Source Games Basically Unplayable

Technology and Gaming Help and Support
#1

Hey all,

Ever since buying a laptop for myself (May '11) I have been having an issue with playing any online source game. I have a Samsung QX410-S02 which is perfectly capable of running more intense games than CS: S, TF2, or L4D1/2. I have played COD4, BLOPS, BF: BC2, SWTOR, EQ2, D3, Guild Wars 2, etc running fine. The issue is that every 30 seconds to a minute, I will skip 3-4 times in a few seconds, making it impossible to do well in Valve’s online shooters.

I have tried running the game just the intel graphics card, and just the Nvidia (through Optimus controls) and no change. Running hl2.exe in admin, Windows XP SP2/3 also has no effect. I even tried dual booting with Windows 8, same issue. Unfortunately cannot try XP on this machine as I have issues finding drivers for my HDD. I’m out of luck, been searching like crazy for a year now and cannot find anything to fix this. Any, and I mean any help is appreciated! Let me know if you need more information.

Video of the skipping in multiple games:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_hpkHaw9e8&feature=youtu.be

Windows 7 Home 64bit
Intel Core i5 m480 @ 2.67ghz
Nvidia Quadro 310M / Intel GMA HD (Nvidia Optimus)
4 GB RAM
SATA HDD 5400 RPM

#2

This kind of looks like lag. In your CS:S video, at 0:05, there’s a huge spike in what appears to be the network meter and this might be causing the skipping. Check your network connection. I could be wrong, but may I ask what kind of connection to the Internet you have? Wired? Wifi? Cable? DSL? Satellite?

#3

My house gets a cable connection, but all the computers here connect through a Linksys Wireless-G WRT54G router (1 wired, 3 wireless). This laptop connects wirelessly. I just ran a test and ran CSS with wireless switch off, using a ethernet cable, and the triple-skip did not happen.

What bothers me is my last laptop (Dell Latitude D620) had no issues in these games at the exact same location wirelessly. But to avoid complicating this further I rather just try to patch the connection problem. Unfortunately using this laptop with a wired connection is not an option. Now that we have seemingly narrowed it down to the router or my laptop’s Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6250 AGN (with WIMAX capability, is that somehow causing the problem somewhere), what should I try next?

Thanks again.

#4

upgrade your hdd

#5

I’m not a pc wiz, how exactly is this a hdd issue? The skipping stops when I connect via ethernet cable.

#6

Had this same problem when I upgraded my graphics card a while back and tried to play Halo 2 Vista. It would seem that your graphics card’s drivers are whats causing the problem, try rolling them back to a point when this problem doesn’t occur (Sometimes back to the original factory update) and if this works every time you want to play some CSS your going to have to have that driver loaded, which means installing it and restarting your computer. Or you may just need to update your drivers to the latest version that the manufacturer offers. Lets all hope that I’m either wrong, or you only have to use the latter solution. And trust me, I hope I’m wrong because the former sucks.

#7

sorry didn’t watch the video until now…

that is obviously packet loss, youre playing over WIFI and you say multiplayer source games lag? get closer to the AP, disable QoS, change wifi channel/password or upgrade your router

if none of the above works, try setting your laptop’s card to 802.11g/n instead of b/g/n mixed.

#8

Veritas - My drivers were actually over a year old, so I updated them to last month’s and there was no change. Not able to find a site that has old GeForce 310M drivers.

Sersoft - Yes, when playing wirelessly this happens, wired in to router it does not. However it is JUST source games. Other online steam games run just fine. The distance from the router should not be an issue as I’m very close. Last fall I updated my router with the DDWRT program to try to fix this issue but nothing happened. I think QoS was disabled but I forget. I’ll try your advice.

Really appreciate the help guys, will update when I try the router settings.

#9

Ok quick update: QoS was disabled. Did a hard reset on my router anyway, and running unsecured I do not have any issues! Previously we had WPA2PSK. Was that the problem, is there a quicker encryption?

#10

try other variations of WPA, never use WEP, it is not secure, any script kiddie can obtain the key in under 5 minutes unless mac filtering is on.

#11

Well, it’s working. I’m confused why (since I did all this before months ago with no effect) but not asking too many questions. Thanks for all the assistance, can finally play Source again!

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.