Gaming lag spikes, new system, need help!

hotpotato

Distinguished
Aug 2, 2011
14
0
18,510
Hello, I recently built myself a computer and when playing video games (and only at that time) online I get random huge lag spikes. I tested this in three different games : Diablo 3, Team Fortress 2 and Arma 2. All games suffer the same problem, but my normal web browsing does not seem to trigger it. This is very problematic as it causes the games to disconnect from the server I'm on and happens about once every 5 minutes at the very least. The other computers connected to the network do not suffer from this problem (so does this remove the ISP from being in cause?).

While running games I also used the command prompt to enter: ping -t google.com and check the latency. I could clearly see the lag spikes as from time to time the ping would climb from a normal 20-40ms over 500-2000+ ms or the connection would simply timeout.

I am using an OCZ agility 3 as boot drive (but my user profile and pagefile is on my WD 7200rpm HDD), an Asus Maximus Gene V, gigabyte gtx 670, and an Asus PCIE-N15 wireless card.

I tried swapping out my Wireless card (Asus PCIE-N15 for an asus PCIE-N13) which I previously used from the exact same location and distance in another computer (which worked fine) but got the same results with that card as well. Which seems to indicate that's it's not a hardware failure of the wireless card. (also tried updating my wireless card's drivers as well as updating the firmware of my router without avail).

I'm running low on ideas of what to try to fix it. Could a bad cable between a drive and the MB be causing this? Since they come in packs of two there was one which had its release latch jammed into the connector of the other. I did receive an error message once, which said that Windows was unable to access a drive. But I never got that message again after that. Could a bad cable do this sort of thing? I'll get myself a new cable to try that...

The only other thing I can think of is that for some reason the pcie connection I am using is faulty or stressed from another internal device. The wireless card I am using is a 1x card (the slot is at the bottom, is a 4x and open at the end to enable 16x card to fit). When I tried putting it in the 16x slot that would normally be used for a second video card the screen remained black (no post) after powering it on. The manual for my MB at page 2-17 says that IRQ assignments that 4x slot is shared between that and I.G.F.X , EHCI #1 (USB2.0), XHCI (USB3.0) and Asmedia USB3.0 Controller. I don't know what half of those do specifically. I have a logitech mouse (think it's an m5) and razer lycosa plugged into the top USB 2.0 connectors at the back of the MB. I also have a razer megalodon in an USB 3.0 port (tried without it connected but same problem). My internal USB 3.0 header is connected to the front I/o of my define mini.

Can someone help me solve this mess? Help or ideas would be very appreciated!

edit: I'm using windows 7 64bit home premium with 16GBs of RAM.
 

chulex67

Distinguished
Aug 16, 2011
801
0
19,160
Look i had a similar problem some years ago.... like 2 i think. It was my Antivirus and Windows Firewall...

go with " MSCONFIG" and Disable the Antivirus or Do It manually. and try again. I know it sounds stupid... but it worked for me..
 

hotpotato

Distinguished
Aug 2, 2011
14
0
18,510


I tried disabling avast and uninstalling avast. That didn't change anything. Also tried disabling the windows firewall at the same time, didn't help...

Thanks for the idea, unfortunately I still haven't found how to fix it...

Please guys this is driving me insane!