Slow motion movement - not an affinity issue and it's driving me insane!!

[Bleepblurp]

I installed Titanium on my Dell XPS (WoW Edition) gaming laptop. The laptop runs Windows 7 64 bit. 4 gigs of ram, dual geforce 8700 vid cards (but I'm only using 1 for EQ). Duo core processor, but I use EQplaynice so I'm using 1 cpu.

For some reason I can't play EQ. My character moves around in ultra slow-motion, but sometimes he moves fine. It's always in the same areas. For example, I can run from T2 in the tunnel all the way to the entrance just fine. However, if i turn around as if I'm running back to shady, it's insta slow motion. Casting spells is like molasses, other players running by me look like they're running on the moon. If I move to the right side outside of the tunnel and look west, I can move and cast fine. If I face WFP, slow motion. Certain pockets in the tunnel I can move fine for a few steps. It's always in the same spots.

I've tried changing my max FPS to all sorts of settings, and syncing it with settings in EQplay nice. I've tried not using EQplaynice and manually setting affinity. I've lowered all my video settings and turning all particle effects off. I've changed my compatibility mode to windows XP. I manually turned off all new models in the options thing before I logged in. I thought about trying a new UI but haven't. I don't see why I'd need to, because I can play P99 perfectly fine on my desktop that's slightly better than this laptop without jumping through any hoops at all. It just works.

Help!

[aggresor223]

sure does sound odd...also sounds like the duel core bug..I don't see how everquest could bog down even the worst of working computers now adays. Have you Uninstalled eqplaynice? and tryed running it without it on your system? This is the only game it does it on? and if so...Have you watched your resource manager while everquest is running to see what your computer is using as far as disc,ram,cpu? Have any other programs running in the background you don't know of? when was the last time you did a defrag? how old is the harddrive..could it be going out? or even your ram..could the ram be going bad? Try taking out a stick of ram then testing the other solo. is the "priority of the affinity" set to the right number? (not low) are you sure the SLI is not affecting it? ( i see you state you only use one card, but by turning the other off could there be complications?

Pritty sure it isn't drivers. How about the C++ updates? Sorry for randomness, just trying to toss out everything I can think of. It is not a matter of if your computer can run it (because it could probly run 5 instances with no lag) but something is just not meshing right, there has to be conflicts going on somewhere.


*edit* Does your whole computer Bog down while running eq or is it just the eq instance? or can you alt+tab out or open browser with no problems?

[Bleepblurp]

Pretty nice info in there aggressor, I'll take a closer look tomorrow. I will add though, that I've checked resources and everything, and my laptop is laughing at EQ when it's running. CPU runs at like 1% and 20%ish ram. I can alt-tab, internets, run other games, do anything I want just fine. I can also chat in-game with no issues while the slow motion is happening. The only lag is visual lag, but it's not normal visual lag like a low FPS-type thing (hard to explain).

[Mcbard]

I know you said that you've set your affinity but maybe you should try something else to make absolutely sure it's not the problem, since the issue you're describing is pretty much exactly what happens with the dual/quad core processor issues. To completely eliminate this variable from being the problem you should run an msconfig, and on the second tab you can set how many processors you want your OS to use. Set that to 1, reboot, try again and see if it's still happening.

[aggresor223]

also on my windows 7 64-bit won't let me "set affinity" not sure how your seeing the option unless I need to do something to see it.

[jamsen]

When I played under Bootcamp on my Macbook Pro I noticed the same issue. For me, it was the power settings - turning everything to the max (minimal power savings) and setting the CPU affinity fixed the problem for me. I found the posting in the eqemulator.net forums.(http://www.eqemulator.net/forums/archive/index.php/t-25327.html)

[nagus69]

I had a similar issue on a 2.2 ghz dual core (intel). What i did is went to power settings and set min and max cpu to 50% so it would not throttle up and down.

THEN start EQ. Worked ALOT better that way.

