Wayfarers of Veeshan

At random times while playing, I will start running in slow motion. Even in areas with zero lag it still happens. Anyone have an idea what could be causing it? I've tried complete file checks, lowering display settings, etc. but nothing fixes it. :/

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There are 10 types of people in the world, those who know binary and those who don't.

Sounds to me like EQ is losing focus for some reason. By focus I mean when you have a program selected as the one you're actively working in, that program has "focus" and is given more resources to work with, while background programs without focus have less. Are you running in fullscreen mode? If not try alt-tabbing out and back into the program (or even if you are this may work too, just things may go all wonky while alt-tabbing out and back in). When I two box the instance of EQ that's running in the background (the one without focus) does the same thing, but as soon as I alt-tab back into it everything speeds up again.

Not sure what could be causing this though. I'd think a virus scanner doing a scheduled check wouldn't grab focus, but it would still probably hog resources which might cause this as well. Check the settings on any antivirus software you're running and see if it has a scheduled time it does a full scan.

Are there any other programs you can think of you have installed that might start running during some event or during some scheduled time? Also I've heard there can be some issues with EQ and audio drivers causing slowness, though if you've generally been running fine I don't know why it would start now. You can try disabling audio and turning off voice chat and see if that fixes it (not a solution, but might help diagnose the problem).

Finally, re-installing directX 9 might fix you up. Maybe one of those files got corrupted for some reason. I'm just throwing ideas out there. It could be none of these things.

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Merlaina Mistweave - 85 Magician

Nemesis of Quillmane and self-proclaimed master of Kedge Keep
Lease holder for the rooftops of Gyrospires Beza and Zeka

Thanks alot merl. It's actually been happening for quite a while now. Not sure exactly when it started. It isn't something that starts with a program though. Happens constantly while I'm on every few secs or more. Will try some of your suggestions though.

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There are 10 types of people in the world, those who know binary and those who don't.

When you say running in slow motion, does that mean the character appears to actually be running slow while everything else is moving normally? Or does the whole game appear to be slow?

Also, how long does it continue? For a while, till you restart eq or the computer, or just some random amount of time?

Some things you can do...and if you do not understand what these are or know how to do them, then grab your computer nerd friend or family member (everybody knows one).

Delete temp files on the computer and defrag the hard drive.
Run task manager before running eq and shut down un-necessary things; clean up the startup programs (lots of "freeware" and "shareware" that people install add things to the startup programs).
Don't run a browser while you are running eq (like the item above, lots of things like to install add-ons to our browsers, if we are not careful, and they can slow things down).
Unplug everything, crack open the computer case, take it outside and blow it out with compressed air (not on a rainy day, do not tip the compressed air too far from level as it is stored as a liquid and will "burn" you or damage equipment). Pay special attention to the cpu heatsink and fan, video card heatsink and fan (if the card is not integrated), the ram, and the power supply fan(s). Dust is a great insulator and heat is the enemy; many computers will slow down the processor, or shut down, if too much heat builds up.

How much ram do you have? If you have windows xp you want to have at least 1 gig of ram, 2 or 3 is better. For vista or windows 7, 2 would be a minimum and 4 or more would be better.

Video memory is a concern also; the the video card is built into the motherboard then try reserving more memory for it in the bios. Also, if it is built in, consider getting a new video card with at least 512megs of ram, but again more is better and I would suggest 1gig or more.

How full is the hard drive? If you have 500 gigs of hd space and less than 20 gigs free it's time to clean it up or add another hd for all your videos, pictures, and music.

That's all I got at the moment

Character is running slowly while everything else is moving normally. Really sucks when i'm fleeing mobs, cause they catch me :/ Seems to occur for a random amount of time. Usually a few seconds, but sometimes a few minutes. Allready deleted temp files and defraged hd. Seems to have helped a little, but not much. I've set my comp up to clean boot, so no unnecesary startup things SHOULD be happening. I use a laptop that seems to be getting hotter lately than it used to. How would you recommend getting rid of dust in a laptop? Can't exactly just pop open the case. hehe

Have 2gigs of ram right now, and hd is just over half full using vista. Video card is nvidia geforce 8700m gt.

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There are 10 types of people in the world, those who know binary and those who don't.

I have a very similar setup to yours (4gb and either 8600m gt or 8800m gt, can't remember) also running vista. The only slowness issues I had, well, I never really found the problem and I ended up installing windows 7 (clean wipe) and reinstalling EQ. That fixed the problem.

When you say you're running slow, does the rest of the program slow down (do you get choppy framerates?) or is it more like your character is snared or something? Could be you're accidentally hitting the run hotkey (alt, shift, or ctrl r, I don't remember which), though I'd think you'd notice that.

As for getting dust out of a laptop, really the only way is to take the bastard apart (which with laptops is a PITA) or take it to a computer store and see if they'll do it for a small charge. I consider myself a very tech savvy guy, with a degree in computer science and having built several computers, and I'm still afraid to take my laptop apart.

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Merlaina Mistweave - 85 Magician

Nemesis of Quillmane and self-proclaimed master of Kedge Keep
Lease holder for the rooftops of Gyrospires Beza and Zeka

I've run into this on an old laptop but never found a fix for it besides getting a better computer. It affected not only how quick i ran, but anything i was doing... whether it be attacking, casting a spell, running, swimming, etc etc. Everything else around me seemed to have functioned fine.

http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm check this link out. I have followed BV tips for a while and they work for me. Give it a look over and see if it helps. I dont use vista i still use xp but he seems to know what he is doing . Good luck.

Sorry I haven't been on for a few days.

I agree with Merl though, for getting dust out you might want to take it to someone. I've never taken a laptop apart.

Weird about just the char slowing down...the only things I can think of that cause that are being snared or ducking. If those are not the case, and it was happening to me, I think I would rename my eq directory and try a fresh install.

Ok, so I get it now. This happened to me last night while I was goofing off in Crystallos. I will say it happened after I had to kill an instance of the game. I gated while at 2% health and the game hung (as it often does when I die after gating) but this time it really locked badly, so I had to kill and restart EQ.

After that something was up, but I couldn't figure out what. However at the same time this happened the netflix streaming I had going on the TV had to seriously downgrade the picture quality due to a poor connection. This makes me think it might all be network related somehow. I also know that the longer I played, the less severe the slow running issue became, until things were almost back to normal by the end of my play session.

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Merlaina Mistweave - 85 Magician

Nemesis of Quillmane and self-proclaimed master of Kedge Keep
Lease holder for the rooftops of Gyrospires Beza and Zeka