Battlefield 2142 Issues in Vista Ult x64

I have a pretty decent system with 1800XT, P4 3.2Ghz, 2GB ram
Battlefield 2142 used to run OK on XP -- not stellar, but it ran ~ 30fps at max settings @ 1024x768
In Vista, I get 100% CPU usage as soon as game starts -- even while only menu is displayed.
In the game, at lowest settings @1024x768 I get about 15fps max, most of the time it is a completely unplayable <10fps. Moreover, it is not consistent, but lags for short period, then plays ok, then lags.

In my previous Vista x64 install (where game was running worse than xp, but ok), I accidentaly enabled EAX on non SB sound card which caused huge CPU load and therefore huge lag -- I checked the settings this time, sound quality is at minimum and EAX is disabled.

I'm out of ideas -- why is CPU @ 100% all the time? Why is lag not constant, but does not depend on the complexity or amount of displayed material? While I play a game like Need For Speed Carbon -- Videocard is noticably stressed as fans kick in to full power, but with BF 2142 -- videocard seems to be chilling while processor almost never drops below 100%!!!!

I have the most updated Videocard drivers available for Vista x64.
This is pretty much the only game I play so I would really love to see this solved.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Put your sound quality down. If you're running onboard then that'll be using cpu power as well as ram.

It's already at minimum, I honestly wish I could turn it off completely

Have you tried turning the graphics settings lower? Just a thought to see if there was any improvement!

Yeah, same intermittent lag regardless of graphics settings.

64bits said:

Have you tried turning the graphics settings lower? Just a thought to see if there was any improvement!

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May be a stupid suggestion, but im not really sure what could be causing your cpu usage.
But have you un-installed and re-installed the game?

And are you sure its cpu usage at 100%. I played BF2142 the other night (see sig for my spec) and i was getting lag. But i think my problem is more of a ram issue. Just dont think 2 GB is enough to run 2142 under vista without any lag.
Even with XP, 2 GB was only just enough to run everything smoothly.

I have a logitech G15 keyboard with an LCD display so I can see the CPU/RAM usage during gameplay and there is most certanly enough ram. Even during the busiest scenes in the game, there is still about 200-300MB of physical ram free. CPU usage is a constant 100%.

64bits said:

May be a stupid suggestion, but im not really sure what could be causing your cpu usage.
But have you un-installed and re-installed the game?

And are you sure its cpu usage at 100%. I played BF2142 the other night (see sig for my spec) and i was getting lag. But i think my problem is more of a ram issue. Just dont think 2 GB is enough to run 2142 under vista without any lag.
Even with XP, 2 GB was only just enough to run everything smoothly.

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BTW, i have exactly the same components as you do except for videocard -- 1800XT

My rig - Intel Pentium D 940 3.2 Ghz - 2 Gig Crucial Ballistix RAM - Gigabyte GA-8I945P Pro - Radeon X800GTO2 (flashed to X850XT) - 3x Maxtor 160GB SATA drives - Hyper 580W PSU - DVD ROM R/W - Plenty of Cooling:D

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No way....you've got same components as me lol!!!!!

In that case i really dont get why your cpu is 100%.
Have you posted on Total Battlefield 2142 to see if they can help??
They have a got a tech section, may be some help

When the game is running have you used task manager to see what processes are running and what is using the most cpu resources.

You could try disabling certain processes and programs, then run game.
Also what AV program are you using?

64bits said:

Have you posted on Total Battlefield 2142 to see if they can help??

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No, to be honest I didn't know about that forum. I'll try them.

64bits said:

When the game is running have you used task manager to see what processes are running and what is using the most cpu resources.

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A couple of times it was Nero Mobile (of all things) and after I killed it, the game started running much smoother, but sometimes, it is BF that is using up all CPU so there's nothing to kill.

64bits said:

Also what AV program are you using?

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Symantec AV 10.2 Corp for Vistax64

6 Useful Tips to KILL LAG

Yay... lag... everyone loves lag...
Sorry...

Having an FPS <10 really does suck, but I don't think it is a CPU or RAM problem.
I am running Windows XP SP2, with a GeForce 7600GT, 1GB DDR-400, P4 3.2GHz (Hypertheading Enabled), and also had pretty bad lag. However after a bit of searching around I found something that really does almost triple your frame rate (well for me anyway).

