Problem with Online Games - Tech Help (I think)

[Ivelliis]

As people who look at the MMO forum I play World of Warcraft. Sometimes in the game it either freezes or I can move about but no one else is.

What causes it?

I want to know if it's something I can put into my PC to make it play better. If it's the connection I'm screwed.

[Larry_OHF]

The first questions many people who will try to help you will be along the line of : "What do you have in your system?"

Vid card:
Memory:
Dial-up or LAN:
OS:

And then they might ask something like what are the conditions like when the problems begin? Do you notice a greater number of users than normal online at the time? Is a battle going on with extra big animation?

Stuff like that will help anyone who wants to help you.

[Ivelliis]

Ok, if I got things wrong just point me in the right direction. As basic as this stuff is, I can't do it *grins*

Vid Card: I have no idea which one of the group of things this is. The one that looks promising is PSC605 PCI Audio Device, although the Audio bit kind of ruins that plan.
I'm looking under Sound, video and game controllers in Device Manager
Memory:
(I'll just type out all the junk in System Properties)
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.66GHz 2.66 GHz, 504 MB of RAM
Dial-up or LAN: LAN, Wireless
OS: XP Pro


I apologise for being a newb at all this, just getting disconnected after waiting for a few hours to get into a battleground seriously pissed me off.

[ 12-29-2005, 11:26 AM: Message edited by: Ivelliis ]

[Timber Loftis]

Okay, for your vid card, you should open the run box and type "dxdiag" -- this will give you your video rundown info.

On WoW I had lag until I upgraded from 512 MB RAM to 1 GB RAM. WoW is not graphic intensive, so vid card is not your problem. Wireless LAN may be a limitation -- make sure your wireless card is one of the newer ones with high transfer rate. If not, use a cable to hook up if you can.

But, the best thing you can do is upgrade your memory. I bought my 2 new RAM chips for well under $200, and I don't LAG at all any more, even in ORG in a full server with auctioneer running. So, my little laptop is still suiting my purposes for gaming. [img]smile.gif[/img]

(edit) Correction, I lagged last night. Looting took forever, and selling was buggy for some time too. But, everyone in my guild had this issue. Sometimes there are server-side issues, and that's that.

[ 12-29-2005, 11:33 AM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]

[Ivelliis]

Mkay:

Intel(R) 82865G Graphics Controller

I think

So increasing to 1GB of RAM would help?

The wireless is not changing. It's two floors up from the little thingy that it connects to, so occasionally it won't connect. The way the house is set out we can't really run a cable.

[Timber Loftis]

Well, then what kind of wireless card do you have? The newer ones will tranfer data about as fast as a DSL line will, anyway. I bought one for my wife's computer, which sets 2 floors down from the modem, and it greatly outperforms the standard built-in wireless modem in my laptop which I bought in 2004. I haven't tried running WoW on wireless, though, so I don't know how it would affect performance.

But the switch to 1GB RAM did the trick for me, completely. I suggest you try it if you can.

[Timber Loftis]

http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/guides.html?guide=498

[Larry_OHF]

That's a great reference link, TL! I was about to agree with you on the memory anyway, but that website just stole my wind.

[Ivelliis]

Memory might not be a viable option, I'm pretty broke at the moment. I could afford it, but their is 101 other things I want/need to buy.

My wireless card is a Belkin 802.11g Network Adapter. It's pretty crappy, always gets limited connectivity and I have to either try to reconnect or just reboot altogether.

Thanks for the link TL, and for the help both of you!

[RoSs_bg2_rox]

It is most likely nothing to do with your ram, unless of course it only does this in busy areas.

Sounds to me like it's your Ping. Wireless isn't the best for gaming, and especially going up two floors, you lose a lot of signal. Is it a 54mbps card you use? Definately if you have limited connectivity this would sound like the problem - would it be possible for you to move the router when you game? Or put it on the middle floor, or something to get it closer to the card. There are also various signal boosters you can buy, or you can make your own, the easiest / most common way being with a pringles can.