Windows Network Glitch?

[Quiver]

System specs come first

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (at stock speed to try and solve the problem, even tried underclocking it...)

4x 512MB patriot 2-2-2-5 PC3200 running in dual channel

Gigabyte K8N-SLI motherboard (BIOS revision: F5)

2 aopen 6600GTs running in SLI

2 200Gb seagate 7200RPM IDE HDDs

1 200Gb Western Digital SATA HDD

2 Western Digital HDDs in RAID 0 using the onboard RAID controller

Antec AS600W PSU

NEC 8x DVD-RW

MSI DVD/CR-RW 48/32/48

Running windows XP Pro SP-2 (all software/drivers yadda yadda is up to date)

Dont think I missed anything there so here goes... I have the most bizar network related issue I've ever seen. In order to fully understand the effect this problem is having on my system you need to see a graph of pings to a specific IP. The software used has a trial version that I will provide a link for later, but the attacked file is the recorded graph from my machine to that IP and is a MUST see for understanding this problem.

Bassicaly what happens is that I boot my machine the graph looks fine(check the beginning at a 5 minute scale) and then slowly and very noticably deteriorates from there. Take a look at different sections of the graph and you will see the Jttr go from .1 to sometimes as high as the hundreds. For about 30 minutes everything is fine and dandy and I can play all my games and do whatever I want on the internet just fine. After that CS:S starts behaving as if i have a 200ms ping(which it indeed looks like on the graph) with everything looking like its teleporting 2-3 feet at a time between the peak and trough of the the graph(i say that because it looks like a wave on the graph sometimes). Warcraft 3 shows 50-60 fps in game with fraps yet behaves like 2 with the same kind of teleport bug as CS. With the ping times supposedly reaching 0ms over 19 hops at times and reaching as high as 200ms on what normaly is about 80s with absolutley no other traffic happening is really bizar. Another game that may or maynot be being effected is EVE-Online, but not in the same way. Unlike CS and WC3 it doenst look like its laging or show any drop of framerate. It does however have a sound issue. This however has been reported by other players as well. The thing is I have tried all the known fixes to the common problem of having sound glitch out and none worked. One other thing I should mention is that I have rebuilt the TCP stack many times as well trying to fix the issue.

I do not know if it is a directly caused windows issue, but I have all but ruled out it being a hardware problem. I have disabled the onboard LAN and stuck in a PCI card, absolutley no effect whatsoever. Ive tried messing with clockspeeds and one thing that did anything was slowing from 2Ghz to 1.8. All it did was make the problem take longer to become apparent on the graph though and didnt solve it. Ive checked my RAM and just about everything else including resetting the BIOS quite a few times and starting anew. Windows related I have checked and double checked logs settings and uninstalled/reinstalled/disabled any software that could effect how or what is going on network wise with my system and nothing works. System restore does nothing. Hours and hours of searching googled shows noone else with something even close to this kinda problem.

And thus I come here. Hoping beyond hope you can help me fix this so I can play CS for more than 30 minutes uninterupted! That and maybe further my understanding of computers and the world of networking, but that ofcourse is second to games . Thanx in advance guys!

ps: for those of you who know me from the IRC channel: yes I have finnaly decided to get on the forums!

http://pingplotter.com/download.html <-- Use the Pro version as it shows Jttr

The file attached was run 24/7 for almost 2 days with and without heavy load as you will see in the graph itself. 1 second intervals and tracing/loging all hops the whole time. The beginning middle and end of the graph demonstrate what eventualy happens to my system.

EDIT: Cant get the file upload system to work so I have taken screen shots; links below.

http://xs.to/xs.php?f=No_problems_to_start...h=xs100&d=06203 <-- NO problems here at all 5 minute scale

http://xs.to/xs.php?f=3_hour_view_problem_...h=xs100&d=06203 <-- Developing... 3 hour scale

http://xs.to/xs.php?f=Big_problems.JPG&h=xs100&d=06203 <-- End result 5 minute scale

Edited May 17, 2006 by Quiver

[Quiver]

Well if anyone can tell me why my file didnt get attached in the above post and most likely this one too I would love it.

