World of Warcraft simulation?

[Needtoknow]

Hello,
I am curious- I just did some work on my son's computer and he isn't here and I don't know squat about WOW; but that's primarily what the box is used for.

Are there any ways to simulate WOW so that I can see if the "lag" issues and freezing up is still going to happen with the upgrades I have made.
So I know if I need to keep tweaking or if my work here is finished?

As usual, any and all help/advice/comments are welcome.


Thanks much.

[ryuk999]

I don't play WoW either but I think it has a benchmark tool in the game, and if you have ~30fps it's arguably "laggy" but if your seeing majority of the time above 45fps and close to 60 some of the time there's pretty much no "lag". You can use a tool called FRAPS http://www.fraps.com/download.php to get the fps (frames per second). All you have to do is run that program and then boot the game, you'll see the frames in a corner of the screen

[Needtoknow]

Thanks!
That works perfectly.
It hit a frame rate of "12" and disconnected.

I am going to try the other cards in the stack and see what's what.
Then, probably end up at Goodwill digging through the bins.

Thanks again for the help!


PS- Okay I tried a gforce 6200 6200 A-LE which I have know is not a good card, but it's better than the one I had in there before.
The FPS were in the fifties and such, but when I got into areas with lots of things happening, I got disconnected from the server.
I keep getting told that WOW doesn't require much in the way of a computer to play but I am curious if it's the card or somthing else.
It's an Athlon 64 3400+ with 2 gigs of DDR on a good cable broadband connection.
Frustrating. Especially since I don't "do" WOW.

[ryuk999]

well if your dropped from the server im not suprised, due to it's christmas which means there's alot of people on...you'd be suprised how popular it is ..most likely due to some special holiday event or something like that, ONLY ON CHRISTMAS DAY CAN YOU GET [such and such item] . So for now I wouldn't worry about being dropped from the server, it's a server/ internet related issue. 50 frames per second is excellent!

[Force Flow]

What hardware do you have? We can probably determine the best configuration, which should save you a lot of time over the trial & error approach.

[Needtoknow]

Hello all-
this disconnect thing was happening before the holiday- that's how I "volunteered" for the assignment of making the box WOW friendly for a Christmas present.


Forceflow- this is an Athlon 64 3400+ on an ECS nforce 3A board- 2 gigs of DDR- I have an Nvidia 6200 512 ddr2 card on it which is a dog of a card, but it seems to be the best in our "pile".

I pulled the Radeon 9600 from my son's other build to try it and it's d/c as well and it's the one that works so I don't think it's the video card. EDIT- I just tried it again with the Radeon and the new drivers- it hasn't d/c,with FPS in the 60-70 range, but I can't find a large group to test itout on!


Yes- since the frame rate isn't bad- I am thinking that it may be an NIC card issue?- this is using the on-board ethernet.
I just updated the drivers for the board- ethernet, audio, etc- haven't tried it yet though.

I am leaning towards getting an NIC card and trying that?

Thanks all for all of the help!

[Force Flow]

Ok, so if the framerate is fine, look at the ping.

Two common reasons of a high ping: someone is sucking up your bandwidth (someone on another computer or someone leaching off your wireless connection), or you simply haven't connected to a good server. Servers that are overloaded and/or far away will not give you a very good ping. 80 and below is usually acceptable. 100 and above usually exhibits lag and jerkiness in the game.

If you're using FRAPS, it will show your ping. I'm not a WoW player, so I'm not exactly sure where you can pull that information in-game without FRAPS.

[Needtoknow]

Thanks- yeah, I don't play either, but I logged in today to see if I could get it to d/c, but it went fine.

Then, later when my son got on, the box started being fussy and restarting when Skype or WOW was started.
I noticed that Spybot had been loaded, so I took that off, but I am not seeing what could be the conflict. I am thinking it's some driver conflict, but who knows.
Ran fine all night and this morning, then started this "restart" crap.

Totally frustrating.

Thanks for any ideas and for all of yall's help!

[David M]

How is your internet bandwidth?

http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

http://www.speedtest.net/

[Needtoknow]

Hi David-
Bandwidth is good?
16,236 download, 1946 upload.


We figured there was some conflict with Skype 'cause when we started it, the box restarted.
So we uninstalled and reinstalled Skype.

I changed the setting after some Googling last night so it wouldn't auto restart and I could get an error code on the BSOD.

Got this: 0x000000d1 physical dump
Let it repair errors or whatever (it was late- can't remember the specific Window option.)
Hit BSOD again after running Skype and WOW fine for a long time.

I ran ckdsk per some Google advice, and that's where it is now.
Haven't tried it yet today.

EDIT- update just tried it- was fine running skype and WOW until it went into a screen change another realm then I got the BSOD


STOP: 0x000000D1 (0x0000C410, 0X00000009, 0X00000000, 0X0000C410)

EDIT 2-
Is this maybe a RAM conflict- hardware wise? UGH!


Okay-???
Wondering if just upgrading to XP might be the next step- hate to spend the money right now if not necessary, but this is frustrating.

Any advice is always welcome.

Thanks-

[David M]

That's plenty good. Bandwidth is not your problem.

[mjkovis]

This problem can lie within the actual server that he must be playing Warcraft on. Some servers are notoriously horrible and old. I know from first hand experience by playing on one the oldest and most crowded servers that Blizzard has.

The other thing could be your ISP. You could just be getting dropped from losing connection to your internet due to bad packet flow or whatever. I know with Charter, when I was in a large subdivision, that we shared the same pipeline and during peak hours I would D/C and have connection issues.

