F1 2010 Strange lag issue every 130 sec.

Mike Sterckx · Feb 25, 2011

Ok now this is weird. I did a format a couple of days ago (clean install, no repair) and now i have a lagspike every 130 seconds.

Symptoms: When playing online in f1 2010, every 2minutes and 10seconds i get a lagspike that lasts 1sec to 1 and a half seconds. It goes like this "STUTTER...stutter.stutter". One big stutter followed by 2 or 3 small stutters. This happens the moment i join a server, so it happens in the lobby aswell. You know, when the camera slowly pans in the lobby i noticed it happens there aswell. It doesnt matter if im the host or not either. So basically it starts the moment i join an online session. This is very anoying.In singleplayer it does not happen, not in carreer nor in timetrial.

Besides f1 i also play bad company 2. It runs smooth without any sign of lagspikes. And the data sent from and to the server is much higher in BC2 then in F1.

What i have tried so far: My first instinct when i first noticed the lagspikes was "lower the graphics". So i did that but even on the lowest settings possible it still gave me the lagspikes online. I reinstalled DirectX from the disk to make sure i had all the nessesary .dll's installed required to run F1 optimal. Still no luck.

So i started thinking if i had somehow forgotten to install something important after i formatted. But i couldn't think of anything. I'm quite used to formatting pc's. I installed the latest chipset driver for my motherboard(asus p6t) right after the format(which is still the same version of the previous format 6 months ago or something). Installed the latest catalyst driver for the gpu(hd6870), the soundcard driver(xfi titanium), network driver and logitech setpoint for mouse and keyboard. After that i ran windows update. I doublechecked the bios setting to see if anything had changed or was out of the ordinairy but i couldn't spot anything. All seemed fine.

After ruling out a driver issue or graphics issue i started to concentrate on a possible connection problem. I got a 50mb cable connection which is very solid. I have reset the router and the modem to start with. Browsing the web goes normal, streaming video's are smooth and downloading files goes without problems with speeds up to 4.5mb/sec. And as mentioned before i can play Bad Company 2 online without problems. Then i installed spybot search and destroy to check for possible spyware. I dont auto-accept cookies and use an extra plugin in firefox to block flash cookies so i was fairly sure of a clean result. And it was clean, no spyware found. I then downloaded and installed AVG and ran a scan, clean again. Then i installed Comodo firewall to replace windows firewall. I accepted all trafic for F1 2010 but still the lagspikes remained. I also tried closing down windows marketplace after starting the game but still no luck. I also reinstalled GFWL.

This is when i started monitoring the time on the lagspikes and came to the conclusion that it happens every 130 seconds. And thats also where i'm at now... clueless. Something is doing something every 130 seconds and i dont have the faintest idea what it is. All i know is that it happens only when playing F1 2010 online, the moment i enter a lobby.

I hope someone can help me out because i'm all out of ideas.

Roman5 · Feb 25, 2011

When you do ctrl alt del and bring up Task Manager, can you spot any CPU spiking under the processes or performance tabs?
Have you tried closing all browsers during the game? I get some lag when chrome is open. You could also try an earlier ati cat driver instead of the latest. May work better, you never know.

Paul Lock · Feb 25, 2011

As above - I would run F1 windowed whilst monitoring task man to see what resources are being used when these spikes occur. Click the CPU column to sort the process by % usage, see if anything untoward pops up.

You could have some background process or someone else on your network trying to use the same TCP/UDP ports as F1 (port 3074) causing a momentary conflict.

Hook your PC directly to your modem with a dynamic IP and cut the router out of the equation all together - could eliminate something else from your enquiry. If you are currently using wi-fi, use a Lan cable.

I dont even know if this would be possible, but try running the game with your PC in safe mode with only the network drivers enabled.

Just some ideas, will give this some more thought.

Andrew Bortz · Feb 25, 2011

This sounds pretty familiar, if your using a dx11 card then force it to use dx9 in the hardwaresettings.xml changing the line force dx9 to true

Mike Sterckx · Feb 25, 2011

Thanks for your replies. My internet is wired btw. I monitored the cpu usage for a while but there was nothing out of the ordinairy. When the lagspikes occured there was nothing that popped-up on top of the list(sorted on cpu usage). I took several screenshots when the lagspikes occured and compaired them with each other but all seemed normal. Then i started to monitor the network while playing online. I noticed every time i had a lagspike, it showed visible on the graph but still uses only 0.25% of my network so i cant imagine how such a tiny spike can cause lag. Here is a timeline..(rightclick image and 'view image')

I will now try and force it on dx9 as Andrew suggested, brb.

