Hard-drive Access while playing, lock up problem

[Marduke]

Usually, when I play continuum it runs quite smoothly most of the time, but all of a sudden the HD starts accessing and everything freezes for 1-5secs.

I'm not sure entirely for the reason for this, but I think it might be these reasons:

(Keep in mind when I play Continuum, I don't run any other internet or large applications.)

#1: Virtual Memory Manager is updating virtual me swap file?
#2: Hard-drive moves its heads periodically
#3: Windows OS is doing some internal maintance. But I turn off all Scheduled tasks.

Any other ideas or solutions would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[Kuukunen]

Hmm, I have so many banners that happens to me when I press Esc+b. :P

But if you try using a tool like http://www.iarsn.com/taskinfo.html you might find out what is the process causing it.

Also royst had similar troubles with some sounds, has your sound drivers changed lately? (And is this a new problem?)

[Marduke]

No, I have had this problem for some time now. I don't think it is the sound drivers.

It might be those EVENT announcements, it has to load a .wav file for those event advertisements.
Is there a way to disable all %xxx sounds?

I tried to limit my virtual memory to 64megs, I have like 256megs Ram, and only run Continuum. I'll wait and see how it goes, let you all know.

[Kuukunen]

No, I have had this problem for some time now. I don't think it is the sound drivers.

It might be those EVENT announcements, it has to load a .wav file for those event advertisements.
Is there a way to disable all %xxx sounds?

I tried to limit my virtual memory to 64megs, I have like 256megs Ram, and only run Continuum. I'll wait and see how it goes, let you all know.

You could try disabling all sounds from the options. There's also this thing "Wave messages", but dunno if that's just the custom wav macro thingies.

[Stabwound]

Yeah, I've known of a few people that had freezeup problems when non-standard sounds were played. I had that problem on my old computer with the "GOGOGOGOGO!!!" sound when TWD games start.

What you can do is go into the \Continuum\sounds\ directory and find the problem sounds. They are just .wav files rename to .wa2 so you can open them in any media player. When you find the ones that cause problems, just rename them to something else, or delete them. The game will run fine and will no longer play those sounds anymore.

[geekbot]

i would guess virtual memory- how much RAM do you have? are you running any other large programs?

bong sounds are: http://www.shanky.com/server/commands.html

http://forums.trenchwars.org/showpost.php?p=307902

[Kuukunen]

Try updating your sound drivers too. I think that solved it for royst.

[Asmodeus]

If you have 256MB of RAM, then you want your min VM set at 384 and the max at 768. Having anything smaller than 384 (with 256MB of RAM) will probably cause some problems.

If you ever need to figure out how much VM you need, the MIN. should always be 1.5 times however much RAM you have. The max amount of VM should be 3 times however much RAM you have. However, if you have a GB of RAM, you really don't need VM. Supposedly 512MB and up "should" be enough to where you can run your system w/o VM. Though I think it'd be wise to only run your computer w/o VM if you have a GB of RAM or more.

If it isn't your VM, then I have no real clue whatsoever. I'm sure you've tried rebooting, defragmenting, and etc...right?

[Marduke]

Thanks for all the advice, I will try it out and test it.

Yes, I have 256mb of ram, and I set my VM at 64mb.

When I play Continuum, I run no major applications or internet applications.

Asmodeus you might be right about 1.5 times, but still when I think about it. Continuum hardly uses much ram, and I have 256mb, so why do I need to use VM?

But I probably need to defragment my hard-drive.

Stabwound, just goto the bong sound directory and delete the most used bong sounds for event advertisements?
Well that should help, no harddrive access then.

[Stabwound]

Yeah, that works if you want to do it that way. That's only if it's the bong sounds that are causing you to freeze up, though.

Anyway, Continuum does not use much RAM at all, and this really shouldn't be a problem of memory anyways. The game doesn't load all of the sounds into the RAM. It just reads them from the harddrive every time they are played.

[Kuukunen]

Asmodeus you might be right about 1.5 times, but still when I think about it. Continuum hardly uses much ram, and I have 256mb, so why do I need to use VM?

Is playing Continuum only thing you ever do on your computer? You probably need VM for some other stuff.

Stabwound, just goto the bong sound directory and delete the most used bong sounds for event advertisements?
Well that should help, no harddrive access then.

I'd still first try disabling sounds first to see if it even is the sounds. And if it is, I'd first try updating sound card drivers.

[Burzum]

One fine thing with the virtual memory (swap file) is to assign the SF a partition of its own and make the swap file size permanent, for example i have the SF on G: (600 MB partition) and its size set to "min" 512 "max" 512, thus having it double the size of my RAM (256). Firstly you will find out that you dont get the HD as fragmented as before, secondly, there will be much less scrabbling of the hard drive.

[Ephemeral]

Simple way to determine if it is memory or swap file related, look at your watch.

On a fresh boot, start SS and note the amount of time it takes before hearing the hard drive being accessed as you describe.
Do this several times, if it is indeed running out of memory than it should take the same amount of time every time you try.

Frankly, it sounds more like spyware to me. Analyze your processes or get and use HijackThis, post your log to this forum. That way, we aren't all throwing darts in the dark.