Screen freezes every 3 seconds

[Fox2k 0]

Hi folks. I apologize for my english, it's not too bad.

I got the "OF is freezing for a second every 5 sec"-problem. The game generally runs very smooth, but every three seconds the game freezes minimally.

Acc to the post in the Troubleshooting-FAQ thread you have to uncheck "Enable alternate depth buffering technique" in the GForce Direct3D Settings. But the FAQ is obviously not up to date cos this entry isn't there in the newer versions of the Detonator drivers. As I installed the 12.40 Detonators, the entry was there but the problem was still there, too.

It's a little bit strange because a few days ago the game ran smooth as never before.

I don't know what I should do now, I hope you can help me.

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System:

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Athlon Thunderbird 1000 Mhz

256 MB RAM

MSI Mainboard + VIA KT 133 chip set, newest 4in1s installed

Windows 2000

GForce 2 GTS

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TIA!

[(CYBA)JakkedUptron 1]

Win2k with 256 Meg running OFP is not enough.

I ran Win2k with 320M and when playing OFP my performance monitor would show that I ran out of free memory and swapfile in use would grow. So I maxed out my memory(768M) and now I have "free memory" left over EVEN when playing OFP. This is the FIRST game that I would actually run outa memory.

So, start up your performance monitor, and see what "free memory" and "swapfile in use" is at. Nor start up OFP and play for a bit. Now quit and look at performance monitor. Does is show that your swapfile in use grew? If so, then that means you are using your hard drive for memory. That's why your game goes so slow. I bet if you looked, while you are playing, your hard drive light flashes while you play the game.

Now that I have 768M, my hard drive flashes while I load up the game, but seldom, if ever, does it flash after I get moving. Yes accassionally the game will need a file and go get it. But it isn't being used as system memory.

[Fox2k 0]

No, I don't think that's the answer. The game even jerks in the sequence with the jeep and the m113 wrecks when i've just started it and the menu is showing up. It seems that there's a constant not-length-changing interval between the freezes. Apart from that the game did already run VERY WELL. I think the jerks cohere with the graphics section. (??)

[(CYBA)JakkedUptron 1]

Instead of telling me I'm wrong, why don;'t you at least try out my suggestion. You have asked for help and just maybe the answer lies in YOU. If you wish to fix the problem, then at least give it a shot. What's it gonna hurt to start of perf monitor and report back your findings? Like I said, you will have 32k memory free and your swap file WILL BE IN USE. Of course, you can verify I'm wrong or you can just guess. You make the choice.

[Fox2k 0]

It's a little bit strange and I don't know why and I don't know how, but I just started FP and it ran perfectly without any jerk. I didn't do major changes. Well, I'm really happy.  

[ALDEGA 0]

Might have been a program running in the background that was 'performing a task' every other 5 seconds.

[suma 8]

We had seen this problem caused by some joysticks detected but actually not connected. It could be also related to sound card drivers or to the resolution you are using. Are you aware of any changes in system setting/configuration between the times when you have seen the problem and when not?

[suma 8]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Win2k with 256 Meg running OFP is not enough.

<span id='postcolor'>

I am using OFP on two different computers, both having Win2k and 256 MB (one is PIII/733 MHz, another PIV/2Ghz), and I do not see any problems with this setup. More memory can help you a little, but usually not much, unless you are running some very huge custom made missions.

[SpaceRain 0]

Just bringing this to the top since I spent four hours last night getting OFP to stop freezing for .5 seconds every 3 seconds. I tried the newest (and even older) drivers for everything, about a million different resolutions and settings, tried disabling my sound card, reinstalled 5 times (the problem didn't occur until I applied the 1.20 patch), well, I basically tried everything (I knew it wasn't my system because it ran great for 3 seconds before freezing for a bit and then great for exactly the same time, but there was no harddisk activity, so I knew it wasn't because it ran out of memory) until I went way back in the forum and found this:

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">We had seen this problem caused by some joysticks detected but actually not connected.<span id='postcolor'>

Thank you, thank you, thank you, it runs perfect now at 30 FPS on my Pentium II, 400 MHz.

Operation Flashpoint is the best single-player game ever and I'm thrilled I can play it again.

Thank you,

SpaceRain.

[suchey 0]

Just for future reference...I just built a new rig and had the same problem...it turned out to be my scanner/printer...unplgged it from the paralell port and now it runs like a champ.

[theavonlady 2]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Suchey @ Mar. 19 2002,09:17)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Just for future reference...I just built a new rig and had the same problem...it turned out to be my scanner/printer...unplgged it from the paralell port and now it runs like a champ.<span id='postcolor'>

This is getting creepy. First it was joysticks, which I can understand, since they are usable in OFP. Now, we've gone to printers. Next it will be the monitor!

[Enron Exec 0]

Ohhh .. Ohhh !!!! I can finally put some of my Computer Science muscles to work. Under the O/S, the CPU dedicates a certain number of clock cycles / second for all its COM port interrupts. I/O devices such as mice, printers and scanners in this case all have to share the aloted time. This may explain why unplugging the printer and scanner improved the mouse sensitivity.

[Mister Frag 0]

That's one more reason why legacy parallel and serial ports are going away, and not on the roadmap for the PC designs that Intel is floating.

It wasn't a big deal in the days when people would select 'Print' in WordPerfect and walk away for ten minutes while their trusty Epson dot-matrix printer made a huge ruckus in the room next door, but today we expect to be able to multi-task seamlessly.

Both USB and Firewire controllers relieve the CPU from spending lots of time watching the peripherals and doing I/O. Let's face it -- PIO is dead.