49 replies to this topic

[5TeN]

Hi everyone,

Everytime I try and play a game on bootcamp, Ive only been playing Counterstrike and Enemy Territory, it has these lag spikes every 30 seconds or so which is horrible when playing a fps. Does anyone know how to stop the lag spikes in boot camp?

Any help would be appreciated.

- 5TeN

[Hansi]

You have not been playing on Boot Camp. You have been playing in/on Windows and as such the solution will be the same as you'd get for running on any other machine running Windows.

What kind of machine do you have? What GPU? Are you running background tasks? Have you updated the GFX drivers?

[5TeN]

Hansi, on June 8th 2009, 01:14 PM, said:

You have not been playing on Boot Camp. You have been playing in/on Windows and as such the solution will be the same as you'd get for running on any other machine running Windows.

What kind of machine do you have? What GPU? Are you running background tasks? Have you updated the GFX drivers?

Im running it on a white macbook (the newest one) and the Windows specs are:

Intel Core2 Duo CPU
T8100 @ 2.10 GHz
796 MHz, 988 MB of RAM
I think my GPU is NVIDIA GeForce 9400M

Im not running any other tasks. Im not sure if I have updated my GFX drivers, how do I go about doing that?

Thanks

[Hansi]

Okay, your main problem here is that you do not have a dedicated graphics card. The 9400M is a integrated solution so you may never achieve an acceptable frame rate except at very low graphic settings.

Secondly 1GB of RAM is very much the lowest point you can go with RAM and as that RAM is being used as VRAM for the 9400M so more is better to a point.

As for the drivers, give http://laptopvideo2go.com/ a look. They should have new drivers and instructions on how to install them.

[5TeN]

Hansi, on June 8th 2009, 03:11 PM, said:

Okay, your main problem here is that you do not have a dedicated graphics card. The 9400M is a integrated solution so you may never achieve an acceptable frame rate except at very low graphic settings.

Secondly 1GB of RAM is very much the lowest point you can go with RAM and as that RAM is being used as VRAM for the 9400M so more is better to a point.

As for the drivers, give http://laptopvideo2go.com/ a look. They should have new drivers and instructions on how to install them.

I agree, I dont have a very great machine but it runs perfectly for about 30 seconds and then spikes for about 3 seconds then its okay again.
Ive read somewhere that disabling Wireless Zero Configuration makes it better... is that true?

I will check out those drivers, thanks.

[J'nathus]

You didn't mention which version of Windows you have installed.  Is is XP?

[5TeN]

I double checked my graphics card and unfortunately it isnt nvidia...
I have the Mobile Intel® 965 Express Chipset Family

does that change anything for drivers and such or give any new insights why this is happening?

And Im running Windows XP Professional

[J'nathus]

5TeN, on June 8th 2009, 02:25 PM, said:

I double checked my graphics card and unfortunately it isnt nvidia...
I have the Mobile Intel® 965 Express Chipset Family

does that change anything for drivers and such or give any new insights why this is happening?

And Im running Windows XP Professional

With 1 GB of RAM and integrated graphics, you can run Counterstrike, but if you're running Counterstrike Source and Enemy Territory, I think you're over-reaching your hardware's potential a bit.  Integrated graphics (especially Intel integrated graphics) are not really 'gaming grade' hardware as was mentioned before.

[5TeN]

J, on June 8th 2009, 06:25 PM, said:

With 1 GB of RAM and integrated graphics, you can run Counterstrike, but if you're running Counterstrike Source and Enemy Territory, I think you're over-reaching your hardware's potential a bit.  Integrated graphics (especially Intel integrated graphics) are not really 'gaming grade' hardware as was mentioned before.

I agree its not gaming grade hardware. Im not running Counterstrike Source and Enemy Territory is the WW2 free game based off of Castle Wolfenstein not the Quake Wars version so it plays decent besides the lag spikes.

Im just trying to figure out WHY it does this and fix it.

- 5TeN

[J'nathus]

5TeN, on June 8th 2009, 11:28 PM, said:

Im just trying to figure out WHY it does this and fix it.
- 5TeN

My best guess is that you need to relax some settings, but the interval you mention needs to be specific.  If it's taking 30 seconds between lag, are you noticing any kinds of things on screen?  Are you looking at a landscape / wall / room one second and when you look out where there's some action going on and THAT is when you get the lag?  

