Unbearable stuttering in Starcraft on BattleNet

[SurfinBoy]

Hi all,

I'm at wit's end, and I'm hoping someone here will be able to help. I am trying to play Starcraft on a cable modem - it used to work pretty well on dial-up, but now I have a very irritating problem.

When I enter a game, everything seems fine at first, but within 5-10 minutes, my gameplay erodes into a start/stop ordeal, with the action moving for about half a second, then stopping for about the same length of time. It gets worse and worse til its unplayable within 10-15 mins.

I have no idea what's causing this - I have worked out all my possible hardware conflicts and the computer performs well in every other way. It seems like some sort of networking problem, I would think. I've tried reinstalling Win98, I've torn out my excess hardware, I've bought a new, more expensive 3com Ethernet card to replace my Linksys, and no joy. I've applied the 3d W98 tweak file, I've tried lowering my video acceleration, I've tried everything I can think of. Anyway, here's my specs:

P-II 350 Intel, 128 meg RAM, Asus P2B-S Mobo
Asus AGP V3400 TNT vid card
Guillemot Voodoo 2 card
Echo Layla digital audio PCI card
3com 3C905SC-TX-M 10/100 ethernet card
Monster Sound mx300
(tried taking out the Voodoo and Echo cards, no help)

The Network > Configuration tab shows the following installed:

Client for Microsoft Networks
3Com EtherLink 10/100PCI
3Com TCAATDI Diagnostic TDI
TCP/IP

I have tried clearing all this stuff out and reinstalling the NIC. I have defragged and done a surface scan on my drive. I have reinstalled Starcraft. Everything else about my machine works fine, including playing a lot of online GPL (Grand Prix Legends), where I typically see latencies of .050 to .200 sec. I don't have a latency problem in any way.



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Colin Taber
http://colintaber.com

[Monkey-Lock]

I haven't played Starcraft in a bit but i do remember having a problem similar to yours. I have since moved to q3 but i do remembere hearing that battle.nets netcode is geared towards dial-ups to enhance the game for them and keep the game smooth. What company is providing you with your cable service? if its AT&T/Mediaone then its very possible its Mediaone since as I can tell from experience mediaone has had some pretty crappy times in service. Also how long have you been trying to play starcraft on ur cable?

[SurfinBoy]

I'm on RCN in NY city. I have no other complaints - the service has been as good or better than ever of late. Other than this possible problem. I've been trying to play mainly over the last 3 weeks or so.

I have been scouring for new drivers for everything I've got - I tried the other night, and had a fairly long session of clean play (say 25 min, which is good for me), then the stuttering started up. But I was playing with just one other player.

I keep all the other stuff off (animations, music) like I should, but that really shouldn't make a difference. I'm going to take it to Blizzard now that I've got all the drivers.



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Colin Taber
http://colintaber.com

[hExReX]

hmmm... I used to play starcraft on 56K and occasionally I lagged, but usually not especially after I left AOL =].

Yah b.net is more geared to dialups but cable and DSL should still be fine -- my lag is way down after switching to cable. Maybe your isp is bad -- call them up and complain =).