Strange Stuttering Problems

[Axxaw]

The problems I've been having are rather strange to me so I'm seeking help. Now these have happened in a vanilla game so I'm thinking there's a problem with installing Oblivion or maybe some part of my hardware isn't working correctly anymore.

 

The problem is thus; lately I've been having stuttering at certain key points. Mythic Dawn, the members that use the armor, when they die my framerate slows to a crawl. When I'm hit, by anything really my framerate drops (though not as bad as when a Mythic Dawn member wearing the armor dies). I'm also having a lot of stuttering when I enter and exit menus (as you can imagine that makes lockpicking a nightmare). I can enter and exit the menu a few times to fix it, but it's still annoying. There's also the problem where I'll exit a menu and it hangs, then the game starts to horribly lag, and I mean horrible. I tried saving and exiting to the main menu but that didn't work, I had to exit the game entirely and restart it to fix the lag, and then it went back to no lag at all (haven't seen this one in a few installs but it might still be there).

 

I thought it was a problem with my game disc (there was a large crack in it but it still installed). So I bought another copy! However that didn't help at all, no cracks to blame this time.

 

Hardware:

Processor: Intel 2.8ghz Core2Duo

3gbs of RAM

Motherboard: Intel d945gpm

Graphics: Nvidia 8800GT 512mb VRAM

Sound: Creative X-fi Xtreme Gamer

 

So, thoughts?

[Netwit2008]

Do you have any mods installed? If so, some mods are very resource intensive. Where you didn't have stutters before, they'll suddenly appear. There are a few utilities out there to help with that. Do a search in the files section and you'll find those. Sorry I don't remember the names.

 

I also got a free program called Game Booster. It's safe to use. What it does is shut down all your computer's processes that aren't necessary to be running while playing the game. That basically took away almost all of my stutters and I've got like 200 mods running. You can find Game Booster by going here:

 

http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html

 

Even if you have no mods installed this still may help. Bben usually has very good suggestions for things like this. If he doesn't get in this thread, you might PM him and ask what he suggests.

 

Hope that helps!

[Axxaw]

Right now I'm running the vanilla game of the year version, shivering isles and knights of the nine with the latest patch. My main problem is I've never had to use any programs like game booster or even OSR and Streamline before yet now the stuttering is terrible in these instances and OSR and Streamline don't help at all. I'll try gamebooster regardless though.

 

I've tried turning the refraction shader off too, it seems to help a bit with the mythic dawn, but it doesn't solve the problem. And by the way my OS is Vista Service pack II and my installation is outside of the Program Files directory. I'll respond (or edit this post) if gamebooster helps any.

 

EDIT: No, game booster doesn't seem to help in any of those instances. I tried reinstalling oblivion too, no change.

 

EDIT 2: Alright by disabling the refraction shader I have a lot of improvements, hostile and npc conjuration spells don't make my game hang, the mythic dawn members wearing the armor don't cause the game to lag when they die and when I'm hit I only stutter about 5% of the time and only once at the beginning of battle. Maybe even the menu related lag stutter is reduced (although that might be the product of the new installation).

 

I'm not sure what to make of this because I haven't had to do this before. I've been following the Tweakguides tweaking companion for Windows Vista to improve performance, I haven't done anything too drastic and none of my other games are affected. I thought it might be my dvd drive, I'll try cleaning it with a disc cleaner and hope that's all that's wrong. Although why it would only affect Oblivion has me scratching my head so maybe it's something else.