Dual Core Gaming Fix Guide

Long Time Reader first time poster, I have been Reading this the best i can, Im not goin to blow smoke up anyones rear. I upgrade when i need to and always seek advice when i do. I have currently upgraded to the AMD 64 3800+ dual core. I also Upgraded my memeory to 4 gigs ( 2x1) x 2, my issue is this . Is there a know issue with a 4 gig of ram with the dual core. I can run fine under normal circumstances like 1 web page up. But as soon as i load up Dark Age of Camelot and Vent-TS about 4 min under load, the whole system LOCKS completely.

I took 2 gigs and ran it stock same as before no OC and it flew like a bat outa hell, i mean booting to Windows under 10-15 sec. I tried all the normal issues, swapping sticks , pulling out CD/DVD/ 1 of the HD's to see if maybe Power Related...... Also did the Affinity as well with the same results..

Sytem Specs are

AMD 64 3800+ Dual Core
4 Gigs of G Skill Enhanced PC 3200
K8N Neo2-F MOBO
Maxtor 160G x2
X800XL
ThermalTake Silent Pure Power 480W Power Supply
 
I just installed a 3800 X2 last night. I did #1 and #2. The only game that is giving me problems is CS:S.-it stutters real bad. The only solution I found was to alt-tab and change the affinity to 1 cpu.
 
Diseaseboy said:
I just installed a 3800 X2 last night. I did #1 and #2. The only game that is giving me problems is CS:S.-it stutters real bad. The only solution I found was to alt-tab and change the affinity to 1 cpu.
Click to expand...

Do the other Source engine games give you problems?
 
I really don't know what I did- I installed the 82.12 nvidia drivers after updating the AMD cpu driver and applied the microsoft hotfix. Everything seems to be fine now. No slowdowns or anything. CS and HL2 run fine. I even tried GTA:SA and it ran fine. So far I'm very happy with the dual core. I don't know if the computer needed a couple of reboots or what.

Scott
 
just an update... havent played too many games (fear, cod2, rvs, hl2, bf2) but still not running into any issues. no drivers installed. running xp x64 (os installed the multi-proc acpi driver on 1st boot). specs in sig.

did run into acouple of bf2 hard locks (vent worked; alt-tab, mouse etc did not) but i attribute that to a dying panny m1a...
 
Question for HL2 / CS:S - what's the dual core problem like on this? On CS:S today, I was playing and suddenly the game froze like it had crashed, but I was actually able to alt-tab out of the game. Once I went back to the game, it was running just fine.
 
RexPokinghorn said:
Question for HL2 / CS:S - what's the dual core problem like on this? On CS:S today, I was playing and suddenly the game froze like it had crashed, but I was actually able to alt-tab out of the game. Once I went back to the game, it was running just fine.
Click to expand...


If i dont set the CPU Affinity to CPU 0 in task manager for STEAM.
Well CS:S will freeze and sit there I have to reset my system to recover. I can move the mouse around but nothing happens. I wish M$ would fix their power states BS
 
I read about these dual core problems, yet no one has mentioned Intel Pentium D chips. I just built a machine that has a 3.0 GHz dual core Pentium, X-FI sound and 7800 GTX with 4 gigs of RAM and have the same problem. No fix has worked for me. HL2, BF2, Counter-strike are the ones causing me problems like stuttering, lockups, extreme graphics slowness in BF2. Has anyone seen it with Intel chips?
 
sapphir8 said:
I read about these dual core problems, yet no one has mentioned Intel Pentium D chips. I just built a machine that has a 3.0 GHz dual core Pentium, X-FI sound and 7800 GTX with 4 gigs of RAM and have the same problem. No fix has worked for me. HL2, BF2, Counter-strike are the ones causing me problems like stuttering, lockups, extreme graphics slowness in BF2. Has anyone seen it with Intel chips?
Click to expand...

Do you have the same problem if you take out the X-Fi?
 
