WTF is wrong with my 9700

mattp001 · May 9, 2004, 01:40 PM

look at this picture, notice all the dips right because they happen i think like every second on the dot. i have tried vsync, no vsnc, 30fps, none work to stop it. well i have a radeon 9700 with 2.5.36b omega drivers and an athlon 64 3000+ and 512 megs of pc3200 ram. WHY THE HELL IS IT DOING THIS IT DIDNT USED TO! It does it in like every game. i suspected the pixel shaders because when i ran halo in fixed function mode it didnt do this. at first when i was playing i though "hey this is just lag", then i started a lan server and saw it was still doing it.

zerodamage · May 9, 2004, 03:28 PM

I'm not seeing what the problem is. could you explain a little more. I am not seeing it in the screen shot you provided.

Logla · May 9, 2004, 03:32 PM

The box at the top is a graph of the FPS - the four large vertical lines are the fps dipping way below the 60FPS he gets at the top of the box.

I reckon there is something running in the background wich is causing this. Check to see what programs are running before running the games.

putnam · May 9, 2004, 11:12 PM

Do you have RAID? If it's software controlled, your CPU could be paying attention to HD stuff instead of the game every little bit. I dunno.

mattp001 · May 10, 2004, 08:52 AM

yah i checked. i really cant find anything out of the ordinary. its pissing me off. i tried disabling my virus scanner, no luck.

MythicaL · May 10, 2004, 09:31 AM

If you messed with the process priority then you should change it back. Otherwise, try putting it lower than default.

Riffer · May 10, 2004, 11:00 AM

I can not help with the problem, but my question is: How did you make the fps table above?

The_Neon_Cowboy · May 10, 2004, 06:40 PM

have you checked for spy ware? etc ?

RebelWolf · May 11, 2004, 03:55 AM

There is another program causeing this...

Reason for that guess, your showing that lag and your on the launch screen, not in the game itself. I could be wrong, but I heavily doubt a launch screen would run any shaders at all (since it's 2D), let alone anything hefty enough to produce lag.

Don't get me wrong, I have no clue what is running that would cause that every one second... look's a lot like a virus, or malware of some sort, maybe it's trying to "phone home" constantly.

RebelWolf

mattp001 · May 11, 2004, 05:53 AM

dude i have tried everything. occasionally it fixes its self after a driver reinstall, then it f***s up again. read this:http://www.hardwareheaven.com/showthre...threadid=30766

Edited due to language.......

RebelWolf · May 12, 2004, 03:14 AM

I read the other thread, I don't know about the zero display error your getting, I'm only baseing my opinion on the graph you posted.

The way that graph spikes, something is useing up CPU / VPU power at a regular interval. Since it's a launch screen, there isn't anything that should be taxing the VPU in any way at that point in time, but the FPS dip is still showing.

To me, this indicates a program / virus / service that is useing CPU cycles to a fairly high amount, and it's fireing off everytime you see that spike on the bar. A good way to check and see if this is accurate, would be to see if the same thing happens when your just staring at the windows desktop. Bring up the performance monitor (assuming XP here) and see if the same pattern is showing even with no game running. On my system, it's the green bar of the pattern, and if I don't do anything, it rarely lifts itself off zero, to a max of maybe 5%.

All I can suggest...

RebelWolf

**Roadee** · May 12, 2004, 05:24 AM

If you have a buddy with a computer that you can throw your card in.....it would help you figure out if it is something in your system......or if it is the card messing up. Or if you have a spare hard drive......put a fresh install on it and see if the problem still exists. It certainly seems like you have something on your machine that is running in the back ground.......but at the same time......a power supply going bad or a bad electrical feed/connection could cause the same symptoms.

pr0digal jenius · May 12, 2004, 06:37 PM

those dips in FPS also seem to come at perfectly even intervals...as if it's a cyclic something....do you have anything that would try to draw FPS by default isntalled, like FRAPS? or perhaps you have anything that would be trying to force framerates?....

ColtIce · May 12, 2004, 07:32 PM

do you have motherboard monitor running?if so is it set to refresh itself every second?

