Stuttering issue

[ChimpBoy]

Got L4D and having a bit of a problem - in both online and offline play the game runs fine but then every minute or so it pauses and the music starts stuttering (as if it's frozen).
 
It's obviously not a network connection issue as it happens when soloing, and my pc is fast enough (4gb, 8800GTX, dual core) to run games much more demanding than the source engine.
 
Anyone else come across this?

[KKND]

Got L4D and having a bit of a problem - in both online and offline play the game runs fine but then every minute or so it pauses and the music starts stuttering (as if it's frozen).
 
It's obviously not a network connection issue as it happens when soloing, and my pc is fast enough (4gb, 8800GTX, dual core) to run games much more demanding than the source engine.
 
Anyone else come across this?

You can try this roll back your video drivers or a solution that worked for me was to put L4D into borderless windowed mode.

Quote OB.

[kregoron]

what kind of cpu is it, AMD or Intel?
What graphics driver are you using, the 180.xx+ drivers from nvidia are bugged so L4D doesnt run well on em..

[DuVeL]

As the rest said.
I had the same problem as discussed in this thread; http://www.deadmen.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=25392&page=3
and how to solve it.
 
Try OB's suggestion, I still need to do that.

[kregoron]

here a few

- borderless window
- various ForceWare versions between 177.xx and 178.xx
- all page pool settings
- mat_queue_mode 0 (Multicore support option)
- local L4D files integrity check
- if you got multiple sound cards installed, remove or disable so only one is active.

[Dr Sadako]

Test your HDD speed and make sure it runs at the right speed. I had a similar problem and the answer was that windows had put my HDD in PIO MODE 0 which resulted in 4 Mb/s transfer = stutter. Easy way to test it if you dont have software is to copy a large (>500MB) file or folder within the HDD you have L4D installed. If it takes ages (30 minutes or so) you have spotted the problem.

[Jabbs]

what kind of cpu is it, AMD or Intel?
What graphics driver are you using, the 180.xx+ drivers from nvidia are bugged so L4D doesnt run well on em..

What he said :withstupid:

[ChimpBoy]

Got the latest nvidia drivers, and cpu is AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 3.0GHz.
 
The HDD issue Doc S mentions isn't a problem.
 
L4D file integrity is fine.
 
Only one sound card.
 
Doesn't happen in any other game.
 
I'll try borderless window - how do I do that in steam? Is it a command line I add when starting the game, or an option in the graphics of L4D.
 
Also, by the by, is there a list of the commands I can input into extra startup commands in the steam game window (I know that doesn't make sense, but hoping you'll understand what I mean. Not at my comp home comp right now so cant remember the name of the option in the game window.
 
Sorry for the rambling - got a cold :crying:

[kregoron]

Got the latest nvidia drivers, and cpu is AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 3.0GHz.
 
The HDD issue Doc S mentions isn't a problem.
 
L4D file integrity is fine.
 
Only one sound card.
 
Doesn't happen in any other game.
 
I'll try borderless window - how do I do that in steam? Is it a command line I add when starting the game, or an option in the graphics of L4D.
 
Also, by the by, is there a list of the commands I can input into extra startup commands in the steam game window (I know that doesn't make sense, but hoping you'll understand what I mean. Not at my comp home comp right now so cant remember the name of the option in the game window.
 
Sorry for the rambling - got a cold :crying:

Guessing by latest drivers you got 180.xx drivers which are borked with L4D, download and install 178.xx drivers which work for me and i had the same issue..

You also try to set sound quality to medium, page pool size to low..

[DuVeL]

Depends a bit, do you have GPU-folding on?
I went back in drivers and GPU-folding was a no show then.
I'd suggest that windowed mode OldBloke is on about.:flirty:

[KKND]

I'll try borderless window - how do I do that in steam? Is it a command line I add when starting the game, or an option in the graphics of L4D.

L4D- in options screen go to video,then display mode choose there "window no border"

[kregoron]

Depends a bit, do you have GPU-folding on?
I went back in drivers and GPU-folding was a no show then.
I'd suggest that windowed mode OldBloke is on about.:flirty:

yeah with the 177.xx drivers Valve suggests to fix the issue F@H is a no go, as 177 drivers doesnt support CUDA, but with the 178.xx drivers its fine..
Im using those and running fullscreen mode without any issues

http://www.nvidia.com/object/thankyou.html?url=/compute/cuda/2_0/windows/driver/NVIDIADisplayWin2k(178_28)Int.exe

[OldBloke]

I've just installed the nVIDIA 182.08 drivers (XP x64) and the stuttering issue appears to have been resolved. I played for about 5 mins with the video option set to 'Fullscreen' with no issues

[GhostMjr]

I've just installed the nVIDIA 182.08 drivers (XP x64) and the stuttering issue appears to have been resolved. I played for about 5 mins with the video option set to 'Fullscreen' with no issues

Thanks Oldy for the heads up will install right away

[OldBloke]

I've just installed the nVIDIA 182.08 drivers (XP x64) and the stuttering issue appears to have been resolved. I played for about 5 mins with the video option set to 'Fullscreen' with no issues

Thanks Oldy for the heads up will install right away

I've now tested for a bit longer and although the stuttering is much better it's still not as good as running in 'Borderless Window' mode. Sorry.