I tried your idea, left on-board sound disabled, and it was successful graphically in BF2. It did kick me out to the menu once I entered a map for a few seconds, which sucks. However, this problem existed before I took out the X-Fi. I did read somewhere on Creative's knowledge base that if a user had previously installed Live! 24-bit drivers, which my mobo (GA-G1975X) has, they might have a problem once they upgrade to a X-Fi and try to play BF2.

This doesn't explain why my machine locks-up in HL2 and I am going to also assume all Source-based games. When I exit the game, my graphics become distored and freezes the machine. I am going to try a wipe and load and see what transpires. I'll keep my on-board sound disabled and not run the Vole's hotfix. I will provide an update hopefully by the end of the weekend. Any other suggestions are highly welcomed and thanked.
 
I can play DoD Source for maybe a good 15 minutes before it freezes :( I have fix #1 installed. I tried fix #3 application launcher, but that didn't work as well.

I'm going to give CS:S a try.
 
synergyo1 said:
I can play DoD Source for maybe a good 15 minutes before it freezes :( I have fix #1 installed. I tried fix #3 application launcher, but that didn't work as well.

I'm going to give CS:S a try.
Click to expand...
HOPEFULLY you have tried reverting to PRE "dual core" optimized video drivers from Nvidia. Try removing your drivers, using driver cleaner pro in safe mode to clean, then installing 77.77 drivers.
 
seanmcd said:
HOPEFULLY you have tried reverting to PRE "dual core" optimized video drivers from Nvidia. Try removing your drivers, using driver cleaner pro in safe mode to clean, then installing 77.77 drivers.
Click to expand...


CS:S worked just fine.. I take it the 77.77 drivers are stable? Im using 81.98 drivers atm.
 
synergyo1 said:
CS:S worked just fine.. I take it the 77.77 drivers are stable? Im using 81.98 drivers atm.
Click to expand...

Did you try disabling the dual core optimizations in the newer drivers?
 
synergyo1 said:
CS:S worked just fine.. I take it the 77.77 drivers are stable? Im using 81.98 drivers atm.
Click to expand...
I tried everything in the world to make Source stable, and nothing worked except reverting to Forceware 77.77 drivers (or 78.01 64bit) I could go between 78.01 and ANY version of the 80 series (I didn't try all of them but did try most of them) and ONLY when using 78.01 was Source stable (mostly dod). Trust me, I played for almost an hour a few times before crashes - you can often be fooled into thinking it's stable (I noticed only an hours time between your last posts). The other game I had trouble with that was also fixed by 78.01 (or 77.77) driver was Star Wars Battlefront 2... 80 series drivers crashed within 5 minutes, with 78.01 drivers I could play for hours. The registry fixes to "disable" the dual core optimizations never worked for me either. I read up on everything I could on the registry fix, hoping it would allow me to run the latest drivers. Never could make it work.
 
seanmcd said:
I tried everything in the world to make Source stable, and nothing worked except reverting to Forceware 77.77 drivers (or 78.01 64bit) I could go between 78.01 and ANY version of the 80 series (I didn't try all of them but did try most of them) and ONLY when using 78.01 was Source stable (mostly dod). Trust me, I played for almost an hour a few times before crashes - you can often be fooled into thinking it's stable (I noticed only an hours time between your last posts). The other game I had trouble with that was also fixed by 78.01 (or 77.77) driver was Star Wars Battlefront 2... 80 series drivers crashed within 5 minutes, with 78.01 drivers I could play for hours. The registry fixes to "disable" the dual core optimizations never worked for me either. I read up on everything I could on the registry fix, hoping it would allow me to run the latest drivers. Never could make it work.
Click to expand...

