Tell me WTF is wrong with my PC. I've come SO FAR.

[Clair de Lune]

I play DotA on WCIII and just a month ago it started to stutter. It would stutter 1-2 second every 15-20 seconds and the game would fast forward to catch up. As you can imagine, this is very very highly annoying and frustrating. You think you got the solution? Check out below:

1. I thought it was ISP. Over the course of 4 weeks, I bothered the crap out of Comcast and had FOUR techs out. We had modem replaced, then router replaced. I even bought a new network adapter, it still stutters. I hook up directly to modem, it still stutters.

2. The fourth tech drilled a new hole and directly fed a new line to the wall. The internet is generally better but it still stutters.

3. So I started to speculate it may be my PC. So ran all anti-virus/malware. Nothing as I keep my PC very clean.

4. Someone says HD sector may be bad. I run chkdsk, no probs.

5. Someone says Vsync on, prob persists.

6. Hmm....I install WC3 on my piece of shit Pentium M laptop with 512mb. Surprise, NO STUTTER.

7. That's it, it HAS to be the PC! So I FORMAT my PC. And guess what? It. Still. Stutters.

What's going on??? Key points:
*Using latest drivers, windows update, game patch, everything.
*JUST started happening 4 weeks ago. The game was smooth before.
*Then you'd think it's ISP? But Tech did EVERYTHING, laptop WORKS.
*Then you'd think it's my PC? I formatted! WTF?
*It works beautifully on my old ass laptop.

Pentium dual-xeon 2.6 Ghz
4 Gigs of ram (3 detected in XP)
XP
Geforce 7600GS

Remember, the problem started to happen FOUR WEEK ago. NO hardware was changed.

What's going on? Jesus christ.

 

[somethingsketchy]

Well, it could be several things...

1. Your install of WC3 is going "bad" and will need a fresh install
2. Your graphics card is slowly kicking the bucket and you'll need a new one
3. A driver update for your graphics card may be acting up
4. Might even be a HDD issue if it's old enough

 

[Clair de Lune]

1. With all the crazy actions I've taken, WC3 fresh install is something I've done 38743 times. Also PC is freshly formatted, remember?

2. Maybe? I'd hate to get a new card only find out problem persists.

3. Maybe I'll try an older version.

4. WC3 is installed on a 2 month 1.5 TB drive. It still stutters like being on old drive.

 

[trickymickey]

You could just go to a best buy or something and buy a new card, stick it in and see if it makes a difference and then return it and say it was incompatible with your mobo and ask for a refund. I think they give you your money back, even for opened items (but check before you buy to make sure). Then you could at least eliminate the graphics card as being the issue. Even a two month old drive could have crapped out although that does seem unlikely.

I also play Dota and sometimes have problems with stuttering but I had just written it off as my crappy 4 year old laptop slowly dying.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

turn off the maphack and stop using Invoker, noob.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Originally posted by: trickymickey
You could just go to a best buy or something and buy a new card, stick it in and see if it makes a difference and then return it and say it was incompatible with your mobo and ask for a refund. I think they give you your money back, even for opened items (but check before you buy to make sure). Then you could at least eliminate the graphics card as being the issue. Even a two month old drive could have crapped out although that does seem unlikely.

I also play Dota and sometimes have problems with stuttering but I had just written it off as my crappy 4 year old laptop slowly dying.

please tell me you're 13 yrs old.

 

[betasub]

Could this be the ol' multi-core optimization patch/driver?

Had a similar sounding problem when I went from single- to dual-core, and my RTW game would hitch on the dual-core when it had been fine on single-core. Needed the "optimizer" to sort out timing issues.

 

[Denithor]

Make sure your hdd is in DMA mode - not PIO mode.

Is your CD in the drive to play or not?

 

[Clair de Lune]

Originally posted by: Denithor
Make sure your hdd is in DMA mode - not PIO mode.

Is your CD in the drive to play or not?

They're all in DMA mode.

CD is not in drive as it's not needed. The latest Warcraft patch gets rid of CD-check. Also the stuttering symptom is not fitting that of pausing when CD drive is accessed.

 

[Clair de Lune]

Originally posted by: betasub
Could this be the ol' multi-core optimization patch/driver?

Had a similar sounding problem when I went from single- to dual-core, and my RTW game would hitch on the dual-core when it had been fine on single-core. Needed the "optimizer" to sort out timing issues.

Except the game used to run smooth on this dual core. It suddenly started to stutter just a month ago...?

 

[Athadeus]

It would probably help to know if you are usually hosting or joining, and if you use list checker or anything if you host. Have you asked other players if you appear to be lagging during the games?

6.60+ shouldn't be any more intensive than 6.59, but perhaps you could try playing the old version of the map, since the problem began occurring around when the newer versions came out.

Also, you didn't change any drivers that you are aware of around then right?

edit: Try playing the map in SP too and see if it still occurs please.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

i'm telling u man, turn the gfx settings to low, don't stack EoS with satanic and you'll be golden.

 

[oblikon]

4. WC3 is installed on a 2 month 1.5 TB drive. It still stutters like being on old drive.[/quote]

I take it you mean on a 2 month old 1.5 TB drive? Is it a 2 month old Seagate Barracuda 1.5 TB drive? And it started stuttering about a month after you started using it?

If so...

http://www.tomshardware.com/ne...5TB-freezing,6558.html
http://www.maximumpc.com/artic...15tb_hard_drive_owners

You might be helped by a firmware upgrade:

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/..._drives&thread.id=9258

Hope it helps.

 

[Clair de Lune]

Originally posted by: Athadeus
It would probably help to know if you are usually hosting or joining, and if you use list checker or anything if you host. Have you asked other players if you appear to be lagging during the games?

