[PapaSmurf1502]

I'm not really sure what my problem is called. I'm running Win7 with Chrome and being serviced by Time Warner. My ping is 20-30 ms, download speed is 12-14 mbps (though it's rated at 10), and my upload speed is around 1 mbps. These specs should be good enough to run any game or movie online, but for some reason I get "lag spikes" in which the video will fully load but the movie will still skip and rubberband. Online MMORPG's are the same; sometimes they run clean and without error and other times my frame rate plummets. I am running wirelessly and am working on getting an ethernet cable, but why is my internet performing poorly despite having quality "specifics" and how can I fix it?

 

[Wand3r3r]

First test is to compare wired performance with wifi performance. If both the same we look downstream. If wired is good but wifi isn't we focus on that.

You would want to connect wired and run a speedtest.net test.
Then connect wifi [with wired disabled] and run the same test.

Post the results for review.

 

[Dennis_Fused]

You can try a command and watch the results

ping google.com -n 50

If it drops more than 2 tests, it could be an issue with Latency.

If this comes out fine, I would suggest perhaps a performance issue on the PC.
I'd had an issue where the computer will literally skip and sputter in the middle of processing a task due to the HardDrive being unable to keep up.

This can be from insufficient power from the PSU or a HardDrive throwing repeated errors.

Just my opinion, worth the check if it is happening to offline games also.

 

[PapaSmurf1502]

I'm going to hook up with an ethernet cable when it comes in the mail tomorrow. I'll post the results then.

I pinged google.com via command prompt, and the results were very different from what speedtest.com consistently gave me. Speedtest never showed a ping above 30 ms, but command prompt varied between 19 ms and 350 ms.

I have noticed minor skips on offline programs, such as while listening to music. I tested it by watching a ripped DVD, and it played fine.

My battery is completely shot and lasts about 5 minutes before shutting the computer down. I keep getting error messages for it, but I rarely use my computer away from my desk so, and so far it hasn't been an issue for me. Could this possibly be preventing the harddrive from getting enough power?

I also recently disassembled my fan and heatsink to clean it and apply fresh thermal compound. It was my first time doing it, so I may have made some errors that I didn't catch. The CPU/GPU have never been cooler, though, and I haven't had any sort of overheating problem since I fixed it. While my video skipping problems started a few weeks after this, could it possibly be the problem?

Thanks again for any insight you could provide.

 

[Dennis_Fused]

I would hope not, because that would more than likely result in a replacement of the Motherboard.

When the AC Adapter is hooked up, it typically skips the battery and will operate without it. Could be an adapter issue, but really no way to test against it without a secondary. All that would be left is latency on the Broadband line or HardDrive issues.

You can also try and keep an eye on Performance Monitor via Task Manager. This will show any spikes in HD Usage that may or may not be concurrent with your spikes of lag.

 

[PapaSmurf1502]

I hooked up with an ethernet cable, and the results were roughly the same as when wireless. CPU usage shows 50-65% when having only the browser open to type this.

 

[Wand3r3r]

The cpu stat is way too high. That is more of an indication of malware/virus activity or some program running in the background sucking down the processor. If malware that can explain the internet drop since its using the internet..

Might want to post in the virus forum here to get some troubleshooting done. Make sure to read the preposting sticky.