Any 7811fx owners with COD 4 or 5 please read

Hey guys, I outlined some issues I was having with COD 5 in a thread last week but I wanted to post an update and hope to get more insight. Here goes...

*** This is in the context of Multiplayer ***

While using Fraps, I get about 45-65 in COD 5, which is perfectly fine for me. However at some point (usually every map) I get a nasty fps hit, where it drops to about 20ish. Usually, this is not resolved until the next map rotation, where it's fine again (45-65) and then later on it hits another bout of lag.

I tried manufacture drivers and the new beta drivers. I don't really feel comfortable going the 3rd party route. I also monitored my temp and when it happen it was around 70c, which people said is fine.

So then I purchased COD 4, hoping it was just a bug within 5. Overall, I get better fps (55-90) but the same problem happens again! I'll hit a bout of lag that drops me to 20ish. Very frustrating!!!

Now I've noticed a few things that get me out of this lag: 1.) Map rotation, 2.) Alt-tab in and out of the game, and 3.) Unplugging/Plugging in power.

Recently I got kind of excited with #3. I was playing a round and I unplugged the power (accidentally) and saw the drop to 20ish, just like I normally do. This made me think that something in the system, cpu or gpu was triggering a power saving mechnaism. So I tried looking around Vista and found the power plan thinking that might have something to do with it. Unfortunately, setting it to 'High performance' didn't have any effect.

Any games outside of Call of Duty 4 and 5 do not have this issue: COD 2, BF2, DoD:S, CS:S, and TF2.

Anyone else getting this? What would you recommend at this point? If I knew a clean install would fix the issue, I would go through the pain. But who knows if it will? Anything else I can try?

 

I play cod 4 on my 7811.
I don't monitor the fps but I don't think it drops down to 20 at all.
But... that might be because I don't have a battery in my 7811.

 

Yeah I'm really not the anal fps type. I bought the game, played it and slowly realized that something was wrong. And it was a consistent wrong, which led me to Fraps and monitoring my fps to confirm the drop.

 

Which nvidia drivers are you using btw?

 

This may be caused by heat or background processor usage, but the following has helped me dramatically.

Jim (what a big 2 by 4 that is), please try 5 things for me:

1. Disable Adaptive Display in your power profile
2. Disable PCI Express Link State Power Management in your power profile
3. Remove any mem cards you have in your reader bay.
4. Update to the latest video2go nvidia drivers with the modded INF file.
5. Restart and fire that biatch up and frag you some axis or allies.

Please let us know if this helps.

The next time we hear from you, I hope it's just to thank us!

 

Hehe.

Ok, I will give this a go but just a couple of things:

1.) Are you familiar with this issue?
2.) Can you provide a direct link on #4 as I'm not familiar with 3rd party stuff.

Thanks.

 

possibly check your GPU temp when this happens.

 

laptopvideo2go.com

 

Heya,

I'm not specifically a COD player, but I've had similar problems with Fallout 3, Guitar Hero 3, and World of Warcraft. Hopefully this works for you.

All the best!

 

While playing games, does the battery LED (bottom of laptop, the right LED) flashes while you are experiencing FPS lag/issues?

I have an issue which is a bit similar:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=340728

 

Just tried the dox latest drivers and I was getting 30fps... I'm going to try another set and I'll keep you guys updated...

 

Sorry, not the latest.. tried 180.84 and got 30fps throughout. I'm now trying 181.20...

I will also monitor my temps again.

 

IDK, Just the ones off gateways website for the 7811.

 

I made the changes to the power plan and tried two Dox drivers - both drivers were horrible for me. They were holding a steady 30fps. I did follow the directions for removal and installation.

I went back to the nvidia betas on the official site - smooth as butter for the first and part of the second map. Towards the end of the second map it happens again - drops down to 20ish and stays there. At that time I alt-tabbed into windows to view my temps and here's what I have:

GPU: 82
Core 0: 47
Core 1: 47

How is that? And again, after alt-tabbing the game came out of the fps drop and went back to normal.

If I can rule out heat and I've tried several video drivers, I'm not sure what else I can do.

Sidenote: The battery light was fine.

 

I lost frames in both those games due to overheating on the GPU and TZS0/1

Check that out.

 

I posted my temps above when it happened. I don't *think* those are bad numbers.

 

So let me do a quick summary here:

1.) We can rule out hardware because we know the it's capable of running these games. Also, I get a smooth fps for 95% of the time.
2.) We can rule out video drivers because I have tried several and used the utility to clean out old drivers.
3.) Can we rule out a heating issue with the numbers posted above? I think that's ok but would like someone to confirm.

So if those 3 get check marks, is it safe to say that a clean install of Vista 64bit just might solve my problem?

 

Funny, I went back to the Gateway site to look at the video drivers again and I noticed one posted 9/9... a few days earlier than the ones I had. I don't know what the difference is but I'm going to give that a shot now.

 

Why use those, try the newest from the Nvidia Site if you do not want to use modded drivers, the Gateway driver would be like taking a step backwards. Gateway does not update as often as other sites. Go directly to the source.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook_drivers.html

 

Do you have any virus scanners in the background? Its not video drivers if first 20 minutes your FPS are fine then go to crap, possibly the game has nasty resource management, I known a few games where first hour playing FPS is fine then goes to crap because of poor management.

Secondly try looking not for nvidia but Forceware drivers, perhaps not the latest version of drivers either, like for example 180 is latest, go with 177 or so.

Thirdly, Have you de-volted your 7811fx? Recently I ran into same problem as you - my games would either lock up or FPS goes to hell, so I read one of the forum post on here about de-volting my GPU and dropped it .500 volts - not only did my PC run much cooler, I have had no crashes in any games and all my FPS have been over 50 for every game including COD5 - EVERY game. I run 64bit with a complete set of virus scanners in background so I know its on your end.

You can check make sure a simple virus scanner isn't turning on the middle of games due to files being changed - I have had that happen with mine virus scanner, I would play Medieval 2 or Sacred 2 for an hour then because of files changing on the system, virus scanner would start scanning my game folders causing lag from hell, but resolved it.

/Just ideas for you to think about.

 

^^^

Thanks for some more replies.

I have tried the official beta drivers from nvidia with same results. I also tried dox's drivers and I got horrible fps - 30.

de-volting? Sounds scary

I have totally disabled av during some tests as well.

So weird. It's specific to my machine as it's clear there's no widespread issue going on here. I cleaned up some spyware, reverted back to the very original drivers and will be testing again shortly.

 

So I'm about to do a reformat... what do you think my chances are that this will cure the problem? I mean, it's not overheating and the hardware is capable, right?