Unexplainable lag (not graphics) - looking for ideas for solution

[achertite]

Here's the situation. During certain encounters, specifically Heroic Ragnaros, I will lag. The best way to explain this lag is that it appears my WoW client stops receiving information from the server. I stop seeing environmental changes such as mob movement, boss swinging, Engulfing Flames spawning, seeds spawning, etc. The world around me effectively stops. But here is what is weird - I still receive chat messages, such as if I died standing in something I couldn't see, Fatality mods from other players report my death and I can see it in the chat. Also, it appears that I can continue moving my character and casting spells, but I don't see the spells casting, but the server registers their effect or movement. For example - if I begin to lag and I am stacked up for seeds, because I can still hear ventrilo and the call for "move" goes out, I can move my character and I will not die, even though nothing is updating for my client except for me seeing my character moving (the seeds may explode on my screen later than they did. I run two monitors and if this lag occurs during a lull I am able to refresh websites, Ventrilo conversation never stops coming in and I can talk outbound (which is usually me saying I'M LAGGING). This results in me DCing (20% of the time) or everything that happened during my lagged period to happen all at once (combat log spam, mob movement, etc).

PC specs:

i7 870
GTX465
4gb ram

This is NOT graphics lag, however people have suggested that I re-do my UI, update video drivers, all kinds of stuff. I'm not against doing these things, but I am looking for more input before I do those items.

tl;dr: WoW client appears to stop receiving data, causing me to die in game for reasons beyond my control and I am looking for suggestions on how to fix it.

[Puzzlebox]

Go to power options, in your control panel. Change it to performance. You are likely set to "energy saver" mode. I had the same prproblem.

[achertite]

Some further clarification - I can go 2-3 attempts where this does not occur and it is not all encounters. This happens almost exclusively on Beth'tilac and Heroic Ragnaros (not sure about Normal modes, it's been so long since doing them). This is a desktop computer, not laptop. 25/3 internet connection - cable.

---------- Post added 2011-10-09 at 05:22 AM ----------

Go to power options, in your control panel. Change it to performance. You are likely set to "energy saver" mode. I had the same prproblem.

I was on "balanced".

How would this setting cause the problem I am having?

[Puzzlebox]

I was on "balanced".

How would this setting cause the problem I am having?

Balanced means there is an increase in power usage towards performance. However, It still puts a throttle control on the amount of energy your computer uses.

You notice nothing in game while in a raid group or in a city, because there is not a lot going on with your graphics. However, when you are in a raid your computer uses a lot more energy once you pull the boss (even more so when doing Heroic Rag, given the amount of spell casting, and input from other peoples computers, which your computer is having to account for.

I am almost 100% that changing this to "performance" will increase your raid quality. Enjoy.

---------- Post added 2011-10-09 at 01:39 AM ----------

Sorry, I started typing a response on my phone and got an error, then when I got on my computer I did not fully articulate.

You have an after market video card. Video cards eat up more energy than any other part of your computer. Having it on balanced, is your giving permission to your computer to put power towards the necessary functions of the computer before any extra parts you may have (Hard Drive, Motherboard, etc) then what is left over in it's
"cap" then goes to after market video cards.

[Museigen]

I have the same issue, on two separate computers actually. My home and at my girlfriends house, where I usually play as we raid together. I found this problem to happen much more consistently when I had addons enabled. We did a gear our alts up T11 spam and just as a test, I played entirely without addons and the issue went from happening nearly every fight to a handful, perhaps the 20% magic number you proclaim. I run very few addons out of the normal; DeadlyBossMods, Skada/Recount, DocsDebugRunes (DK tanking addon, DDR for short) and VuhDo for healing on an alt.

My point is, running addon-less lowered the problem but did not prevent it, so first off check your addons. Second, while I believe it unlikely, the increased memory usage of the addons could have used more power with power setting mentioned in this post. I will set mine to performance, and thank you for the helpful post puzzlebox.

I only hope it works, as this issue has been plaguing me on and off since the halloween event in WotLK. Why that specific time it became an issue, I do not know, but before it I had no issue during it I figured it was some akward server happening with the event going on...then it kept going, and is still going.

[achertite]

Balanced means there is an increase in power usage towards performance. However, It still puts a throttle control on the amount of energy your computer uses.

You notice nothing in game while in a raid group or in a city, because there is not a lot going on with your graphics. However, when you are in a raid your computer uses a lot more energy once you pull the boss (even more so when doing Heroic Rag, given the amount of spell casting, and input from other peoples computers, which your computer is having to account for.

I am almost 100% that changing this to "performance" will increase your raid quality. Enjoy.

---------- Post added 2011-10-09 at 01:39 AM ----------

Sorry, I started typing a response on my phone and got an error, then when I got on my computer I did not fully articulate.

You have an after market video card. Video cards eat up more energy than any other part of your computer. Having it on balanced, is your giving permission to your computer to put power towards the necessary functions of the computer before any extra parts you may have (Hard Drive, Motherboard, etc) then what is left over in it's
"cap" then goes to after market video cards.

I will try this, although I am skeptical because I do not experience any frame rate drops or dips at any point when this occurs and it is completely random - happening 2-3 times an attempt and then it won't happen for 2-3 attempts.

