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#1 2007-04-11 15:43:15

ebbot
Member
Registered: 2007-04-11
Posts: 8

Frequent lags [solved]

I'm not sure which forum is the most appropriate for this problem. I'm guessing hardware and here's why:

I used Arch a few years back but switched to Gentoo. Everything was fine until last year when I started to notice lags in enemy territory. The lags came (and still do) roughly each minute or two for about 10 seconds. I also got more and more frustrated about all problems updating Gentoo and so on. So I switched to Xubuntu. Only problem was, the lags continued. A guy said my graphics card was too old (Nvidia Ti200 64Mb) for et so I bought a new one (Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS). Problem is the lags continued. I switched to Arch, same thing.

I'm getting lags in all sorts of games; from UT to pinball. I also notice something that looks like lags when watching videos on stumbleupon.

When I run the application from console I get no error messages at all. I've tried different video settings in the games but no change. I've tried different graphics cards and drivers, different OS:s. I heard my hard drives spinning down every now and then and read that Seagate st3* drives has problems with the built in power management so I issued "-Z -S0" in hdparm and I think that got it... but still no change. I've used Fluxbox and XFCE4. I doubt it is my network connection (8/1Mbit ADSL via a Netgear gigabit switch and Smoothwall Express 2), especially since I even get lag when using pinball.

I'm thinking that this has to be hardware related but I could be wrong.

I really need help to troubleshoot this, because I'm almost out of ideas.

My specs:

Compaq 8440EA
P4 1,8 GHz
512 Mb DDR PC2100
2x 200 Gb Seagate Barracuda ST3* drives
Gigabyte GeForce 7600 GS
SB Live 5.1
IE1394port

Last edited by ebbot (2007-04-18 12:28:40)

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#2 2007-04-17 15:43:25

ebbot
Member
Registered: 2007-04-11
Posts: 8

Re: Frequent lags [solved]

Anyone?

I've run Seatools on the hardrives and they passed the long test. I installed AA and got the same problem. Supertux and othello works fine...

What should I do?

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#3 2007-04-18 00:50:07

Zer0
Member
From: Windsor, ON, Canada
Registered: 2006-08-25
Posts: 299

Re: Frequent lags [solved]

1) My first suggestion would be to shutoff all acpi/apm and harddrive spindown stuff in your BIOS..
This will rule out the hdd spindown/spinup, cpu speed throttling etc..

2) Any heat issues??  check your temps, cpu, mobo, gpu.. maybe some thermal throttling going on?

3) AGP vid card?  Disable AGP Fastwrites and/or Side Band Addressing in bios (known to cause problems with some setups)

4) Does it do this in non-linux based OS'es also?  Let us know!

5) Bios defaults as a last resort.. test if it works from there, work your way up wink

6) I hope your running the nvidia driver and not the nv wink  of course you are.

7) Re-seat the ram?  lol.. sounds nutz I know but sometimes re-seating stuff actually works!

Being as you think it's a hardware problem.. I'm sure you already tried a lot of these steps but I rather give some input then pass it by because hardware issues are a b**ch!

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#4 2007-04-18 01:53:58

wideeye
Member
Registered: 2006-09-30
Posts: 32

Re: Frequent lags [solved]

i would think hard disk first, does smartctl -a show ecc errors? might still "pass" even with problems.
good luck

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#5 2007-04-18 12:28:12

ebbot
Member
Registered: 2007-04-11
Posts: 8

Re: Frequent lags [solved]

I don't believe it! It seems to be fine now. I started off with the BIOS and smart settings/checks but no success. (The Compaq settings in BIOS aren't exactly standard... I got the box as a gift for a favor.) Then I rebuilt the computer and took away one of the NICs and the internal v92 modem I've never used. When I took the CPU fan away, It seemed to be some dust in the middle of it so I cleaned that. And now, voilà.

Not only does the lags seem to be gone, dhcpcd works!!! I've had to start dhclient because the network keeps failing (eth0 eth1 switched I guess). I'm not sure how to access the temperature readings but I'll search some wiki.

Thank you guys! You've saved my month!

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#6 2007-04-18 21:28:08

Zer0
Member
From: Windsor, ON, Canada
Registered: 2006-08-25
Posts: 299

Re: Frequent lags [solved]

hmm.. must have been thermal throttling because of overheating.. either that or the cpu wasn't seated right.  That damn re-seating stuff.. if someone told me to reseat things.. I wouldn't believe them but I've actually fixed a few computers buy re-seating cpu, ram, and cards.. So either it works or it's luck.

lm_sensors to check temps.. but your mobo has to support it..  If you can check temps in the BIOS (called hardware monitor usually) then you can do it with software..

Those damn heatsinks can get really bad!  I've seen some that were almost solid cubes of dirt/dust.
Mostly their owners smoke at their desk or own pets which creates a lot more dust/dirt then usual.

Glad to hear you have fixed this problem.    smile smile

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