PSU-PC: Sudden PSU slowdown problems

[Criss]

I've been playing PSU for several months now, using the same graphics setting. Basically, 1280x1024 in windowed mode with highest graphical settings. Now I log back in today after work like usual, check my room and mail friends, and lose internet connection. Nothing too bad, can happen once in a while.

But then I log back in, warp back to Neudaiz, and I start getting a pretty bad constant slowdown. I haven't changed any settings at all on either PSU or windows, and haven't installed any new software. Now wherever I go: lobby, missions, etc... I can't do anything without going half-speed.

For some reason, though the application is there, the task manager doesn't display any process belonging to PSU while the game is on, and even though it shows CPU usage at around 40%, the Inactive Processes is at 99.

As I'm writing this, I just checked the WinXP Manager software's Process Manager, and it seems the System Idle Process' main window would be the PSU window, for some reason. I might be wrong, but don't all applications have their own process with the name of their .exe?

Oh and I run a custom built PC with an AMD Athlon X2 4600+ CPU, an Nvidia Geforce 7950 GT video card, 2 GB ram, on Windows XP SP2. The kind of thing with which I can run Command & Conquer Tiberium Wars on highest graphics settings without problem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Criss on 2007-07-10 00:04 ]</font>

[xxShinobi]

I too have noticed (And I'm running on Vista Premium) that psu does indeed not have a process. And it isn't the system idle process either. Kind of complicated to explain that but it's on a different subject anyhow. So in short, no that's not PSU lol.

I had that problem but it wasn't with my internet, so i don't think thats your problem either.

I always thought it was because of stuff I had running in the background. So I made a seperate account JUST for my TV tuner, PSU, PSObb, etc. And I have the same system specs as you roughly...except I have an intel dual core 2. But making a seperate account on the system and have only your essential programs at startup took care of it. Even on vista in loaded everything in three seconds flat so with your system and you bieng on XP, I'd try it.

On the other hand if that doesn't work, consider that you computer may have done a system checkpoint and created another system restore, remember you can have the best graphics card in the world, but you're on a decline of system performance once you exceed half your free space. That might also be affecting it. Make sure that hard drive you're on (or if you have multiple ones, the one with PSU installed on it.) isn't fragmented. XP is very friendly about system maintenince...I'll always miss that haha. but make sure you run an analyze scan to see if it needs it. Not that it could slow it down by half as you say, but it could be a part of it possibly.

One other thing is have you tried running it on Low End instead? I've never really noticed a difference between the three settings anyhow, but that could be just me.

I really do find it extremley odd that this happens AFTER you get disconnected, and the only thing that the internet connection can slow down is the timing of showing you damage you are giving/taking...so that's what throws me off and leads me to all these other theories... ^_^;

Hope this helps!

[Criss]

I don't know if having been disconnected right before it is related or just a coincidence, but what bugs me is that it started happening without any significant change on my system and that I had been running it at these settings without problem for months.

My C drive was completely defragmented and has about 65% of free space, I did full scans for viruses and spyware, tried reinstalling PSU, and the problem is still there. Whether I run PSU with the usual background stuff I use, or with firefox, eMule and stepmania also open (did that just for testing), I still get pretty much the exact same slowdowns. Oh, and I tried STALKER with maximum settings and it runs just fine, so it seems like it's really just PSU.

It seems to slow down more whenever there's a minimum of extra effects or character models on screen (or farther distance), so I'm thinking it might be related to graphics somehow.

Aside from that, I'm totally lost on how else I could possibly fix it.

Edit: I finally figured out what the problem is. PSU slows down because of a lack of CPU power on the core it's running on, due to abnormally high DPCs (Deferred Procedure Calls), which eat out about 30+% of my CPU power. Those also seem to be caused by my wireless network card, since it all goes back to normal as soon as I deactivate the connection. Reinstalling its drivers didn't help, so I'll try changing it to another PCI slot tomorrow. But anyhow, seeing as this isn't related to PSU itself, I thought I'd let you know.

Oh and about the PSU process, there really is one, and it does appear on the list for a few seconds when you open the game. My guess is that gameguard must hide it for security reasons or something.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Criss on 2007-07-11 04:45 ]</font>

[xxShinobi]

Hm...odd...is your cpu dual core? You say PSU only runs on one core....that's odd...it seems like psu uses both of mine...o.O

[Criss]

On 2007-07-11 08:05, xxShinobi wrote:
Hm...odd...is your cpu dual core? You say PSU only runs on one core....that's odd...it seems like psu uses both of mine...o.O

Well I couldn't say, one of the two cores was overloaded while the other was half busy. And when it's working properly, CPU usage is so low on both cores that I'm not sure if it takes both or barely takes anything of a single one. But looking back on it, it seems like it really does use both.

I know there are several issues with older games not working properly (or at all) on dual-core CPUs, where you have to set affinity masks on the executable to use a single core and get them to work. But PSU isn't THAT old anyhow.

In any case, I got back from work and it was somehow back to normal, without me having to change the network card to another slot. Maybe it's an intermittent hardware problem, I'll keep an eye on it.

[Neith]

Hmm, I'm getting slowdown problems lately too.

Mine only happens in Sleeping Warriors (everywhere else runs fine). I run at 1280x1024 fullscreen, Frameskip 1, on high settings. PSU's Anisotropic Filtering is off, Mipmapping is currently on.

90% of the time, i can run Sleeping Warriors in a party of 6, with 3 or more techers, and get no slowdown whatsoever. It's just roughly one in ten runs I get a run where I get constantly skipping/slowdown issues, that make the game almost unplayable.

This only started happening since the last update, so I'm wondering if the Mipmapping/AF options are partially to blame, as PSU ran fine before them.

I have an nVidia GeForce 7600GT, which is running 4x Anisotropic Filtering, and I'm not overclocking it at all. I've turned off the Mipmapping just now, so I'll see if there's any notable improvement.

I'm on Windows XP by the way.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: UrikoBB3 on 2007-07-16 10:33 ]</font>

[RappyRobot]

I've been having the same problems since the update to. I thought i was going insane lol. other pc users are seeing it to http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif (*sends mail to sega tech support and hopes to god they answer)