Mike Sterckx · Feb 25, 2011

Playing on dx9 did not help either

Viktor Andersson · Feb 25, 2011

hey, I had the EXACT same problem, but only when I was driving in online, so I hade no idea whats going on, so I asked on another forum and recommended me to update the internet drivers and since then the stutters were totally gone. Hope it is only in online for you, otherwise I dont know what it could be.

/wekk

Edit: Here is the thread I started on guru3d.com

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=337284

Mike Sterckx · Feb 25, 2011

BY internet driver i asume you mean the network adaptor driver. I'm using the same version as before i formatted which is the latest on the asus support site for my motherboard. Windows update does suggest another driver tho in the optional downloads. I tried that one aswell but its still the same. And yes it only happens online.

Roman5 · Feb 25, 2011

Anything else you can think of that you installed which was a different version of what you had before formatting? If you decide to format again you could see if cumulative windows updates is responsible by testing the game online before installing those updates. Might also be worth considering your xfi titanium drivers, maybe there's a better one. Doubt setpoint would affect anything so that should be be fine. And although this seems to be a network thing, I'd still consider different cat drivers. Might be worth checking your gpu settings as well, AA, mipmap, AF, that sort of thing.

Viktor Andersson · Feb 25, 2011

well, if it happens only in online, then it should be the same fix for you as if was for me, so download the latest Realtek RTL8111E?

Mike Sterckx · Feb 25, 2011

No Roman, it is practically an exact image of how it was before formatting. Same catalyst, same network driver, same soundcard driver, same chipset driver, same setpoint driver. The creative auto-update tool tells me i have the latest driver installed. As for the gpu settings, everything is set to its default, which is aplication controlled. I willl see what a diferent ati driver will do but i have little hope that this will solve it.

Viktor Andersson · Feb 25, 2011

It has nothing to do with the graphics drivers if it only happens in online

Just download these http://station-drivers.com/page/realtek.htm , scroll down till you see the RTL8111B/RTL8168B/RTL8111... and download the version to your windows and the problem is solved

Mike Sterckx · Feb 25, 2011

I tried that driver Wekkie, still the same though. I also removed the router and plugged in straight in the cable modem but the lagspikes are still there.

Paul Lock · Feb 25, 2011

Maybe worth contacting your ISP?

Roman5 · Feb 25, 2011

Can you reinstall the game again, spuddy? Maybe some freak occurrence is making this happen that might just, with some luck, clear it? Likewise, possibly another format and windows install might fix it if you're up for it.

Mike Sterckx · Feb 26, 2011

I just reinstalled the whole game. Still no luck.

Mike Sterckx · Feb 26, 2011

I have found what caused the lagspikes: Windows live sign-in assistant (wlidsvc.exe).
wlidsvc.exe is started when you login to GFWL. It has nothing to do with GFWL itself, but we are forced by microsoft to use it when we want to play online. Deleting the program from the pc will cause all GFWL games to stop working.

What it does is every time i join an online session, wlidsvc.exe reconnects every 2 minutes. I monitored networking traffic using comodo firewall for some time, and started noticing a familiar patern. Every 2 minutes wlidsvc.exe dissapears from the list of active connections and reapears 2-3 seconds later. When it reapears, i get the lagspike. And it keeps doing it every 2 minutes. Strange thing is it doesn't do this while playing career or timetrial. Then it just stays in the list of active connections without disapearing/reapearing.

This image shows the data that is sent and received by wlidsvc.exe when it reconnects. It Does not send/receive much, but the speed of 15kb/s is much higher then the other active connection.

So now i know what is causing it, i still dont know why it is doing this or if its normal that it is reconnecting every 2 minutes, and if its normal, why is it making me lag and not befor i formatted?

Mike Sterckx · Feb 26, 2011

Ok the problem is gone. What i did is i uninstalled the windows live sign-in assistant from the pc. I started the game but as expected the executable crashed before it launched the game. So i downloaded the program from the microsoft website and installed it. Now when i monitor the connections, wlidsvc.exe doesn't even start anymore. Its not in the list and never appears anymore. Weirdness galore if you ask me. Well at least the problem is gone for now.