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Lag spikes unique to a certain machine on a network

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  • Lag
  • Networking
Last response: in Networking
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October 1, 2014 9:38:25 PM

Hi guys. I built my own machine (thanks in large part to you guys) in April, and have had almost no problems with it so far.

Recently though, I've been having lag spikes while I'm watching streamed video, doing online gaming, or using voice programs like Skype. Noticeable are things like "warping" and "skipping" in games, dropped voices, and laggy videos. I originally thought it was something with my modem or router, but I've found that if I monitor my ping through the command prompt ("ping google.com -t") on both my desktop (the problem machine) and my laptop at the same time, my laptop is churning out a smooth and stable (30-60 ms) ping while my desktop will have a ping near that 30-60 ms range for most packets, but every 10th or so packet has 1k+ ms ping. Unsurprisingly, those 1k+ ping packets coincide with the symptoms I listed above.

However, my desktop's ping is fine when I'm not watching videos, chatting on skype, playing games, etc.

Does anyone know what the problem is, and/or have a solution?

Here's my system information if its useful to anyone:

FX 8320 processor
ASUS m5a97 r2.0 motherboard
Powerlink Hermes Wireless LAN adapter
Windows 7 (with latest updates as far as I know)

I'll gladly provide more information about anything if its needed.

More about : lag spikes unique machine network

October 2, 2014 8:42:14 AM

When you did the test, was the laptop also running the apps that cause the problem on the desktop?
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October 2, 2014 6:50:52 PM

WyomingKnott said:
When you did the test, was the laptop also running the apps that cause the problem on the desktop?


No. Unfortunately, the apps that cause the problem on my desktop surpass the minimum system requirements of my laptop, so testing the exact apps isn't possible. I tried to watch some live videos on my laptop to lure out the problem, but it didn't show itself. However, I couldn't replicate the problem purely by watching live videos on my desktop either (problem machine). I was able to get symptoms by playing DOTA 2 for about 30 min though. On the other hand, I was playing the same game last night and I started having the issue, but when I quit the game and tried to watch videos afterwards the problem persisted until I turned the computer off and went to sleep.

When I go on Skype, my ping goes from steady ~50 to jumping to 1k every 20ish packets. It's enough to be able to hear the problem on Skype without looking at the ping monitor. After the call is over, it goes back to normal.

Another noteworthy feature of the problem is that it usually gets worse over a continuous gaming session. It'll start off fine for the first 15 min, then get steadily worse until 30-60 min when it becomes unplayable. Likewise with Skype. Call quality worsens as the call goes on.

UPDATE: I put the desktop on a wired connection (didn't do so before because it's kind of a pain to move), and that seems to have fixed the issue.
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