I run DOD Source with 80 series drivers with no crashing issues (with HDR disabled). With HDR enabled it will crash.
 
kirbyrj said:
I run DOD Source with 80 series drivers with no crashing issues (with HDR disabled). With HDR enabled it will crash.
Click to expand...
Well I could also run a special config file to disable a ton of stuff (HDR was part of it) and it wouldn't crash - but I personally didn't think a dual core CPU was worth the trouble of having to do that, plus I want to turn ALL the eye-candy/features on (as much as possible without degrading fps of course). So the 77.77 drivers ended up being the best option. Of course I'm now back to single core, and I can run the latest drivers, keep everything turned on, and not one single crash with any source game (or any game period) since doing so. :)


synergyo1 said:
The 77.77 fixed the crashing. Thanks :).
Click to expand...
Your welcome. I'm glad someone finally tried it! :) Hopefully Nvidia will figure out the problem. They have stated that in the future driver releases, there will be an option to disable the dual core features of the driverset for people that experience these problems. I hope they do, as I'd like to go back to dual core once more games actually support them and all these problems are worked out.
 
KOTOR definitely not working after applying MS hotfix, reg change, AMD driver, CnQ on or off, or affinity set on either core.
This is the only game/application I'm having problems with, which leads me to believe it's up to LucasArts/Bioware to patch the game, if they even care anymore. But I can't be alone in thinking that if I can't play KOTOR (yes, I'm a little behind, just built my current system in January) then I'm not going to buy 2 or 3. If anyone has a solution, besides running with an old driver, please offer suggestions.

AMD X2 4400+
Asus A8N-SLI Premium
eVGA 7800
X-Fi ExtremeMusic
Corsair TWINX-2048-3200c2pt 2-3-3-6 1T
 
to those with the css and dod problems, just alt+tab out and set hl2.exe to use only 1 core in your task manager. works for me and my rig.
 
bhR said:
KOTOR definitely not working after applying MS hotfix, reg change, AMD driver, CnQ on or off, or affinity set on either core.
This is the only game/application I'm having problems with, which leads me to believe it's up to LucasArts/Bioware to patch the game, if they even care anymore. But I can't be alone in thinking that if I can't play KOTOR (yes, I'm a little behind, just built my current system in January) then I'm not going to buy 2 or 3. If anyone has a solution, besides running with an old driver, please offer suggestions.

AMD X2 4400+
Asus A8N-SLI Premium
eVGA 7800
X-Fi ExtremeMusic
Corsair TWINX-2048-3200c2pt 2-3-3-6 1T
Click to expand...
Without a doubt - you need to be using 77.77 Forceware drivers. KOTR is one of the games that lead me to this solution. Search around on other forums - and you will find many people with a 7800 series card, an X2 or Opteron Dual core processor, and the same problem with KOTR (and other games). Its your video card drivers.
 
bhR said:
KOTOR definitely not working after applying MS hotfix, reg change, AMD driver, CnQ on or off, or affinity set on either core.
This is the only game/application I'm having problems with, which leads me to believe it's up to LucasArts/Bioware to patch the game, if they even care anymore. But I can't be alone in thinking that if I can't play KOTOR (yes, I'm a little behind, just built my current system in January) then I'm not going to buy 2 or 3. If anyone has a solution, besides running with an old driver, please offer suggestions.

AMD X2 4400+
Asus A8N-SLI Premium
eVGA 7800
X-Fi ExtremeMusic
Corsair TWINX-2048-3200c2pt 2-3-3-6 1T
Click to expand...
Follow the nvidia fix to change the registry. Worked fine for me a couple of months back using the latest drivers. I think I had to reboot to make the reg change take effect.

Edit: Running Opty165 and 6800GT here
 
seanmcd said:
Without a doubt - you need to be using 77.77 Forceware drivers. KOTR is one of the games that lead me to this solution. Search around on other forums - and you will find many people with a 7800 series card, an X2 or Opteron Dual core processor, and the same problem with KOTR (and other games). Its your video card drivers.
Click to expand...
I know, it sucks, I always find myself coming back to KOTOR and KOTOR II after I finish the latest FPS's. :( I hope they fix this. I posted at the BIOWARE forums regarding this and a Bioware employee said they were working with Nvidia to get it fixed.
 
