I had bad lag problems and my game was freezing i found that zonealarm was the problem (zonealarm is a firewall for those who dont know) maybe conflicting i dunno ...i dont run zonealarm at all now when playing halflife2 or counterstrike and i have no problems. my game was choking and ping would rise within a minute or so to about 1000m/s to see if your game is choking type net_graph 3 in console and watch choke count as u play. 0 or closest to 0 is best. mine was getting up to 30 or 40 when i had lag problems... choke is kind of like a countdown until next data packet can be sent, so choke of 0 is best so data isnt waiting
for those who dont know...
type in console
net_graph 3 :to see fps choke and otherstuff ingame
net_graph 0 :to turn it off (lol)
cl_smooth 0 :helps with mine stops the slight flickering wont fix major lag but smooths game for me slightly
to enable console goto options/keyboard/advanced/enable console/apply ... in game that is
hope this helps, definatly zonealarm on mine was the problem still does it if i forget to turn it off before playing. might not just be zonealarm might be a firewall thing so check your choke then try disabling firewall and check again gl
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Because multimedia programs require more resources, the Windows networking stack implements a throttling mechanism to restrict the processing of non-multimedia network traffic to 10 packets per millisecond.
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By default, the value for the NetworkThrottlingIndex registry entry is set to 10. When the NetworkThrottlingIndex registry entry does not exist, the behavior resembles the default behavior. Network throttling can be completely turned off by setting the value to FFFFFFFF (hexadecimal). You must restart the computer after you make a change to the value of the NetworkThrottlingIndex registry entry.
Quote:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile\
Name : NetworkThrottlingIndex
Value type : DWORD
Value data : From integer 1 through integer 70 (Decimal) (Decimal)
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Windows 7 Ping Spikes [FIX]
Hi there, I've recently had an extremely annoying issue regarding sound, games, multiplayer, and Windows 7. When I would start up a game (such as Counter-Strike Source or Heroes of Newerth) and connect to server
, my fps and ping would be nominally OK, but the game would lag. In HoN this would be displayed by the heroes moving jerkily around the map, even though my fps and ping were good. In Counter Strike, this evidenced itself by glitchy nades that don't bounce smoothly, and whenever sounds are played, the ping spikes a bit. It's kind of like playing on a 33 tic server, for those of you familiar with the game. None of these issues occurred in single player games or in the aforementioned games with a local server. Symptoms included warping, skipping, and lagging while moving or viewing other players move.
Anyway, I searched and searched here and couldn't find anything, but finally I found something in Google (note: this is only a partial fix, don't do this, see update):
* Stop and disable the "Multimedia Class Scheduler" service
* Run regedit and go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servi ces\Audiosrv"
* Double click on the entry "DependOnService" and delete the line with "MMCSS" from the text box
* Reboot and enjoy lag free games
I diagnosed the issue by realizing that by disabling audio devices in device manager, lag would disappear in-game. So glad I found this solution after installing 6 different audio drivers and generally being very frustrated. Just thought I'd leave this here as a reference for others with a similar issue.
Update: doing this will likely induce audio issues such as crackling, popping, stuttering, and skipping. My final solution was to leave this service enabled but disable it's network throttling component (if you already did the first fix you should undo it and re-enable the service). This resolved my audio issues caused by disabling the MMCS while keeping my games lag free. This is not a solution if you are not experiencing network issues. If you are experiencing audio issues only, you should make sure the MMCSS is running. The best way to test if you have this problem is to disable your sound device in Device Manager and then see if the lag persists. If it does, you have some other issue. If the lag goes away, re-enable your sound device and try the following fix:
Quote:
Leave the multimedia class scheduler service running, but disable its network throttling "feature":
* Open regedit
* Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile
* There will be an entry for network performance throttling, default value is 10; set it to FFFFFFFF hex (willl look like 0xFFFFFFFF to the right of the entry)
* Reboot
Games affected:
Source Engine Games (Team Fortress 2 (TF2), Left 4 Dead, Counter Strike Source (CS:S, CSS))
Heroes of Newerth (HoN)
Call of Duty Series (CoD), possibly including Modern Warfare
Overlord Series (Overlord, Overlord: Raising Hell, Overlord 2)
My optimal solution was to keep the MMCS service running, as if you turn it off your audio may start cackling/skipping in an annoying fashion. However, I disabled the network throttling component of this service. I believe it's a general audio problem specific to Windows 7 and multiplayer / online games. I don't think the audio card or the drivers make a difference, or at least they didn't in my case.
Leave the multimedia class scheduler service running, but disable its network throttling feature:
* Open regedit
* Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile
* There will be an entry for network performance throttling, default value is 10; set it to FFFFFFFF hex (willl look like 0xFFFFFFFF to the right of the entry)
* Reboot
This removed the lag I was experiencing while still enabling me to have normal sound in-game.
Now Second Step is for Graphic Settings:
Here's few settings you should chang related to your video driver [3D settings] so you can have the best gameplay.
Anistropic filtering - The maximal possible.
Conformant texture clamp - OpenGL.
CPU acceleration - Single display performance.
Texture filtering Quality - High Performance.
Vertical Sync [vsync] - Off.
Third Step and the last thing is how to start your game from your video card's DLL for the highest FPS possible.
All you need to do is go to C:\Windows\system32\ and find the file
nvoglnt.dll - If you are using nVidia video card.
atioglxx.dll - If you are using ATI video card.
openGL.dll - If you are using another video card and not the ones specified above.
Next you copy this file and paste it in the GLDRV folder located in your Counter Strike directory.
Once you have copied it there open the txt file located in the GLDRV folder and write there
for nVidia :
Default Default
gldrv/nvoglnt.dll
for ATI :
Default Default
gldrv/atioglxx.dll
for anything else :
Default Default
gldrv/opengl32.dll
cl_updaterate : It is the packets per second that you send to a server. The higher the value, the best. .The perfect cl_updaterate equals to sv_maxupdaterate .If u don't know the correct server rates we can adjust it by interpreting net_graph 1. For each frame rendered graph how much interpolation was used in drawing objects .So by Fatching correct Information by using graph we set out correct cl_updaterate and thus ex_intrp . Type net_graph 1 in console and then look at the graph if u getting any orange or yellow dots mean we are extrapolating .so if you plying on Clan server start your rate from cl_updaterate 101if u getting these yellow dots decrease ur rates and if you are on Pub server start it from cl_updaterate 50 generally pub serve have rates sv_maxupdaterate 50 . use ex_intrp 0 so it will 