Unless there's a specific driver issue you're experiencing, I'd recommend reducing settings / resolutions as low as you can tolerate.  If you're running at high detail settings and textures, lower them to medium.  If you're at medium, try lowing one or more to low and see if that's tolerable.  Turning off shadows will speed things up (albeit at a graphical penalty of beauty) . . .  

So:
1) try to diagnose when the problem happens and if there's a consistent variable involved
2) try lowering graphical / detail settings to allow your hardware to run the game more competently

One final thing . ..  although I'm not sure this is the issue...  try running the game windowed and check task manager. POSSIBLY you are maxing your RAM and the hiccup is your system moving data to your swap file (which you NEVER want happening).  I wouldn't recommend a gaming system have less than 2 GB of RAM myself . . .  then again, I'd never recommend a gaming system have integrated graphics.  However if you're maxing out your 1 GB, then that THERE is your problem..  remembering that XP SP2 / 3 can eat up between 300-500 MB sitting still (depending on what you have loaded in the OS). If this is your problem, an upgrade to 2 GB of RAM will sort your problem.

[bobbob]

Update the drivers. The hitching every 30s doesn't seem like the GPU is overworked, but it might still be a driver issue. Also do the audio drivers, and Windows itself. XP3 is out. The low amount of RAM might be a problem, but you can monitor that to see; it doesn't have to be a wild-ass guess.

[5TeN]

bobbob, on June 9th 2009, 12:54 PM, said:

Update the drivers. The hitching every 30s doesn't seem like the GPU is overworked, but it might still be a driver issue. Also do the audio drivers, and Windows itself. XP3 is out. The low amount of RAM might be a problem, but you can monitor that to see; it doesn't have to be a wild-ass guess.

I followed that link and inputed my OS but then it gives me 6 things.. do I want to download and install all of them?
Sorry for the lack of knowledge, I usually stay on my mac portion

[J'nathus]

5TeN, on June 9th 2009, 02:34 PM, said:

I followed that link and inputed my OS but then it gives me 6 things.. do I want to download and install all of them?
Sorry for the lack of knowledge, I usually stay on my mac portion

I think it was Bob's intention to help you find the graphics driver necessary, so I would just latch onto the newest graphics driver.  On the list I see, it's the item under "drivers" and it's either 2 or 3.  They both appear to be the same revision, but 2 is a .exe whereas 3 is a .zip.

[5TeN]

J, on June 9th 2009, 04:54 PM, said:

I think it was Bob's intention to help you find the graphics driver necessary, so I would just latch onto the newest graphics driver.  On the list I see, it's the item under "drivers" and it's either 2 or 3.  They both appear to be the same revision, but 2 is a .exe whereas 3 is a .zip.

Ah thanks so much
I will update my driver and then let you know what happens with that. Thanks again.

EDIT:

I am currently downloading the driver. I was wondering if anyone knew why when I stop the Wireless Zero Configuration the lag stops in Counter Strike?

[bobbob]

5TeN, on June 9th 2009, 05:16 PM, said:

I am currently downloading the driver. I was wondering if anyone knew why when I stop the Wireless Zero Configuration the lag stops in Counter Strike?

Update the wireless drivers, too? I think wireless zero conf has had a long string of issues, lag being minor.

[5TeN]

bobbob, on June 10th 2009, 01:01 AM, said:

Update the wireless drivers, too? I think wireless zero conf has had a long string of issues, lag being minor.

Ah I will definitely do that because when I updated the graphics driver it didnt do anything. I will update the wireless driver.

[5TeN]

5TeN, on June 10th 2009, 02:15 AM, said:

Ah I will definitely do that because when I updated the graphics driver it didnt do anything. I will update the wireless driver.

lol for the love of god I cant find where to update em. I think I found it on the intel site but it I go to the page and nothing is there....

[5TeN]

any help on the wireless driver would be wicked...
Sorry Im useless

[J'nathus]

5TeN, on June 15th 2009, 06:03 PM, said:

any help on the wireless driver would be wicked...
Sorry Im useless

Before worrying about the wireless driver, why don't you try connecting with a wire and make sure that it's really a problem.  You can just go into Device Manager and disable the wireless network connection for the duration of this test.

[5TeN]

J, on June 15th 2009, 10:04 PM, said:

Before worrying about the wireless driver, why don't you try connecting with a wire and make sure that it's really a problem.  You can just go into Device Manager and disable the wireless network connection for the duration of this test.

Sounds good I will try that.
Do you mean just hooking an ethernet straight from the router into my comp?