Weird Lagging in Stepmania (help)

[dood gone krazee]

So last night I decided I would play SMO, turns out my computer is totally screwed up or something.

Our house - along with the rest of the neighborhood - had a surprise power outage Sunday morning. When the power came back, I turned on the computer. Everything seemed fine except for the date and time, and a window popped up. I fixed the date and time and looked at the window that came up. It said new hardware as found, and needed to be installed. I ignored it and closed it.

Everything I did from then up until last night was fine. I never played SM or SMO, but I did use DDREAM to start syncing a file. When I tried playing SMO, it started skipping uncontrollably. Every second or so it would glitch big time, making it IMPOSSIBLE for me to play. I restarted computer, still did it. I uninstalled an reinstalled it, still did it. I took out all the songs in my song folder, still did it. So I looked into that new hardware found thing.

Turns out the Multimedia Audio Controller (whatever that is) had to be reinstalled. I got my dad to get the disc out to reinstall it, but for some reason it said it didn't recognize the driver. Whatever we did, it wouldn't recognize it. So now I can't play SMO. Then when I tried SM, it was working perfectly fine. I closed it, added in the ODI 1 and 2 packs, and reopened SM. It started skipping. Took them back out and it stilled skipped.

I had something like this happened before, last summer. I couldn't play at all because of the same problem, huge glitches and lags every second or so. The only way that fixed the problem was to uninstall and reinstall Windows. My dad is going to try calling Customer Service or something to see what we could do about the missing driver or whatever it is, but I don't know if that will work or not.

So I was wondering if any of you had any tips on how to fix this. I really want to play SM, and now I can't. I may have to only play FFR now, but I really have a love for SMO also.

--Summery for lazy people--

I got a power outage. Power came back, computer was fine. The sound card (most likely) needed to be reinstalled. Didn't recognize driver. SM and SMO lag uncontrollably every second or so. I'm screwed.

[kommisar[os]]

install new drivers?

[Oni-Paranoia]

Boot up computer on safe mode
See if it needs to be installed then
As for SM, lower the volume in options
Change graphic options etc

In other words, fuk around wit SM till the lag stops or fix the soundcard or w.e

[dood gone krazee]

I already have the graphic settings as low as possible, I have no other programs running in the background except for critical processes, I tried system restore/reboot/reinstall/taking all songs out of the song folder. I have no idea. Sprite said something about maybe a fan or the hardware got shorted out because of the power outage.

[SulferDragon]

Do you happen to use a program called PPJoy? I've had problems similar to this with StepMania, and it was due to that program. After I uninstalled it StepMania ran perfectly fine.

I'm pretty sure it's not because of that, but it never hurts to throw ideas out.

[Oni-Paranoia]

Originally Posted by dood gone krazee

I already have the graphic settings as low as possible, I have no other programs running in the background except for critical processes, I tried system restore/reboot/reinstall/taking all songs out of the song folder. I have no idea. Sprite said something about maybe a fan or the hardware got shorted out because of the power outage.

listen for the fan then, and try some flash games on kongregate, see if those lag. Maybe try some other programs, If the lag continues, start thinkin about a new computer OR reformat your computer (if its not a technical problem)

[dood gone krazee]

Originally Posted by Oni-Paranoia

listen for the fan then, and try some flash games on kongregate, see if those lag. Maybe try some other programs, If the lag continues, start thinkin about a new computer OR reformat your computer (if its not a technical problem)

Sulfur: Don't have the program, so that can't be it.

Oni: Anything else I do works perfectly fine. It's really quite odd.

[Oni-Paranoia]

Originally Posted by dood gone krazee

Oni: Anything else I do works perfectly fine. It's really quite odd.

Ok try this then
Uninstall SM
Install a new 3.9 BUT when you install this DONT install it in the folder it says its going to create, change the folder name to something else.

It could be sumtin in the cache which i learned doesnt go away even if you delete the "cache" folder. Worth a go.

[emerald000]

It looks like your sound card burned up. Windows, not seeing the normal sound card, tries to find a driver to make to it working. It would also explain why you can't install the drivers.

Try opening your tower and look inside it for anything strange.

You might also want to borrow a friend's sound card to see if that would be the problem.

[[TeRa]]

Did you try restarting SM, like, right after you start it up.
I get this lag too since one of my two gig sticks of ram broke, all I have to do is open stepmania, close stepmania, then open again and the lag is gone. It's worth trying at least.

[dood gone krazee]

I'm thinking emerald is right on this one. I don't have a surge protector, so it's possible. I'll try Oni's idea soon. And yeah I've tried rebooting and then starting up SM right after, still the same lag.

Fixed the sound card and installed new driver, nothing. Installed latest driver for graphics card, nothing. Tried Oni's idea, nothing.

Reformatting this weekend, hopefully that fixes it. I think I need a new computer or something.