Game stutter.

[nath]

Howdy chaps.

I've noticed (just today really) a stutter in a couple of games. I saw it in Overlord in the final in-game cut scene (though didn't notice it in playable bits) and just had a bash on Grid and it happened on that too. It's basically a very very minor stutter at what seems like a regular interval. I'm looking for some brainstorming as to what could be causing it and how to test and confirm what's going on.

I've considered the graphics card could be at fault, I think it may be having issues as some games I've noticed little black squares in random spots (most noticeable in the new PoP). What's odd is that Grid and Overlord both run perfectly but sutter every 5 seconds or so. I figured it could be RAM or the HDD on its way out but not sure how to do a thorough test on my drive. I know I can download some RAMtest bootcd but doesn't that take about a week and a half to run?

Anyway, all diagnostic ideas appreciated!

edit: oh for fucks sake, this was supposed to go in the Tech section obviously. If a mod could move it that'd be grand!

also edit: It seems to happen in the menu of grid too - if I just hold the down arrow to spin through menu options it will pause every 7th click through or there abouts. That said, the menu is rendered in 3d so still could be the graphics card I guess.

 

[nath]

Bah, too late for another edit.

OK, seems like it's not limited to games - when I drag my windows about they stutter too at exactly the same frequency. That theoretically removes hard drive from the list of culprits as my games drive and windows drive are separate physical drives.

Guess it could still be a memory thing, or maybe still a graphics card thing? I don't have a spare I can try yet, any ideas?

edit: Tried playing an mp3 while waving the media player about. Moving the window about stuttered temporarily but the audio plays flawlessly. Video files stutter, audio part carries on fine. Looking more and more like a graphics card problem.

 

[Raven]

Its win-win if you are lucky enough to have a BFG card

From what you say it sounds like a graphics card issue. I would re-install the graphics drivers and see if it continues (obvious) and also check the clock speeds etc

 

[PLightstar]

What card do you have? make sure you have the latest drivers and BIOS drivers for your motherboard, just to be the safe side.

Also run CCleaner just to flush your system, may not help but its well recommended, managed to clear nearly 25GB of data and everything runs alot smoother now.

 

[Mabs]

first thing id do is strip out ALL the software for it and reinstall either new drivers, or some you know are kosher, in case theyre going wonky

its a long shot but usually cheaper

other than that, sendy cardy backy demandy replacy is best bet

 

[nath]

Thankfully I do indeed have a bfg card so hopefully it'll just gwt replaced. Very unlikely to be a registry thing as windows 7 has only been on a little over a month and I keep things tidy. I'll try reinstalling the drivers today and see how that goes.

 

[TdC]

um, in that note, I see that sometimes my mouse (Razer Copperhead) seems to not fully sync or something in the USB. I will move it, and there will be tremendous lag, or it will completely ignore clicks and whatnot.

This happens both in game and in 'doze, and a reboot often solves it, but it's strange. Any ideas? the Razer site helpfully tells me that there are no windows 7 drivers for this particular mouse :/

 

[nath]

Popped an email to BFG and they said I'd need to send it back to them - here's hoping I have some of Kryten's luck .

Teed, who the fek needs drivers for a mouse - that problem sounds like a hardware fault with the mouse or the USB on your puter. Have you got a laptop or some other machine that you can reproduce it on? If you can tell them that it happens on a different machine/different OS then there's not a lot they can do but RMA it for ya.

 

[Jupitus]

Teed, who the fek needs drivers for a mouse - that problem sounds like a hardware fault with the mouse or the USB on your puter.

Nah - sounds more like an EXCUSE to me!

 

[TdC]

Teed, who the fek needs drivers for a mouse - that problem sounds like a hardware fault with the mouse or the USB on your puter. Have you got a laptop or some other machine that you can reproduce it on? If you can tell them that it happens on a different machine/different OS then there's not a lot they can do but RMA it for ya.

well Razers are strange, with extra functionality for the USB poll rates, and the mouse's internal frequency and stuff. (though indeed that should all just work.

Nah - sounds more like an EXCUSE to me!

heh *I* am not the one who uses my son to keep a reasonable K/D ration in CSS old fella