experienced. So you guys definitely think its the CPU getting too hot? And it cuts back when it gets too hot and thats why im experiencing the 'lag' ??

p.s. I even have my laptop on a laptop cooling board or whatever you call them and that doesn't help either.

 

[bob4432]

using compressed air, i just blow the laptops out through the keyboard and the its exhaust until nothing comes out. use a compressor set to 50psi (don't blow directly into the screen) and i haven't had any issues doing it this way for years on ibm/lenovo laptops.

100C - yeah, too hot and throttling. how old is the laptop?

 

[nogills]

Ok so I just opened up my laptop, and cleaned out the fans, but they werent even that dusty at all...so I dunno... and its about a year and a half old or so.

 

[bob4432]

did you clean out/blow out the whole laptop? all its vents? when you game, are you sure the vents aren't blocked? i know on my main laptop one of the vents on the side will push out some pretty hot air when i am doing 3d modeling/rendering on it and really pushing the cpu. when gaming how is the laptop setup? what is it sitting on?

what laptop brand/model? maybe it is a known issue and there is a known fix? i wouldn't think a company would make a machine that is suppose to be a gaming laptop w/out the necessary precautions of the heat evacuation necessary...then again, there is the xbox360, so who knows???

 

[PieIsAwesome]

If you can't run orthos without overheating then the CPU isn't being cooled properly. Make sure the heatsinks and vents are free of dust as suggested.

The cooling pad doesn't black any vents, does it? If it does it could also cause overheating.

 

[nogills]

No, none of the vents are blocked, infact, the cooling pad its on is arched so there is a complete air flow going under my laptop, and the cooling pad also has fans right under where the vents are on my computer. And yes, I cleaned out the whole laptop but there wasn't very much dust to clean in the first place. I have an Alienware m15x so yeah its meant for gaming. All my other games work completely fine (Mass Effect 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Just Cause 2, the Steam games, etc. Its just Bad Company 2 that does this. =\

 

[bob4432]

No, none of the vents are blocked, infact, the cooling pad its on is arched so there is a complete air flow going under my laptop, and the cooling pad also has fans right under where the vents are on my computer. And yes, I cleaned out the whole laptop but there wasn't very much dust to clean in the first place. I have an Alienware m15x so yeah its meant for gaming. All my other games work completely fine (Mass Effect 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Just Cause 2, the Steam games, etc. Its just Bad Company 2 that does this. =\

regardless of the other games, you should be able to run orthos. i would contact alientware and talk to them about it. orthos is something i have used for years on every build to for 12-24hrs to stress the cpu and memory when i first build a rig or buy a laptop since it is easier to deal w/ warranty issues when you first get a system than later.

also, are there any "quiet" fan settings in the bios that may have been set? if the vents are open and clean, then either you have some weird software limiting the fan speed, the fans are physically going bad or somehow the heatsink/s have become loose from the cpu & gpu. for the premium of the item, contact alienware or at least look on their forum to see if there are any other reports similiar to yours - you may get lucky and find a bios fix that addresses the problem.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

delete

 

[HardcoreRobot]

im going to say something is overheating

 

[SunnyD]

No, none of the vents are blocked

Don't be so sure of this. I had a laptop that the heatsink fins looked absolutely clean on, the fan ran fine and I blew it out with some canned air, and everything was attached properly, yet the machine would still overheat.

I took the thing apart to see what was going on, and again, everything looked clean. Even the little dust filter pad between the fan and the heat sink fins looked clean... :hmm:

Wait... dust filter pad? There was a little pad that appeared to be about 1/8" thick, kind of a coarse fiber pad. I removed it to clean it out, and realized it wasn't a filter at all, but rather accumulated hair, dirt and dust bunnies.

So yeah, double check.