I have a dual-core AMD Opteron processor and I was experiencing weird problems with my games, like constant "Server connection lost." in Battlefield 2, game freezes with looping sound in FEAR, and weird jerkiness in Shadowbane. I read the intructions in this thread for fixes to dual-core related problems and then read the dozens of posts regarding how some of the fixes worked while others did nothing. Pretty muddy reading since many posts contradicted each other.

Fix #1 - AMD Processor Driver and /usepmtimer boot.ini Switch (Didn't Want To Try)

After researching this problem a little more and reading some technical articles from Microsoft MSDN I decided to do something about my problems. I decided not to implement the AMD Processor Driver fix and not use the /usepmtimer switch in the boot.ini since one of the Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles mentioned that this might cause problems and slowdowns as people reported.

I know from experience that installing processor drivers or custom HALs and adding weird switches to boot.ini that mess with process scheduling or kernel execution usually cause more problems than they solve so I wanted to avoid this fix as much as possible.

Fix #2 - Microsoft Windows XP Pre-SP3 Hotfix for Processor Power States (Didn't Seem To Do Anything)

I decided to install the Microsoft Windows XP Pre-SP3 hotfix to resolve the Power State issue but found that this hotfix did not resolve any problems for me. My guess is because I did not install the AMD Processor Driver in the first place. From my experience as a systems admin I trust Microsoft with their hotfixes since they have a really good quality testing process for their hotfix releases, but their initial software releases always seem to be lacking.

I played Battlefield 2 for many weeks with only this fix applied and somedays my games would be good and other days I would get disconnections for no reason. I didn't know what but they weren't annoying enough for me to do something about them, until when I played a few days ago and kept getting disconnected dozens of times all within 5 to 10-minutes on a server. This pissed me off so much I decided to do something and look for a better solution.

I didn't see this hotfix do anything for me but since this is an official Microsoft Pre-SP3 hotfix I felt prudent to leave it in since did not appear to mess anything up.

Fix #3 - Affinity Set for Process (Bingo!, It Works!!!)

At this point I tried the Affinity setting fix manually a few times manually through Task Manager but did not find anything special about this fix because I didn't use it consistently. I did not like the idea of having to manually change the affinity every time I started a game so I didn't use this fix often. I then looked into using the WindowsXP Launcher application but found that it was problematic to use it since my online game browsers GameSpy and Xfire could not be easily configured to launch games by using the WindowsXP Launcher. I also found that having to define launch profiles and change settings in the game browsers for every single game was a pain in the butt and not the correct solution to this problem. How wrong I was for not following through with this earlier, I would have solved my problems weeks ago.

One of the other options was that ImageCfg.exe from the Resource Kit that would change the settings inside the executable to force it to start with a certain affinity. This is a horrible idea since any type of online game checks the checksum and the integrity of the executed image to make sure that it was not tampered with to prevent cheats and hacks. Using ImageCfg.exe is asking to be pwned by PunkBuster since it will detect the modified executable and kick you for changing it.

So I looked around the Internet and found a utility called TaskAssign.exe from Tom's Hardware website from one of their dual-core reviews that was able to change the affinity of a processes after it was executed. This utility ran from the Status Bar and seemed like the perfect automated solution to my problem. I would just add the executable names and this utility would change the affinity when it found these processes running. However, the utility only worked once for me and would not minimize properly. I tried to get it to work but it just wouldn't no matter what I tried. I e-mailed the utilitiy's author but received no reply.

I found another utility called ROPE but the author wanted, registration, purchase key, and then provided a whole installation package for what amounted to be a single command line executable file that was just a process launcher with the ability to set affinity and limit the memory work set. Cool that it is command line based but not very useful since it is can only launch processes but cannot change them if they are already running.

Command Line Process Viewer/Killer/Suspender by Craig Peacock

Lastly I found a cool little utility called process.exe that allows you to view and change the affinity of a running process, among other things. This was the first command line utility that I found that could do this after a process was launched and since it was command line based this utility could be scripted to automate this process. A few minutes later I had a working batch file that automatically changed the affinity of any process that I wanted automatically after the process was launched. I could now execute a tiny little batch file and let it run and loop around while I start and quit my games regardless of how I launch them.

