video card or internet connection?

i moved back in march--houses that is--and my computer was transported fine without any problems. when i play tf2 and cod4 now though my computer will stall. but it's not the computer because winamp keeps playing, and in tf2 i can go to the main screen or even the tab screen or change character screen, but the actual game will freeze up and i can't move my character however i can hear if people talk and the time still runs down without lag. in cod4 the effect is different, but it says "connection problem" and lags.

it was really bad when i first moved in but i started using a different cable connection for my modem in my house and that made the problem considerably better. so it seems like a network issue, but the fact that the time still runs down and the players are still audible makes me wonder if it's just my video card acting up? i tend to think the network gets random spikes and the games at time can be requesting too much bandwidth that i don't have for whatever reason. thoughts?

Have you opened up the case to see if everything is seated well yet?

If you want to check for sure whether its your GPU or its the internet connection, try playing a different game that does not require internet connection. For instance, COD4 single player or any other game for that matter.

If the problem persist, might be something with your computer then. Otherwise, its probably your internet connection.

When I play GuildWars and experience a lag spike, some times the ingame music still plays perfectly, I can still move around, I can see the enemy but can't attack, tried walking in front of the enemy but they didn't attack. After a while I got disconnected saying "connection problem". So it could be either one.

i have played other games that don't use the internet without problems. i checked and the video card is seated just fine. funny thing is though, i don't have problems when i'm surfing the internet, so the lag spikes only show while playing games. again, i contribute this to possibly there being a lot more info requested on the network while playing games as opposed to regular surfing, and hence why i see the problem while only playing games. is that logical reasoning though?

newguy5 said:

again, i contribute this to possibly there being a lot more info requested on the network while playing games as opposed to regular surfing, and hence why i see the problem while only playing games. is that logical reasoning though?

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It is. Surfing the net is hardly taxing, A dial up connection can surf relatively fine.

I would put it down to the internet connection, but it does sound strange. I can't see why only one part of the game would freeze...

I have a 2MB Internet Connection and I don't get any Connection issues with CoD4. Does your internet have busy times, it could just be that?

I would say connection problem. I have had a few issues with TF2 cutting out also. I think if comcast even drops internet for a second or two, everything gets really screwed up.

Kornowski said:

I would put it down to the internet connection, but it does sound strange. I can't see why only one part of the game would freeze...

I have a 2MB Internet Connection and I don't get any Connection issues with CoD4. Does your internet have busy times, it could just be that?

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i don't know if it has busy times. i have tried to ping yahoo or something before and done it for 10 minutes, and occassionally i'll get this wild number that is an obvious spike, but it's only momentarily and i figured that was normal. but still i have the games spike occassionally so maybe those crazy numbers are spikes and are what is causing the problem.

Its your internet connection, at least, I'm 99.9999% sure of it

maybe try a internet connection benchmark program. (cant recall what its called tough, sorry )

Try going to speedtest.net and test your connection on the recommended server...You'll want to make sure you are getting close to the speed that your ISP promises and also make sure that your ping isn't too high. Generally if you have a high ping you'll notice alot of lag and choppiness.