Not sure if this warrants its own thread. My internet connection was fine until a couple months ago. Now it will randomly drop the connection and pick it up. In that time period internet pages wont load and i will lose connection in games (Sc2 for example). The ISP says it isnt them (of course). Before, I make them send a tech out is there anything obvious I should do.
Here is a trace route I ran:

Tracing route to yahoo.com [98.139.183.24]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1482 ms 39 ms 11 ms
2 20 ms 14 ms 21 ms
3 15 ms 11 ms 9 ms gig3-14.wacotxkil-er03.texas.rr.com [24.26.192.9
0]
4 14 ms 15 ms 30 ms te1-6.wacotxcen-er03.texas.rr.com [24.26.192.176
]
5 21 ms 23 ms 34 ms te3-0-0.wacotxmhe-rtr1.hot.rr.com [24.26.193.146
]
6 26 ms 24 ms 56 ms te0-7-0-0.dllatxl3-cr01.texas.rr.com [72.179.205
.88]
7 21 ms 22 ms 25 ms ae-8-0.cr0.dfw10.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.52]
8 23 ms 24 ms 24 ms ae-0-0.cr0.hou30.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.38]
9 62 ms 59 ms 127 ms ae-5-0.cr0.dca10.tbone.rr.com [66.109.10.10]
10 70 ms 53 ms 50 ms ae-0-0.pr0.dca20.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.183]
11 56 ms 56 ms 55 ms 66.109.9.161
12 87 ms 75 ms 81 ms ae-4.pat1.che.yahoo.com [216.115.101.153]
13 77 ms 130 ms 86 ms xe-1-2-0.pat1.bfy.yahoo.com [216.115.97.196]
14 75 ms 184 ms 99 ms ge-1-0-0.pat2.bfz.yahoo.com [216.115.97.207]
15 181 ms 97 ms 99 ms ae-3.msr2.bf1.yahoo.com [216.115.100.31]
16 92 ms 75 ms 81 ms et-18-25.fab3-1-gdc.bf1.yahoo.com [98.139.128.57
]
17 68 ms 79 ms 94 ms et-18-25.fab8-1-gdc.bf1.yahoo.com [98.139.128.67
]
18 75 ms 87 ms 80 ms ir2.fp.vip.bf1.yahoo.com [98.139.183.24]

Trace complete.

Is it just me or is the latency on the first hop way too high?

MisterFred

United States2033 Posts

March 06 2012 01:41 GMT

#1305

Ectrid - not that I know of. I just keep 2 windows open, one with the stream, one to update if I feel like it.

billy5000

United States865 Posts

March 06 2012 07:18 GMT

#1306

Question regarding if it's my cpu or gpu which is bottlenecking the other for streaming w/xsplit. I have an i3 2100 and geforce 9600 gso. and if i were to upgrade either part, would i be able to stream at a decent quality @ low ingame settings?

skyR

Canada13817 Posts

March 06 2012 07:19 GMT

#1307

Streaming is dependent on the CPU so if you want to stream, you'll want to upgrade the CPU. The GPU only determines what settings / resolution you will play the game at, it doesn't help with streaming.

Nabutso

351 Posts

March 06 2012 07:20 GMT

#1308

On March 06 2012 16:18 billy5000 wrote:
Question regarding if it's my cpu or gpu which is bottlenecking the other for streaming w/xsplit. I have an i3 2100 and geforce 9600 gso. and if i were to upgrade either part, would i be able to stream at a decent quality @ low ingame settings?

9600 is fine for SC2.

Streaming is 100% dependent on CPU, so if you wanted to stream, you'd have to upgrade that.

Keep in mind you'd want to upgrade to a quad core i5 (probably a 2400). That would be the cheapest option, atleast.

Alryk

United States2718 Posts

March 07 2012 04:09 GMT

#1309

So... my friend has a virus that malwarebytes either isn't catching or cant get rid of (I think it's from his torrenting). I've been trying to clean up his computer but I think a reformat of the HDD would be much easier. Then again, I don't know how. Although I hear its easy. Can somebody explain what I need to do to do this?

If it matters, he has both a C: drive and a D: drive. Separated into about 128GB/256. I'm not sure why, but he does. Does it make a diff?

skyR

Canada13817 Posts

March 07 2012 04:14 GMT

#1310

Insert Windows installation disc, select custom installation, format the drive and partition how you want it then install. If you're talking about formatting a secondary drive than go into disk management, right click the drive and select format.

Alryk

United States2718 Posts

March 07 2012 04:17 GMT

#1311

On March 07 2012 13:14 skyR wrote:
Insert Windows installation disc, select custom installation, format the drive and partition how you want it then install. If you're talking about formatting a secondary drive than go into disk management, right click the drive and select format.

Do I need the original windows disc? or will any random windows cd key and disc work if its legit? I have mine from somewhere but I'm not sure where his is.

