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Tools Ultima Online Fix For Tiny Lag Spikes Due To DPC Latency

Blackie

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
I'm placing this under UO Resources because various windows driver updates seem to have made UO life more difficult and this is one problem I've seen creeping up along with the fix. Mods, if this has a better place feel free to move it. This is a Windows 7 problem primarily but it can affect 8 and 10 as well.

Problem: The newest drivers provided for several network adapters do not work properly with some older programs like UO and cause very frustrating and specific issue, drop out conditions(tiny lag spikes).

Symptoms: You run a few steps, lag very momentarily, run a few steps, lag etc. It would appear as stuttering, as if a very brief pause while the game processes information, but that's not what it is. You can see the effects when you are browsing too, perhaps you're scrolling down the page and the page pauses for a split second then continues or you type into a text field, search bar or password box and it looks like nothing is happening for a split second and then *poof* it all shows up OK.

Semi technical explanation: Bad driver, usually associated with your network adapter. It's not responding within the alloted time and triggers a reporting override situation. ie: everything is momentarily paused while the computer gives the error high priority, and it repeats every few seconds.

Diagnosis: The fastest way to know if you have what is called a "DPC Latency" issue is to download this free tool from DPC Latency Checker . It's free and I've used it for years to rule out driver conflicts, I'll vouch for it that it's safe. Simply run it and watch the green bars start to appear across the bottom. If you have an intermittent issue described above you will see red bars appear every few seconds shooting up to 4k or higher. Here is what a normal reading should look like.

DPC-Latency-Checker.jpg

An abnormal reading would have a tall red bar every 3rd or 4th entry. If that is what you see read on.

Likely Culprit: The latest adapter driver is not working properly with your machine. It could be an audio driver as well but 99% of the time it's the network adapter. You can use a program from the same site called "LatencyMon" to diagnose the exact driver issue with a full readout but again, usually it's the network adapter.

The fix: Roll back the driver to the previous version. Microsoft has stated they have no intention in further fixing drivers for backwards compatibility on systems that have reached end of life. They have no love for UO or care for the pain those lag spikes cause, the heathens!

- Click Start, hover over "Computer" or "My Computer", whichever your system has
- Select Properties and click "Device manager" (or get to your device manager however you normally do it)
- Open the "network adapter" tab and right click over your device driver, select "properties" again
- Select the Driver tab and click "Roll Back Driver". Right now the last versions are working and since there shouldn't be more updates on most older operating systems it should stay that way

That should fix most intermittent "drop out" conditions that cause tiny lag spikes, or at the very least CPU and Memory spikes, every few seconds.

Note: Windows 8 systems run a little differently, there is a lot of good stuff to read on that site(not my site but I trust the owner). Also, if your computer has "helpful" features that continually try to update your drivers, including that one, you'll need to search Bing for a method of stopping this driver from being updated again that works for your preferences or the problem will just come back.
 
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