Call of Duty 4 Problems

[Tetsuo_Shima]

For a while now, I've had a few lingering problems with Call of Duty 4.

1. FPS isn't as high as it should be. Still playable, but much less than I'd expect from a quad-core, 4GB RAM, HD3870X2 system.
2. When connected to the internet, CoD4 Multiplayer skips and freezes very often, even in the main menus. When the net cable is in but with 'limited or no connection' (if something happens to the downstairs PC, for example) it doesn't skip or freeze but takes ages to load menu screens. With no net cable in at all, it runs alost normally.
3. In CoD4 Multiplayer only, whenever a flash grenade goes off the 'afterimage' as the flash fades away is REALLY jerky and glitchy, often with big flickering horizontal bars that scream HARDWARE PROBLEM. But when a flash goes off in CoD4 Single Player, the afterimage is fine. Why is this?
4. In CoD4 Multiplayer only, sometimes (not as bad now as it used to be) there would be parts of a map where my FPS would be fine, but then if I revisit the same area later on my FPS would plummet down to about 30 or so. Sort of seems like the GFX card is trying to draw something onscreen that it can't, or the PC is having a hard time pulling a certain texture or sprite from memory.

Things I've tried:

• Reinstalled graphics drivers several times - no noticeable difference
• Fiddled about with GFX card to make sure it is seated properly - no noticeable difference
• Reinstalled the game on numerous occasions, sometimes with or without punkbuster, sometimes testing it before patching - no noticeable difference. Even deleted all folders and cleared temp files before reinstalling in case there were some dodgy parts hanging around, but that was no help.
• Installed latest mobo chipset drivers - raised the FPS very slightly I think, and seems to run a little bit more stably than before. Didn't do anything drastic, though
• Fiddled about with CoD4 graphics - turned everthing on/off, the flashbang flickering still occurs
• Altered RAM voltage slightly after hearing about memory stability issues with this mobo (P5E) - 1.80V to 1.86V in BIOS, seemed to make things a little more stable

things I might try:

• Increasing the RAM voltage again
• If things get very dire, changing the PCI-E slot the GFX card is in, or swapping it out for the old X1950XT
• Installing older GFX drivers (8.2)

interesting points of note:

• Although other games slow down occasionally in graphically intense situations, none of them are as bad as CoD4. Not even other Multiplayer games.
• Once, during a particularly low drop in FPS on CoD4, I ctrl-esc'ed to desktop and ran speedfan. Of the four CPU cores, the 2nd was being used predominantly, often hitting the 100% ceiling whilst the other 3 cores were almost idle

It's doing my head in! What's weird is that most of the problems exist in CoD4 multiplayer, but singleplayer works just fine.

System specs:

Asus P5E Intel X38 motherboard
Intel Core2 Q6600 quad core CPU w/ Artic Cooling 7 Freezer Pro
4GB Geil 800MHz RAM
HIS Radeon HD3870X2
Seagate Barracuda 500GB HDD

Help would be appreciated!

 

[waterproofbob]

I had issues with 8.3 cats so have put mine back to 8.2 and haven't had any problems since.

Regarding RAM voltage you should really have it at about 2.1V. Ideally somewhere between 2-2.2. If it's still bad at i33 I'll have a look at it. I'd say your best bet is rolling the drivers back to 8.2s. Also make sure when you do that that you completely remove the 8.3s.

I get point 4 every once in a while right at the start of rounds, where the card goes into 2d mode, it sucks but I never find it causes too much of a prob as it goes away after a second. I also got low FPS and jerk after flashes hance I uninstalled the 8.3s and got the 8.2s again. Since then mine has been completely stable. I'd say defo go back to 8.2s. I don't know what they did in 8.3 but some ppl have had real issues since.

 

[thatbloke]

Get a post up on the CoD4 support forums if you haven't already.

As it only happens during multiplayer this could be related in some way to your net hardware/software not working correctly (packets being dropped for some reason?) maybe a port that CoD uses is being blocked/forwarded elsewhere?

Do you have a different network card you can try with? Can you take any routers you may be using out of the equation?

Do try the old grafix card. if it still happens we can eliminate the card as the culprit.

Do you have the steam version or the disk version of the game?

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

Thanks, bob. I should have reinstalled 8.2 a while ago, since the flickering thing only happened after 8.3. I think the major major problem is the sticking and jumping in the multiplayer, because even with lower FPS it's still playable but the net jumping is completely ridiculous. I could try connecting direct from the modem (instead of connection sharing) and see if that works. If not, are there any network drivers or suchlike that I should be aware of?

EDIT: And thanks to you too, bloke I haven't posted on the support forums yet, but I will do if problems persist. I am plugging the net cable directly into the ethernet socket on my mobo, I don't have any other network cards that I know of. I've tried turning off the firewall briefly to see if that worked, but had a very limited effect. Also, it doesn't make sense that other games can connect to the net fine, but CoD4 can't. Disc version, by the way.

Anyway, thanks for the help guys. Need to go back to work now

 

[Traxata]

did you install the Asus ethernet drivers from the website I linked you aswell?

if not that will be the cause of all issues

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

no, no I did not Trax It will be done!

 

[Traxata]

I should have realised .... T_T DOH!