[Needtoknow]

I upgraded to XP and then had what looked like the same issue come up while I was downloading updates.
I am leaning towards an NIC issue?
It's using on-board so I am going to pick up a pci one at Goodwill after work and try that.

[David M]

A Killer Xeno NIC card allows for the bypassing of the Windows network stack within your own computer taking a small portion of the load off the CPU. It does not deal with external issues. Only if you have a high end computer might it make sense to spend money on a Killer NIC card which by the way may or may not make any noticeable difference.

Read this AnandTech article about their testing of a Killer NIC card. Be sure to read the last page about it making no difference in their tests.
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3594&p=2 AnandTech is one of the most straightforward nuts and bolts computer review sites. I have always really liked their reviews. It does not feel like their reviews are being written by teenagers with all the superfluous adverbs.

[Needtoknow]

I am talking about going to Goodwill, the used computer store, to purchase a 10 dollar pci NIC card just to see if there is something amiss in the on-board.
I picked up a Rosewill (can't remember the chip type) a while back for another box with lag issues and it made an appreciable difference.
I realize there isn't consistent improvement, but I am thinking that the BSOD issue may have something to do with the on-board being a problem?

EDIT: That's quite an article though! 120.00 bucks for an NIC ??
More money than brains is what my dad would say.

[Force Flow]

If your current NIC is working, no, a new one won't change anything.

If you're getting BSODs, what is the message and error code?

[Needtoknow]

I posted the original error codes up there in the previous post.

STOP: 0x000000D1 (0x0000C410, 0X00000009, 0X00000000, 0X0000C410)

I understood it could be a driver conflict or hardware issue?

I didn't get the NIC card- just used the on-board.

Weird thing was, I went to load XP just wipe and load XP- do away with 2000 and it couldn't find the ASMS, which google said was an optical drive issue or a damaged windows disk- so I hooked up another known working dvd rom and same problem and the disk was not scratched or dirty.
So I got the bright idea to load the folder (I386) on a thumbdrive and load the files from there.
That worked, as it hit the "missing file" message, I just directed it to look on the usb and it worked. File after file- but it loaded and we went on.

So, I get XP loaded and am loading drivers and everytime I loaded the drivers (Nforce) for the on board stuff- I got a BSOD- as soon as it started loading- but it had different codes.

It wasn't a clean install (the XP option came up twice when I posted and it didn't seemed unstable) so I am feeling inspired and I start over- re-format wipe and install.
Then, the BSOD circle started again-

Then, it got into a BSOD that said there was an "unsupported drive mount" or something- out of the blue- not driver associated or anything.
I couldn't do anything; when I tried to boot it went into the BSOD and that was it. I booted from disk and when I tried to go to recovery-it said I needed the admin password.

I hadn't put in an admin password so I didn't know it.

I tried to enter through it and that didn't work.

So, I wiped and re-formatted, got the thumbdrive ready and this time the os loaded exactly like it should have the first time.
Ran through the whole process without a hitch- no missing files, no BSOD's nothing unusual.
Loaded the Nforce drivers and started the updates and it went perfectly- clean and fast.

So, that's where it is right now- updating windows and working crisply.

Perfect- but I am wondering what a) started the BSOD thing in the first place, and
b) why it would tell me I needed an admin password when I hadn't entered one on the install?

I formatted etc before i installed.

????

[Force Flow]

What service pack do you have installed for XP?

(right click "My computer", click "properties")


Are you installing the drivers from the driver CD, or are you getting the latest ones from the manufacturer's website?

[Needtoknow]

It just installed SP3 and I am downloading drivers from the appropriate manufacturer's website; Nvidia for the gpu and board etc.

Curious about the admin password thing, wondering if the format didn't "take" the first time (two times)?

Thanks-

[3dSurveyor]

Just as an observation, most BSOD issues that I have encountered over the years with World of Warcraft were RAM issues. Loose chip, chip getting too hot, faulty chip or insufficient RAM. WoW does have tech support, but you'll get the same answer to all inquiries. It's best to just log into your account and go to the tech forum and try to find a solution that matches your problem there.
I've actually stopped the BSOD simply by opening the computer case and physically checking that my RAM is tight in it's sockets and then setting a fan to blow in on it. That's obviously not the best solution, but it will at least let you know if that is the source of your problems.

[Needtoknow]

Thanks for the reply- I was wondering about that. too.
I have lurked there and tried to pick up any hints.
I have changed out RAM and pushed everything down tight lots etc.
The problem seems to have gone away now.
This build is stable and it seems like it was related to the batch of drivers that are associated with the board; something about loading them all at once from the install program caused a conflict, but when I unloaded all the Nvidia drivers and then let the box beg for each driver, hardware part by part- it was okay and worked.
Once again, a learning experience provided by the happy folks at Microsoft.
Still curious about the whole password thing though and google doesn't seem to know.

[akwillowbear]

On my xp computer I never set a password. When I log in it ask for the password. I leave it blank and simply hit enter. Anyone not knowing will try to enter a password to get on my pc. Not sure if that is what it was doing to you.

[Needtoknow]

Hi,
No, this is actually when I was trying to run the recovery program in XP- it asks for an admin password, but it was a fresh install and I hadn't put a password in, so there shouldn't have been one.

Very strange,

Take care.

[David M]

All this stuff as to when you need to be an administrator and when you don't has never made any sense to me either...especially when no user accounts whatsoever has been set up on the computer. Why Microsoft does not assume that the user on a computer with no accounts set up is the administrator is beyond me.

[Needtoknow]

It's Too funny- at least we are equally confused over it-
I have never accused it of being user friendly!

Take care-