BlameThePixel!

Hello everyone.

I was just wondering if anyone could help me in my hour of need.

For a while now, I've been having trouble playing online games (Source and many others), now I have reached breaking point. The thing is, everynow and then, the screen locks up, jolts around and throws me somewhere else on the map. And of course when this happens and it goes back to normal. 90% of the time, I'm dead. It's not a nice feeling.

Anyway, I've have done the following actions to try and solve this problem:
- Reinstalled XP
- Upgraded to Vista Home Basic
- Upgraded to Vista Home Premium
- Purchased new CPU, Motherboard, Ram, Graphics Card, Hard Drive, Power Supply and Water Cooling Kit (Thats just because I've wanted one for a while).
- Read through current topics and threads about Refresh Rate at Steam Forums and so on.

As you can see not only have I spent alot of money on this, but wasted a hell of alot of time. And now I'm on the verge of throwing my PC out the window (3 stories) and p***ing on it. Please can someone help, I love online gaming so much on my PC and I want to be able to actually play again (now that I have quite high spec stuff).

My system specification:
- AMD Athlon 64 3800+ @ 2.00 GHZ
- 1.5 GB DDR PC3200 Ram
- 200 GB Maxtor SATA Hard Drive
- nVidia GeForce 6200 @ 128 MB
- Windows Vista Home Premium

Graphics, Sound, Windows, DirectX and all the rest are updated to the latest drivers. If anymore information is required please let me know and I will help. I really want this fixed, I dread to turn to Valve again since my first report was unanswered, which was written over a year ago.

I wish to thank you in advance for taking to the time to reply to what must be my longest post ever written on a forum.

RunT

sounds like your graphics card is fux'd

I used to play source with a GeForce 5700 256mb and I had no problems, so why a 6200 would be the problem I'm not sure. I'm guessing it's your internet connection...is the problem happening on ALL servers you play on or just one or two favourite ones?

Isn't Vista still a little sketchy on compatibility with a bunch of software?

This place probably isn't the best place to be asking questions, try searching the Steam boards before posting a thread there too, you might find something handy.

So you've changed the operating system, CPU, motherboard, hard drive, and graphics card, and you still have the same problem that was there before?
What exactly hasn't changed?
Is it only Valve/Steam games?
Do DirectX-based games work fine offline?
Do you have any DirectX-based games that do work online?

Surely whatever is causing it is something that you had before. Maybe mouse or keyboard drivers, or a particular program that you have running in the background?
Try a different connection, at a friend's house or at work or something. Maybe your ISP is throttling non-web bandwidth.

But seriously, Steam + AMD 64 = balls are touching. That's your problem.

Probably obvious, but have you tried all settings on minimum to see if it still happens?

I used to have all sorts of stuttering issues with an athlon xp / 9800 pro in source. My fix was a new comp. C2D & 7900GT and never had it, but it could be any number of things from my old computer. Never found a real fix even though I searched for year(s)

And I'm assuming it still happens in single player, so probably not your internet connection?

Nope, it's brand spanking new.




It's on every server. Not just faves, UK, USA and anything. All of them.




Vista works completly fine with online games, my friend has Vista Ultimate and he has no trouble.




I have searched the Steam forums throughly and found nothing. Also, I posted the same I posted above there last night. Unfortunatly no-one has replyed yet.




The only thing that hasn't changed is the case that I'm using. Also, it does it for all DirectX online games, but online only. Offline is peachy.




Minimum setting was my first idea, and still no change.

Thank you for your help but none of them has worked so far. If any more ideas come to mind please feel free to throw them out. An idea is better than no ideas at all.

The only thing I can think of trying is swapping from Wireless to Ethernet cable. I'll give it a go and keep you guys posted.

Edit: I'm happy to announce that I found the cause of the problem and have resolved it. It was my wireless for some reason. I swapped to cable and it worked lovely.

Thank you for your suggestions anyway guys much appreciated.

And that's why I refuse to use a router/wireless internet setup, too messy. Glad you got it fixed