I just execute this little batch file from a linked set to start Minimized and let it run while I have my game sessions. Not as cool and neat as that TaskAssign utility that was supposed run from the Status Bar minimized but it does the job automatically and I don't have to futz around with Alt+Tab or game launchers or changing all the execution strings for all my games in all the game browsers that I use. This is a good solution to me because it requires very little effort on my part to use it and update it and it doesn't permanently change anything in my system, at least until a real fix becomes available from Microsoft.

[size=-2]
CPU: AMD Opteron 175 Dual-Core 2.2GHz 1MB 90nm 939 11x CCBWE 0543TPMW - 2,750MHz (250x11x4), 1.70V (1.55Vx109.6%), 45C Load
MOB: DFI LanParty UT SLI-DR Expert 939 nF4 PCI-e Rev.AA0 - BIOS: 2005-12-07, LDT 1.30V, Chipset 1.52V, 42C Load
RAM: Mushkin 2x1GB XP4000 Redline 991493 DDR500 3-3-2-8 2.6V-2.9V CE-6 - Orange Slots, 2.80V, 250MHz (1:1) 1T 3-3-2-8
FAN: Zalman CNPS9500 LED 92mm Fan+Heatsink + Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Paste 99.9% - CPU: 25C Idle, 45C Full Load and Quiet
VID: eVGA nVidia 7800GT CO 256MB 470/1100MHz PCI-e 2xDVI 1xSVID 1xHDTV - 485/1150MHz Manual Overclock
HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 16MB SATA-II 3.0Gbps - 2x for Nvidia RAID1 Mirror
SOU: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music 24-bit 128-Voice 109dB SNR
DVD: NEC ND-3540A DVD+-RW SL/DL 16X DVD 48X CDR - 2x for multi-recorder burns
POW: OCZ PowerStream 520W SLI ADJ ATX2.0 EPS12, +3.3V 28A +5V 40A +12V 33A - Cool and Quiet
CAS: Lian-Li PC-V1200 Plus Mid-ATX Aluminum 4x5.25 6x3.5 2x120mm - Solid, Sturdy, and Cool
O/S: Microsoft Windows XP Professional - Service Pack 2
[/size]
 
This is the really simple and straight forward batch file I wrote that sets the affinity for me. Make sure that you have the Command Line Process Utility "process.exe" by Craig Peacock and Microsoft Windows 2003 Resource Kit "sleep.exe" in the same directory or in your path.

This batch file is very simple and doesn't accept any parameters. I kept it simple on purpose to let the users understand what they are executing. In the future I might change this batch file to one of my more advanced templates to allow the passage of command line parameters to it to allow or prevent looping, limit it only to changing one process then exiting, etc.


AffinitySet.cmd

Code: 
@ echo off

echo.
echo Affinity Set
echo.

rem Version:
rem
rem Author: JakFrost
rem
rem Created: 2006-02-26
rem Updated: 2006-02-27
rem
rem Purpose:
rem
rem Check a list of executable names to find if they are currently running
rem as processes, then change their affinity to limit their execution to only
rem Processor 0.
rem
rem Reason:
rem
rem In multi-processor or multi-core systems the default process affinity
rem is set to all processors and this is normal and desirable behavior since it
rem allows the operating system to dynamically move processes between
rem processors to equalize load.  However some games and applications
rem experience undesirable behavior, such as jittering graphics, unstable
rem sound, network disconnections, freezes, crashes, and other weird behavior
rem when their processes are executed on one processor moved to execute on
rem another processor while the process is still running.
rem
rem Dependencies:
rem
rem find.exe - Find Utility from Windows
rem
rem sleep.exe - Sleep Utility from Windows 2003 Resource Kit
rem   [url]http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9d467a69-57ff-4ae7-96ee-b18c4790cffd&displaylang=en[/url]
rem
rem process.exe - Command Line Process Utility by Craig Peacock
rem   [url]http://www.beyondlogic.org/solutions/processutil/processutil.htm[/url]
rem
rem Usage:
rem
rem Ensure that a text file called "AffinitySet.txt" exists in the same folder
rem and that it contains names of the executables that you want the affinity to
rem be changed for.  Add additional executable names into this file as
rem required.

