hey... i used to play a lot a long time ago, and occasionally there would be server-wide lag problems and stuff... but now, on a far better computer, and with a great university internet connection, im having the worst lag problems ever... and no one else seems to be. since its definitely not my computer's abilities (like i said, the game ran fine on a much older computer, usually), and not my connection (11Mbps), i have nooo idea what it is. its made the game unplayable. every couple of steps the game pauses for a bit, or sometimes i go somewhere and suddenly find myself back where i started. the worst is on a horse, i get the damn thing so i can go faster and every two steps i STOP mid-step, and the resume... its just plain awful and hasnt gone away. can anyone help?? pleeeeeease!

check the system processes, make sure u dont have 2 instances of the game running, that always lagged me badly.

hmm... i dont think that happens. i mean, the game also crashes and i restart my comp, and the first thing i do is open the game... so i dont see how id have more than one running. i do, however, have like FIVE svchost.exe's running, thats a little weird. anyone know what thats all about, seems kinda similar to what bruiser was talking about.

Svchost.exe is a generic host process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries (DLLs).

Taken from this site

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314056/en-us


So u can have more then one of those processes running at a time

ok then... any other thoughts?

Sorry can't help u other then then what bruiser have said. Sometimes I have two UO processes running, might be the loginserver window that's in the background and what else let see, don't use the ingame music, I for one experince lag if I'm using odc or other apps when playing so if u have other processes running shut them down, reinstall UO.
ingame things I do that helps occationaly when I experience lag is to Type .resend when I've logged

Sorry I can't help u more other then those htings I do to prevent lag

to stop the crashes ingame type .resend immediately after u log8in, that will solve the crash after login anyways, i'll think on the lag stuff and ask some ppl.

Yes, svchost.exe is generic windows processes BUT:

SVCHOST.EXE IS ALSO THE PROCESS NAME OF THE MSBLAST BLASTER WORM This nasty motherfucker spreads itself automatically via a loophole in windows that has since been removed via patches.

One of the symptoms of said virus is maxing your cpu usage at 100%. This would cause the stuttering that you are experiencing.

This would also explain why you are getting such problems and why you have 5 instances of svchost.exe (I am currently running windows XP Pro and have 4).

Of course, I may be completely wrong, but the symptoms you are describing could well mean that you have a virus. It seems to me to be the most likely culprit.

Try ending the processes 'svchost.exe'. Windows won't let you end the real ones, but the virus version will then say 'blah blah blah windows is gonna restart' and then count down from a minute before rebooting.

First, run 'windows update' and download all the critical security updates etc - this will fix the hole through which msblast and its derivatives penetrate windows.

Next, install some antivirus software, make sure its updated, and do a full system scan.

Good luck. If this isn't the case, then I'm afraid im at a loss as to what it is.

Dave

im doing a scan as i write this... very keen observations dave, that would seem to match the symptoms pretty well - you even mentioned the fact that cpu usage would go up to 100%, and yes obsidian.exe runs at 99% (another program takes 1% lol)... although i do wonder where i got this virus. i remember it going around a long time ago, well before i got this computer.

yes i have tried ending the processes out of curiosity... and have found the one that counts down, didnt know that was a virus the whole time.

well ive had the updates and patches for a long time, hope this scan will take of it.

no viruses found at all.. ?? but the symptoms you described are all there. any suggestions?

i think norton doesnt see the worms well it never did when i had one even when freshly updated

i use symantec, and i also used their utilities for removing welchia and msblast, neither one found the viruses.

then maybe its a new one they cant detect too otherwise im clueless

Bit more info on SVCHost, i have seen 7 running at one time, all were windows services, you can fine what they are running if you are running XP pro, go to Start - Run type cmd and click go, at the prompt type tasklist /svc , that will show a list of all the tasks and the services running.

Best defence against the msblaster type worms is a decent 3rd party firewall or a firewall router,

Norton/symantec virus checker is well known for slowing the system down and causing pauses, personally i use AVG anti virus, very stable and free,

One thing i have found to cause lag is a lot of uploading on the network, if the upload bandwidth is being fully used it lags like hell for me, so make sure that there is no file sharing networks running, this may be hard on a UNI network

Like i said, the easiest way to tell if the svchost processes are legit is to try ending them. Windows won't let u end the proper ones, but the blaster ones that I've seen throw a wobbly and reboot your pc.

Another possible reason for this stuttering is spyware...if you dont have it already, go to www.lavasoft.de and download the latest version of adaware. Install, hit the check for updates button and patch it, then do a full system scan...

Dave