~~Hundredswords~~ · May 13, 2004, 02:51 AM

I am sorry, but i just can't help it. Blame Microsoft ... haha

BlkJello · May 14, 2004, 04:29 PM

Are you using norton antivirus 2004?? If you are.... thats the cause. Norton is a good av proggie...but absolutly NOT for gamers!!

And just disableing services doesnt necessarily work. I and quite a few friends have had to completely uninstall it before the intermittent lagging would stop. I tried it and it lasted for about 2 hours before i was scrambling for the add\remove programs.

Zardon · May 14, 2004, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BlkJello
Are you using norton antivirus 2004?? If you are.... thats the cause. Norton is a good av proggie...but absolutly NOT for gamers!!

NAV2004 isnt much cop. ive never had an issue with the corporate Nortons apps interfering with anything.

BlkJello · May 14, 2004, 04:39 PM

Maybe corporate might cut it .... but in my experience the retail versions are terrible with games.

pr0digal jenius · May 14, 2004, 08:18 PM

why would norton graph the FPS???

Zardon · May 14, 2004, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by pr0digal jenius
why would norton graph the FPS???

I think the point he is making is that some antivirus apps can hog CPU time although personally I think nortons are one of the best and dont as a rule do this. Some firewalls can also cause ping issues playing online, but in the case of this problem thread I cant see this being the issue.

BlkJello · May 14, 2004, 08:47 PM

What i noticed in my personal experience with norton 2004 [not 2003..it was pretty good] was intermittent hitches and once in a while a hard one sec freeze. I saw these symptoms mainly in UT2k4 and F1 Challenge. Really prevelant in F1c!! Upon uninstall they vanished. And were back again when reinstalled. And i did go thru all the setting trying to find a setting that might be the culprit...to no avail. Please dont get me wrong.. Norton IS one of the best av's IMO.. but i dont think its the best choice when gaming is a high priority.

zerodamage · May 14, 2004, 08:49 PM

The free ones are HORRIBLE in regards to hogging cpu time. Give Mcafee a try.

friedmonky · May 15, 2004, 01:12 AM

AVG anti-virus is the way to go. Free, no CPU hog here, and it works better than Norton and McAfee.
www.grisoft.com
FM

RebelWolf · May 15, 2004, 07:26 PM

Personally, if you absolutely MUST keep a antivirus program running 24/7 it's your habits that need to change.

I don't run any active anti virus of any sort. I never have, and I've also never been infected by a virus/worm/trojan.

Obviously, I don't store any info on my game machine that I consider "critical", and I feel my biggest security flaw is the fact I still use Outlook Express for my email program, but simple weekly scan's are enough to manage my virus concerns.

I do however care about my security. My computers sit behind my NAT, which makes them immune to port scanning type attacks, I stay far away from Warez, or any downloads I'm not highly confident in, and I don't open email attachments. I refuse to install Spyware, or any supposed "utility" that can update itself, without me allowing it to (I don't mind it notifying me of updates, as long as it's not automaticly installing them). I also keep my programs updated as often as updates get released, especially if it's a security update.

For what it's worth, I also do not get spam in my email. The only places I have ever given my email address to, are places like this website, which I trust to not sell the address, so I've never been innundated with unwelcome email.

Just tossing this out there, for anyone who might be having problems with things like spam or viruses, there are ways to lessen these problems. If your gaining too much spam, change your email address (or get a new one, where they don't list them) and then be careful whom you give it to. If your constantly being plagued by viruses, change your habits and you'll find a lot of these problems go away.

RebelWolf

friedmonky · May 15, 2004, 07:34 PM

How do you do a weekly scan without any AV program? Also, how do you know that you don't have any viruses on your system if you don't ever run any AV software?

FM

RebelWolf · May 16, 2004, 08:17 PM

Fairly easily actually. The key word in my post above was "active" anti virus, I don't have one that runs all the time, but I do occasionally scan the drives for the presence of viruses. In theory, I try to remember to do this every week, in reality, sometimes it streches as long as a month.

