"lag" in online games with Windows 7

[pinstripe]

Glad this is helping you guys. Initially I suspected it was the result of systems lacking in CPU power, but it also showed up for some people with quad cores, so I'm not really sure. I'm upgrading to a more powerful CPU in a bit, and if I have time I will try and test the default throttling setting and see if it makes a difference (also adding 2 gigs of RAM for 4 total).

 

[Rossipoo]

Hello, i just signed up because i really want to fix this problem, the problem occurs while i play HoN, i tried turning off the sound in HoN, i actually did try your 'update' method in the first post where you enter the FFFFFFF or something, i also turned down graphics/effects to lowest, but i still have in game spikes occasionally, its not my internet, i KNOW for a fact its sound;/etc or some thing,

i juts got this computer 2 weeks ago,

8 Gigs of Ram
Windows 7 x64
Intel Core 2 quad CPU q8300, 2.50GHz
NVIDIA GeForce GT 220

please help me

 

[pinstripe]

Disable your sound device in the device manager and then play HoN. If you are able to play without any spikes then this fix will work for you. Otherwise you have some other problem.

 

[Rossipoo]

Alright, thanks i'll give it a shot, but is there a way i could play with sound without lag? playing silent is.. very uninteresting

 

[pinstripe]

you should only have to play without sound once to diagnose the problem.

 

[kicken]

Still problems!

So, finally I was forced to register here! Well, let's start off with my problem.

Like many others I've been having constant fps-drops in Counter-Strike 1.6 and from the first beginning it was very bad and by that I mean really bad. My ping was 180+ (when it used to be 14-25 on XP) and I couldn't play CS at all. I then tried the following things.

1. Turned off MMCS completely
2. Turned off MMCS completely and disabled the throttling component
3. Kept MMCS on and disabled the throttling component

All of these three options (not at the same time) resulted in much better ping (the usual 14-25 I had before), but the fps-drops remained, especially when other players were shooting at me and when I climbed through several smokegrenades.

I was glad at first, because the ping was fixed, but I understood pretty quickly that I can't play this way. You can't play when you lag when your enemies are shooting at you. So, I googled, I asked friends and I made threads on several forums but no one could give me an answer. I still find this as the most common and logic way, but it doesn't work fully for me.

So, I've searched hours and finally found this thread:

http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/11064-windows-7-high-ping-fix.html

It did make my browser work way much faster, but it didn't help at all in-game.

So, I have a very new & good computer and there's nothing wrong with it. I've been able to play CS on it on XP and it worked very good on XP. I've downloaded and installed all the latest drivers and "cleaned" the computer with programs like CCleaner, but it still isn't working. When I play, I fps-drop to 20-40 fps when my fps should be around 75 like it always been.

I tried to disable my sound device and to my surprise it worked very well. Not 100 %, but almost. By the things you've all wrote in this thread I understood that this fix should be the answer to the problem, but it wasn't. I've also tried this method: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbWQnvytvqk But it doesn't help either.

I've searched the web for hours and I've found a lot of people with the same problem and I've found a lot of people whose problems went away by this fix and I've found a lot of tips and recommendations, but nothing has worked so far. So, if somebody here know what the problem can be, I would be thankful for weeks to come. I'd really appreciate some help, because I feel that this is the only forum that can have the answer to my problems. I hope someone read through this post and can help me.

All the best, Kicken.

 

[pinstripe]

What are your actual hardware specs? Is the fps drop consistent or intermittent? Make sure you remember to reboot after applying the registry fix. Make sure your registry looks like this with the right number of f characters:

 

[Dragoon]

@kicken

Did you try already turning off Aero?
A friend of mine had some issues with HL2 based games even his hardware is high-end. Guess some drivers issues. Anyway if want give it a shot, got to ..\Steam\steamapps\YourEmail\counter-strike\ and find the executable. For CS:S it would be HL2.exe
Right click on it for the context menu and select Properties. Click on the Compatibility Tab and check the box for "Disable desktop composition".
You playing in fullscreen or windowed mode?

