[SOLVED - see under the ------ line]

Hi all,

I m experiencing heavy lag in some circonstances, with my new computer.

Computer :

Dual core 6600 Intel + Thermaltake
2 GB Ram Corsair 6400
HD SATA2 Seagate 320 GB 7200
MB ASUS P5B-VM
MSI Geforce 7950 GT 512MB

Windows XP Pro +SP 1+2 + everything up to date
Anti-Vir AVG latest version
Anty Spyware Spybot SD
Drivers 93.71 forceware (installed after a cleaning of all previous drivers)
Fresh LFS install

My problem :

With graphics details high or low, I ve this happening :

After some laps or sometimes at start, my framerate (usually between 75-90) is going down to 15-30 only in some sections of the track.

For example, on blackwood classic, I ve this happening in 1rst turn right, a little bit before 1rst bridge, just at split 2, in last left and passing near pits. It happen for half a second to 3-4 sec max, then everything comes back good.

I tryed it on different cars/tracks, different graphics configurations, with some light improve but nothing without this unplayable lag...

Computer processor and graphic card processor are not overheating (checked it too), I still have to do a ram test (we never know) but I think the problem is elsewhere.

Can anyone help please ?

Thanks therefore

---------------------------------------

PROBLEM SOLVED :

I finally find out where was that crazy problem annoying my online game for months :

Do a CTRL-ALT-DEL, and on LFS.exe process, right clic then choose the last option ("définir l'affinité" in french).

Next step is to desactivate processor 0 on process, and keep only processor 1, and your problem is solved.

Of course this solution works only for Intel bi-processor bugs (I ve a 6600). Sounds like online lag comes from CPU0 doing a kind of IRQ request that makes game slow down to 20-25 fps for a second or so. Assuming it's always in the same parts of track, I m pretty sure it's a in game bug (this is the only game wich I ve problems with)

Using only 1 CPU lower fps from 180 to 150, but removes that crazy bug.

I hope it helped some.

have you tried running at stock (i take it that their overlocked)

Tried 92.91's? 93's were crap on my 7950

could it be your HDD? Background processes? Tried re-installing LFS?

probably crappy windows is ****ing up, or anti virus kicking in, or maybe you should defrag your drive.

You can also press windows button + r, and then type in perfmon. That logs the performance of your system. After you had a slowdown, alt tab out and look at the graphs and let magical troubleshooting commence.

If that doesnt work, maybe you wanna swap your pc for my pc

what resolution are you running at? are you using AA and AF?
Does this happen only online or in single player or both?
if only online how do you connect ? and have you read this thread
what USB devices do you have connected ?

Do you have alot of processes running when you check with AltCtrlDelete ?

SD.

Quote from Lereseau :

....

I might help you out with this, because i had the same problems.
It's LCD thing in my case, so if you don't have an LCD monitor, than this is not a fix for you.
First, set you monitor refresh rate to 60 hz in Windows.
Than, in LFS, under graphics options or somewhere(i am at work now so don't know for sure where it is) fing an optin to sync the Graphic card with the monitor, it's the first option in one of those Graphics/game/player tabs..
Than, below that, you will find, restrict frame rate to something. Set that to 62 fps..
That fixed my problems, try it..

Boris is pointing to Vertical Sync. It is in Options>Misc>VSync. If it caused an issue, it would be same for CRT,LCD or any other screen. Swith it off, just to make sure. You might want to delete "cfg.txt" and "card_cfg.txt" (better backup them) to reset LFS to default configuration.

There is no info about soundcard in the sys-specs you gave, so I presume you use onboard one. Go to Start>Run>dxdiag. There go to Sound and select HW sound acceleration slider to "Basic".

Quote from MadCatX :

Boris is pointing to Vertical Sync. It is in Options>Misc>VSync. If it caused an issue, it would be same for CRT,LCD or any other screen. Swith it off, just to make sure. You might want to delete "cfg.txt" and "card_cfg.txt" (better backup them) to reset LFS to default configuration.

There is no info about soundcard in the sys-specs you gave, so I presume you use onboard one. Go to Start>Run>dxdiag. There go to Sound and select HW sound acceleration slider to "Basic".

I have my vertical sync ON because of the Pro Evolution Soccer.. You think i can get smoother LFS when turning it off? Have to try it back home...

Hi,

First of all, thanks all for your help.

After many many many tries, I finally found what was wrong.

