I don't think many here have experienced the dreaded "stutter", but according to the posts on the Bioware boards, it's fairly widespread. I posted this there, but that didn't get it completely "out of my system", so I thought I'd vent here, too.....

Anyone notice an increased stutter after defragmenting? Actually, I use Norton's Speed Disc, and afterwards, the stutter becomes exaggerated. Over time, the stutter smooths out, but immediately after a defrag it's really bad. My friend also noticed this after I mentioned it.

Now for my main point. I upgraded my audio driver yesterday, and the game started stuttering worse than ever. I went back to the old driver, but this didn't solve it. I wasn't completely surprised though because I've seen this before when I bought my new graphics card and went through several drivers.

Changes to drivers always seem to cause problems like this, even when I reverted to the original driver. I can usually fix this by uninstalling the game, defragmenting, and then reinstalling, but not this time.

The game was running pretty smooth for the last week or so, since I'd done a fresh install and stopped defragging, but now it's worst than ever, and I'm completely back to my original configuration.

What could possible cause a fresh install, on a newly defragmented hard drive, with the same drivers to run worse than before?

This stutter problem is driving me crazy. So far, I've put over $300 into my $1600 machine to play a game that costs $60. Worse still, now I'm afraid to try and update anything or even defragment because it might take my "acceptable" stutter and make it unacceptable.

I love this game, but last night I just couldn't bring myself to play. The skipping made me too angry... [img]graemlins/madhell.gif[/img]

Ronn_B, remind us of your system specs. Mention the size and speed/type of your HDD, the free space, the size of swap, and you're using Norton SpeedDisk, right

Dell Dimension 8200 w/XP home/Service Pack 1
Intel P4 2GIG
Leadtek GeForce ti4400 w/128MG
SB Live! Value
40 Gig HD(how do I check speed?) /25gig free
512Mg RDRAM w/1024MG virtual memory
Norton's 2002

Don't use Norton on XP, you CAN, but use XP's defragger, it works even better. Are you using FAT32 or NTFS? Also, if you have Norton, run the WinDoctor. It fixes lots of registry mix-ups. I don't know much about XP home, I use XP Pro, but you seem to have it right. I bet its a standard ATA-66 or 100 drive, at 5400, that's how they keep the price down. Newest nVidia Detonator drivers?

<font color=skyblue>Some hard drives have it printed on the label on the part...some do not. I do not know if going to the BIOS would do it for you, but most likely looking up the PC on Dell's home site and look for specs from there to see what came with your machine is as close as I can guess.</font>

NTFS, and I am up to date on the driver. I've run Windocter, and I'm ok there, too. I'll try XP's defragger next time.

I'll take Larry's advise and check the Dell site for my configuration tonight when I get home.

Again, this isn't really specific to me. The Bioware boards are full of people with the stutter problem. It was very minor for me, until this last attempt at a sound driver upgrade. :(

Try another sound config (direct sound h/w, or s/w EAX on or off, etc). HD speed is NOT important, but I was curious. If you ever get the chance (like at a re-build) use FAT32, its faster than NTFS and readable in case of an O/S crash, NTFS is not (well, its much harder)

Unfortunately, I've tried every possible configuration NWN offers with no success. :(

My plan for tonight is to uninstall NWN(again), uninstall/reinstall the latest sound/video drivers, defragment using the built in XP tool, reinstall the game, upgrade it and pray.

If I can get back to the slight stutter I had before last night, I'll count this a success. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 10-18-2002, 03:22 PM: Message edited by: Ronn_Bman ]

Just another suggestion - I´ve read it somewhere on a board. Not here and I really can´t remember where.
Some guy posted his solution for his stutter problem. He wrote in his case it wasn´t a driver or even system issue. A simple matter of disconnecting peripherals - he tried one after the other and when he disconnected his printer (yes - it was power-off when playing) the stutter was gone nad never returned.
As far as I can remember he even wrote this procedure (testing the peripherals) solved the stutter problem for one of his friends.

Hope that helps at least a little ...

Well... I'm not having the problems that you say you have, but I do have the following problem. I already addressed it, but I need to be sure if it really is that specific problem;
Every time I close NWN (or another game, but it's NWN what I play most) the computer shuts down completely, restarting, and saying: "The system just restored a huge error". I really don't understand what's happening, so I asked what was wrong, and I got the answer (here @ EG) that my drivers for my video card were probably wrong. Is this true, or is it something else. I can tell you that NWN is the original, and not some fake ass copy.
Thanks in advance!