Windows 7, Online Gaming & Ping Spikes

[Kitlope]

Hi all first post here.

Last week I installed W7 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 W7 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 W7 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 W7 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 W7.

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 W7 or a Marvell Yukon update until this gets corrected? Should I, when they become more available, pick up a Network Card that supports W7 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

 

[zigzag3143]

Hi all first post here.

Last week I installed W7 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 W7 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 W7 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 W7 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 W7.

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 W7 or a Marvell Yukon update until this gets corrected? Should I, when they become more available, pick up a Network Card that supports W7 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

 

[sotorious]

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

 

[Kitlope]

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

if not you ca disable IPv6 has been shown to cause random problems

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?

 

[Kitlope]

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


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

 

[zigzag3143]

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

 

[venom6]

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.
Win7 looks nice and all, but its not worth for me using it as i cant play normal online.

 

[Fumz]

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:

• 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

http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/31980-lag-online-games-windows-7-a.html

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

 

[Fumz]

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

 

[Kitlope]

Thanks Fumz for the update.

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

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

 

[pinstripe]

Just double click on the entry. a little box will pop up. on the right side there will be an option to show hex or decimal. select hex, then put in the Fs. Hit OK. You will notice on the right of the entry it will show a 0x before the Fs you put in. Then reboot.

@Fumz: glad it worked for you. =)

 

[games2007]

It reduced some of my lag aswell when I tried it earlier today.
Switching to a wired connection SHOULD get rid of the choke and ping fluctiation.
It did for me, and since Ethernet generally doesn't require specific driver, you should get a stable ping so long as your internet and the server are up to par.
I know a wired connection is hard, but if it's possible, I would highly advise it.
Choke is less likely with a wired connection.

 

[Kitlope]

Well, I tried the tweak and it seems to have worked. I did not notice any ping spikes at all and I played last night for hours.

Good stuff. Thanks Fumz & Pinstripe.

Kit

 

[nightrhyme]

Damn I really thought I found a solution here. However this regedit fix had no effect for me.. Still ping spikes

 

[fANAT1C]

I remember on my old desktop PC I had lag spikes about every minute. These spikes always appeared every 50 seconds in a very regular pattern, like "it was set to lag every 50 seconds". I thought I would never get this problem solved, until I asked on a server (Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory server) about this issue.

Some very gently guy was prepared to help me with my problem and he probably knew a solution. And infact he also solved my issue.

The problem was caused by Windows Wireless Zero Configuration (called WLAN Autoconfig/Wired Autoconfig in Windows 7).

What I have done to fix my issue:

Step 1. I went to Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services, clicked WLAN Autoconfig/Wired Autoconfig, and selected Properties from the list that pops up.
Step 2. Now search for "Startup type:" and change it to "Disabled"
Step 3. Click OK and reboot your PC. This isn't necessary but it's always better so just do it ;).
Step 4. Come back to the forums to complain because it didn't work or just to say thanks because it did work

I don't know if this is exactly your problem. Do not forget to install the program of your Network Adapter/Network Card because WLAN Autoconfig/Wired Autoconfig takes over when the software of your Network Adapter/Network card isn't installed on your system.

Sorry if this didn't help you!

 

[Mist]

hi i am having same issue sorta this is my issue

my ping is going up or down by 20to 50 so its sits between 84-134 when i am in games as well when i go on stuff like teamspeak and ventrilo it loads fine but yet again when i go online with it it lags for a bit then it logs on but then some time i sound like a robot or a chipmunk and when i serf the net some times it take a few secons to load but when i go to download anything my transfer rate is any where between 1mb sec to 1.4mb a sec so i download fine i tryed what Fanatic said and still same problum i even got a new modem from my internet provider and still same thing and this is driving me nuts so can some 1 help

ps here is my specs on my pc


Manufacturer:i put it together
Processor:Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2300 CPU @ 2.80GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.8GHz
Memory:4096MB RAM
Hard Drive:1.5 TB
Video Card:ASUS EAH5450 Series 1gig
Monitor:Benq
Sound Card:Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Speakers/Headphones:creative
Keyboard:logitech
Mouse:logitech
Mouse Surface:world of warcraft pad
Operating System:Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Motherboard:Asus M2N-E SLI
Computer Case:NIK


and this all started with my old comp and still doing it to this comp witch is the specs above
and the only way i can drop my ping in game is by droping my resolution down to the lowest setting then i get a ping of 80-91


games it happens on any game like cod4
and starcraft if i host a room my latency is to high for my friend to come in