 

[kicken]

What are your actual hardware specs? Is the fps drop consistent or intermittent? Make sure you remember to reboot after applying the registry fix. Make sure your registry looks like this with the right number of f characters:

Here's my specs. It's far from the best laptop in the world I have, but it's much better than the one I had before which was around 5 years old and still played CS without any problems. The fps drops are intermittent. If i for instance have fps_max 60 the fps is at 60 for five-ten seconds and then it goes down to 20 and up to 60 again, but it only takes one hundredth of a second, which is quite weird. But that isn't causing my problems. The main problem is that I get really bad fps drops when there are things "happening" in the game. Like shooting, throwing grenades and so on. If I just walk around, I don't get any drops, except for the 20-60 drop that occurs every five to ten seconds.

I've rebooted like a hundred times after doing the fix, so that isn't the problem. I've also checked that everything is input correctly in the registry.

@kicken

Did you try already turning off Aero?
A friend of mine had some issues with HL2 based games even his hardware is high-end. Guess some drivers issues. Anyway if want give it a shot, got to ..\Steam\steamapps\YourEmail\counter-strike\ and find the executable. For CS:S it would be HL2.exe
Right click on it for the context menu and select Properties. Click on the Compatibility Tab and check the box for "Disable desktop composition".
You playing in fullscreen or windowed mode?

I've tried turning off Aero and I've tried to follow this guide as well. But it doesn't seem to help. I haven't tried to disable the desktop composition in the properties, but I will try. I'm quite sure it won't help, but I'll come back with results.

 

[kicken]

What are your actual hardware specs? Is the fps drop consistent or intermittent? Make sure you remember to reboot after applying the registry fix. Make sure your registry looks like this with the right number of f characters:

Here's my specs. It's far from the best laptop in the world I have, but it's much better than the one I had before which was around 5 years old and still played CS without any problems. The fps drops are intermittent. If i for instance have fps_max 60 the fps is at 60 for five-ten seconds and then it goes down to 20 and up to 60 again, but it only takes one hundredth of a second, which is quite weird. But that isn't causing my problems. The main problem is that I get really bad fps drops when there are things "happening" in the game. Like shooting, throwing grenades and so on. If I just walk around, I don't get any drops, except for the 20-60 drop that occurs every five to ten seconds.

I've rebooted like a hundred times after doing the fix, so that isn't the problem. I've also checked that everything is input correctly in the registry.

@kicken

Did you try already turning off Aero?
A friend of mine had some issues with HL2 based games even his hardware is high-end. Guess some drivers issues. Anyway if want give it a shot, got to ..\Steam\steamapps\YourEmail\counter-strike\ and find the executable. For CS:S it would be HL2.exe
Right click on it for the context menu and select Properties. Click on the Compatibility Tab and check the box for "Disable desktop composition".
You playing in fullscreen or windowed mode?

I've tried turning off Aero and I've tried to follow this guide as well. But it doesn't seem to help. I haven't tried to disable the desktop composition in the properties, but I will try. I'm quite sure it won't help, but I'll come back with results.

I hope it's okay I qoute myself. So, I've googled around some more and found this program called Gamebooster. I've tried turning on this while playing and it did help, but here's where the weird part comes in. The fps drops from 20-60 fps is completely gone, but I still get fps drops when things are happening in the game. (Constant fps drops mixed with intermittent fps drops - both kind of fps drops) Shooting, grenades etc etc. I actually lag less, but my fps drops were bigger than they were before. Well, it was more or less the same kind of fps drops I had experienced before, but I lagged less, but I still lagged, just not as much as I did before.

I also tried disabling desktop composition, but as I expected it didn't help.

But the question remains, what is the problem? Is it the computer, the fix, the sound, Windows 7 or something else? Because it seems that I've tried almost everything and I'm so close to lagfree playing, but I still lag. Not a lot, but still so much that I don't feel that it's fun to play.