6.60+ shouldn't be any more intensive than 6.59, but perhaps you could try playing the old version of the map, since the problem began occurring around when the newer versions came out.

Also, you didn't change any drivers that you are aware of around then right?

edit: Try playing the map in SP too and see if it still occurs please.

This gets stranger and stranger. check this out:

If I'm joining a game, it stutters.

If I HOST, I don't lag at all it's perfectly smooth. But I hear flood of everyone bitching about how laggy their games are.

So I would naturally think, it's smooth when I host. So it HAS to be connection problem right??? It's not HD, videocard or DMI settings. I must've been seeing things when I played it on my laptop.

I try out the laptop again. I join a game and play. And guess what? NO LAG!?!

Is this my desktop or ISP? The problem persisted through several modem, router AND adaptor changes AND it was freshly formatted.

WHAT'S GOING ON?

 

[Clair de Lune]

Originally posted by: oblikon

4. WC3 is installed on a 2 month 1.5 TB drive. It still stutters like being on old drive.

I take it you mean on a 2 month old 1.5 TB drive? Is it a 2 month old Seagate Barracuda 1.5 TB drive? And it started stuttering about a month after you started using it?

If so...

http://www.tomshardware.com/ne...5TB-freezing,6558.html
http://www.maximumpc.com/artic...15tb_hard_drive_owners

You might be helped by a firmware upgrade:

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/..._drives&thread.id=9258

Hope it helps.

I phrased my sentence wrong. What I meant is that WC3 was installed on my old 80gig where the problem started. I formatted and installed it on the brand new 1.5 TB, problem persists.

Absolutely zero problem with my 1.5TB drive or the 80gig one. Read above. The problem lies somewhere between.... god I have no clue.

 

[lxskllr]

Did you update your gfx drivers right before the stuttering? Sometimes the latest drivers aren't the best.

Network cable?

 

[Clair de Lune]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
Did you update your gfx drivers right before the stuttering? Sometimes the latest drivers aren't the best.

Network cable?

I've used the oldest one available on Nvidia.com which is from Jan 09. Prob persists. I use the latest, prob persists.

Anyone have older driver (7600GS)? Older like in 2008? I doubt it's vid card as the game is SMOOTH when hosting it... I'm reaching for straws here.

No cable, connected wirelessly. Again, prob continued through changed cable/router/modem/adaptor.

 

[lxskllr]

You say it's bad for others when you host it, but good for you. That means you're using your rig as a server, and you're playing on the same box, right? If that's the case, it would point to a network issue. You aren't using the network in that situation, but others are. Also, a server wouldn't be using the gfx card, so that gets taken out of the equation. HD ram and everything else work ok for you when hosting, so that isn't an issue either.

Edit:
to further narrow it down, your laptop runs ok on the same network, but the desktop doesn't. That would lead me to believe it's the wifi adapter, or it's drivers.

Edit2:
Perhaps a misbehaving firewall is causing issues.

 

[Athadeus]

Originally posted by: Clair de Lune
No cable, connected wirelessly. Again, prob continued through changed cable/router/modem/adaptor.

So you have or have not tried joining a game on your desktop while it was wired to the router/modem (and made sure the local area connection was configured properly so the network traffic was actually going through it instead of the wireless)? I don't trust any form of wireless networking/peripherals while gaming.

 

[Clair de Lune]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
You say it's bad for others when you host it, but good for you. That means you're using your rig as a server, and you're playing on the same box, right? If that's the case, it would point to a network issue. You aren't using the network in that situation, but others are. Also, a server wouldn't be using the gfx card, so that gets taken out of the equation. HD ram and everything else work ok for you when hosting, so that isn't an issue either.

Edit:
to further narrow it down, your laptop runs ok on the same network, but the desktop doesn't. That would lead me to believe it's the wifi adapter, or it's drivers.

Edit2:
Perhaps a misbehaving firewall is causing issues.

Right, you're following me right so far. Yet it still makes no sense.

Firewall = router.

The prob persisted through 2 different routers. AND roommate got a new router, this makes THREE (Linksys, Belkin & D-Link).

So router can't be it. I also had two different ADAPTERS. Can't be drivers because prob persisted through freshly formatted PC.

I give up. What can it be???

 

[lxskllr]

If your wifi adapter's USB(either of the ones you used on the desktop), try using it with the laptop and see if it runs ok.

 

[Lean L]

you had four comcast techs come because you thought it was an isp problem with no base? Troubleshoot before you spend so much time on it.

It sounds like a component on your computer is about to die from overuse/heat. Although the hosting part of the problem is confusing. i'd guess northbridge

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: iamanidiot

It sounds like a component on your computer is about to die from overuse/heat. Although the hosting part of the problem is confusing. i'd guess northbridge

He says he doesn't have the issue when when hosting a game though. Wouldn't the northbridge also affect him in this instance?

 

[Clair de Lune]

Originally posted by: Athadeus

Originally posted by: Clair de Lune
No cable, connected wirelessly. Again, prob continued through changed cable/router/modem/adaptor.

So you have or have not tried joining a game on your desktop while it was wired to the router/modem (and made sure the local area connection was configured properly so the network traffic was actually going through it instead of the wireless)? I don't trust any form of wireless networking/peripherals while gaming.

It happens directly hooked up to modem, bypassing router with physical wire. This is the first thing Comcast wants me to do every time.

YET on my WIRELESS Laptop, it doesn't have the stutter... I mean, what the shit man?

 

[Lean L]

yea, I said the hosting part is confusing. I'd guess it'd be the NB if that weren't the case.

OP, tried other games? or anything other at all that would suggest this is a problem with the computer and not with a console/game setting?