Windows 7: Windows 7, Online Gaming & Ping Spikes

Hi all first post here.

Last week I installed Windows 7 64 bit and love it. There's some bugs of course but I'm sure in time they will be worked out. I'm pleasantly surprised actually as to how well this OS is working. However, one bug has been really annoying me.



I play Battlefield 1942. A lot. Old game but still great. I have been playing on the same server for about 4 years now and ping a relative steady 65. Ever since using Windows 7 I notice every couple minutes or so a high ping spike will occur - sometimes up to 90 - 100 and once in a while up to 120 - 150 then it will settle down to where it should be. No worries I first figured, just a background program running that I missed.

It seemed clear that wasn't the issue. Uninstalled / installed COMODO 64 bit firewall, AVG free Virus, turned on/off Windows 7 firewall all with the same results. Still getting these ping spikes.

Checked my 2nd PC running XP that has BF1942 installed to make sure it isn't an ISP issue. Pings quite normal to the same server. No spikes at all. Ok now it HAS to be a Windows 7 issue...


I then started googling and read that its a bit of a common occurence - except it seems I'm in the minority of having ping spikes and not an overall high ping with Windows 7.

I have checked and double checked to be sure of current drivers for the Marvel Yukon Ethernet Controller and even after upgrading to the latest this still occurs. I did some suggested tweaks with settings (disabling IvP6 in network settings for one) and none have worked. My video card drivers are not updated due to all the issues with the nVidia 19X.XX series drivers but I'm not getting any noticable lag, even when spiking. No hardware lag either, the game runs great. Checked the BIOS updates for my MB but none as of late that do any bug fixes (most of the updates are for new processor support). I have double checked my background programs and have turned off everything that doesn't need to be on.

I'm still getting these ping spikes. Anyone know what the deal is? Is it a matter of waiting for a Windows 7 or a Marvell Yukon update until this gets corrected? Should I, when they become more available, pick up a Network Card that supports Windows 7 64 bit?


Any advice is much appreciated. I need to get my steady ping back so I can keep zooking planes in BF1942 without worrying if my ping has doubled as I take the shot.


PC Specs:

Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit Build 7600
Asus P5k-E Wifi Motherboard
Intel 6750 duo processor
4 GB 6400 DDR2
nVidia 8800 GTS (drivers 182.06 installed; released Feb 2009)
5 Hard drives (320 sata C: Drive)
Creative X-Fi Fatality Champion Sound Card (updated to the most recent 64 bit drivers)
Marvell Yukon Ethernet Controller 88E8056 (updated to most recent drivers 11.22.3.9 Sept 29/09)


Thanks!


Kit

Kit

Are you running homegroup? if not you ca disable IPv6 has been shown to cause random problems. It is in network and sharing.

Ken

what exactly is homegroup for all the networking, if i don't have anything network would it be smart to just disable it?

Ok I disabled homegroup as it was running. I am not a part of a homegroup so hopefully this does the trick.

I disabled this 4 or 5 days ago already in the Local Area Connection window and it didn't seem to have an effect. Is there another place to disable it? Perhaps in the homegroup area?

Anybody have anymore ideas? I'm still having this issue..


I'm sure though its a matter of MS / Marvell Yukon releasing new drivers

Im sure it is the drivers. Are you currently using the vista drivers in compatibility mode?


Ken J

Hello!

Finally someone with the same problems! I have ping issues in Cod: Waw like i refresh the server list and i see one with a ping of 45. After i get in i have a ping of 90-100 and i lag. No background programs!

Even my i wanted to try another game what dont even starts (BF2).

I really tried to find a solution, but i think i will move back to XP where everything worked normally.
Windows 7 looks nice and all, but its not worth for me using it as i cant play normal online.

Hi guys,

Just installed 1942 yesterday and noticed the same ping spikes. On my favorite server (ATF Hump Em & Dump Em) with Vista my ping is 22-28ms; with 7 it starts at 35, goes down to 22, then spikes up to 50 at times.

Perhaps this is due to the fact the server is located at USC? Since guys are preparing for finals traffic is heavier? Over the years I have noticed that traffic increases this time of the year. I tried another server, Moongamers, and noticed ping spikes.

I checked health of the internet between me and the server (SBC and NTT) and the latency was 47ms, which is a little on the high side, but there was no packet loss.

I reconfigured my AV, which was set pretty aggressively, removed myself from my wife's Homegroup, disabled most of my programs "update automatically", set all the Punkbuster apps and the game to run as admin, and Moongamers now seems fine; although, I did not do much testing, only half a round last night... but the ATF server was still spiking... again, USC traffic?

This afternoon I'm going to test again and if it's still spiking I'm going to try this reg edit, posted by pinstripe: "lag" in online games with Windows 7

I'll let ya know how it goes...

The fix worked like a charm. Mad props to pinstripe for all his efforts.

Thanks Fumz for the update.

How exactly does one set it to FFFFFFFF hex? I tried this but was a bit afraid of messing up my registry settings...


Oh, and FWIW, ATF server is horrible pingin for many but I think its more ISP related on my end...

I usually play on TLB server (All Lazy *******s #2) but its usually only populated during prime time nowadays.


hahah such a minor word is auto-censored. Lame