T
Tablett
Guest
Right..where to start.
I've been playing Source fine since it came out. I was then away for a couple of weeks travelling, and when I got back I sat down and turned on steam, it said that it was updating (as always - which is good -> as it means things should get better). So i waited. When done I ran the game, and found that it ran like crap! Could hardly play at all because my fps kept fluctuating between 10 and 110. So I started fixing it, doing all the usual things - removing spyware, uninstalling antivirus programs, having nothing running in the background, reinstalling the game yadayada. I got desperate so I thought it might have something to do with the actual graphics card. Maybe it was too warm, so I removed the fan and now use 4 fans to cool the graphics card - it's an ATI RADEON X800 XT 256mb card - which keeps it at 55 degrees celcius (that's around 35 degrees lower than the maximum running temperature for the card) so it should work fine. Didn't help so I got even more desperate and got a new harddrive, installed windows, installed steam and source, the catalyst drivers for the card and NOTHING else..same thing was happeing ingame (I also tried all the other availible drivers for ATI cards and also tried some older versions of catalyst drivers - no difference). I then realised, that Steam whilst running in the background was set to use 50% of the CPU ! That pissed me off, learning that this simple thing might be the SOURCE of all my troubles. So I thought, great, change the priority to low of "steam" and realtime priority for the source (hl2 engine) YAY problem fixed..NOT! didn't help anything. So now I'm out of ideas..I need help please. I also tried keeping all the settings on low, and using all the commands in the book to get rid of all excess "neatness" in the game in trying to get a higher fps AND tried using older directx run modes and running with all the AA and Shadowing modes on the graphics card off..NOTHING makes any difference. I don't know if it's worth mentioning, but If I'm on a server and I minimize the game, it crashes and gives me an error (Failed to lock index buffer in CMeshDX8::LockIndexBuffer - which i tried googling for, but nothing came up of decent use) and then says HL2 has to shutdown, we apologize for any blabhalbhalhbla...the end. I could also note, that this happens with bots aswell as people, so even if i create a local server it still happens and the game still jumps between 10-50-100 fps all the time, and after a while it just runs between 10 and 30, so basically unplayable.
Q1: How do I change the % CPU use that steam starts off with?
Q2: Do you know about any conflicts between the latest ATI Catalyst drivers and steam/source? or is this issue something completely different?
Q: Anyone know what the BLIP to better this in ANY way, I'll be MOST grateful because I'm getting rid of this graphics card if it doesn't shape up soon lol
(Notes: This same problem has been reported in many computers that use this graphics card (at least that I've heard off) I've got a 3.4ghz intel p4 1 gb ddr-2 (decent machine) and the same happens on a 4 ghz amd 64bit 4gb ddr ram computer (good machine). Also, I benchmarked HL2 when it first came out and I got a very high mark and the game ran at about 140 fps on average throughout and this is on the exact same computer. Another thing to note is the fact that if I keep the STEAM window open whilst running Source, It automatically sets down the standard CPU usage to 0% and just uses whatever it needs. That's just strange, but however it doesn't make any difference either.)
I was hoping someone out there knew something about this, as steam apparently don't, and if they do they're keeping it a secret..at least from me with the whole "auto-response" thing they have going on whenever I ask them a question.
I've been playing Source fine since it came out. I was then away for a couple of weeks travelling, and when I got back I sat down and turned on steam, it said that it was updating (as always - which is good -> as it means things should get better). So i waited. When done I ran the game, and found that it ran like crap! Could hardly play at all because my fps kept fluctuating between 10 and 110. So I started fixing it, doing all the usual things - removing spyware, uninstalling antivirus programs, having nothing running in the background, reinstalling the game yadayada. I got desperate so I thought it might have something to do with the actual graphics card. Maybe it was too warm, so I removed the fan and now use 4 fans to cool the graphics card - it's an ATI RADEON X800 XT 256mb card - which keeps it at 55 degrees celcius (that's around 35 degrees lower than the maximum running temperature for the card) so it should work fine. Didn't help so I got even more desperate and got a new harddrive, installed windows, installed steam and source, the catalyst drivers for the card and NOTHING else..same thing was happeing ingame (I also tried all the other availible drivers for ATI cards and also tried some older versions of catalyst drivers - no difference). I then realised, that Steam whilst running in the background was set to use 50% of the CPU ! That pissed me off, learning that this simple thing might be the SOURCE of all my troubles. So I thought, great, change the priority to low of "steam" and realtime priority for the source (hl2 engine) YAY problem fixed..NOT! didn't help anything. So now I'm out of ideas..I need help please. I also tried keeping all the settings on low, and using all the commands in the book to get rid of all excess "neatness" in the game in trying to get a higher fps AND tried using older directx run modes and running with all the AA and Shadowing modes on the graphics card off..NOTHING makes any difference. I don't know if it's worth mentioning, but If I'm on a server and I minimize the game, it crashes and gives me an error (Failed to lock index buffer in CMeshDX8::LockIndexBuffer - which i tried googling for, but nothing came up of decent use) and then says HL2 has to shutdown, we apologize for any blabhalbhalhbla...the end. I could also note, that this happens with bots aswell as people, so even if i create a local server it still happens and the game still jumps between 10-50-100 fps all the time, and after a while it just runs between 10 and 30, so basically unplayable.
Q1: How do I change the % CPU use that steam starts off with?
Q2: Do you know about any conflicts between the latest ATI Catalyst drivers and steam/source? or is this issue something completely different?
Q: Anyone know what the BLIP to better this in ANY way, I'll be MOST grateful because I'm getting rid of this graphics card if it doesn't shape up soon lol
(Notes: This same problem has been reported in many computers that use this graphics card (at least that I've heard off) I've got a 3.4ghz intel p4 1 gb ddr-2 (decent machine) and the same happens on a 4 ghz amd 64bit 4gb ddr ram computer (good machine). Also, I benchmarked HL2 when it first came out and I got a very high mark and the game ran at about 140 fps on average throughout and this is on the exact same computer. Another thing to note is the fact that if I keep the STEAM window open whilst running Source, It automatically sets down the standard CPU usage to 0% and just uses whatever it needs. That's just strange, but however it doesn't make any difference either.)
I was hoping someone out there knew something about this, as steam apparently don't, and if they do they're keeping it a secret..at least from me with the whole "auto-response" thing they have going on whenever I ask them a question.
