weird framerate lag (not net latency)

[blackrazor]

I get 10 to 15 second spikes of framerate lag (such as with CPU or GPU throttling or thrashing) every 5 to 10 minutes. This shows up as more severe if I'm in flagroom or any other crowded space, especially with bombs or shrap flying about.

No other apps are running, GPU is on full accel, graphics are integrated SIS661 (crappy I know, but should be plenty for a 1998 game), 1Gb ram, 2.4 Ghz celeron (P4-type) CPU, WinXP sp3. No spyware or viruses detected and everything else runs fine.

The game used to run fine for me, with no lag ever, since June 2000, on various computers. The only thing I changed recently was the ram from .5 Gb to 1.0 Gb, also the ISP. But this is not net latency, lag, or packetloss.

The whole screen can freeze for 10 to 15 seconds, but I still hear shots being fired, and I never disconnect or get lag complaints on account of it.

The problem began a few months ago, and has steadily been getting worse.

Anyone else with these specific problems? Any suggested fixes?

EDIT: I also checked CPU temp (36 C) and motherboard temp (31 C) while running the game, both are within normal tolerances, so it's not an overheating issue. CPU heat sink was recently cleaned with a vaccuum to remove dust build-up, which is a regular maintenance that keeps overheating under control for me.

EDIT2: Reinstalled video drivers, problem is still there.

Did numerous ?lag queries when the problem flared up. Ranges were as follows:
Min 40 ms, Max 60 to 260 ms, Average 50 to 130 ms, packetloss 0.0 to 0.1%

Not stellar numbers, but certainly not indicative of multi-second screen freeze-ups, either. But like I wrote earlier, it looks more like some kind of GPU or CPU throttling, not net latency.

EDIT3: Tried checking "avoid page flipping" "no framerate limit" and "disable clipping" in advanced options, but the freeze-ups persist.

[Dutch_]

When is the last time you reinstalled XP on your computer? This sounds like some service or proces that is slowing your computer down. Maybe a virus/spyware scanner, or old virus/spyware damage.
I advice you to format your pc, get a clean xp install, update it with sp3, update the drivers, and then check your fps and work from there.

[DankNuggets]

yeah when it starts to happen, immediately ALT-Tab and go to the task manager. Check your processes and see if something's hogging your CPU. I get "random" screen lag when the stupid McAffe Firewall center starts to go nuts. I'd see it using like 50% of my CPU power but only using a very small amout of memory.

I did some googling, didn't find any real answers to why it suddenly hogged 50% of my resources, when it hasn't done it in the past 5 yrs of owning the computer. When I couldn't find the answer, i just started ending that process (it was Mpftray.exe or similar- not the actual program) and it magically started working again.

If you have Mcafee running, this could be it. Could also be some other random background process dragging you down.

[blackrazor]

@Dutch: Thanks for the advice, but I wish to avoid reinstalling windows or reformatting the hard drive, if at all possible.

@Danknuggets: You are correct, those "always on" background scanners can be notorious resource hogs, especially when fetching updates or running a big file sweep. I don't think that was the case here, though.

I have temporarily solved the problem by going into system bios, and re-assigning the memory shared by the integrated SIS661 and the CPU. The GPU now has 128mb video and 128mb shared, instead of the factory default of 32mb video and 64mb shared. I also enabled AGP fast writes. While this seems to work, it is odd, as continuum ran fine under the old settings for years, and as a non-resource hungry game of the mid-to-late-1990s, I can't imagine it needing all that extra video ram. I wonder what changed in either my system, continuum, or the programs on which it relies (directx, etc.) to make such a change necessary at this time.

[Lance]

...The whole screen can freeze for 10 to 15 seconds, but I still hear shots being fired....

This seems like a video card problem. If you still hear the shots being fired as normal that means the program is still registering with the game, just not the display of the game. Try downloading new drivers or maybe just replacing the graphics card if you can afford to or if one of your friends has an extra laying around just to test it. Computer parts can get old fast and start to malfunction because they are made to wear out so you buy new ones.

Or maybe while you were installing the ram you knocked the video card off the slot a bit? I'm not an expert, but if I had to bet, it would be the video card.

[WuTang420]

that same thing used to happen to me playing wow in widescreen. make sure your GPU is not too hot, i added an extra fan blowing directly on mine and it solved the problem. i would just wait till the problem happens then turn your comp off and just touch the gpu to see if its hot.

everything else sounds fine as long as the CPU temp is good, if it was me id run a memory test just for fun, only takes a min to do.

[Kahlan]

That bites when your graphics on your computer can't handle Subspace. What's the world coming to?

[blackrazor]

Yes, it might be a GPU fault: either general overheating or a specific hardware fault like an intermittantly glitching pipeline. Even solid-state components fail or degrade over time. Overheating is a bit less likely, since the GPU is built into the motherboard and the motherboard temp remained at 31C. Even if the sensor was a bit distant from the GPU, excessive GPU overheat would have likely sent the motherboard a few degrees higher, at least higher than the CPU, which was at 36C.

Still, upping the memory usage to 128mb for video and shared and setting AGP fast writes on seems to have overcome it for now. The GPU is onboard, so there is no way to swap it out. Previous attempts to install a replacement GPU card (was some ATI 9250 I think) to over-ride the onboard GPU resulted in excessive motherboard overheating. So as long as things remain stable now (which they have), I'll likely keep puttering along unless / until things degrade further. Nothing lasts forever, but on my budget, if I've managed to squeeze a few more months / years out of this machine, then I'll be happy.

Thanks again for all the replies. :wub:

[Money]

disable clipping and avoid page flipping. and take some shit off startup, like useless shit that open when u boot

[Ephemeral]

Task Manager isn't enough, use a better utility such as 'Process Explorer'. It is a free download.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896653.aspx

It provides much more detailed information and more control over tasks.

[blackrazor]

@Ephemeral: Thanks, that link was very helpful; I especially liked the autorun app, because it let me delete reg entries for many non-microsoft helpers, dlls, autoruns, etc. that I would rather not have running without my explicit permission. Overall, system performance has been tweaked a bit with that.

Rootkithelper didn't find anything too serious, but more importantly, it didn't let me delete entries like the autorun app had. Oh well.

Process explorer was cool, but once I had ripped through errant auto-loading apps with autorun, it was all quite vanilla. Still, a good tool to have. Thanks again for the link to all that. :wub:

[Xog]

do you get this lag in any other game? (try running a browser game like anything on miniclip)

if you dont want to do that, try running the game in windowed mode at your desktop resolution or lower and see if you still have lag. if you get any results from this we can determine more about your problem