[Muzyn]

To set affinity you need to click start type in taskmgr right click it in the list and select run as admin. I'd also recommend running EQ as admin - mine was all laggy and shit under Windows 7 64x unless I did. If you're still experiencing issues, install Wineq2.

[enzie]

My monk friend was having this kind of problem, and he tried all the normal fixes that everyone recommends (affinity, winEQ, etc..). None of them worked for him. Turned out it was some intel feature called litestep (?? i think that was the name) that deals with keeping the processor temp down on a laptop. He turned it off in bios and problem was fixed.

[nagus69]

Speedstep is the name and it does exactly whats written above (stops the CPU from clocking up and down depending on load).

Glad it was fixed!

[Blazed420]

well how did he do this speedstep thing? I'm having the same issue on my laptop.

[Blazed420]

Is what you are reffering to is the same as a laptops "power plan".

[enzie]

I believe so. He went into the BIOS and just turned it off. When you are booting up, looking for the instructions to go into BIOS (or possibly 'setup) should f9 or something similar. Then, just look around for speedstep and disable it.

He had this problem for over a week, and it was really making him unable to pull for us, as he'd take way more damage. *I* was getting frustrated for him, was trying to research the problem all the time, nothing seemed to work. When he fixed it, he said it felt like he had SoW all the time, and actual SoW was turbo mode. We all rejoiced.

[Bleepblurp]

Some great new info here. I'll try all of this. Frankly I started to give up because nothing was working! I'll check back after trying this stuff.

[Ravhin]

Omg could never get my dualcore to work despite setting affinity and went and checked that CPU throttling option under power settings. 5%-100% when plugged in? wtf? changed that

[odinwise]

hey everyone. I've been troubleshooting this "slow movement" problem since yesterday, and I've been all over this forum reading everything and even searching through mac forums for a CPU throttling fix while running bootcamp. it seems there really isn't one.

I'm running a macbook pro 15,3 15in dualcore with 10.6.5 snow leopard and windows xp sp2 on bootcamp. I had the usual problems mac users have had (as well as multi-core users). changing the affinity worked well for me to keep the game stable, as well as turning my fps down to 60. the only problem that remained was the "slow movement" problem.

honestly, the only thing that fixes it is running EQ through parallels. it runs great as long as I full screen it (alt+cmd+enter) in order to read the text. and the slow moving problem is gone. there's only one problem that remains. parallels makes windows TOO DARK! it's impossible to play EQ as a new dark elf due to how dark it is.

any other mac/parallels users have this problem and know of a good fix? I only found what I consider a temporary fix, which was to create a new color profile and boost the Gamma WAY too high. This makes EQ look like normal in Parallels, but makes everything mac side look completely washed out.

wanted to post this for any other mac users who might be having problems, and would love some advice on the gamma problem in parallels.

edit: also wanted to add that the fixes people have been posting for throttling the CPU is NON effective, at least on my machine. in bootcamp there is NO option to change CPU speeds, but there is an option to change power settings by profile. this did not help me in the slightest, even setting everything to "always on" did not change anything. just wanted to add this info for people who might redundantly try to suggest it.

[Mcbard]

edit: also wanted to add that the fixes people have been posting for throttling the CPU is NON effective, at least on my machine. in bootcamp there is NO option to change CPU speeds, but there is an option to change power settings by profile. this did not help me in the slightest, even setting everything to "always on" did not change anything. just wanted to add this info for people who might redundantly try to suggest it.

I'm sure that you could throttle your CPU by using something like CPU-Z or Speedfan.

I'm also curious what "the usual problems mac users have had (as well as multi-core users)" means because the only issue I've ever had is the dual-core issue causing me to run slow, and that was a very easy fix.