Go here http://housecall.antivirus.com/house...tart_frame.asp <-- you may have to be up one page, if you've never installed it, but it's one of the free online AV scanners that exist.

Once it's updated the pattern checker, run it on all the drives you wish, and that's it, it's done.

RebelWolf

May 9, 2004, 01:40 PM	#1
mattp001 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 4 Rep Power: 0	WTF is wrong with my 9700 look at this picture, notice all the dips right because they happen i think like every second on the dot. i have tried vsync, no vsnc, 30fps, none work to stop it. well i have a radeon 9700 with 2.5.36b omega drivers and an athlon 64 3000+ and 512 megs of pc3200 ram. WHY THE HELL IS IT DOING THIS IT DIDNT USED TO! It does it in like every game. i suspected the pixel shaders because when i ran halo in fixed function mode it didnt do this. at first when i was playing i though "hey this is just lag", then i started a lan server and saw it was still doing it.

May 9, 2004, 11:12 PM	#4
putnam DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Brunswick, GA Posts: 19 Rep Power: 0	Do you have RAID? If it's software controlled, your CPU could be paying attention to HD stuff instead of the game every little bit. I dunno. __________________ umm, yours truly putnamplanet.com

May 10, 2004, 09:31 AM	#6
MythicaL I like computers. Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: In front of a monitor Posts: 3,399 Rep Power: 89 System Specs	If you messed with the process priority then you should change it back. Otherwise, try putting it lower than default. __________________ Always knew I didn't belong in this world. I wasn't made for this. But I'll never forget those who betrayed me, and those who never failed my trust.

May 10, 2004, 06:40 PM	#8
The_Neon_Cowboy HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,009 Rep Power: 92 System Specs	have you checked for spy ware? etc ? __________________

May 11, 2004, 05:53 AM	Thread Starter #10
mattp001 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 4 Rep Power: 0	dude i have tried everything. occasionally it fixes its self after a driver reinstall, then it f**s up again. read this:http://www.hardwareheaven.com/showthre...threadid=30766 Edited due to language....... Last edited by Roadee; May 12, 2004 at 05:20 AM.*

May 9, 2004, 03:28 PM	#2
zerodamage HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,478 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	I'm not seeing what the problem is. could you explain a little more. I am not seeing it in the screen shot you provided.

May 9, 2004, 03:32 PM	#3
Logla HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 3,311 Rep Power: 0	The box at the top is a graph of the FPS - the four large vertical lines are the fps dipping way below the 60FPS he gets at the top of the box. I reckon there is something running in the background wich is causing this. Check to see what programs are running before running the games.

May 10, 2004, 08:52 AM	Thread Starter #5
mattp001 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 4 Rep Power: 0	yah i checked. i really cant find anything out of the ordinary. its pissing me off. i tried disabling my virus scanner, no luck.

May 10, 2004, 11:00 AM	#7
Riffer DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 12 Rep Power: 0	I can not help with the problem, but my question is: How did you make the fps table above?

May 11, 2004, 03:55 AM	#9
RebelWolf DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 55 Rep Power: 0	There is another program causeing this... Reason for that guess, your showing that lag and your on the launch screen, not in the game itself. I could be wrong, but I heavily doubt a launch screen would run any shaders at all (since it's 2D), let alone anything hefty enough to produce lag. Don't get me wrong, I have no clue what is running that would cause that every one second... look's a lot like a virus, or malware of some sort, maybe it's trying to "phone home" constantly. RebelWolf

May 12, 2004, 03:14 AM	#11
RebelWolf DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 55 Rep Power: 0	I read the other thread, I don't know about the zero display error your getting, I'm only baseing my opinion on the graph you posted. The way that graph spikes, something is useing up CPU / VPU power at a regular interval. Since it's a launch screen, there isn't anything that should be taxing the VPU in any way at that point in time, but the FPS dip is still showing. To me, this indicates a program / virus / service that is useing CPU cycles to a fairly high amount, and it's fireing off everytime you see that spike on the bar. A good way to check and see if this is accurate, would be to see if the same thing happens when your just staring at the windows desktop. Bring up the performance monitor (assuming XP here) and see if the same pattern is showing even with no game running. On my system, it's the green bar of the pattern, and if I don't do anything, it rarely lifts itself off zero, to a max of maybe 5%. All I can suggest... RebelWolf

