X2 game stutters resolved

[fattybuddha]

I know there are a few other threads around people and their games stuttering, and I finally got my problems solved thanks in part to you guys, so I thought I'd share a little bit about what I did. I tried everything, reinstalling all my drivers, setting everything to AUTO or default in the bios, checking my temperatures obsessively. Nothing seemed to help though. Prime95 and memtest would both run stable for hours on end, so I was pretty much stumped.

 

To begin with I:

 

1.) Reinstalled Windows with the latest drivers

2.) Did NOT install Nvidia SW IDE

3.) Installed Cool 'n Quiet Driver

4.) Installed Dual Core Microsoft hotfix.

5.) Started up Counter-Strike:Source, and played a round or two.

 

And, after all that work... it still froze after 5-10 minutes of play. I was a little upset, but I pressed on. I went into my bios to ensure Cool 'n Quiet was disabled. While I was in there I poked around a bit with my memory timings. I have Corsair memory, so I used the timings found in angry_games' Corsair thread. I went back into Windows once more, started playing some CS:S once again, and it seemed to be working. After about 20 minutes or so I got a datacache.dll error. Once again I went back into the bios, and changed my DRAM response time from 'FAST' to 'NORMAL'. Since then all my games seem to be running really well, and I haven't experienced a crash yet.

 

I previously had all my memory timings set to AUTO / defaults. I assumed, incorrectly, that this would be the most stable configuration. So, if you are having problems after upgrading your drivers, and installing the patches it may be time to get down and dirty in your BIOS. It helped me at least.