Tips:

1. Don't use GameBoost or GameAccelerator... great idea, but they just don't work (well, OK, they give your a ~2 fps boost)
2. Good Boost: Download and Install Microsoft .NET Framework v3.0. It is meant to increase speeds and reliability between RAM and CPU.
3. Medium Boost: Clean the registry, boy does this seem to make a difference in 2142. However good luck finding a Good, Free one... it is almost impossible.
4. Small Boost: Defrag your hard drive. Why not? It cannot hurt.
5. Medium Boost: If you have Norton, DISABLE IT! It cuts loading times and lag in half!
6. Good Boost: WARNING!ONLY USE THIS ONE IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN ONE CORE, OR HAVE HYPERTHREADING ENABLED (or you'll get even more lag, and your computer will grind to a halt). Run Battlefield 2142 at Real-time priority. Just quickly do it whilst the 2142 Loading Screen is shown.

Tips 2, 3 I tried first: big improvement. Then the computer started slowing down again. Tips 3, 4, 5, 6 brought it back up to scratch!

I'm serious here, the above tips turned my 25fps Medium-Low computer into a 35fps High computer. And I can now play F.E.A.R. on High and average 70fps.

Damn this post... it's too long sorry.

SolarFlare045 said:

Yay... lag... everyone loves lag...
Sorry...

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Thanks for a great reply SolarFlare045!
1. I don't use and never have used any of those, and you said why
2. I have latest .net framework installed
3. I'll give registry cleaner a shot. I'd appreciate a good recommendation for Vista. If it works I don't really care how much it costs.
4. I defrag once in a while -- I guess its been a while I'll do that too. Edit: Apparently vista schedules automatic defrags every Wed @ 1:00 so my HD's are defragged :-)
5. I do have Norton -- is this true for Corporate edition too or just Home editions?
6. This might be a problem. On Vista x64 BF is not too stable esp. when quiting the game it often crashes. If its running in normal prio i can kill it, in real-time -- its hard reset. Hard drives will really hate me for this.

Also, i found that EVERY time I get the insane lag, it is always some applications that does file indexing -- there are just so many that I never knew do it. Nero, Windows Media Player, Windows itself. That's just the ones I found so far. They are supposed to only use idle cycles of the CPU, but it doesn't look like they do! I downloaded a really cool applet for my G15 keyboard called LCDMisc which lets me see CPU usage of processes and kill the offending indexer -- Extremely cool. For anyone that is having the same problem -- I recommend checking for those supposedly idle processes that eat your CPU.

Unfortunately I've given you my tips and cannot help you beyond that. Obviously Tip 6 isn't the safest option simply because it can force you to reset... not good, so don't force your computer to do so if it doesn't want to. As for registry cleans, jv16 Powertools is a really good one. It isn't free, but you do (unlike most registry cleaners) get a fully-functional 30 day trial. After my first registry clean, I received over 1000 errors! Once they were cleaned out, beautiful frame rates came my way.

Disable Norton. Norton uses way too many system resources. Unless you want every packet leaving and arriving into BF2142 scanned (increasing CPU strain), and every file loaded into RAM scanned (increasing RAM / Hard drive strain), disable it. Get a basic firewall if you still want some protection.

Also there are many types of lag. Could you narrow it down a bit? (Also try other games other than BF2142, as 2142 is a game requiring too many resources!)
Which of the following describe your lag? (Combinations are possible)

1. Plays fine (playable), then suddenly your frame rates drops, then a few seconds later plays fine again.
2. Jumpy framerate, (use FRAPS. Your G15 will also then give you a graph of your framerate), making it playable but too jumpy to play properly.
3. Consistent low FPS. Your FPS seems to be "locked". It doesn't go above or under by much.
4. Players seem to jump all over the place. When running you seem to be pulled back a lot.
5. When you first play (eg. the map has just loaded, and this is your first game after logging into 2142) the game has a very inconsistent framerate. It jumps from 2 - 30 and sometimes even temporarily freezes. However, suddenly your framerate returns to a steady, playable FPS.
6. The game freezes... a lot. You'll load a map and click "Join Game" it freezes. 30 seconds later you'll select your class, 2142 freezes. The game resumes 30 seconds later and you've just spawned and the game freezes. You pull out a new gun, the game freezes. However, throughout game play the freezes become less and less noticeable.
7. Unplayable FPS. FPS is too low. During orbital strike (for example) it gets ever lower.
8. Your FPS is playable unless you are playing on a map with > 32 players or you are playing on a larger map (a map that does have the Titan option)

Please tell me which of the above best describes your "lag". It could be anything: CPU, Graphics Card, RAM, Hard Drive speeds, Settings too high, Anti virus, Firewall, Background tasks... anything.