 

[Dragoon]

Can you upload a DirectX report? That will give us a detailed report on your hardware setup.
To do this open your Startmenu and type dxdiag into the searchbox.
It will bring up the DirectX Diagnostic Tool.
If you have a 64bit OS click on the button "Run 64-bit DxDiag", otherwise click the "Save All Information" button.
It will generate a report of your system in a file called DxDiag.txt.
Save it where you can find it easily and upload it please here.

 

[kicken]

Can you upload a DirectX report? That will give us a detailed report on your hardware setup.
To do this open your Startmenu and type dxdiag into the searchbox.
It will bring up the DirectX Diagnostic Tool.
If you have a 64bit OS click on the button "Run 64-bit DxDiag", otherwise click the "Save All Information" button.
It will generate a report of your system in a file called DxDiag.txt.
Save it where you can find it easily and upload it please here.

Done it.

 

[cheNga]

So, finally I was forced to register here! Well, let's start off with my problem.

Like many others I've been having constant fps-drops in Counter-Strike 1.6 and from the first beginning it was very bad and by that I mean really bad. My ping was 180+ (when it used to be 14-25 on XP) and I couldn't play CS at all. I then tried the following things.

1. Turned off MMCS completely
2. Turned off MMCS completely and disabled the throttling component
3. Kept MMCS on and disabled the throttling component

All of these three options (not at the same time) resulted in much better ping (the usual 14-25 I had before), but the fps-drops remained, especially when other players were shooting at me and when I climbed through several smokegrenades.

I was glad at first, because the ping was fixed, but I understood pretty quickly that I can't play this way. You can't play when you lag when your enemies are shooting at you. So, I googled, I asked friends and I made threads on several forums but no one could give me an answer. I still find this as the most common and logic way, but it doesn't work fully for me.

So, I've searched hours and finally found this thread:

http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/11064-windows-7-high-ping-fix.html

It did make my browser work way much faster, but it didn't help at all in-game.

So, I have a very new & good computer and there's nothing wrong with it. I've been able to play CS on it on XP and it worked very good on XP. I've downloaded and installed all the latest drivers and "cleaned" the computer with programs like CCleaner, but it still isn't working. When I play, I fps-drop to 20-40 fps when my fps should be around 75 like it always been.

I tried to disable my sound device and to my surprise it worked very well. Not 100 %, but almost. By the things you've all wrote in this thread I understood that this fix should be the answer to the problem, but it wasn't. I've also tried this method: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbWQnvytvqk But it doesn't help either.

I've searched the web for hours and I've found a lot of people with the same problem and I've found a lot of people whose problems went away by this fix and I've found a lot of tips and recommendations, but nothing has worked so far. So, if somebody here know what the problem can be, I would be thankful for weeks to come. I'd really appreciate some help, because I feel that this is the only forum that can have the answer to my problems. I hope someone read through this post and can help me.

All the best, Kicken.

Sorry for the qoute (if it bothers you) but i have the same problem. I have an ATI Radeon HD2600 PRO AGP graphic card with Catalyst 9.11 drivers. I have fixed the lag problem but my fps is low -.- I can say that drivers are solid and stable but the fps is... oh man when i mention it i get nervous I will try different drivers in these couple of days because i have some school obligations (lol) if i fix it i'll tell you how. And if someone had fixed it please say how ?!?

 

[Dragoon]

@Kicken You mentioned at an earlier post that turning off your sound device actually help you but not the fixes here correct?

I saw you're using the default drivers for your audio card.
Realtek has released Version 2.39 of its HD Audio drivers. Could you update your driver to rule out any driver issues first.

Edit:

I forgot you should also update your Intel chipset/graphic drivers to the newest ones.
You are still using the default pre-release win7 drivers.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Chipsets&ProductLine=Laptop+Chipsets&ProductProduct=Mobile+Intel%C2%AE+4+Series+Express+Chipset+Family&ProdId=2991&LineId=1088&FamilyId=40

 

[kicken]

@Kicken You mentioned at an earlier post that turning off your sound device actually help you but not the fixes here correct?

