1.03 Problems

[jaysonk]

Greetings all,

Having problems with 1.03 patch. Specifically extreme lag/stuttering during play. My average framerate during patch 1.02 was 50fps. Now it is a steady 13 fps, regardless of video/graphics settings. (which in itself is odd) My pings used to average around 30 in 1.02, now they are around 120. The game is unplayable, mostly due to the lag between the time I move, and the time the game responds. One interesting thing is that this only occurs in multiplayer. Singleplayer works great. Also using the in game browser, the lowest ping games I can find are around 120, where as in 1.02 I would see plenty of 30s. This lag occurs instantly upon the game starting, and never subsides.

Things I have done/tried with no effect:
-updated Punkbuster manually
-bought more RAM (from .5 gig to 1.5 gig, although in 1.02, .5 gig worked fine)
-flashed my bios
-upgraded my device drivers to my video card and sound card.
-uninstalled and reinstalled BF2 3 times, each time deleting all files.
-shut down all virus and firewall programs

I switched back to patch 1.02 until now, and that always works perfectly for me. But there are fewer and fewer BF2 servers running 1.02, and I'm running out of options. My guess is that there is something in the way the game communicates over the internet in 1.03 that does not work well with my system. I'm using a cable modem, always had great results before.

Basic Specs:

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Dimension 4700
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A09
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 1534MB RAM
Page File: 264MB used, 1886MB available
Video Card: Radeon X700 Pro PCI Express
Audio: Soundblaster Audigy

Im trying to attach my Dxdiag.txt file to this thread, but it doesn't seem to be working right. I've uploaded it here instead:

http://www.jayson.org/DxDiag2.txt

Any help anyone can give, I appreciate it. I do love this game and would hate to stop playing it.

Jay

[NoSoup4You]

Re: 1.03 Problems

Well Jay, you bought a Dell, thats the problem, lol. No not really, but they tend not to perform as well.

When you installed your new graphics drivers did you uninstall and clean the old ones using DriverCleaner? See the post in the Hardware Forum title "Graphics Cards Drivers and Utilities" (or something of that effect).

In your DXDiag it is listed as "Driver Date/Size: 8/30/2005 21:42:53, 238592 bytes" which isn't correct. That is Catalyst v5.9 (the same one I'm running) the most recent is 5.11 (releasing tomorrow at 3pm on ATI.com/support).

Other then that I didn't see anything in the DxDiag that seemed wrong.

Did you scan for adware/spyware/viruses?

Also clear the cache in X:/Documents and Settings/USER_NAME/My Documents/Battlefield 2/mods/bf2/cache/

Delete anything in that directory. Usually looks like {102910-098231-908231312-123123}.

Do a degfragment I noticed your one drive is very full. Also the page file seems high for 1.5GB. Set it to something like 1000 for both minimum and max sizes.

To do this goto:

Start > Control Panel > Performance and Maint. > System > Advanced (tab) > Settings (under Performance) > Advanced (tab) > Change (under Virtual Memory)

Set the min and max to 2046 (or some other number) and then hit Set then hit OK. Then Say OK (it tells you that you need to restart before the changes take effect) and then Hit Apply. Hit Okay and exit out of the other dialog boxes. Restart the computer and it should be set to the new limit.

[jaysonk]

Re: 1.03 Problems

Thanks for the help KingOfKhaos. I'm going to try those things, and hopefully something will work. I'll post with results soon.

[jaysonk]

Re: 1.03 Problems

Defragged the drive, changed the page file size, deleted the cache, updated the video drivers, scanned for spyware/viruses, etc, all to no avail. Still have yet to do a clean driver install with Driver Cleaner, but I don't think thats it, as single player runs just fine at 60fps.

I'm thinking this is a issue with the new patch's net code. Something is lagging the connection bad. And it only happens with 1.03. I never had these problems before, and singleplayer works just fine, which means it's probably not a video/audio/hardware issue. (Although I'm not ruling that out) I'm trying to see if I can fiddle around with my network/internet settings. Barring that, I may just revert back to 1.02, and hope that people continue to host servers for it. And hope that 1.04 comes out soon and saves me!

Lots of the problems concerning 1.03 have to do with the patch not installing correctly, or a CD key error. Does anyone have any of the same symptoms I do?

[cyborg_ninja-117]

Re: 1.03 Problems

Well Jay, you bought a Dell, thats the problem, lol. No not really, but they tend not to perform as well.

dell... i smashed my dell monitor last night coz it lagged, get a custome comp jay, its much much better

[ebeats]

Re: 1.03 Problems

Please someone there must be an answer.. I have this same problem. My game is very stuttery, jumping, and I lose connection to server randomly. Sometimes it will completely freeze for 10-15 sec then start playing again.

This happens with no other game I play, and my internet connection is fine. I've been playing BF2 since July.

AMD 3000+ , 1GB DDR500 , Geforce 7800GTX. Doesnt matter what graphic settings, and my ping is always around 25 on good servers.. it never jumps, but feels like playing on dialup at times.

[jaysonk]

Re: 1.03 Problems

ebeats,
sounds like we have somewhat similar problems. Did your problems also start when you updated to 1.03? My pings were mid-30's with 1.02, but jumped to around 120 with 1.03. Did you have this same jump?

What type of internet connection? Cable modem here, with a Linksys cable modem and router.

Unfortunately not many people are having this problem, so we might just be out of luck. Hopefully someone can help.

[GreatWhiteShark]

Re: 1.03 Problems

Guys work your way through the stickys for your answers,