What would you do about this lag?

[kaluppo]

I have been living with lag for what seems to be forever. My PC has dual 3.6 Ghz processors, 4 gb memory and was purchased 2 years ago. I have cable modem through direct TV which is to say AT&T. I really don't think it's the PC or internet provider.

Here is the deal. 99% of the time I find that I am running slower then I should. Other players always outrun me. I zone quick enough and nothing seems out of whack except for my run speed. For example I will have SOW on and I still cannot outrun a orc warrior from orc highway in oasis. If I have to zone an add then I get hit the whole way to the zoneline so I have died many times when I shouldn't have.

1% of the time the lag isn't there. I can not explain why but all of a sudden I notice my melee rate and the mobs melee rate speed up (like we both got a haste but we didn't). When that happens I notice I run full speed and can outrun most mobs as I should with SOW on. But within 15 minutes everything slows down again.

So I am torn between two possible fixes. One is I am considering buying a good graphics card instead of using the graphics port built into my PC. Maybe my lag is graphics related. Second is I am considering just buying another PC altogether because I think it's possible malware could be causing this. When I downloaded P99 originally I used all the free software out there which opened me up to pop-up heaven and malware/spyware. I now own the titanium CD's so if I got a new PC I would NOT have to download all that crap like I did two years ago.

So which do you think is most likely gonna fix it?

[nectarprime]

Do you know the exact model of your processor? If it is a dual core, it is most likely old. RAM would probably help as Windows can eat most of that amount itself.

Although your internet connection may be fast, if you have a poor wireless connection you could have issues. But you are right your problem sounds more graphics related.

If you have malware you do not have to buy a new PC. I would recommend updating you PC to Windows 10 (which you can still do for free) and purchasing some antivirus software like Webroot, or a free option like Bitdefender.

[Benanov]

4GB RAM? That's too low for Win 10.

[mcoy]

I mean yeah the specs are minimal but they should be more than adequate for EQ. Do you play fullscreen or in windowed mode? Fire up task manager and sort by CPU usage and see what's consuming your CPU while you're playing (switch EQ to window mode with alt+enter if fullscreen, and make sure it's the active window while task manager is on the side). Your 1% comment is intriguing so I'm hoping you'll see an explanation as to why. My laptop typically throttles down to sub 2GHz while I'm playing, and even then the EQ process will be at 10-20% activity.

Regarding suspicions of malware - you can grab a copy of malwarebytes (the free version works fine, just unclick any of the "pro or premium trial" options and see if that finds anything on a full scan. You can just uninstall it when you're finished with it.

https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/

You notice your system's fans churning often or constantly? Maybe one of the "pop-up heaven and malware/spyware" was a cryptocoin miner and it'll be easily remedied.

For context this is my work laptop (so I have a ton of other stuff open and running) which is at least 8 years old with only internal graphics, and EQ is running normally and consuming 16% CPU. Note that I haven't done any of the "upgraded" textures or other things that are available on the forums on this laptop:

[Kavious]

Have you tried deleting your eqclient.ini file and letting a new one generate? It could be something as simple as that

[kaluppo]

Originally Posted by Benanov [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

4GB RAM? That's too low for Win 10.

4 GB ram is too low? Man back in 2000 I had a 600 mhz processor, 256 mb memory, Nvidea graphics card and dialup modem. Yet I could outrun Orcs with sow on all day long.

I'm not saying you are not right. You could be but it's crazy to think that I need more than 4GB memory to run a 20 year old game.

[kaluppo]

Originally Posted by mcoy [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I mean yeah the specs are minimal but they should be more than adequate for EQ. Do you play fullscreen or in windowed mode? Fire up task manager and sort by CPU usage and see what's consuming your CPU while you're playing (switch EQ to window mode with alt+enter if fullscreen, and make sure it's the active window while task manager is on the side). Your 1% comment is intriguing so I'm hoping you'll see an explanation as to why. My laptop typically throttles down to sub 2GHz while I'm playing, and even then the EQ process will be at 10-20% activity.

Regarding suspicions of malware - you can grab a copy of malwarebytes (the free version works fine, just unclick any of the "pro or premium trial" options and see if that finds anything on a full scan. You can just uninstall it when you're finished with it.

https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/

You notice your system's fans churning often or constantly? Maybe one of the "pop-up heaven and malware/spyware" was a cryptocoin miner and it'll be easily remedied.

For context this is my work laptop (so I have a ton of other stuff open and running) which is at least 8 years old with only internal graphics, and EQ is running normally and consuming 16% CPU. Note that I haven't done any of the "upgraded" textures or other things that are available on the forums on this laptop:

I have checked CPU usage in task manager with only EQ running and the usage is low. That's why I was thinking malware or graphics.

Target sells used PC's on thier website which is where I bought the one I am using now. It's a dual 3.4 GHZ processors with 4GB memory and a clean version of windows 10. It was only $116 so not too bad a price. I'm gonna pull the memory out of the PC I am using now and max out the memory as best I can in the new one.

Then when I load the physical disks I wont need daemon software or anything so the PC will be free of malware/spyware. I wire to the modem directly so no wireless issues. Hopefully this will get me full speed without any lag issues.

If not then I guess I have to buy a friggin high end graphics card.

Thanks for the input guys.

[kaluppo]

Well I got the PC on Saturday afternoon. It was basically the same PC I had already been using. Dual 3.2 Ghz processor with 8 GB memory. So I installed Titanium from the physical disks and put them on my C drive but not in the programs folder per the startup page recommendations. Everything went pretty quick and smooth. Then I finally logged in and ran my "test".

I was still in oasis so I put a fresh sow on and pulled three orcs and had them chase me to the Nro zone. I am happy to say that not a single one laid a hand on me and all my lag issues are gone. I have to assume the issue was virus/spyware/adware related.

[DMN]

Are you strafe running? Sounds like that would be your problem.Some kind of graphcal lag shouldn't be slowing your move speed on P99. You'd just get shitty FPS and move the same rate. And that orc prolly had SoW on it, too.