Faster than a speeding tortoise...

[Oro]

(For any US readers that haven't seen Blade Runner, a tortoise is like a turtle)...

This should possibly go into the Technical section but it might make you chuckle so putting it here. Its more about screaming blue in the face frustration than anything else.

I've got a very nice laptop (yay me, no this is not a boast). It cost me a lot of money and its my baby - I use it for work. 3.06GHz P4, 1GB RAM, GF5700, and pretty much every knicknack you can cram into a mobile puppy these days.

Several patches ago, out of the blue, DAoC became almost unplayable on it. My char would move in slow motion pretty much like the 6 million dollar man. I could run for a few secs then it would go into slow motion - but at a high framerate, no jerkiness at all. Spells would cast at their proper speed, but the animations for them would take many many seconds longer to complete. RvR has been nearly impossibly. All other games are fine and I do play quite a few. Checked for spyware, viruses or any other software anomalies. Found none.

Last night, late on, I disabled Hyperthreading and the soundcard. Hyperthreading via the BIOS and Sound via Device Manager.

Bugger me, its like watching the Benny Hill Show. My char animations are moving at many times the normal rate. Spells once again appear to take the correct length of time to cast as the animation is over before the spell completes and there is a delay.

Where's the funny bit? Well maybe its not that funny, but still... my char now moves around at MACH10 or something for short bursts. I get like 5 secs normal movement then 5 secs hyperspeed in constant cycles.

I'm somewhat used to being the sticky guy in a lot of situations. I tested it in Goth last night and had someone stick to me: they lost me almost immediately. It didn't matter when I was in slow motion, as people would just lag around me. Now I'm like a confused energiser bunny.

Narrowed it down to something to do with sound so hyperthreading back on, and soundcard staying disabled. Interestingly, if I disable sound after I power up, DAoC plays slow. If I reboot after disabling, DAoC is fine - so the drivers load something that DAoC doesn't like. However, the last thing I would have expected is that the *lack* of sound drivers present would make DAoC also go bananas.

I logged onto Mid/Ex last night with my little shammy (a strong lvl23) and it occured to me I still can't do RvR. Everyone will think I'm speedhacking.

Sometimes you wish you could tell life's little ironies to just bugger off.

 

[Etaew]

i had that problem a few months ago after i formatted my pc.. did the updates of drivers and directx and it sorted itself

 

[Oro]

Yeh, been there done that. It stayed nice and unplayable.

Its only after disabling sound I can play properly, but now I've got the reverse problem of moving too fast for no apparent reason. Doh

Someone suggested checking the patch files so I did this last night too. No change so far.

 

[Chrystina]

(For any US readers that haven't seen Blade Runner, a tortoise is like a turtle)...

erm, no? tortoise lives on land, turtle lives in water ... some difference there imo

 

[Edgar Frog]

erm, no? tortoise lives on land, turtle lives in water ... some difference there imo

Some would say that you are too focussed or a somewhat narrow-minded person if you think like that. A tortoise could be argued to be like a turtle in its looks. Some might ask you to stop it with the incredibly stupid tunnel-vision.

 

[Oro]

"Like", not "Same as"

Technically correct though

 

[Old Nicodemus]

"Like", not "Same as"

Technically correct though

Both make a very nice crunchie sandwich though

 

[Addlcove]

Argh111!!!!! r00 is d4 sp33dh4x0r!!!!

 

[old.Whoodoo]

Im sure in the techy section there was a thread about "on board sound probs" but I cant seem to find it...and cba either

From memory, its was a prob with the NVidea N2 chipset or something, NVideas soundset if you like...tried updating that too? Or even adjusting it, turn off echo, reverb, or whatever?

 

[Oro]

Sound is completely disabled on the system. I'm not actually that bothered about it but now I have the exact reverse problem of when I was running around slow: my char is moving too fast. Don't care about the animations looking silly so much as the effect it seems to have on movement rate. Few secs at normal rate then a few secs at MACH10 in constant cycles.

Its amusing to watch, but potentially dangerous and has the nasty side effect of most likely putting me in the position of having to explain why I can move faster than a skald with a rocket up his ass.

 

[Flimgoblin]

have you tried searching the US technical help database for daoc?