Do I have to go into the bios and set optical drive as primary boot? Thanks Skyr.

skyR

Canada13817 Posts

March 07 2012 04:20 GMT

#1312

Yes you would have to set boot priority.

Any disc will work but of course you'd want to use a Home Premium disc if the product key is for Home Premium.

Alryk

United States2718 Posts

March 07 2012 04:21 GMT

#1313

Yeah I've got that. Thanks Skyr!

Nabutso

351 Posts

March 07 2012 07:03 GMT

#1314

I have a rig setup with an output to 1 monitor (using hdmi) and a 2nd rig hooked up to another monitor.

I have a capture card (kinda like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815122010 )

I have an rf box (takes composite in and outputs coaxial).

I'd like to put that capture card into my 2nd rig (quad core q6600) and use it as a streaming slave. I've streamed using the capture card before, using the rf box and a psp.

I'd like to find a way to split my hdmi output from my 6870 from my first rig, and send it to both my main monitor and some sort of hdmi->composite convertor.

I stream at a bitrate of 550 (audio included) and at a resolution about 840x525, is this ok? will the composite part of my setup ruin the quality? Anyone have a similar setup?

Should I get an hdmi capture card?

Masq

Canada1792 Posts

March 07 2012 10:15 GMT

#1315

is there any decent free programs that I can use to speed up/clean up my computer? I currently use Defraggler and CCleaner.

TheToast

United States4808 Posts

March 07 2012 14:43 GMT

#1316

On March 07 2012 19:15 Masq wrote:
is there any decent free programs that I can use to speed up/clean up my computer? I currently use Defraggler and CCleaner.

Short answer: Not really

Long answer: I've heard about defraggler being "better" than the default Windows defragger, personally I don't know that this is much of a difference. The fact is, in Windows XP/Vista regular defragging is key to better PC performance and load times, especially if you have a laptop with a 5400RPM drive. But in Windows 7 the file system has been greatly revamped, hard drive fragmentation is much less likely. I used my Windows 7 laptop for about 6 months after getting it, when I went to defrag I think the drive fragmentation was at like 3%. So doing it in 7 will help a little, but not much.

I don't like CCleaner. Actually I think the idea of any program that automatically goes through your registry and deletes stuff is a really bad idea. It's not really going to greatly "speed up" anything. Registry database as a file is actually pretty small relative, and so there really is no need to delete stuff from the registry. Doing so only increases the likelihood of deleting something necessary or important. There's a reason many programs leave behind their reg keys when you uninstall them, mostly because there's no reason to remove them and doing so risks corruption.

If you want to "speed up" your PC and keep it clean: do Windows updates regularly, if it's XP or Vista regularly run a defrag program, uninstall software you aren't using, regularly clear your temp directories and java cache (I prefer to completely disable java's caching ability for security reasons), disable startup programs, and occationally do a virus clean.

If you really feel the need to eek out more performance from Windows, you can try to to disable some of the services you are unlikely to use such as Parental Controls or the Windows Media Service. But at this point you are essentially splitting hairs, it will free up some RAM but not a lot. Security reasons are a much more common reason to disable services like these.

nam nam

Sweden4672 Posts

March 07 2012 15:28 GMT

#1317

I've tried a lot of things to speed up one of my older computers (with XP on it) and running defrag or ccleaner have little to no effect. Disabling programs/processes and such can make a difference but other than that doing a full format is the only thing I've really found working but obviously that's a bit of a pain and should be a last resort.

Ata

Canada356 Posts

March 07 2012 15:57 GMT

#1318

On March 08 2012 00:28 nam nam wrote:
I've tried a lot of things to speed up one of my older computers (with XP on it) and running defrag or ccleaner have little to no effect. Disabling programs/processes and such can make a difference but other than that doing a full format is the only thing I've really found working but obviously that's a bit of a pain and should be a last resort.

On xp, depending on how much ram you have and how you use the computer, I find that FreeRAM XP Pro could really help.

bartus88

Netherlands491 Posts

March 07 2012 16:34 GMT

#1319

I don't feel this is thread-worthy, so I'll ask here. My current laptop can't run SC2, and after pondering over the fact if I should get a laptop or desktop, I decided that in my current situation, a laptop is the better choice. So after searching for a good while, I found a model with the following specs, which I plan on buying tomorrow (depending on how my upcoming question is answered).

i7-2670QM @ 2,20 GHz
GeForce GT 540M
6 GB DDR3-SDRAM

Besides SC2, I'll probably mostly be playing older games (I prefer old school games tbh), only other "new" game I plan on playing is D3. My goal is to play SC2 on medium without problems, I don't care that much about graphics, but I dislike the way low looks. I have been reading about 540M quite a bit, both on these forums and on sites like notebookcheck. I've noticed there are some mixed opinions about this video card. Can anyone who uses the 540M tell me how well it does on medium?