Strange "partial" lag

[Mojarda]

I've recently started getting very bizarre lag that I can't figure out what or who is the culprit. It started in Mid-December. I had not changed any settings on my computer, added any software or seen anything different from my ISP. It did NOT start following any specific patch.

Basically what happens is that I stop recieving all chat and battlespam. My group mates and the mobs stop swinging and health updates stop. BUT, they keep moving; that is, I'll see the melee continuing to re-position themselves. Finally, I'll see the mob turn as though it is fleeing, but still at the health % when the "lag" started. I'll then see my group mates all back away from the mob; one person kneel as though they are looting the still standing mob; and the puller go running off. Eventually, I'll get bombarded with updates and chat and the mob will go from very much alive to dead and looted in a matter of seconds. During this time, I'm able to cast but to no effect; turn on attack but not swing; or run around the zone and see mobs and other toons moving about. During this time, I see no difference in the framerate nor any change in the %.

So I'm clearly receiving some server updates (i.e. mob/toon locations and movement) but no chat, no melee updates, and no spell updates. I've talked with group members in Teamspeak during these "lag" periods and they are experiencing no such problems, and to them I've stopped all activity although my pet and my merc continue to fight and heal.

Some days, I get these "lag" spikes 2-3 times an hour. Sometimes I won't get them for several days. Any ideas as to what is causing this?

[Brohg]

how big is your log file?

[Gamanern]

Less inclined to think this is a logfile issue, as mostly that causes a MAJOR grinding and lowering of framerates. I run FRAPS and sometimes see the logging related grind sending my frame rate to only 2 frames per second which is hideous.

My experience is based on a pretty decent spec'd PC, so on older gear, it could be an issue. So if you want to rule out logging and the logfile size, then either make sure logging is disabled to see if it solves anything, and if you wish to keep logging after that test, try renaming your current file and letting a new file start. You can always go back to the old log file if you want.

I would suggest turning on the net monitor, which is hitting F11 key. It pops up a little bar with some numbers. The bar should be green and showing 100% all the time, if it dips, you are getting lag from your ISP. If the green bar counts down for a long time, then catchs up, you have serious lag issues from the ISP. Also on the net monitor is a time in milliseconds, which is your ping. Alot of US based players see around 60 - 110 ms, and from Australia I see 220 ms times. You should have similar times to these depending on where you live. I would assume any country outside the US would be similar to my Austrlian times around 220ms mark.

Also, the way you connect to the net could be a cause of these annoying ISP lag issues.

Firstly, connection of your modem / router to the net, the best connection is hardwired, so DSL and Cable. If you have these, great. Note that Cable is a shared service, so if you have some kiddies next door utorrenting thousands of songs, you may be heaving affected, but DSL typically doesn't have this issue as you are wired straight to the phone exchange, and then using the ISP's trunk-line out of there.

If you have wireless internet, where the modem doesn't connect to the phone line (DSL) or a special cable (Cable), but instead just has its own antenna, then you are in for a world of lag, and drop outs and eewwwww. These are often portable, so you can use teh net in the car, or where ever you go, as long as their is coverage. These don't have a constant connection like the hard wired techniques. There are supposed to be ways to make them more responsive, but I don't know how that works, you would need search some forums about that sort of thing to get further advice.

If you have satelite internet, you will have similar issues to wireless, though I think it will be a little more solid, though this depends on whether you have 2-way satelite or if you have 1-way with a phone connection for outgoing data (very old-school), again, this info would be way beyond my knowledge.

Secondly, once you have a connection to the internet, you then have the issue of how your computer is hooked to the modem / router. Personally, I haven't noticed much difference between my wireless PC (my laptop) and my hard wired PCs (main machines for me and my wife, basically our raiding PCs), so I don't expect it to cause a major problem for you.

Hopefully this helps.

[Mojarda]

I clean out my log file every couple of weeks. The current file was about 60,000kb before I renamed it today. Looking back most of the log files I've kept over the past couple of years are 40,000-80,000kb. I suppose I could clean them out more often, but it seems to me that if it was a problem with the log size problem, I would have had the lag issue for much longer than the past 2 months.

I usually keep the net monitor up. When I experience the lag problems, the meter continues to read 100%. I usually get 90-110 ms on the meter.

I'm currently on Time Warner Cable for my internet connection. I seem to have the lag more often on the weekend but it does occur during the weekdays as well. I suppose it could be a neighbor hogging the bandwidth, but why would I still receive movement updates on mobs and toons but not the chat or the spam?

Only other idea I can think of is that I'm running it through a 5 port 10meg hub... possibly the port my gaming pc is attached to is starting to fail.

Any other thoughts or observations?

[stroudja]

reboot the cable modem....and the router.... You can also run taskmanger while playing eq, and when the lag hits, flip over and see if any program is maxing the cpu or something crazy. I had a similar issue years ago, and was caused by integrated audio driver going balistic and chewing up 100% cpu......threw in a pci sound card and fixed me up.