:ExecutableList
echo * Executable list from "AffinitySet.txt" ...
for /f "usebackq delims=" %%a in ("AffinitySet.txt") do @ call :ProcessRunningCheck "%%~a"
echo . Sleeping for 30 seconds...
sleep.exe 30
goto :ExecutableList

:ProcessRunningCheck
echo ? Process running check on "%~1" ...
process.exe | find.exe /i "%~1"
if %errorlevel% equ 0 echo + Process running.& call :AffinityCheck "%~1"
if %errorlevel% equ 1 echo - Process not running.
goto :eof

:AffinityCheck
echo ? Affinity check...
process.exe -a "%~1" | find.exe /i "Process : 0x0001"
if %errorlevel% equ 0 echo + Affinity correct.
if %errorlevel% equ 1 echo - Affinity not correct.& call :AffinitySet "%~1"
goto :eof

:AffinitySet
echo = Affinity setting to Processor 0...
process.exe -a "%~1" 01
goto :eof

Add the names of the executables to this file for any games or applications that you want to change affinity for. Below is my file for reference. Capitalization doesn't matter and you don't really need the .exe extension either. As long as the process's "Image Name" is in this file the script will work.

AffinitySet.txt

Code: 
bf2.exe
CoDMP.exe
CoDSP.exe
CoDUOMP.exe
CoDUOSP.exe
DOOM3.exe
FarCry.exe
FEAR.exe
hl2.exe
quake3.exe
sb.exe
SoF2.exe
SoF2MP.exe
 
Im a little confused on what to do. I just got my Opty 165 installed today. I have an A8N32-SLI, with 2xBFG GTX's. I am on Windoes x64, and NV drivers 81.98. What exactly to I need to do? I hear that NV's drivers do not fix the dual core problem yet, but an upcoming will?
 
fallguy said:
Im a little confused on what to do. I just got my Opty 165 installed today. I have an A8N32-SLI, with 2xBFG GTX's. I am on Windoes x64, and NV drivers 81.98. What exactly to I need to do? I hear that NV's drivers do not fix the dual core problem yet, but an upcoming will?
Click to expand...
Well... what is wrong? What are you having issues with?
 
Nothing yet. I just put it in yesterday, but thought I had to do something to get the most from it? I havent tried any games yet.
 
fallguy said:
Nothing yet. I just put it in yesterday, but thought I had to do something to get the most from it? I havent tried any games yet.
Click to expand...

I'd wait and see if you have any stuttering issues before applying any/all fixes.
 
Holy Crap!!!
I can play KOTOR.
Well, at least I don't get the black screen menu.
We'll see.

New beta drivers on nVidia's website.
 
Fix number one seemed to fix my issue with Simcity 4. Its like the game would draw a bunch of frames, but just stick them in the buffer. Then it would draw them all really really quick. It seemed a lot like 5fps, until you took a closer look, and could see everything happen inbetween that was supposed to. Anyway, Fix #1 helped.

3800x2
7800gt
 
bhR said:
Holy Crap!!!
I can play KOTOR.
Well, at least I don't get the black screen menu.
We'll see.

New beta drivers on nVidia's website.
Click to expand...

Are you talking about the 84.12 ones? I'm downloading right now, but I want to make sure that's the ones you mean.

EDIT:

Those drivers did absolutely nothing for me, NFS:MW (w/ hotfix and amd driver) still crashes :(
 
Hi, I have tried everything and the only thing that fixed my connection problems in BF2 was to disable one of my cores with the /onecpu switch.
 
?? I gets an error all the time when I tries to use FIX 2! Wrong language? How do I fix that?
 
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