Periodic burp in Variance in Delay

[Skuzzy]

The 1/2 to 1 (or longer) second freeze (entire game stops) is different from the warp stutters 715 is describing.

We have a generic idea of what might be causing the entire freezes, but it is going to be a bugger to track down.

[jimbo71]

The 1/2 to 1 (or longer) second freeze (entire game stops) is different from the warp stutters 715 is describing.

We have a generic idea of what might be causing the entire freezes, but it is going to be a bugger to track down.

[715]

No chance to try a direct hardwire connection: the router is too far away. Also, the same hardware with the same WiFi connection does not show the burps with Win XP.

I guess I'll just have to live with it.

[Skuzzy]

Logically, if the same hardware acts differently when running a different operating system, it should be concluded something is different in the way the OS is handling the hardware.  I think that is sound logic.

The fact it is happening in fixed time intervals should allow a chance to catch whatever it is that is doing it.  It could be a process firing off.  It could have to do with some type of file system update (cache being dumped).

It is something unique to your configuration as I cannot make this happen on any of the other Windows 7 systems we have around, but we are lacking two things your system has.  SSD and Wifi connection.

Let me study this some more.

[Chalenge]

I think all versions of Windows collects statistics on applications we use. Could that have something to do with the petit freeze? and if so, how do we disable it for AH3?

[Skuzzy]

I think all versions of Windows collects statistics on applications we use. Could that have something to do with the petit freeze? and if so, how do we disable it for AH3?

There was an update for Windows 7 which provided telemetry data comparable to what Windows 10 is providing to Microsoft.  I caught it it early on, but when it was installed the one day, I was losing up to 15% of my CPU processing to it and it seemed to run regardless of what you were doing on the computer.

If Microsoft has indeed bundled that into a single patch with other security updates, there is not much anyone can do.  Look through the services list and see what is enabled on your computer.  See if there is anything using the word "telemetry" either in the name or the description.

[715]

The long delay for updates is back, and has been for a while.

I think that's something different.  In my case the Windows Update service is broken.  It's a well known bug and there have been several KB patches to try to fix it.  I believe the Windows Update Service code gets stuck in essentially an infinite loop trying to calculate dependencies between updates installed etc.  It pegs a single CPU at 100% forever.  I let it run 16 hours and it didn't nothing.  I'll have to research other ways to fix it.

Regarding the burp issue I'm going to use Process Monitor to try to find something that runs on a periodic 70 second cycle.  I'll also try turning off indexing on the SSD (something I normally do anyway but forgot) and I'll look for processes referring to "Telemetry" per your suggestion.

[Skuzzy]

Can you run the game from a hard drive?  Just as an experiment.

[715]

Can you run the game from a hard drive?  Just as an experiment.

I can probably try that, after all AH3 is already installed on the Win XP hard drive which is accessible from the Win 7 boot.  Tried it and while there were lots of AH errors about not being able to open files in the settings folder (probably pointing in the wrong spot due to drive letter changes) I did get online and the burps were still there.

However, I think I may have figured out my problem: there are no Win 7 64 bit drivers for my Linksys WiFi PCI card.  I'm lucky that the drivers from the CD work at all in Win 7 64-bit.  I think I've limited the likely cause to the WiFi card drivers as I tried stopping every service that wouldn't break the computer, one at a time, and none of them were causing the burps.  My last hope is to turn on Windows 7 Update for drivers and see if Microsoft has a better driver for my Ralink based WiFi card.

[715]

Sorry to have sent you on a wild goose chase.

[715]

Problem solved!  I was able to get Windows Update to download optional drivers for the WiFi card.  I installed them and the burps are gone!

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions and help.

[Pudgie]

Problem solved!  I was able to get Windows Update to download optional drivers for the WiFi card.  I installed them and the burps are gone!

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions and help.

Glad you got it sorted out!

 

[Skuzzy]

Good to know.