I saw you're using the default drivers for your audio card.
Realtek has released Version 2.39 of its HD Audio drivers. Could you update your driver to rule out any driver issues first.

Edit:

I forgot you should also update your Intel chipset/graphic drivers to the newest ones.
You are still using the default pre-release win7 drivers.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Chipsets&ProductLine=Laptop+Chipsets&ProductProduct=Mobile+Intel%C2%AE+4+Series+Express+Chipset+Family&ProdId=2991&LineId=1088&FamilyId=40

I know I mentioned that I could play lag-free when I disabled my sound drivers, but when I recall that incident, I think I just imagined that I played lag-free. I'll try that again though and report if I was right or wrong.

I thought I had the latest drivers, but as you found out, I hadn't. So, I downloaded the drivers and installed them and run the game (with Gamebooster turned on) and I've experienced a minor improvement. When I play without Gamebooster it's really bad, I can't play at all. But when I play with Gamebooster turned on, I can somewhat play and the latest drivers got me a slight improvement as well, but the fps drops are still not gone.

I lag less, that I am sure of. But the fps drops are just irritating and when the fps drops a lot (happens quite a lot) I lag as well. I'm just (very) chocked that nothing has helped this far.

It's still veeeery strange how this computer which is produced 2008/2009 can't handle a game from 1999. I admit that my laptop isn't the best in the world, but it should be capable of running games from '99. It's just ... strange. So, I don't even know if there's any more people who can help me. Maybe I should try enabling the throttling now when I've downloaded the latest drivers?

 

[rynio]

I don't believe it fixes the problem, i did it

network performance throttling, set it to FFFFFFFF hex (willl look like 0xFFFFFFFF to the right of the entry)

and no results. I also read that it was only problem on vista.


I read on microsoft that network throttling performance issue only happens on "high speed networks that are saturated to maximum capacity" its applies to vista don't sure how it works under win7.

 

[HardTarget]

• Stop and disable the "Multimedia Class Scheduler" service
• Run regedit and go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Audiosrv"
• Double click on the entry "DependOnService" and delete the line with "MMCSS" from the text box
• Reboot and enjoy lag free games

Leave the multimedia class scheduler service running, but disable its network throttling "feature":

• Open regedit
• Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile
• There will be an entry for network performance throttling, default value is 10; set it to FFFFFFFF hex (willl look like 0xFFFFFFFF to the right of the entry)
• Reboot

Just joined the forum and wanted to say a big thank you to Pinstripe I play COD4 and have had nothing, but lag when ever I play.............no matter what I tried nothing worked..............well that is untill I followed your guide. Now I enjoy lag free games once more.

First I tried the MMCSS and nothing. I then tweaked the network performance throttling and that seems to have fix my problem. COD4 runs ultra smooth now!

[img=http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/4867/shot0000z.jpg]

 

[kicken]

So, pinstripe, Dragoon and all the others who helped me: I tried to enable the network throttling feature, because I've had it disabled all the time. To my big surprise it helped and it helped a lot. The fps drops were blown away and I wasn't lagging at all. It was like it should be. No fps drops at all and no lag at all - I thought.

The thing is that the ping now goes up tp 130-140 at totally random times during the game. It can happen whenever, wherever and however. This of course makes me lag and it gets really frustrating at times, because otherwise it is really good without any fps drops and lag. But now the ping is the real problem.

So, disabling the throttling service results in constant fps drops and lag, but enabling the throttling service results in intermittent high ping. I don't know which one is best, but all I want is to solve is this f*cking problem. Now I can't have it disabled or enabled, because no option helps. And this while I've been running MMCS all the time. Because if I disable/remove MMCS, I can't even start Steam and run the game.

So, does this sound strange to you? What should I do know?

 

[pinstripe]

So what happens when you disable your sound device entirely in device manager?

 

[kicken]

So what happens when you disable your sound device entirely in device manager?

Still lagging.