Fine, then stutters, sometimes followed by a crash

[lunari]

Hello, I was having this problem before I bought S2, figured a re-format would fix it. I was wrong. It will play fine for awhile, then it will stutter, then freeze. After about 30 seconds to a minute it will sometimes go back to normal. Other times LFS will crash.

Running LFS with Pitspotter the smokemod, 1600x1200x32, everything up all the way. I get 90fps usually.. Then that damn stutter and crashing crap.

Any suggestions?

Anthony

By the way this is my system..

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ @ 2.3Ghz
512MB PC3200 400Mhz DDR (Corsair Value Select)
ATi All In Wonder 9800 Pro (Stock Speeds)
Logitech DFP & Logitech Nascar Wheels (Using one of the Nascar's pedals as an analog clutch)
Soltek K8AN2EGR Motherboard

Hope those specs might help diagnosing the problem.

[psy00]

it happen and without the mods?

[lunari]

Yes it happens with the mods off also.

[marsden1002]

Maybe the overclock (My Athlon 64 3000+ only runs at 2ghz :( )

[Woz]

does it happen online, offline or both.

I play LFS on my laptop (Althlon 64, M11 GFX) and it will run fine for hours on end online. If I play offline with a a lot of AI I get the stutter a few times a lap where it turns into a slide show for 20 seconds then goes back to normal.

I think my issue is heat related as it only starts after 20mins or so with the AI.

Might be worth checking your system heat levels and adding more fans if that is the case

[the_angry_angel]

If you feel the need to overclock, get a better heatsink on it if possible (if its the OEM that it came with still).

My current suggestion would be an upto 4000+ rated Arctic Freezer 64. Also try optimizing and increasing the airflow.

Alternatively, declock it.

[lunari]

It's not the overclock, been like this for hell, since I built this computer.. Around a year ago if I remember right.. Always been completely stable :) It happens in both multiplayer and singleplayer. Doesn't always happen, just most of the time. I am running the stock heatsink, with the stock thermal pad removed and using arctic silver 5. For case fans I have 2 80mm fans, and a 120mm fan.

[xapexcivicx]

It happened to me. Online only though. But I reformatted, and problem solved.

[MrGrumpy]

Obvious I know, but could it be your something doing an auto-update (virus/firewall/windows)?

Do you have some other software running that kicks in occasionally?

I had a similar problem and found it was mailwasher checking for new mail.

[Scawen]

It's not the overclock...Is it easy to reduce the clock speed to standard and test that?

LFS is very CPU intensive and it's normal in LFS for people to have wierd crashes and glitches when they are overclocking.

It's happened loads of times before, and usually the owner of the overclocked CPU is very reluctant to believe that the overclocking could be the problem (because it doesn't go wrong with other games... or whatever). And they are very surprised when removing the overclocking cures the problem. :)

[ORION]

I have had a similiar problem a while ago when my Audigy 2 choke to death...
After a few seconds of racing, the fps dropped to >1 and I got no sound of course :)

I think it's not a temperature issue, unless your GPU cooler is not plain on the GPU, but this would result in both the same prob in other games and smoking your card.

Im quite confident that everything will run fine at 2.2 or 2.1 GHz ;)
What program are you using to torture your hardware and see if it's really running 100% rock solid?

[Vain]

What program are you using to torture your hardware and see if it's really running 100% rock solid?I'd use the cpu-temp-sensor instead of a cpu-burner. A lot of cpus died because of cpu-burners.
I'd suggest logging the cpu-temps and other helpful info (from ACPI, f.e.) while playing LFS, wait for the crash to happen and then read the logfile after rebooting.
You may also want to experiment with dynamic CPU-clocking so the CPU is automatically clocked down when it reaches critical temperatures.

Vain

[ORION]

Of course you should always have "a look" at the temps when ocing. Actually you shouldnt look anywhere else on the screen ;)
But it's more important to know how exact those temps are, because many people are using some actic silent cooler and are saying "oh great my CPU is now clocked at 3GHz and at 1.85 volt but still 42°C" ;)
No new Desktop CPU will be under 40° idle at default clock when using normal air cooling, that is.

And there is no other way to test if hardware works really stable than pusing it to it's limits.

[Noccy]

I had similar problems not too long ago.

Unplugging all my USB devices except the steeringwheel ,
then redownloading/installing LFS did the trick for me.
Somehow having my headset and mouse on USB while playing LFS gave BAD stutters and the occasional crash.
Strangely unplugging them alone didnt help, but after a reinstall of LFS everything was back to normal.(yes tried using USB again after reinstall and got the same damn stutters)

[lunari]

It could be the heat I guess, my case temps (According to my case) were 92*F when LFS crashed just a minute ago. Although it was happening last night when it was nice and cool in here.

I'll try putting my cpu back to 2Ghz, I probably never gained to much from the extra 300mhz anyways lol

[ORION]

case temp... LOL this is CPU temp, at least at idle :)

google for "everest home" to take a look at the temps.
[EDIT]
http://www.lavalys.hu/downloads/everesthome220.zip