Massive rubber banding/ping spikes in Battlefield 2 online.

[octiceps]

Don't know if this is the right place to put this, but here goes:

I recently got a new 802.11n wireless router and now my Battlefield 2 is unplayable on my G73JH due to massive ping spikes every 30 seconds or so, which causes the so-called "rubber banding" effect. I'll be running along just fine at <50 ms ping and then suddenly I'll spike to 300 back-and-forth for a few seconds and my screen goes herky-jerky. As far as I know my new router is configured perfectly because the signal strength remains stable and strong in every other application. No other game that I have does this to me. This happens on all BF2 servers, even the ones with very low ping. I'm completely stumped. Could this be an issue with the game itself? I'm running Windows 7 64-bit BTW.

[dstrakele]

DPC Latency is a primary cause of lag in gaming systems. Using DPC Latency Checker is a good way to troubleshoot this issue. You can obtain it from a link in the OP of JR's "Drivers, Apps, and How-to's" thread. Follow the instructions on the download page to identify drivers that may be causing latency on your laptop. Updating those drivers may help remove latency and improve your gaming performance.

The Atheros Wireless Network Adapter driver prior to version 9.2.1.432 is a good (meaning bad) source of latency on ASUS systems. If you have an Atheros WiFi card, this is a good place to start. Check out http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?5126-Any-Kind-of-Lag-and-Atheros-WiFi-Card

However, your statement "I recently got a new 802.11n wireless router and now my Battlefield 2 is unplayable..." implies BF2 WAS playable prior to obtaining your new router. Is that really the case?

[octiceps]

dstrakele wrote:
DPC Latency is a primary cause of lag in gaming systems. Using DPC Latency Checker is a good way to troubleshoot this issue. You can obtain it from a link in the OP of JR's "Drivers, Apps, and How-to's" thread. Follow the instructions on the download page to identify drivers that may be causing latency on your laptop. Updating those drivers may help remove latency and improve your gaming performance.

The Atheros Wireless Network Adapter driver prior to version 9.2.1.432 is a good (meaning bad) source of latency on ASUS systems. If you have an Atheros WiFi card, this is a good place to start. Check out http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?5126-Any-Kind-of-Lag-and-Atheros-WiFi-Card

However, your statement "I recently got a new 802.11n wireless router and now my Battlefield 2 is unplayable..." implies BF2 WAS playable prior to obtaining your new router. Is that really the case?

Thanks for your reply. I'll check out the DPC Latency Checker and see what shows up. I have the "Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6250 AGN" wi-fi card, not the Atheros one, so it's not a driver issue. And yes, the problem only started after I got my new router. But I'm definitely not going back to my old router because that thing was horrible and disconnected frequently throughout the day for no reason.

[dstrakele]

Since the problem started with the installation of your new router, it is a suspect. You could eliminate it if you get the same behavior on an Ethernet connection. If eliminating the wireless connection resolves the issue, you may wish to check your router configuration. You might try specifying a lower channel bandwidth (i.e. 20/40 MHz or 20 MHz instead of 40 MHz). You could also look at the router system log for errors or check that you have the latest firmware update for your router.

If your other games also involve a client-server connection, your idea the issue may be specific to BF2 may be correct. You may wish to post your issue on that developer's forum.

If you use the PING command with the -t switch from the command line (example: ping [servername or IP address] -t ) you could test ping results for BF2 and other servers.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1043281&highlight=Multimedia+Class+Scheduler discusses a possible ping spike fix for Windows 7.

[octiceps]

dstrakele wrote:
Since the problem started with the installation of your new router, it is a suspect. You could eliminate it if you get the same behavior on an Ethernet connection. If eliminating the wireless connection resolves the issue, you may wish to check your router configuration. You might try specifying a lower channel bandwidth (i.e. 20/40 MHz or 20 MHz instead of 40 MHz). You could also look at the router system log for errors or check that you have the latest firmware update for your router.

If your other games also involve a client-server connection, your idea the issue may be specific to BF2 may be correct. You may wish to post your issue on that developer's forum.

If you use the PING command with the -t switch from the command line (example: ping [servername or IP address] -t ) you could test ping results for BF2 and other servers.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1043281&highlight=Multimedia+Class+Scheduler discusses a possible ping spike fix for Windows 7.

Thanks for the info. Specifying a lower channel bandwidth slows down my connection speed and doesn't seem to actually help the issue. My router firmware is up to date as well. My other games also involve a client-server connection and the issue is only present in Battlefield 2. I've already posted on the EA forums for Battlefield 2 but seeing as this is a 6-year-old game I doubt anyone will care anymore. It's already been 3 days and not a single reply there. It's a shame since this is still a really fun game with an active community. I guess all I can really do now is wait and see if the issue *magically* goes away or move on to a different game.