May 12, 2004, 05:24 AM	#12
Roadee Never forgotten Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Rest In peace, Joe. Posts: 2,198 Rep Power: 69	If you have a buddy with a computer that you can throw your card in.....it would help you figure out if it is something in your system......or if it is the card messing up. Or if you have a spare hard drive......put a fresh install on it and see if the problem still exists. It certainly seems like you have something on your machine that is running in the back ground.......but at the same time......a power supply going bad or a bad electrical feed/connection could cause the same symptoms. __________________ We are born naked, wet, and hungry. Then things get worse.

May 12, 2004, 06:37 PM	#13
pr0digal jenius Delete Me Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 14,648 Rep Power: 0	those dips in FPS also seem to come at perfectly even intervals...as if it's a cyclic something....do you have anything that would try to draw FPS by default isntalled, like FRAPS? or perhaps you have anything that would be trying to force framerates?....

May 12, 2004, 07:32 PM	#14
ColtIce DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 74 Rep Power: 0	do you have motherboard monitor running?if so is it set to refresh itself every second? __________________ DFI LP UT nF3 250 Gb A64 3700+ CAABC 0420 UPMW(naked) 2*512 OCZ PC3200 Gold Edition ATI X850XT Audigy2zs Thermalright slk-948u/92mm Tornado PC P&C TurboCool 475

May 13, 2004, 02:51 AM	#15
~~Hundredswords~~ Banned Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Canada Posts: 62 Rep Power: 0	I am sorry, but i just can't help it. Blame Microsoft ... haha

May 14, 2004, 04:39 PM	#18
BlkJello DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: So Cal USA Posts: 69 Rep Power: 0	Maybe corporate might cut it .... but in my experience the retail versions are terrible with games. __________________ Athlon64 x2 5600+ Asus m2n sli deluxe 4gig corsair ddr800 Asus EN8800 GT TOP 512mb 1x 200gb sata 2x 160gb sata Winxp Pro Sp 2\Win Vista ult 64bit dual boot

May 15, 2004, 01:12 AM	#23
friedmonky DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 103 Rep Power: 0	AVG anti-virus is the way to go. Free, no CPU hog here, and it works better than Norton and McAfee. www.grisoft.com FM __________________ BUILT BY ALIENWARE: DRAGON FULL-TOWER CASE ASUS P4T533-C RDRAM MOTHERBOARD INTEL PENTIUM 4 2.8GHZ 512K L2 CACHE 533MHZ FSB 2 - 128MB RDRAM PC1066 2 - 512MB RDRAM PC1066 WESTERN DIGITAL 120GB 8MB CACHE HD ATI RADEON X850XT 16X DVD-ROM SOUNDBLASTER AUDIGY 2 6.1 LITE-ON 52/24/52 CD-RW LITE-ON 16X DVD-ROM 400 WATT POWER SUPPLY

May 15, 2004, 07:34 PM	#25
friedmonky DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 103 Rep Power: 0	How do you do a weekly scan without any AV program? Also, how do you know that you don't have any viruses on your system if you don't ever run any AV software? FM __________________ BUILT BY ALIENWARE: DRAGON FULL-TOWER CASE ASUS P4T533-C RDRAM MOTHERBOARD INTEL PENTIUM 4 2.8GHZ 512K L2 CACHE 533MHZ FSB 2 - 128MB RDRAM PC1066 2 - 512MB RDRAM PC1066 WESTERN DIGITAL 120GB 8MB CACHE HD ATI RADEON X850XT 16X DVD-ROM SOUNDBLASTER AUDIGY 2 6.1 LITE-ON 52/24/52 CD-RW LITE-ON 16X DVD-ROM 400 WATT POWER SUPPLY

