Strange Performance Issue - Hard Drive Access Speeds up game?

[forelis]

Hi folks,

Ok, so I'm playing on p1999, and I have a desktop that works great. However, my Gateway laptop struggles mightily. I get slowdowns that look exactly like what people describe as the dual core issue. The game runs at half speed most of the time, then suddenly behaves normally, and then goes back to slow. I went through ALL of the steps in the dual core thread - and even went further and just straightup disabled the second core on my Intel CPU. No improvement. However, I noticed that when the client lurches forward and I get good performance, it is also EXACTLY when the hard drive is being accessed. So, I decide to run scandisk while I'm playing - and that actually makes the game work perfectly. Any ideas as to what might be going on here? I've checked all the power management settings, which seems to be a logical place to start, but still no go.

Thanks!

[Taurinus]

Have you tried disabling SpeedStep in your BIOS?

[forelis]

Thanks for the response. I have no such option in BIOS. I have very few options in fact since this is a laptop BIOS. Any other ideas? I actually perpetually run SCANDISK when playing on this computer, its a bit absurd.

[Kobaz]

I have to wonder if checking your drivers might help. It sounds like the drive is only working when an interrupt is being generated, instead of being run through DMA. Check for driver corruption. What is the IO mode for the drive/controller. You want to be using DMA, and not PIO. Check drivers for your IDE controller(s) and the (north? south?) bridge. I'd also possibly suspect the power management (ACPI) drivers.

[tibx]

This sounds like a problem I had years ago running the platinum client on a different computer. It was something about the client not telling the processor to use enough power. I fixed it by raising the minimum processor power from the default of 5% to 75% when playing.

[forelis]

This sounds like a problem I had years ago running the platinum client on a different computer. It was something about the client not telling the processor to use enough power. I fixed it by raising the minimum processor power from the default of 5% to 75% when playing.

How do I do that? Couldn't find it in the client settings, not sure where in Windows 7 to adjust that if that is what you are indicating.

I've actually swapped modes in the BIOS. I know not to use PIO mode, but i did switch from ACPI to compabibility mode, and that didn't help or change anything at all.

[tibx]

In Windows 7, go to control panel - power options, click change plan settings on the plan you're using - change advanced power settings, then under processor power management, you can change your minimum or maximum processor state.

[forelis]

OK, I think that may be it. However, I don't have that option in Windows 7 power management, even after displaying unused options. Looks like I need to reinstall Vista - I can't see any info on how to show this area.

Thanks! I remember having the option when I had Vista installed. There are no motherboard drivers or bios updates for my comp, so this seems like the only option.

[forelis]

Problem solved!!!!!

OK, so I didn't have that option, so I did the technique in this forum and it worked like a champ. Major thanks!

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=104811

:grin: