PDA

View Full Version : It's baaaaaack...



Peach
08-04-2003, 10:48 PM
Yes, the horrible speed problem is back, and for no reason. I decided to play a little Zelda Classic today, and suddenly I noticed my FPS losing control. It would drop to 30, and spike up to 90, and all this with V-Sync still on. Seeing this problem, I did some testing. I tried doing what I seemingly did to fix it originally, and it didn't solve it this time. I have tried a variety of things, such as rebooting, reverting my computer settings to how I had it a few days ago, and running ZC in Windows 98 compatibility mode. Nothing is fixing the problem. In fact, once I received a message stating that Windows HAD to shut down within one minute because of some unexpected termination. What's strange is that this new slowdown problem seems a little different than before. It's doing a lot of what it used to do, but I've noticed two significant points. Although when it slows down to a near halt, the music does also, and activity in the game freezes as well, any animated tiles remain animated *with no slowdown whatsoever*. I have also noticed that sometimes during a slowdown or freeze, if I was walking, I'll continue to walk in that direction, which is really weird. This makes playing even more difficult than the previous slowdown problem, because I have less control over the, well, controls. I'd see if ScanDisk could find some sort of error on the system, but the problem is, XP doesn't have ScanDisk...! Ahhhh! What do I do???

The strangest part is that only today, I have started to receive those forced shutdown messages, three so far. I don't understand what's going on, or if it's related to this problem at all.

-EDIT-

The Open Zelda problem that I posted in their forum has returned as well, so whatever is causing this problem and that problem seem very much related. The chances are WAY too slim to not be related, as they were solved at the same time, and returned at the same time. Ugh, if I only knew what my system did to fix the problem, maybe I can do it manually. Increasing the memory usage for Direct 3D and OpenGL didn't affect it at all, so I'm stumped.

phattonez
08-06-2003, 11:09 PM
i have the same problem and usually i find some applications running that don't do anything and take a lot of memory; when I close these ZC doesn't have any slowdown. Try looking in task manager for them. If that doesn't work then I don't know and I wish that someone would help cause it still happens sometimes.

Peach
08-07-2003, 12:04 AM
That would make sense if it's always caused this problem, but how could it go AWOL for three weeks, with rebooting and everything else happening during that time...? I attempted to disable startup items in the config, but it didn't seem to change anything much. I could try again and do a deeper scan that way...

Tom
08-07-2003, 05:26 AM
this has happened to me a few times all you have to do is either turn off vsync which will make it look not as good but right speed or just change the refresh rate to default or something on your computer. The best i think is the second one because when vsync is on it looks better

edit: incase you dont know how to do this just right click on desktop, then click on properties, then settings, then advanced, then adapter. It should be there although it might be a little bit different on other computers i have Windows ME.

Peach
08-07-2003, 03:12 PM
I was running Zelda Classic fine with VSync on (the "tearing" problem was eliminated with build 183, so I know that VSync was on), but as for the refresh rate, it sounds like something to look into, although what I have noticed that when I change the refresh rate, the resolution also doesn't fit the screen anymore (easily fixed, though, using my on-screen manager). I don't believe that was the problem really, as I've been using 800x600 with 60Hz since I obtained this system. Besides, the problem I'm having doesn't seem like any sort of graphics problem anymore, according to how the bug functions with VSync on in build 183. I'm just hoping now that Dark Nation will be able to help, since he may know what's going on by details on what's occurring...

-EDIT-

Okay, here are the results for changing the refresh rate from 60 to 100.

With VSync off, Zelda Classic runs the same as if I had the refresh rate at 60. No fixes whatsoever. With VSync on, Zelda Classic runs roughly at 100/60, making it almost twice as fast. Besides that, the choppy lag and even freezing still occurs. The graphics remain unaffected with VSync on, only music and controls freak out during lag or freeze.

Dark Nation
08-07-2003, 03:58 PM
Check your system for adware/spyware. Ad-Aware is a good one for getting rid of such things. "Spybot: Search and Destroy" (or something like that) is another one that many people swear on.

Peach
08-07-2003, 05:10 PM
In the back of my mind, I was wondering if that could possibly be a culprit. Fortunately I have Ad-Aware from my old system. I'll transfer it over and install it and see if it solves my problem. Thanks.

Tom
08-07-2003, 05:22 PM
the refresh rate is for each resolution and colour depth so you will have to change them to match zelda classic then change the refresh rate to adapter default. And if that doesnt work stop saying its vsync is on and is not the cause and turn it off and see.

Peach
08-07-2003, 05:34 PM
Read my message more carefully, Tom. In the section past -EDIT- I explained the results of having VSync off right now.

