CSS and 8400M GS

I recently bought a new HP dv6500t (T7300, 2GB RAM, Installed Windows XP) and loaded counter strike: source onto it 2 days ago. Now I know the Nvidia 8400M GS gfx card is mediocre at best, but I knew I would be able to atleast play CSS at high settings. At first it seemed great, I was running fine at high settings and resolution (just playing with bots) until just a little bit of action on screen (firing guns, grenades, etc.) caused the screen to skip or lag. I figured this was probably because the gfx card is too weak (even though it was running at very playable fps everywhere else on the map) and turned all the settings and resolution to the lowest. I started playing again and the same thing happened when I ran into an enemy or two and started firing. I asked a friend what could be wrong and he suggested turning off the vertical sync on my gfx card but that did nothing. If anyone could tell me what setting I should change on my card or any options I can tweak to eliminate this problem I would greatly appreciate it.

This is the version of my gfx driver if it helps at all:
NVIDIA ForceWare GeForce Go 101.34 WHQL driver
http://www.driversforwindows.com/nvidia_forceware_geforce_go_101.34_whql_983.htm

 

Have you only played with bots?

Remember when their are bots all the processing load is on your pc.

So the question is..how many bots are you trying to use. Its more CPU and RAM intensive on bot matches.

Try playing online.

 

Try using different drivers, the 16x.xx are great for games.

 

I'll go ahead and try both suggestions; thanks. I was playing 3-5 bots so that's probably what it was. I played a quick deathmatch online just now and it was much better, although I noticed it maybe once or twice still. I'll continue playing online and see how it goes.

 

that shouldn't happen- windows xp, 2 gigs of ram... thats perfect for counter strike. t7300 is a power processor. you should be able to play with bots.

just try updating your driver to 162.18 and report back.

make sure you do a clean install. that means, uninstall your current driver, clean your registry, install the new driver.

 

staffsMike: when THEY'RE all bots, not "when their all bots". I are grammar king.

doucheland, have you thought about reinstalling the game? It's not always the hardware that causes the problems. CSS (and all VALVe games for that matter) is notorious for being problematic.

 

I just tried updating my driver to 162.18 and I got the message: "The Nvidia setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware. Setup will not exit."

I don't understand this since my operating system and graphics card match the driver perfectly.

 

You need a modded .inf file for the driver to work properly.

1. Re download the driver from http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/nvidia/160series/16218.exe and save it in a safe place.

2. get this file from http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/infs/160series/16218/nv4_disp.inf and put it in the same folder as the driver.

3. Follow http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11997 Directions to install the inf assuming you have Vista

or

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=33 If you have windows XP.

 

Bots are very cpu intensive....Thought that said 3 to 5 bots shouldn't tax that processor much.

It's also worth uninstalling your drivers, use driver cleaner pro, then install different ones - maybe older ones will give better performance, I'm using really old drivers on my Go7400 and they're the best so far.

 

I have this problem too, and its not your GPU, ive noticed that it is my internet connection. When im at my house, my computer "Hickups" and it skips around, and stuff like that. But when im at any other place getting internet (or not getting internet at all) my system if fine. Thats just what happens with me though.

 

Thank you very much for all of your suggestions but I have one question left...hopefully. I updated my driver to 162.18 using the modded .inf file from laptopvideo2go and tried playing CSS online again. I went into the console and enabled the FPS counter at the top to see if it improved at all or if the skipping went away. I noticed that my FPS was dropping into the red (under 40fps) quite often (mainly during firefights or alot of action) and that the skipping or lag only occured at these times. I lowered most of the advanced settings to Low and although my FPS seems to hover around 70 (usually at 100 when nothing's happening), anytime I run into action I can watch as it drops to 40fps and below and I can notice the frames lagging.

Since I am getting a decent framerate (70-100) when nothing is happening, should I just get used to it dropping in the red alot because this is normal for my cpu and gfx card or is something still wrong? I could try downgrading the driver to a different version again, but I've already went through 3 (101.34, 165.01, and 162.18) and the results haven't varied much between them.

 

I did a little more research and found that the drop in FPS could be from a conflict with my IRQ channels. I had a little trouble installing the right audio drivers after installing windows xp so it could be a possibility. I can't really tell if there is a conflict so I took a screenshot of my IRQ channels in hopes that someone can tell me if that's where the problem is. Thanks again.

 

the performance you are receiving sounds extremely normal to me.

 

Should I tweak any IRQ channels though?

 

hard to say. IRQ channels are audio related?

try disabling audio from within the game. i don't know the command for it but im sure there is one.

if the problem goes away, you know its audio related.

edit: post a screen shot of the settings you are running the game at.

do you have something like 4x aa and 8x af forced from within the nvidia control panel? that will obviously hurt performance.

 

Thanks again for the help. I took a screenshot of my settings below.

Nvidia Graphics Card Settings:


Vertical Sync set to Use the 3D application setting

In-Game Settings:

 

try not to use conflicting settings in the game and in the control panel. just set vsync to application control or off in the control panel, also change multi display performance mode to single display performance mode (i forget the exact wording) in the control panel. that might not make your problem go away but might as well do it right.

 

I just changed the settings as you said and am about to play a couple rounds, thanks.