Zoning and lag!

[Dallas]

Just recently I went from using a 56k modem to ADSL, I've played DAOC ever since the official release and as my 56k modem at times appeared a bit clunky I waited for the avaliablity of ADSL in my area with baited breath. I now have ASDL and I seem to have more problems with that than I ever had with my 56K. In particular zoning or releasing from death seem to take an eternity (somewhere between 2 - 3 minutes), I have more Ld's than I had before and lag in crowded areas seems no better, hopefully someone can suggest a solution to these problems, my system spec is as follows:

P4 1.4G 256mb ram Geforce 4 ti4800 128mb

Soundblaster live sound card Windows XP professional

I have feeling that it may be the ram thats the problem, but Dell who supplied the sytem have quoted me £240.00 to double my ram. Any suggestions would be most welcome, apart from get a new system, Thanks.

 

[chretien]

As far as I know all the zoning stuff is done client side - i.e. your computer loads the new zone into memory from the HDD and doesn't download it from the server. Therefore you won't get faster zoning/releasing etc from a faster connection.
The cheapest way to solve the problem will be to fit more ram - ignore dell when they say £240, if you know what kind of ram you need you can buy it for between £25-55 depending on the specific type. It takes about 3 seconds to fit and you don't need any special tools or experience.
In the meantime go to start -> All programs -> Accessories -> System tools and run the disk cleanup and disk defragmenter programs (in that order). That will increase the efficiency of your system a little.
You are running at kind of minimum spec for SI (except for the graphics card) so don't expect blistering performance though.

 

[Dallas]

This the type of ram I have I think it's Kingston...I've looked around and Dell's price seems to be the norm


Part No : 1164P
Details: 128MB RIMM 400MHZ NON - ECC

 

[parisienscot]

Believe me the problem really is the RAM. When I went from 256 to 512 I was gobsmacked by the difference in loading times.

Even at 512 you might get a little loading delay after playing for a long session (does for me anyway), but still much, much better than when you have only 256.

Oh and don't be scared about opening your computer and putting it in, I had never opened a PC before and had no problems.

 

[Dallas]

Although I'm not technically minded the thought of installing new ram isn't a problem it's the fact that it's gonna cost me just slightly less than a new mobo and processor and possily a huge amount of ram I'm talking about 1024mb of ram just to make it "future proof")!

 

[Hargh]

RIMMs come in pairs sadly thats probly why it costs so much. DELL are bastards putting RIMMs into machines.

 

[Sard-Nair]

i never opened up a tower in my life either

but dont u have to de-static ur hands or somthing like that? touching a radiator or somthing ?

 

[Deadmanwalking]

Originally posted by parisienscot
Believe me the problem really is the RAM. When I went from 256 to 512 I was gobsmacked by the difference in loading times.

Even at 512 you might get a little loading delay after playing for a long session (does for me anyway), but still much, much better than when you have only 256.

Memory leaks for the win \0/

 

[Maq-attack]

Also check you system resources, my comp normally boots up with 88% free, but I've had it at 95-98% free before. This boosts performance as it doesn't pre-load useless progs that suck up your resources.

Run - msconfig and check your startup tab, you'll probably find tons of progs listed there for loading that you didn't even know you had, or forgot you had.

(oh and btw .... uncheck systray there too, your comp uses it anyway.)