Dark Nation - Ad-Aware definitely found new objects, but quarantining them and rebooting my system afterward did not resolve the problem in any way. I still had a bad freeze after about 2 minutes of playing. If spyware really was the culprit, it wouldn't make sense how the problem suddenly fixed itself three weeks ago because I didn't use Ad-Aware at that point. Any other ideas?

While I am waiting, I'll re-attempt to disable all startup items in the configuration and see if that changes anything...

Tom
08-07-2003, 05:40 PM
Yeah but thats when you had changed it to 100 so the best thing to do is keep the refresh rate on adapter default while on the resolution and colour depth zelda classic uses and if that doesnt work whilst still keeping it on adapter default turn vsync off.

Peach
08-07-2003, 06:02 PM
Adapter default is at 60Hz, which I've kept. I've definitely tried VSync off under that default, and the results are the same regardless what refresh rate (however, with it off, when a lag of freeze occurs, EVERYTHING is affected within the program). Thanks for trying, though.

Dark Nation - If you need any more information, like better details of how this problem is affecting Zelda Classic, or more of my system specs, just let me know. I'm determined to get this working properly. I really like Zelda Classic and think it's a great project (which I've been using for years now), and I'd want to continue using it (plus, the problem seems to be affecting a few other things too, so that's even more of a reason to get this fixed).

Tom
08-07-2003, 06:07 PM
your welcome even if it didnt work

Peach
08-07-2003, 06:38 PM
Selective Startup Results:

I have disabled all startup items in the configuration system, and although the fluctuating still occurs, it does not affect the game in any noticeable way. No lag spikes, and no freezing. This seems to be a good way to resolve the problem, although I am not really sure what within that has been causing the problem. I suppose that I should do trial and error within the startup items until I pinpoint the problem, or is that not a good idea? For all I know, the "culprit" could be something that needs to be run, like NAV Auto-Protect.

Peach
08-08-2003, 12:41 AM
Bad news... I've pinpointed the files responsible for the bad lag spikes and freezes. ccApp.exe and ccRegVfy.exe combined are causing this issue. Unfortunately, these are the files that Norton Anti-Virus uses for auto-protection. Simply disabling Auto-Protect the normal way doesn't fix the problem, but removing it from the startup list does. I'm not sure if it's interfering with Zelda Classic from time to time by scanning through the program, or if Zelda Classic is just indirectly being affected from normal scanning of the system. If I could somehow get NAV to ignore only Zelda-w.exe, it may solve the problem. What can I possibly do?

Now that I found what is causing the problem, it makes me wonder how it could go from being a problem, to not being a problem, and returning to being a problem later down the road. I have kept Norton Anti-Virus Auto-Protect on this entire time, so I'm discombobulated.

Tom
08-08-2003, 06:36 AM
your not allowed to double post and why do you always make your messages so long, complicated and include words like discombobulated.

Peach
08-08-2003, 06:57 AM
Sheesh, sorry. It's apparent that this world cannot handle a robustly complex person like me...

I'll delete the second post and apply its information to the previous one.

-EDIT-

It won't let me.

Dark Nation
08-08-2003, 08:34 AM
Try uninstalling and reinstalling NAV (not just installing it on top of itself again). Make sure ZC works properly after NAV is uninstalled (to be 100% sure that you nailed the culprit).

Peach
08-08-2003, 03:38 PM
Thanks, Dark Nation. I'll be checking out their website today because I don't have the installation disc (I had it installed from where I purchased the system). I think that we might have a 2000 or 2001 disc, though.

-EDIT-

Well, talk about being in a bind. After looking over the Symantec website, it seems that 2004 beta is now discontinued, and the current 2003 trial is for 15 days only (what I have installed should keep me completely updated for a year). I can't uninstall until I find a disc that we may have around here.

However, in the meantime, I did some rechecking, and I'm even more sure that NAV is the culprit. I disabled everything in selective startup but the two CC items and still had the problem, but then I re-enabled everything but disabled the two CC items and played ZC for a full 10 minutes without any problems. When the problem is there, it takes no more than 2 minutes for it to initialize.

-SECOND EDIT-

Uninstalling and reinstalling NAV did not fix the problem, but something else did. I disabled MSN Messenger protection and it seemed to fix the problem. Why? I have no clue. It seems completely unrelated, but I have done a lot of testing after disabling it, and the problem is gone. One thing is for sure, it's a bug within NAV 2003, and not a corrupted file. The only thing I haven't done is re-enable MSN Messenger protection and see if it returns the problem. I suppose that I am a little worried about trying that. <G>