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    Dragon Age lags over HDMI

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by Danja, Jan 12, 2010.

  1. Danja

    Danja Notebook Evangelist

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    Hi,

    I'm trying to play Dragon Age on my Vizio SV370XVT TV connected via HDMI. Last night, I was playing it and had no problem keeping up 30 fps with no lag at all. Today, it lags horribly every few seconds. As far as I can tell, nothing in my setup has changed. Could anyone suggest to me what to look for that could spontaneously be causing lag?

    Thanks!
     
  2. Ripfire

    Ripfire Minecraft Architect

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    1. Make sure the laptop is connected to ac/power.
    2. Lower the resolution.
     
  3. OGLoc

    OGLoc Notebook Consultant

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    Resolution probably isn't the case, since it worked yesterday. AC power is pretty likely though, was the laptop on AC?
     
  4. Petrovic

    Petrovic Notebook Consultant

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    restart steam
     
  5. Danja

    Danja Notebook Evangelist

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    Hmm, this seems to be a tough one. The computer was on AC. The game isn't through steam.
     
  6. Galdere

    Galdere Notebook Consultant

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    Resolution could be involved, as when he says it worked fine yesterday, he didn't actually say he was playing it on the TV yesterday. The native res of the TV could be higher than that of the laptop's screen.
     
  7. Danja

    Danja Notebook Evangelist

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    No no, I was playing it on the TV with an excellent frame rate. As I said, my setup now is identical to when I was playing on the TV exactly as I wanted, but now I'm suddenly experiencing lag. I'm practically perfectly puzzled (yes, I did see Mary Poppins recently).
     
  8. Melody

    Melody How's It Made Addict

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    Are you sure you changed nothing between yesterday and today? Did you install anything new on the machine? Did you uninstall anything? Did you update anything? How long did you play yesterday at those "smooth" 30FPS?

    Also, your laptop is a P-172x-FX right? What are its exact specs?
     
  9. Danja

    Danja Notebook Evangelist

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    I believe I've identified the problem. I installed Skype last night and even though I closed the program before playing, I didn't check task manager. Turns out there's a "skype feature service" or something like that which produced a ton of I/O activity. I killed the process and everything works smoothly again.

    For future reference, a Gateway P-FX running Windows 7 64 bit, 8800m GTS w/ slight OC, and t8300 should be able to run DA:O at maximum detail, no AA, at 1920x1080 at a smooth, if slightly low frame rate. I didn't have fraps running, but I estimate 25 with no hiccups.

    Thanks for all the help!
     
  10. JCMS

    JCMS Notebook Prophet

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    May have some hiccups during cut-scenes though, my 5770 has.
     
  11. Shakey_Jake33

    Shakey_Jake33 Notebook Consultant

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    Does anyone have more info on this 'Skype feature service'? I don't seem to have it, but it sounds like something that should be disabled.
     
  12. Danja

    Danja Notebook Evangelist

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    I just loaded up skype again; it's skypePM.exe (*32 for me), entitled Skype Extras Manager.