I did absolutely everything what you advised me in each post, without any result.

I was about to throw the computer through the window, when I finally tryed what MadCatX said :

Quote :

Boris is pointing to Vertical Sync. It is in Options>Misc>VSync. If it caused an issue, it would be same for CRT,LCD or any other screen. Swith it off, just to make sure.

and it worked.

3 days lost to finally switch 1 option to off and find all working good.

Thank you so much.

Now for info, I ve a fps range from 70 to 160, usually turning around 140 with quite all options on. There is still a slow down on the same sections as before, but a slow down to 70 fps instaed of 15-20 is quite supportable.

I hope it will help others drivers.

Have fun

According to what you have reported, I presume there is some glitch related to VSync that occures time to time. You are not only one who have noticed weird behaviour of LFS when VSync is enabled. It is good to know where a problem can be

Bloody hell, this problem is back...

I found a way to reduce it : by installing december version of directX (my previous one was from augustus), it's way better.
Lag is still present sometimes but less often, and even laggy I ve better fps. Sometimes, it's going down to 20 and game crash once every hour too.

Will continue my tests, I hope I will find it one day cause it begin to annoy me a lot.

And happy new year all

Overheating GPU or GFX card Ram?

SD.

I allready tried to inspire people to collect all data that produce low frame rate or disconnections because of bad pingtimes.
I can read here in this forum at least 1 new thread each day about that problems. What a waste of time, when you have a similar problem and want to read all this. Or do it like everybody else and open a new thread....
We need a checklist to help other people so they can find a solution without reading hundreds of threads.

I would concentrate on sound, because it can be tricky sometimes. Did you try disabling full sound acceleration like I described above? Try to update you soundcard driver also.

Hi all,

I ve made many tests and I ve an idea where the problem could be, even if I can't solve it yet.

GPU and Processor are not overheating, and I tryed to remove sound acceleration or use it to basic, I still have the same problem.

Furthermore now computer crash quite often with reboot needed, in 2 cases : LFS running or video played with BSPlayer Pro (working fine with media player). Strange thing, sometimes, like 1 on 4, when Windows rebooted, my internet connection cannot be launched and sometimes sound is strange and laggy, so computer needs another reboot.

The only thing strange I found, is that 1 of the 2 processors of my dual core (actually the one numbered "2") is randomly but like every 5-20 seconds raising up to a 80-90% usage, with all programs off. It seems that every time I ve a slow down in LFS processor raise up to 80-90% usage, while processor 1 is still around 5% usage.

I m trying with CTRL-ALT-DEL to define wich process is the cause of all of this, but I haven't found anything yet.

Can somebody confirm that the CPU usage is normal or not, so I would know where to continue my searchs.

Any ideas welcome too

Thanks therefore

Quote :

For example, on blackwood classic, I ve this happening in 1rst turn right, a little bit before 1rst bridge, just at split 2, in last left and passing near pits. It happen for half a second to 3-4 sec max, then everything comes back good.

This is totally normal. All games have some very demanding parts depending the complexity of the scenery etc.

What is not normal is the massive drop in the FPS form 70 to 15 eg.

With my computer P4 3.2, 6800GT, 1GB Ram I have FPS 90-120 and some slowdowns at the places you mentioned to 70-80 fps.

And my PC is has half the horse power of yours.

There are some options inside LFS that make quite a difference.
Some are
In Graphics Menu
Dust LOD (take the slider to far left)
Mirror LOD (take it a little to left for more performance)
Haze effect (set it to NO)
Shadow type (set it to Low Res)
Full Wheels (set it to main)
Draw Trees (set it to main)
Draw Flags (set it to main)
Draw rubber (set it to main)

The goal to the above is not to have the mirror detail very high because it consumes much horse power. (Press shift-M to show/hide mirrors and see how the FPS rises if mirros are set to off)

In Misc Menu
Limit frame rate in game (set it to NO)
Dynamic LOD Reduction (set it to far right)

About the crashes thing.
A thing I noticed is that when I'm trying new things, eg changing cars, tracks, settings with rapid mouse clicks eventually LFS will crash. But if you give some time to each click LFS does not crash!!

Also a good practice is not to have many windows open and change the focus from LFS to your browser, the to your messenger, then to your player. Just have LFS in full screen mode and do some racing. Then close it down and continue the rest of your activities.

Hope these might help

S0LVED

- see primary post
- works only with dual processor slow down