[TheTerrorist_75]

Cable or DSL? Have you contacted the ISP for issues? Directly connected to modem or through router/modem produces the same results? What modem and/or router? Have you tried new CAT 5 cable(s)?

[Quiver]

I suppose I should have mentioned that I have already 100% ruled out it was my ISP. I have run ping plots on many other machines that I have and have tried a couple different connections. Only this machine has the problem.

[TheTerrorist_75]

The other systems have no problems running these games at that game server?

[Quiver]

Correct. The issue is with just this machine. I gave the game symptoms to maybe shed more light. They are what gets affected really, and the graph(if it would upload!) would show what it "looks like".

[TheTerrorist_75]

Correct. The issue is with just this machine. I gave the game symptoms to maybe shed more light. They are what gets affected really, and the graph(if it would upload!) would show what it "looks like".

Is the graph just an image file? If so what size is it?

Edited May 16, 2006 by TheTerrorist_75

[Quiver]

Not an image file and its 3.5mb well short of the almost 5mb limit.

[TheTerrorist_75]

When you uploaded the attachment did you click Add this attachment to the right of the Choose button then click on Add to post in the white box containing the attachment?

[Quiver]

I click that button yes and it uploads it in a couple minutes and refreshes the page and just shows that I still have 4.88mb left and nothing seems to have been attached :\

[TheTerrorist_75]

I click that button yes and it uploads it in a couple minutes and refreshes the page and just shows that I still have 4.88mb left and nothing seems to have been attached :\

What type of file is it? I will have to discuss the issue with B.

[Quiver]

The file itself is a .pp2

I have tried ziping and raring it though with no success.

[TheTerrorist_75]

Try a print screen of it and host the image at http://xs.to/. Supply the image link in a reply.

[Quiver]

Edited original post with links to images

[TheTerrorist_75]

From what I see it is a problem with certain servers you are going through. I don't beleive the problem is at your end. I have seen others at different sites posting about this same issue. You would need to trace the IP listed where the slowdowns occur and find out if they have been having problems.

[Quiver]

But the thing is that it IS my machiens problem. Like I said I have run this on the other machines I have on my network with a bunch of different settings and what not and they have no problems at all. Really mind boggling that something like this would happen.

[TheTerrorist_75]

You may be connecting to other servers when on the other machines. Try clearing your cache to see if the problem machine will connect through different servers. The only other thing I can think off is maybe some type of malware.

Maybe your ARPcache is corrupted. WinXP is supposed to flush it every so often, but it usually becomes corrupted causing connection issues. Try flushing it.

Create a .bat file to flush the ARPcache.

Open Notepad and copy and paste the following into it;

C:\netsh interface ip delete arpcache

Save as ARPcacheflush.bat

I saved it to C:\

Right click on the .bat file and send it to your desktop as a shortcut. When double clicked it should flush the ARPcache. You may need to go to Start > Run and type services.msc and disable Routing and Remote Access before this will work.

Edited May 17, 2006 by TheTerrorist_75

[Quiver]

The other machines are less protected against malware and the likes than this one (doesnt rule it out though, but believe me thats the first thing I loked for). All machines take the same route and have no problems at all. Running C:\netsh interface ip delete arpcache does nothing

[TheTerrorist_75]

At this point I would rtart checking the hardware. Try a different Ethernet card, cable and/or different router port. This PC has a different firewall/anti-virus/anti-malware programs than the rest? Check thier settings.

[Quiver]

Tried all that already. The main NIC is onboard I have tried a PCI card and have disabled and changed many settings router and firewall related.

[TheTerrorist_75]

Check your PMs.

[Quiver]

Yea, it sent me an email about it. Check yours

[Quiver]

Get this: Setting pingplotter to have an affinity to Core 1 instead of Core 0 or both makes it behave normaly. Setting the games to Core 1 does the same thing. Maybe my CPU is fried?

[TheTerrorist_75]

Time for someone that understands that processor and games to look at this. Try a new thread dealing with the processor issue and refer to this thread within the new one.