May 14, 2004, 04:29 PM	#16
BlkJello DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: So Cal USA Posts: 69 Rep Power: 0	Are you using norton antivirus 2004?? If you are.... thats the cause. Norton is a good av proggie...but absolutly NOT for gamers!! And just disableing services doesnt necessarily work. I and quite a few friends have had to completely uninstall it before the intermittent lagging would stop. I tried it and it lasted for about 2 hours before i was scrambling for the add\remove programs. __________________ Athlon64 x2 5600+ Asus m2n sli deluxe 4gig corsair ddr800 Asus EN8800 GT TOP 512mb 1x 200gb sata 2x 160gb sata Winxp Pro Sp 2\Win Vista ult 64bit dual boot Last edited by BlkJello; May 14, 2004 at 04:38 PM.

May 14, 2004, 08:18 PM	#19
pr0digal jenius Delete Me Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 14,648 Rep Power: 0	why would norton graph the FPS???

May 14, 2004, 08:47 PM	#21
BlkJello DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: So Cal USA Posts: 69 Rep Power: 0	What i noticed in my personal experience with norton 2004 [not 2003..it was pretty good] was intermittent hitches and once in a while a hard one sec freeze. I saw these symptoms mainly in UT2k4 and F1 Challenge. Really prevelant in F1c!! Upon uninstall they vanished. And were back again when reinstalled. And i did go thru all the setting trying to find a setting that might be the culprit...to no avail. Please dont get me wrong.. Norton IS one of the best av's IMO.. but i dont think its the best choice when gaming is a high priority. __________________ Athlon64 x2 5600+ Asus m2n sli deluxe 4gig corsair ddr800 Asus EN8800 GT TOP 512mb 1x 200gb sata 2x 160gb sata Winxp Pro Sp 2\Win Vista ult 64bit dual boot

May 14, 2004, 08:49 PM	#22
zerodamage HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,478 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	The free ones are HORRIBLE in regards to hogging cpu time. Give Mcafee a try.

May 15, 2004, 07:26 PM	#24
RebelWolf DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 55 Rep Power: 0	Personally, if you absolutely MUST keep a antivirus program running 24/7 it's your habits that need to change. I don't run any active anti virus of any sort. I never have, and I've also never been infected by a virus/worm/trojan. Obviously, I don't store any info on my game machine that I consider "critical", and I feel my biggest security flaw is the fact I still use Outlook Express for my email program, but simple weekly scan's are enough to manage my virus concerns. I do however care about my security. My computers sit behind my NAT, which makes them immune to port scanning type attacks, I stay far away from Warez, or any downloads I'm not highly confident in, and I don't open email attachments. I refuse to install Spyware, or any supposed "utility" that can update itself, without me allowing it to (I don't mind it notifying me of updates, as long as it's not automaticly installing them). I also keep my programs updated as often as updates get released, especially if it's a security update. For what it's worth, I also do not get spam in my email. The only places I have ever given my email address to, are places like this website, which I trust to not sell the address, so I've never been innundated with unwelcome email. Just tossing this out there, for anyone who might be having problems with things like spam or viruses, there are ways to lessen these problems. If your gaining too much spam, change your email address (or get a new one, where they don't list them) and then be careful whom you give it to. If your constantly being plagued by viruses, change your habits and you'll find a lot of these problems go away. RebelWolf

May 16, 2004, 08:17 PM	#26
RebelWolf DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 55 Rep Power: 0	Fairly easily actually. The key word in my post above was "active" anti virus, I don't have one that runs all the time, but I do occasionally scan the drives for the presence of viruses. In theory, I try to remember to do this every week, in reality, sometimes it streches as long as a month. Go here http://housecall.antivirus.com/house...tart_frame.asp <-- you may have to be up one page, if you've never installed it, but it's one of the free online AV scanners that exist. Once it's updated the pattern checker, run it on all the drives you wish, and that's it, it's done. RebelWolf Last edited by RebelWolf; May 16, 2004 at 08:38 PM.