Also hail the G15 (I've got one too). It says and knows all (and looks incredibly cool).
Also, get SirReal's Panel for the G15. Have a look at your CPU usage, RAM usage, and Network Usage, that can help me to help you too.

Anyway, I've talked enough... over to you now.

Hey, thanks for reply again. The lag is usually number 1, plays fine, then fps drop.
There are some number 2's. For example, on the Titan frame rates drop to <20-25. If two titans are close together <10-15. But that sounds about right, since processing two huge machines is pretty tough on the video card/processor and neither is very new in my computer.
When an indexer is running like the ones i described in previous post, lag is #3, a consistently low fps with processor usage maxed out.

I've tried running in Real-time priority and did get somewhat better fps, maybe +3, but since I don't have any cool sound card (I'm using the one in my mobo - realtek) sound gets really jumpy because processor is unavailable to process the audio .

I do have Fraps, that's how I'm getting the fps reads.

I think you're describing Norton Home which comes as a package with firewall etc. I'm using Symantec Corporate AV. But I've tried disabling it -- I think I got somewhat better load times but fps is the same.

I did have SirReal's, but it is not friendly with Vista x64 (doesn't show correct network usage, crashes often) -- LCDMisc on the other hand is a 64 bit native exe where everything works as long as you launch it as admin.

Also, if it helps, I got 2946 in 3DMark 06 on default settings.
BTW, jv16 Powertools is not compatible with 64bit editions according to their website.

If it helps, i have Battlefield 2142 and Vista Ultimate 64 bit. I also got a Logitech G15 keyboard and i found out that the official Logitech G15 drivers were the reason that killed my Battlefield 2142 (And C&C 3 but other games so far worked with the the keyboard drivers)

So my only advise is to remove your G15 drivers, that worked for me.
I got a AMD 64bit 3000+, ATI X800 256 MB vid card and 1 GB RAM. and Battlefield 2142 runs smoothly for me under medium settings

Some good tips posted here.
Of more help than i was lol!!!!!
Will try a few of the tips myself, as i still get uber lag...but no CPU lag. Mine is more of a RAM issue!?*^!

daq, your two main problems are that you are using Vista Ultimate for gaming (which does cause issues because it has a lot of extra features that don't agree with gaming) and you are using a 64bit version.
(if you haven't already) try to disable file indexing (sorry don't know how on Vista), and download and update ALL your drivers. 64-bit drivers are "in the making" and often unreliable at the moment. Don't worry about Titan lag, everyone gets that! Also do other games give you problems?

SolarFlare045 said:

daq, your two main problems are that you are using Vista Ultimate for gaming (which does cause issues because it has a lot of extra features that don't agree with gaming) and you are using a 64bit version.
(if you haven't already) try to disable file indexing (sorry don't know how on Vista), and download and update ALL your drivers. 64-bit drivers are "in the making" and often unreliable at the moment. Don't worry about Titan lag, everyone gets that! Also do other games give you problems?

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Indexing service was primarily causing problems right after reinstall because it had to work all the time, now that it had some time to create a database of the files on the hard drives it doesn't use the resources so much.

Other games are not causing so much trouble. I also play Need For Speed Carbon --> there may be a slight decrease in fps, but not as noticeable as in BF2142.

I know Vista Ultimate has a lot of extras, but the computer has plenty of RAM (at least for now) and all those extras are not running all the time. The media center features are not always on. Other stuff like Dream Scene and file encryption I haven't even installed/enabled yet.

Drivers though are still certainly an issue, nothing I can do but wait. I decided I'll stick to Vista x64. At this point there little incentive for most companies to write 64bit software, but as more people use it, the pressure will build up for software support for 64bit hardware.

I had a thought. I think you said you had a Pentium D. Have you tried playing with the affinity settings? Some of my friends had problems with BF games when it had affinity for more than one core. You might try putting BF2142 on one core and everything else on the other. Worth a try at least.

i no this is an old topic but if its still bein looked at then i thought i'd put my 2bit in. i dont know 1/4 as much as most of these guys but i do hav 64bit vista and played 2142 and found it laggy to. i also play bf2 and the both were fine-ish up untill an update on vista and now lag all over the place. this is not good for me as u can see what my system is bellow (82863DMark) (unclocked on all, soon to be clocked.lol) so it should b a dream...ish.lol. but i found that it was the defender built into vista which was doin it for me so dont jus switch the anti virus's off but vistas bits and bots to? the spywear thing was the biggest problem?

p.s.For Stats bf2: rushyb