(assuming you've already tried the RightNow FAQ and not found anything)

might be something there.

 

[Chrystina]

Some would say that you are too focussed or a somewhat narrow-minded person if you think like that. A tortoise could be argued to be like a turtle in its looks. Some might ask you to stop it with the incredibly stupid tunnel-vision.

so you're trying to tell me that a Zebra is just a different coloured Horse as well? next thing you come up with is that a tomato is a vegetable and not a fruit, eh?

 

[Edgar Frog]

so you're trying to tell me that a Zebra is just a different coloured Horse as well? next thing you come up with is that a tomato is a vegetable and not a fruit, eh?

Oh dear, some may say that you really are the queen of poor reading skills. Some would suggest you go back to reading 'Roger the Red Pirate' books, and not just skimming through the book looking at the pictures in a futile attempt to comprehend what is anyway a simple storyline.

 

[Kalid]

I used to have problems with slow running now and then. I downgraded my driver and it was all fine again (from the 5x.xx to 42.xx driver something...)

 

[Oro]

A little bump but... I've finally cracked it I think.

The hyperthreading thing turned out to be unreliable. I'd log on and play in slow motion again, or would run around like the proverbial rabbit with a rocket up its ass. So that definately was not it, even though it might have been related.

I'd avoided changing the Intel speedstep setting in the BIOS as it explicitly says beside it that the machine will be put into the lowest performance state and will stay there, untweakable by software.

Switched off Speedstep. Have had 3-4 extended DAoC sessions since and its ran perfectly normally. I don't slow down or speed up. I'm hoping its not a longer fluke than before but this really looks like its solved. It means I can RvR properly and do other things again for the first time in months.

So if you're ever playing on a laptop and you get a strange problem like this, its worth looking at Speedstep it seems

 

[Mojo]

erm, no? tortoise lives on land, turtle lives in water ... some difference there imo

Lets get hung up on detail and totally miss the point

 

[Oidche]

Do you have power plugged in, and/or is the room cool enough? I think you should take it back to the supplieer, your machine is running way below optimal now.

 

[Oidche]

so you're trying to tell me that a Zebra is just a different coloured Horse as well?

There is nothing wrong in saying a Zebra is like a horse, but white with black stripes. A zebra is also a bit like a tiger in appearance due to the striping, although it's a completely different animal.

 

[cHodAX]

Speedstep is a dog, only useful for people who use laptops for real work For gamers it just throttles the CPU at a certain temp, my suggestion would be to make sure you play in a well ventilated room. Then make sure that the laptop's exhaust fan is running normally and is clean. Should be safe but just watch out for excess heat buildup on the bottom of the laptop.

 

[living]

nice, i got the same problems but roblem is my comp is NOT a laptop, cant possible play daoc with 5sec lags constantly, it hasent always been like this, came quite resently but i cant see why, and no its not a heating problems.. 37 degrees while playing.

 

[Oro]

Living, thats what happened to me mate. DAoC used to work fine until a patch a few months ago then it all went horribly wrong.

When I have the laptop set up at home, its ventilated from underneath as well. I have it raised up so there is airflow under the machine etc.

Its been a bugger of a problem but I'm logged in now, on ML raid and I can actually keep up with people, which a few days ago I couldn't do.

Hmm better go back in game and see if I've missed anything on the ML raid. Playing my gimpy cabby so can't actually do anything much.

<pause while Roo ducks into game>

Nope not missed anything. Waiting for LD's.

Anyway.

looks like problem solved

 

[Bagloor]

so you're trying to tell me that a Zebra is just a different coloured Horse as well? next thing you come up with is that a tomato is a vegetable and not a fruit, eh?

Tomato is a berry IMO

 

[Xeanor]

First thing I would say (because you have a laptop) is that the laptop is putting your CPU lower and higher all the time to save power, but it seems you've already found that.

 

[Linnet]

watch out for excess heat buildup on the bottom of the laptop.

On a vaguely related note, if anyone does have trouble with heat buildup on the bottom of laptops, I've found this really useful -- http://www.wickedcoolers.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=58&products_id=180

 

[Meduza]

Tomato cant be a fruit! Fruits taste good and vege's dont! End of story!