Thank you for the suggestion. I will let you know if it helps!

[Savedwow]

I've had issues with those exact same fights. I replaced my Hard Drive, everything is fine now.

[Museigen]

I've had issues with those exact same fights. I replaced my Hard Drive, everything is fine now.

For reference, what HDD did you have and replace to? I would really love for my year+ long magic lag problem to disappear.

[WhiteFoxx]

Also if your computer has been turned on for a very extended period this can happen.

[mische]

Go to options, Network

Untick : "Optimize network for speed"

Ta Da! ?

Oh, yeah - Almost forgot - download and install your PC's latest network driver. Switch off any advanced "load balancing" network features in the drivers. That could do it too.

[achertite]

Also if your computer has been turned on for a very extended period this can happen.

What is it that causes this to happen?

[Puzzlebox]

I will try this, although I am skeptical because I do not experience any frame rate drops or dips at any point when this occurs and it is completely random - happening 2-3 times an attempt and then it won't happen for 2-3 attempts.

Thank you for the suggestion. I will let you know if it helps!

Neither did I. My computer said I was at 72 fps. My latency was stable.

Given your computer and Internet specs... It is definitely not addons.

[Tranquillize]

I'm having the exact same problem as you, and haven't found a way to fix it yet either. One thing that did make it better for me was disabling Auctioneer and all its assets, and setting Skada to only save the 3 most recent fights instead of 10. This is not a proper fix, but it does decrease the 'lag' a bit.
I'll keep an eye on this topic for a solution

[Puzzlebox]

As I said... It is your power options.

This other guy giving advise is just flat wrong. You have an extremely recent computer. It is definitely not your Addons. I run everything at it's top performance and a ton of addons. My computer is not as fast as yours.

[Munk]

I've had issues with those exact same fights. I replaced my Hard Drive, everything is fine now.

I was actually going to suggest this coudl be due to file corruption/bad sectors on the hdd.

[Puzzlebox]

I was actually going to suggest this coudl be due to file corruption/bad sectors on the hdd.

You people are ignoring the computer stats he posted. I is a new computer. The likelihood of his computer having a bad part is highly unlikely.

I am 100% sure it is the fact has the balance option turned on... Put it on performance... Turn up your settings, put on all the add ins you want and enjoy the game.

[Tranquillize]

My PC is less than a year old as well, yet I have the same problem. I'm just posting what helped me, albeit not much, so stating that I'm 'just flat wrong' is kind of strong. Whether you think this is useful is up to you, but the OP asked for help and I'm trying to provide it.
As for the balance option thing; my PC used to be on performance, I switched to balance for tonight's raid just to check what happened, and it actually appears to be better. Again, this is just my experience, things may or may not work for different people.

[Puzzlebox]

My PC is less than a year old as well, yet I have the same problem. I'm just posting what helped me, albeit not much, so stating that I'm 'just flat wrong' is kind of strong. Whether you think this is useful is up to you, but the OP asked for help and I'm trying to provide it.
As for the balance option thing; my PC used to be on performance, I switched to balance for tonight's raid just to check what happened, and it actually appears to be better. Again, this is just my experience, things may or may not work for different people.

You are right. Ido not think you are being helpful. You did not tell him you solved the problem. I gave a probable diagnosis... He validated it by looking up his settings.

You stated that you have a similar problem, and why you did yogic it did not really work.

I am fruit to understand what point you are trying to make... But I do not believe you know either.

[Milkshake86]

You are right. Ido not think you are being helpful. You did not tell him you solved the problem. I gave a probable diagnosis... He validated it by looking up his settings.

You stated that you have a similar problem, and why you did yogic it did not really work.

I am fruit to understand what point you are trying to make... But I do not believe you know either.

This sounds more like the world connection being severed, this can happen a couple of different ways 1 could be too much energy consumption through raw data id doubt this myself tho. Now overloading your bandwidth could do this as well what kind of internet is it happening on does this happen around the same time each night? In some cases it has been reported staying connected 1-5+ mins like this before you get the disconnect notice from the game.

Checking back you said your on cable internet which is shared amongst a anyone in your node. So if 10-20 or your neighboors are watching some good streaming skin flicks and 10-20 are on youtube or gaming etc the bandwidth is all shared. So timeframe could play a part in this. Rag and Beth have alot of data being sent in and out so this could be an internet provider issue or an in house network issue. Try the power saving idea see how it fairs if it doesnt work check your modem especially if its wireless look for additional IP's etc.

[Conzar]

I have a Core i7 920 (with loads of ram Raptor hard disks etc), and I get dips in performance at times. Switching off the Loggerhead addon (combat log saving addon for use with World Of Logs) invariably cures it. If you have any similar addon, that'd be the first place I'd look. AFter that I'd go through my addon list, knocking out anything I didn't need at all (maybe an old addon is erroring because the API it uses has changed since it was written). Then consider Recount (or your DPS meter of choice).

Also avoid using wireless (if you are using it at all). That 54meg (or whatever) is shared between you and anyone else on the same channel - not necessarily the same router (maybe a neighbour's wifi is on the same channel as you).