[odinwise]

thanks for the suggestion, I'll have to see how they work on the bootcamp side.

what I meant by the usual problems for mac users is really just what I saw most commonly occuring with mac users when perusing the forums, particularly those using bootcamp. namely, just what you said. the processor affinity. doing that helped make eq stable for me. eq no longer had jittery characters or fast motion, etc. changing the fps helped a lot too with mouselook. that's what I meant by "the usual problems" as it seemed like a lot of people had issues with those things.

as for me, I've tried other suggestions that have worked for some people, like using eqwin, turning off complex skies, changing the power settings, enabling and disabling eqplaynice. I basically tried anything I found reading through the forums and elsewhere. I still have the slow moving thing when I play through bootcamp.

parallels is the only way to have no problems other than the gamma being too low. (before anyone asks, I did try changing the gamma in game with the slider and it doesn't do anything in parallels). any suggestions for this would be extremely helpful. it's actually kind of nice to play EQ while multitasking with my mac applications.

[odinwise]

hey, wanted to post an update.

I tried cpu-z and speedfan. the former appears to just give me information, but not allow me to adjust anything. speedfan looks like it has the ability to adjust fan speeds and cpu throttling, but it will not allow me to using bootcamp. presently I'm doing some serious web digging to find an answer to this problem.

[odinwise]

here's another update: being unable to disable the throttling of my cpu, I have found a work around. the slow moving problem is gone if I have another game or two running in the background to keep the CPU up. this is obviously not ideal, but it works for now. anyone else still having this problem should give it a try.

[Throb]

Give this a try.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=227689

[odinwise]

gave that a shot, and it appeared to throttle the cpu, but it wasn't very consistent, and it actually caused my computer to BSOD due to allowing me to undervolt too low. I fixed it though. I stumbled on this when I was troubleshooting, and it feels safer because it doesn't allow me to undervolt to the point of instant BSOD:

RightMark CPU Clock Utility (http://cpu.rightmark.org/products/rmclock.shtml)

Either way, I could not get the CPU to reliably NOT throttle. it did allow me to set some standards though, at least it appears that way. I still have the slow moving thing unless I'm running another EQ instance in the background.

RMCPUClock shows cpu speed in my system tray, and I noticed that my core 2 duo is running at 1.67ghz with just one EQ instance...when I launch 2, it shoots up to 2.79ghz.

so I'm not sure if I'm not using RMclock right, or if maybe throttlestop would be more effective at this point I'm not sure.

basically I'm still having trouble turning throttling off entirely, and ramping up my cpu and keeping there.

[odinwise]

ok, the problem is solved, at least for me. I found the answer in the dual/multi core sticky in a post made earlier this month.

http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3609&page=9

run msconfig, go to boot tab, click advanced, set /NUMPROC= 1, reboot.

this makes perfect sense, and I wish I would have read the entirety of that thread beyond the bind affinity thing. I read elsewhere that the core 2 duo's will not throttle up unless both cores have a significant load. this way, you're forcing windows to operate with one core. problem solved. this is apparently the best way to solve this problem running bootcamp on a macbook pro, since we don't have the option of disabling speedstep.

wanted to post this here so anyone now or in the future who does a search for the slow motion movement problem (as I did) can find an answer.

[Mcbard]

Or you could have read the 4th post in this thread and got the exact same answer a hell of a lot sooner.

I know you said that you've set your affinity but maybe you should try something else to make absolutely sure it's not the problem, since the issue you're describing is pretty much exactly what happens with the dual/quad core processor issues. To completely eliminate this variable from being the problem you should run an msconfig, and on the second tab you can set how many processors you want your OS to use. Set that to 1, reboot, try again and see if it's still happening.

Glad you got it working though.

[odinwise]

Or you could have read the 4th post in this thread and got the exact same answer a hell of a lot sooner.



Glad you got it working though.

ah yes, you're right. I actually remember reading that post now that you mention it, but not really understanding it once I was in msconfig. I suppose since it's something I haven't actually messed with before, "number of processors" didn't translate as "/numproc=", which in retrospect makes me feel a little stupid. haha. now I'm that guy. /facepalm

anyway, thanks for the help.

[jukboxx]

Yes we had that issue running slowly at random. We tried several different things before using the MSconfig and set to 1 processor and that did correct the issue.