Framerate Dropoff and Ping Increase After a Few Minutes?

[Magnus Brody]

Hope this is the right place to ask for some comp advice.

Since Friday I have had an issue with SL, doesn't matter which viewer I am using. When I login, my framerate is as it always is, somewhere around 25fps, and my ping is about 190, again normal.

Within 2 to 10 mins after login, suddenly I drop to 1fps and my ping goes up to about 750, or even higher. I have seen over 2500. Even if I drop every graphic setting to minimum, there is no affect. If I log out, all back to normal, login and the 2 to 10 mins drop off repeats.

When the drop off happens my graphics card usage drops to under 4%. When using SL it is normally anywhere between 40% and 90%.

GPU driver is the latest release.

I spent yesterday trying to fix this from 10:00am to 7:00pm, with no luck.

Here is what I've tried so far, any suggestions of what I could also try are welcomed:

1. Cleaned out the entire comp, including removing and cleaning fans and graphics card.

2. Adjusted fan speeds to all be higher when running SL - all case fans and graphics card fan too.

3. Replaced all modem cables.

4. Enabled all the necessary TCP/UDP ports on modem and firewall.

5. Added rules to the firewall to allow SL, slpugin, slvoice, etc.

6. Ran several computer benchmarking tests and used speedfan to monitor any CPU or graphics card heat spikes - no problems on any test. My CPUs do not heat over 55C at any time

7. Used speedfan whilst using SL, to see if there is a CPU heat spike bottlenecking the graphics card - none.

8. Ran ping tests, and even to California and back I am still getting under 10!

9. Smacked my head against a brick wall.

My computer spec is getting on a bit now, but was delivering a nice SL experience until Friday:

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz (2664.77 MHz)
Memory: 16380 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit (Build 14393)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 670/PCIe/SSE2

Windows Graphics Driver Version: 21.21.0013.7270
OpenGL Version: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 372.70

Any help much appreciated.

[Freya Mokusei]

Hrmm. How much disk space have you got free on your cache disk (typically C:\, but include both if your SL cache is on a different disk to your swapfile)? 

[Magnus Brody]

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Freya Mokusei wrote:

Hrmm. How much disk space have you got free on your cache disk (typically C:\, but include both if your SL cache is on a different disk to your swapfile)? 

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SL cache is on C, which is a 240GB SSD, with about 120GB free.

[Qie Niangao]

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Magnus Brody wrote:

 

When the drop off happens my graphics card usage drops to under 4%.

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This seems as if it should be a big hint, but darned if I can figure out what it means. Useless observation: It reminds me of what happens when mouse focus moves away from the SL application, so I might be superstitious enough to watch Task Manager and see if something else is taking over the CPU, or maybe some other resource that SL needs in order to have anything to draw.

Out of compulsive debugging habit, I'd wonder if the same obtains regardless of viewer, and regardless of which (alt) avatar is logged-in.

[Theresa Tennyson]

Something about Second Life viewers, Nvidia graphics cards and a recent update to Windows 10 are causing problems like this. This Firestorm JIRA describes the problems and the individual update item that seems to be the culprit.

http://jira.phoenixviewer.com/browse/FIRE-20034

[Magnus Brody]

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Qie Niangao wrote:

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Magnus Brody wrote:

 

When the drop off happens my graphics card usage drops to under 4%.

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This seems as if it should be a big hint, but darned if I can figure out what it means. Useless observation: It reminds me of what happens when mouse focus moves away from the SL application, so I might be superstitious enough to watch Task Manager and see if something else is taking over the CPU, or maybe some other resource that SL needs in order to have anything to draw.

Out of compulsive debugging habit, I'd wonder if the same obtains regardless of viewer, and regardless of which (alt) avatar is logged-in.

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I thought it a big hint too, and even ensured my GPU wasn't switching to the intel one.

Nothing new happens in task manager when the drop off hits, and the CPUs don't heat spike by even one degree.

Yes, same on Firestorm, Black Dragon and the Lab viewer, and same on an alt, with next to nothing in inventory.

[Magnus Brody]

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Theresa Tennyson wrote:

Something about Second Life viewers, Nvidia graphics cards and a recent update to Windows 10 are causing problems like this. This Firestorm JIRA describes the problems and the individual update item that seems to be the culprit.

http://jira.phoenixviewer.com/browse/FIRE-20034

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Thanks, Theresa - that was it!  I uninstalled that update, rebooted the comp and been sitting happily in Firestorm now for over 15 mins.

Many thanks!

Now, that only wasted about 17 hours of my life.  On the plus side, the comp is spotless!

[Freya Mokusei]

Good one Theresa.

This one had me puzzled too, I've copied it all down for future reference!